Director, Public Health

Lorraine Hughes

I am the Director of Public Health, which means I am an independent advocate for the health and wellbeing of the residents of Darlington and provide leadership across the council, and with external partners, to improve and protect the health of the population.

I have responsibilities for health improvement, health protection and healthcare service planning and work alongside the public health team to lead programmes of work and commission services to address local health priorities.  This covers lots of different areas, such as public health information and data intelligence, the healthy child programme, public mental health and suicide prevention, drugs and alcohol, sexual and reproductive health and healthy weight.  Most people will probably have used, or be aware of, at least one of the public health services we  commission, i.e. health visitors and school nurses, contraceptive services, drug and alcohol treatment services, stop smoking support and NHS health checks.