Impact of austerity and delivery of public health compliance on English environmental health regulators

Environmental Health services in the UK have been subject to significant resource reduction over the last 6 years. It is suggested that in 2015 following continued cuts to public spending, the resilience of vital environmental health services designed to protect businesses and the public are close to or already at a ‘tipping point (CIEH 2015)’. Buck (2017) asserts that central government have reduced the priority that it gives to public health and that in the UK we are now entering the realms of real reductions in public health services due to continuing cuts. This paper presents the findings of research into the experience of practitioners who are developing and delivering evolving environmental health services in English local authorities in the context of significant and lasting budget reductions. Research findings suggest that Environmental Health services are responding by delivering services in novel ways to protect their core function of ensuring regulatory compliance to protect public health. Analysis of the data reveals that, when planning and implementing change, organisations should pay particular attention to issues of: Resilience; Risk; Trust; Ethos of Public Services; “Getting it right” in respect of service delivery planning; Emerging service demands; Skills development of the workforce.