Somerset Council
This is Somerset
Somerset Council has come into being from 1st April 2023 following a merger of Somerset County Council and four district authorities. It is now one of the largest councils in England. Somerset has a larger proportion of older people in the population profile than average and features in the top ten most rural counties in the country, which presents challenges for both service delivery and public health. The public health team in Somerset is well established and has good links across the council. The NHS Somerset Integrated Care Board (ICB) geography is co-terminus with the Council boundaries. There is one Somerset NHS Foundation Trust which covers the whole local authority area. Somerset Foundation Trust is approved as a training location so we can offer Healthcare Public Health placements with local supervision. The co-terminus nature of the structures makes for good working relationships across the system.
Educational Supervisors
Alison Bell, MSc RN FHEA FFPH UKPHR
Alison has been appointed as the Acting Director of Public Health as of January 2025.Alongside delivering the statutory duties of a DPH, Alison provides strategic leadership to improve health and well-being and tackle inequalities across the council and more widely across the ICS, to ensure the health of the population is improved. Alison’s background initially was in cardiac nursing which evolved into a career in International Public Health and a passion for Public Health
Louise Woolway, MSc, UKPHR, FFPH
Lou is a Public Health Consultant Her work focuses on healthy places and the wider determinants of health and is the Consultant lead for the Health Determinants Research Collaboration (HDRC) programme which is aiming to increase research and evaluation capacity across the council. ). Lou comes from a sports science, leisure management and physical activity and play development background.
Dr Orla Dunn, BSc, PgC LTHE, MPH, UKPHR, FFPH
Orla has a background in health psychology and retains an interest in behaviour change and health research. She currently leads on health protection, population health management including, public health intelligence, and takes a lead role on cardiovascular health. She also fulfils the role of Specialty Tutor for Public Health for Somerset.
Patsy Temple, MSc PH, MFPH UKPHR
Patsy is currently the lead in public health for children and young people’s physical and emotional health and wellbeing, public mental health and sexual health. She has a background in psychology and health psychology and an interest in behaviour change.
Dr Rachel Handley, MBChB MPH MFPH
Rachel has been leading on a new way of working for the public health team, as well as using her skills as a generalist with an interest in systems thinking to lead work on personalised care, social prescribing, and reducing tobacco use. Rachel has a medical background and loves to incorporate drawings into work whenever possible, including for the FPH Yemen Special Interest Group for which she is the Vice-Chair.
Quotes from Registrars
"Working in Somerset has enabled me to be involved with a range of public health projects, fully supporting my development as a registrar. My placement provided me with great opportunities to lead work across the Council and work with stakeholders across the county, developing my public health skills and competencies in line with the curriculum. With a commitment to training, highly skilled team and a unique population, I would recommend Somerset [County] Council as a training location for registrars at all phases of training."
"Somerset [County] Council take a proactive approach in ensuring that SpR's are involved at a senior level and work alongside consultants in Public Health, offering a diverse range of learning opportunities"
What We Can Offer
We are flexible and hope to be able to respond to the learning needs of a wide range of Registrars, across the stages of their training. We can offer:
- A very positive experience of Local Authority public health working
- Very good relationships with and embedded work with Director of Adult Services and Director of Children Services
- We are keen to develop stronger links with academia and so if you have a project in mind, do think of Somerset
- Good links with local GP speciality tutor and paediatric speciality tutor so plenty of opportunities for joint projects and shared clinical experiences across Specialties
- Core offer well developed and good opportunities to progress work in surveillance, evidence based public health, public health intelligence and service public health competencies with good supervision from both educational supervisors and primary care
- Opportunities to experience of Public Health commissioning within Local Government
- Site of a Health Determinants Research Centre so opportunities to develop research in local authority
- Healthcare public health placements at Somerset Foundation Trust
Unique training opportunities in our location include:
- Diverse background of Consultants and PH team
- In-house Health Visiting Service
- Glastonbury! The festival and the place
- The Somerset Levels and legacy of flooding
- Hinkley Point – the largest economic development site in Europe currently, bringing public health challenges amongst others
Key contacts
For further information, please contact:
Dr Orla Dunn, Specialty Tutor
Public Health Department
Somerset Council
County Hall
Taunton
TA1 4DY
This page was last updated March 2025