The Health and Social Care Act 2012 met with mixed reviews; some of them withering.  One area which has received almost universal approval is the return of public health to local authorities, where it sat for over 100 years prior to the 1974 reorganisation.

That said, there are ‘matters unresolved': concerns about terms and conditions; NHS/local authority parity; how local authorities work with GPs, as well as future public health recruitment and professional development in a non-NHS environment.

This is all the more stark in the light of some authorities choosing to appoint ‘other' professionals to senior public health roles.

At Brighton & Hove City Council, we have had the benefit of joint working across a unitary local authority and single co-terminus primary care trust – now single clinical commissioning group – with jointly-funded public health and commissioning posts for many years.

You could argue that if the public health move doesn't work here, then it won't work anywhere.  Happily, there has been good progress and some easy wins.

The overall approach has been to embed the public health team in the corporate working of the local authority, with the director of public health sitting on the executive leadership team and reporting directly to the chief executive, and to extend the public health remit.

This fits very well with an economic climate that is witnessing reductions in public spending; while the public health grant remains protected for two years or maybe longer.  While the grant may be protected, what can be done with it is open to some interpretation.

This should be seen as more of an opportunity to widen the public health realm, rather than a threat to abolish it.

So, rather than limit public health to its previous functions, or simply tie it to adult social care, in Brighton & Hove it has been extended, and other local authority teams have been assimilated within it.

Public health now drives the intelligence function of the authority, leading on joint strategic needs assessment and extending needs assessment and health impact assessment thinking further into housing, transport, planning, children and adult social care.

There are plenty of examples of extended public health influence across the authority, in housing (funding health and housing assessments), in transport with the adoption of a 20mph speed limit, and even in customer services with a longitudinal research project into the local effects of benefits changes.

Community safety now falls under public health, and it makes sense.  There are clear links between crime, anti-social behaviour and the wider public health concerns of inequalities, drug and alcohol use, social capital and community development. Public health also has a long history of involvement in emergency planning and so the emergency preparedness, resilience and response function now sits within public health.

The assimilation of these two functions has helped forge a strong working relationship with the police, and the police and crime commissioner.

There are potential internal gains as well. As part of announcing the return of public health to the local authority, the public health team have worked with human resources and communications on council staff wellbeing initiatives, including participation in the Global Corporate Challenge.

This has seen 75 teams of seven people improve their health and wellbeing, and, it appears, their satisfaction with the council as an employer.

The benefits are very much in both directions.  Just being in the same building means that many more doors are open to public health, not virtually, but literally.

Local authority legal, finance, commissioning and procurement departments are typically much stronger than the equivalent PCT functions were.

This assists greatly in re-procuring major public health programmes such as alcohol and substance misuse, community weight services and sexual health services in a way that was not possible with PCT resources.

It is early days and many issues remain to be resolved; for example, improving the welfare of the many vulnerable adults, especially the single homeless people in the city.

There is still a lot of learning for public health, not least of all, operating in a completely different – and political – environment.  The approach taken has had support from elected members, across all parties.

However, it is fair to say that the Health and Wellbeing Board has still to fully establish its role.  The public health team remain co-located across the council and Clinical Commissioning Group and provide key support for the NHS through an agreed memorandum of understanding.

This has been very well received by local GPs and NHS managers.

However, with the public health outcome framework still emerging, a comprehensive governance system for public health across two organisations remains work in progress.

This is also a story about a well-resourced public health team in a unitary authority.

Public health teams working in upper tier authorities may feel much more stretched and if relationships with districts – who in reality deliver a lot of the public health function – are fraught, they may have a different tale to tell.

But, in Brighton & Hove, the portents are good, and the public health future looks bright.

Penny Thompson, CBE, is chief executive and Dr Tom Scanlon is director of public health at Brighton & Hove City Council