Karen Saunders

Karen Saunders, Health and Wellbeing Programme Lead/Public Health Specialist (FR0747)

A committed and passionate Public Health professional with wide and varied experience across a breadth of health inequalities and health and wellbeing priorities.

I have worked on a number of high profile public health projects, alongside a range of stakeholders at international, national, regional and local levels in my posts at Public Health England (PHE) and the Department of Health.

I led on the arrangements for delivering the most recent Public Health reforms, across the Midlands and East patch, to enable the transition of Public Health functions to local government and more recently the transfer of 0-5 commissioning arrangements to local government

In the PHE Centre in the West Midlands I currently lead on health inequalities and health equity priorities focusing on the social determinants of health; on obesity prevention; on promoting and improving children and young people’s health and wellbeing and leadership for migrant health and wellbeing priorities. I was awarded the national PHE Diversity and Inclusion Award for Partnership working in 2016.

I have worked extensively with the voluntary sector to achieve joint outcomes; for example advocacy work with the Child Accident Prevention Trust; on migrant health priorities and work with homelessness and housing organisations. My aim is to maintain connected with practice on the ground and to add value to local work.

I am a Board member and Director of Business of WELCOME CIC, a charity which provides leadership and advocacy on behalf of disadvantaged communities and fosters partnerships between statutory and voluntary organisations, as well as local communities

I have a strong publications record and have written on child obesity prevention; child accident prevention; social marketing and behaviour change; genetic services; payday loans and health and clinical governance in relation to Public Health.

I teach on a number of Masters level courses at Birmingham University.

I am mentoring a number of candidates for the UKPHR specialist portfolio route.

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