Population health and wellbeing is directly linked to public financial management. A healthy population boosts economic growth, increases productivity and reduces the financial pressure on public services. However, poor health creates significant risk to the public finances through reduced productivity and revenues, greater healthcare costs and increased demand for wider public services.
Improving population health and wellbeing not only increases the resilience of individuals and communities, but also the stability of the public finances. However, since 2010, population health improvements have stalled, with consequences reaching far beyond the NHS, contributing to demand and financial pressures on all our public services.
The NHS is one of the UK's most visible and best-loved of our public services. Rarely out of the headlines, the NHS, and its funding, is often the focus of political tension and public opinion. While the NHS plays a key role in population health and wellbeing, almost all public services have an impact through the wider determinants of health. Education, housing, social care, economic development, welfare, our environment and the communities we live in all have a role to play.
CIPFA believes that improving public services is the key to changing lives for the better. Closer integration of services with an increased emphasis on prevention could have a significant impact on population health outcomes. Good public financial management is central to achieving this ambition and to ensuring our public services remain resilient and sustainable, now and for future generations.
Latest reports
Understanding preventative investment: a practical approach to map and measure spend
This report and how-to guide explains how public sector organisations can define, map and measure preventative investment across their services. Designed to be used alongside the plug-and-play tool, it shows how making prevention visible in financial terms supports evidence-based decision-making and the shift toward prevention.
Download understanding preventative investment report
Download the service map template
October 2025
The role of the CFO in the NHS
This report is targeted at established and aspiring CFOs within the health and care community, their organisations and those with whom they work, it seeks to support improved collaboration between NHS bodies and other public sector organisations. It explores the nature of the work of the CFO in NHS organisations at national, regional and local level across the UK. It considers the competencies required and key themes, such as the opportunities and challenges they face, the nuances of operating within a political environment, and the importance of accountability, stewardship and sound ethical values.
Read the role of the CFO in the NHS
January 2025
Exploring challenges and solutions for the NHS estate
Building on a roundtable hosted by CIPFA, this report explores the challenges involved in NHS infrastructure planning and delivery. The discussion brought together finance and estates professionals from the NHS as well as those with experience of partnering with the NHS, and identified potential solutions that the new Labour government could explore to support their mission to build an NHS fit for the future.
Download Exploring challenges and solutions for the NHS estate
September 2024