‘The glue that binds…’: articulating values in multidisciplinary public health

Abstract

Public health in the UK has undergone major changes since 1997. One of the main debates has focused on the function and delivery of the broad task of health improvement. This is no longer the province of doctors alone but of a new cadre of professionals now termed the multidisciplinary workforce. Establishing the coherence and cohesion of the professionals and practitioners from different backgrounds and disciplines who are expected to carry out these tasks has been the concern of policy makers and professional bodies. The route to achieve this has been through the delineation and specification of public health functions and the regulation of its training and career structures. Little, if any, attention has been given to understanding the role of values and the part played by an explicitly articulated shared purpose in building a unified and harmonized workforce. The material for this paper draws from an exploratory project undertaken by London South Bank University, the King's Fund and the Office for Public Management and presented as a case study at the UKPHA conference in Cardiff 2003.

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank Jacqui Barker for her significant contribution to the ideas represented here and her presentation at the UKPHA conference in Cardiff 2003 that formed the basis of this article.