David Woodhead

David Woodhead is the head of healthy communities for London Borough of Hackney and City and Hackney Primary Care Trust. Previously, he worked for the Healthcare Commission where he developed frameworks to assess the performance of health services and co-authored several high-profile reports which resulted in changes in national policy. Previously, he was joint director of public health in Salford, where he developed and implemented strategies to tackle health inequalities.

From 2000 to 2003, he was fellow in health policy for The King’s Fund. In this role, he researched complex community initiatives, worked with the Rockefeller Foundation and Aspen Roundtable in the USA, and wrote widely about actions required to tackle inequalities.

David has worked in health policy roles for Lambeth and Newham Councils, and for East London and the City Health Authority. He also worked as a lecturer and researcher in London. For the children’s voluntary sector, he worked in Peru and Eastern Europe, experiences he will never forget.

David writes a popular column for the Health Service Journal. He was recently seconded to La Haute Autorité de Santé in Paris, studying health service regulation. His PhD (1998) scrutinised community based health programmes. He remains fascinated by how organisations work.