Health is everyone's business. The South East is one of the healthiest and most affluent regions in England, but the continued presence of significant inequalities and new threats to health, such as the rising levels of obesity, mean there is no room for complacency.

This website, designed for people whose work impacts on physical health and mental wellbeing, is one of a series of measures outlined in the South East Health & Wellbeing Strategy (hyperlink) ensuring that the South East becomes the healthiest place to live in the UK and one of the healthiest regions in Europe.

This Wellbeing South East website, launched on June 30th 2008, is presented to you by the South East Region Public Health Group and the BIG Lottery-funded chances4change project.

Practitioners from a range of professional and volunteer backgrounds, including local government, the NHS, education and skills, voluntary and community organisations, and businesses have called for a means of keeping up to date with strategies, policies and funding opportunities. You have also asked for case studies, a diary of forthcoming events and training courses, and the facility to find and share news with partners.

We hope you find that this website does all of that. Please tell us (hyperlink to contact us) what you think of it and how it could be improved.

Who is the South East Region Public Health Group?

The South East Public Health Group, based at the Government Office for the South East, is the Department of Health's presence in the region. The South East Public Health Group is led by two regional directors of public health:

• Professor Yvonne Doyle, also the director of public health at South East Coast Strategic Health Authority, and
• Professor John Newton, the director of public health at South Central Strategic Health Authority

Members of the South East Public Health Group work in partnership with other regional government teams, the NHS, local authorities and regional agencies to reduce health inequalities and improve the health and well-being of those living and working in the region.

What is chances4change?

chances4change is a 5.6m portfolio of 62 projects in the South East, funded by the Big Lottery Fund's Wellbeing programme. Its aim is to re-address the hidden health inequalities and improve the health & wellbeing for people in South East of England, targeting at risk groups across the region. The projects will address one or more of these three strands of the BIG Lottery Fund Wellbeing Programme: encouraging people to eat more healthily, encouraging people to be more physically active and enabling people to have enhanced well being.