District councils have an enormous role to play in terms of tackling the causes of poor health. We can help reduce the burden on adult social care and the NHS – yet our contribution is often overlooked. Even the recent Prevention Green Paper fails to recognise the full extent of district councils' abilities to help ease the strain on primary and secondary healthcare and social services.

As we head into winter, with warnings from the British Medical Association that the NHS is hurtling towards an ‘unprecedented crisis', the importance of prevention becomes more apparent.