Our responsibility for Public Health
Public Health
Public health is the work we do to help keep our whole community healthy.
This means supporting people to live longer, happier lives and reducing health problems across the city. We also work to reduce health inequalities by helping to improve the conditions people need for good health, like safe homes, secure work and enough money to live on.
What we do
We have a range of public health functions but there are five specific responsibilities that all council's must carry out by law:
- Help keep people safe fromdiseases and environmental threats
- Plan and pay for services that help people look after their sexual health.
- Our public health team provides specialist public health advice to NHS colleagues including doctors and community health staff.
- We organise the National Child Measurement Programme in Sunderland.
- We arrange regular heart and health checks for people in the city.
We also work with many partners across the city and the region to run services and programmes that meet the needs of local people.
Our work includes:
- Support to improve mental health and wellbeing
- Services to help people who are struggling with alcohol or drug use
- Services and support to help people stop smoking
- Public campaigns to share health information and raise awareness about illnesses like cancer, heart disease and stroke
Our priorities
Our health is shaped by the world around us. Whether we have a good start in life, a safe and warm home, decent work, enough money to pay the bills and access to affordable, nutritious food. These are the building blocks of health and wellbeing.
You can read more about our priorities in the Healthy City Plan
Key documents
You can read more about our work in the following reports and assessments:
- Sunderland Joint Strategic Needs Assessment
- Director of Public Health Annual Reports
- Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment - July 2025 to July 2028 (published 20 July 2025)
Useful Links
These websites give more information about public health:
