Health Profiles 2009 were launched today at the Local Government Association. The Profiles provide a snapshot of health in each Local Authority in England using a set of nationally agreed health indicators.

Health Profiles are intended to give the NHS, local authorities and other partners an insight into the health of residents to enable resources and initiatives to be better targeted, and to support local needs assessments, policies and planning. They have been used successfully for a variety of purposes including:

• informing Joint Strategic Needs Assessments and other strategic plans
• preparing briefings for senior officials at national, regional and local level
• supporting funding applications for third sector organisations
• identifying neighbourhood baseline data for inequalities targets

Some new indicators have been added to the 2009 Health Profiles, including excess winter deaths and over 65s not in good health (based on 2001 Census data).

Health Profiles can be downloaded in pdf format or viewed via an interactive mapping tool from the Association of Public Health Observatories website.