Public Health Wales

The Trust has four statutory functions:[2]

• Provide and manage public health, health protection, healthcare improvement, health advisory, child protection and microbiological laboratory services and services relating to the surveillance, prevention and control of communicable diseases;[3]
• Develop and maintain arrangements for making information about matters related to the protection and improvement of health in Wales available to the public; to undertake and commission research into such matters and to contribute to the provision and development of training in such matters;
• Undertake the systematic collection, analysis and dissemination of information about the health of the people of Wales in particular including cancer incidence, mortality and survival; and prevalence of congenital anomalies; and
• Provide, manage, monitor, evaluate and conduct research into screening of health conditions and screening of health related matters.

For 2018/19 Public Health Wales employed 1,651 staff across Wales, with an income of £135 million.[4]

A board is responsible for Public Health Wales’ strategic direction,[5] governance framework, organisational culture and development and stakeholder relations. It comprises a chair, six non-executive directors and five executive directors, led by a chief executive.[6] Jan Williams OBE FRSPH is the Chair.

The executive directors and three other board-level directors make up the executive team,[7] which manages Public Health Wales. Each year Public Health Wales is required to conduct a self-assessment and demonstrate improvement against the Healthcare Standards for Wales.[8]

The organisation is split into seven key directorates:

• Health and Well-being
• Public Health Services
• Policy, Research and International Development
• Quality, Nursing and Allied Health Professionals
• Operations and Finance
• People and Organisational Development
• NHS Quality Improvement and Patient Safety/1000 Lives

• Public Health Wales