Presents a clear focused message that is easy to understand?

Just like the rest of my annual Public Health report:

…the front cover attracts and informs people who can read plain English, but don’t have any knowledge of Public Health issues. It starts to explain what health inequalities are, and why they should know about them.

Pleasing on the eye?

Well, I paid a cartoonist to do nice pictures that people would want to look at. If you were an ‘average’ member of the public, would you be more inclined to pick up a report with a picture of Mel being funny, or would you prefer something turgid with long words…?

Has the clear potential to help a decision be made?

I got tired of well-off people saying “you know, poor people could be much healthier if they only realised it’s no more expensive to feed your children brown bread and vegetables than to buy them junk food…” and similar evidence-free nonsense. So I deliberately used the ‘NHS jargon’ picture of me and Mel on the front to draw readers in. Once inside they learn all about the wider determinants of health. And they see how hard it is for ‘poor’ people to change things when big organisations have so much power: (Much of the report’s text is based on Mel’s actual words – like her anecdote about her and Debbie going to Sainsbury’s in New Cross…):

By the time readers get to the end of the report, they are ready to challenge local social policy makers!

Demonstrates a public health competence?

Well, leadership is the obvious one. Producing an annual public health report using cartoons? There seems to be an unwritten rule that annual PH reports have to be ‘authoritative’ and that that somehow means long and turgid. So I decided it was my duty as a leader to show people that you can write an annual PH report that members of the public might want to read. And enable them to influence policy! Most of them don’t know about the determinants of health. So I took a risk, and led for change…