King awards Honours to former Director of Public Health

Blackburn with Darwen’s former Director of Public Health has been recognised in King Charles’s birthday honours list, with a British Empire Medal.

Prof Dominic Harrison is to receive the honour for services to vulnerable people in Lancashire.

Dominic served as the Director of Public Health for Blackburn with Darwen, both with the Council and through the local NHS Care Trust Plus, from 2010 until his retirement in March 2022.

63 year old Dominic led the public health response in Blackburn with Darwen throughout the Covid pandemic. The borough was hit particularly hard during the first 12-18 months of the pandemic and found itself with tighter Covid-19 restrictions for longer periods than any other area of England.

As Director of Public Health, Dominic’s contribution to Blackburn with Darwen’s Covid-19 response was outstanding. He worked tirelessly in support of the diverse communities of our borough, fighting their corner and never allowing the finger of blame for higher levels of infection to be pointed at any section of our community.

Dominic used his role to highlight the impact of existing long-term health and structural inequalities within the borough in driving transmission and exacerbating the impact of the Coronavirus.

Throughout Dominic was professional, passionate and committed, as well as sympathetic to the concerns of the borough’s diverse communities, and as a result was able to influence local and national policy makers.

Prof Harrison commented:

I am very grateful to be awarded the BEM in the King’s Birthday 2023 Honours list for work for vulnerable communities particularly in relation to social and health inequalities.

I consider this a recognition of the whole of the Blackburn with Darwen Public Health team’s work on inequalities in health over the past decade.

A local Director of Public Health cannot be effective without clear and visible support from their Chief Executive, other council directors, the communications team, elected members, the local newspaper and the wider civic leadership across the population they serve, so I feel this award reflects the achievements of the borough as a whole. I am deeply grateful to everyone for this.

As a catholic Christian, I believe that we are all born equal and that ‘every single person’s life is as precious to God as every other person’s’. This belief has profound implications.

The way society and the economy are organised can, unfairly and avoidably, make some of us too comfortable and some of us too vulnerable. In order to create equal life chances for all, a good Director of Public Health will often need to ‘comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable’.

Public servants should not remain silent in the face of obvious social injustice. A key role of public health is to make visible the otherwise hidden consequences of unjust public policy on vulnerable populations.

Council Leader Coun Phil Riley said:

We were so fortunate to have Dom as our Director of Public Health during the Covid pandemic. As well as being incredibly knowledgeable and professional, Dom worked hard to build trust with our local communities to ensure they felt supported and listened to throughout such a terrible time.

Even in the most challenging periods, Dom always showed an attitude to do the right thing. The value that the community, former Council Leader Mohammed Khan, myself and other councillors, and Council officers placed on his advice and support cannot be underestimated.

Council Chief Executive Denise Park added:

Throughout his career, Dominic held a passionate interest in health inequalities and the impact of poverty on people’s health and life chances. He came to work in Blackburn with Darwen to make a difference. It seems fitting that he has been recognised by the King for his services to vulnerable people.

Personally, I feel fortunate to have had his expertise to draw on when making some incredibly tough decisions during the pandemic, and am in no doubt that the advice and guidance Dom supported us to introduce, often ahead of national government policy decisions, helped to save the lives of many vulnerable people in Blackburn with Darwen.

He is very deserving of a national honour, and on behalf of everyone at Blackburn with Darwen Council, I send Dom huge congratulations.