The responsibility for the delivery of public health was transferred to local authorities in England in 2012 as a result of the Health and Social Care Act 2012. The principle behind this was that local leadership for public health will be at the heart of the new public health system. Nationally, the Public Health Outcomes Framework sets overarching outcomes and 17 key indicators for public health. One of these indicators is to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured on England’s roads, and road safety activities can contribute to many of the other indicators. Locally, local authorities in England took over responsibility for public health from 1 April 2013, and receive a ring-fenced public health grant to fulfil their duties to deliver public health improvements as set out in the outcomes, priorities and indicators in the Public Health Outcomes Framework. Local Authorities in England also have Health and Wellbeing Boards who collaborate to encourage integrated working to improve the health and wellbeing of the people, and reduce health inequalities, in its area. Every local authority in England is required to produce a Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) and establish a Health and Wellbeing Strategy and investment plan. The JSNA assesses the current and future health and care needs of the local population to inform and guide the planning and commissioning of health, wellbeing and social care services within the local authority area. JSNAs provide an important and ideal opportunity for road safety managers to incorporate and integrate their road safety activities and policies into the wider public health activities and policies of their local authority. This can help to ensure that public health activities and priorities contribute towards road safety ones, and may be able to help fund road safety activities. However, this opportunity is not always being taken. A RoSPA survey of Local Authority Road Safety Managers in 2013/4 found that only half of the JSNAs identified included a road safety element and some of those were very brief. There is, therefore, an opportunity for Road Safety Professionals to work closely with Public Health teams to tackle and reduce road casualties, and to encourage and enable more active travel, such as walking and cycling. This guide is intended to encourage and help road safety managers to prepare and submit a road safety submission for inclusion in their local authority’s JSNA, and to outline a practical process to do so. (Author/publisher)
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