Improving the contribution of public health to NHS decision making: development of an instrument

Recent policy pronouncements have raised expectations that public health practitioners will be increasingly involved in NHS decision making. This is a complex task which requires the bringing together of appropriate data and values. The authors developed an instrument, to aid decision making, which seeks to make explicit the values held by key health decision makers at local level. We report on the evolution of the project and the development of the instrument. This work is then placed within the context of the current renaissance in British public health, as the instrument could be useful when public health issues are being decided by or with partners within the National Health Service (NHS), the local authorities or the wider community.