Public Health Outcomes Framework

Page Contents

Introduction

The Department of Health published the Public Health Outcomes Framework (PHOF) - a set of indicators helping us to understand how well public health is being improved and protected - for England 2013-2016 in January 2012. The framework was revised in August 2016, presenting a refreshed PHOF for England 2016-2019.

The framework concentrates on two high-level outcomes to be achieved across the public health system:

  • Increased healthy life expectancy
  • Reduced differences in life expectancy and healthy life expectancy between communities
  • The PHOF contains four sets of supporting public health indicators, grouped in to ‘domains’ that allow for year-on-year comparison and analysis of national and local trends with regards to public health.

The four domains are:

  • Improving the wider determinants of health
  • Health improvement
  • Health protection
  • Healthcare public health and preventing premature mortality

PHOF updates are staggered periodically across the year by Public Health England, with approximately 25% of the data set being updated each February, May, August and November. As a result, all of the metrics within the PHOF are updated on an annual basis.

A report summarising changes to the Public Health Outcomes Framework for Peterborough is submitted to the Peterborough City Council Public Health Board at quarterly intervals; these reports are available online.