Saving money by appointing joint, junior or inexperienced leaders will undermine local public health Giving responsibility for public health to local authorities, together with a ring-fenced budget to manage it, is obviously the right thing to do. Councils used to have a role in health back in the 1970s; like many issues in public policy, the more things change the more they remain the same. Local authorities are well placed to manage public health because they can tailor strategies to local needs. Now Michael Marmot's work on the social determinants of health is so widely accepted, local authorities...