Knowledge strategy: Harnessing the power of information to improve the public’s health

This document describes the strategic approach to information and knowledge that the public health system needs to take in order to improve and protect public health and reduce inequalities. It is a response on behalf of the whole public health system, under the leadership of PHE, to the Department of Health information strategy, The Power of Information: Putting all of us in control of the health and care information we need. The Knowledge Strategy was developed following an extended and open consultation process and incorporates responses from local government, national organisations and key partners.

This strategy describes how PHE will meet the knowledge and information requirements of practitioners across the wider public health system. The audience for this document is therefore broad and diverse. It will have an impact on the way the wider public health workforce operates and provides the means to increase the engagement with those who would not traditionally consider themselves public health practitioners.

Taking the lead from The Power of Information, this strategy does not propose specific system implementations or set down detailed mechanisms for delivery. It provides a framework to support changes across the public health system, putting the focus on users of knowledge, and promoting flexibility and innovation within an environment that promotes efficiency.

The strategy addresses the entire knowledge lifecycle from understanding the requirements of those who use public health knowledge, including those outside the public health profession who ought to be using it, through to the technologies that PHE will use to help disseminate knowledge.