The Health and Social Care Research and Development (HSC R&D) Division at the Public Health Agency (PHA) are funding a project (£90K over 12 months) to improve pregnancy planning for women with diabetes. This project is part of the HSC R&D Division’s work to improve health and social care by enabling the flow of knowledge from research to practice.

The 2012/13 Northern Ireland Health Survey shows that 28% of adults do less than 30 minutes of physical activity per week. While the Chief Medical Officer recommends that we should be aiming for 150 minutes per week, only around half (53%) of adults in Northern Ireland meet this target.

Public Appointments NI - Public Health Agency Northern Ireland The Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety is seeking to appoint a non-executive Chair and two non-executive Members (x1 Financial Member and x1 Lay Member) to the Public Health Agency (PHA).

The Public Health Agency (PHA) is encouraging parents to get their pre-school children aged two and over vaccinated this autumn as part of the annual flu vaccination programmes.

In 2013/14, 35,663 people in Northern Ireland were registered as having Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), which is a life-threatening lung disease caused primarily by smoking. In line with the theme for this year’s World COPD Day [Wednesday 19 November] ‘It's Not Too Late’, the Public Health Agency (PHA) is urging smokers to make a decision to stop smoking today and reduce their risk of developing the disease.

The Public Health Agency (PHA) has published the first annual report of the 10,000 Voices initiative, highlighting its success to date. The report outlines the work undertaken through the programme since it went live in July 2013 and also summarises the findings and key actions emerging from phase one, which has focused on unscheduled care.

Today is World Quality Day and the Public Health Agency (PHA) and Health and Social Care Board (HSCB) are publishing their first Annual Quality Report, to highlight the work completed in improving the quality of health and social care services in Northern Ireland.