The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) will publish quality standards for public health, starting with smoking, alcohol use and obesity.

The Institute will work with experts from Public Health England to develop standards for prevention and treatment at the public health level, now the responsibility of local government.

It is anticipated that the implementation of these standards will help to reduce the burden of diseases related to tobacco, alcohol and obesity on the NHS.

They will be based on existing NICE public health guidance, but will be focused to drive and measure improvements in public health outcomes.

Smoking, excessive alcohol intake and obesity are linked to both acute and chronic ill-health, and medicines feature in the treatment of all three conditions – with Lundbeck’s drug to prevent alcohol abuse, Selincro, being a major new example.

Speaking at NICE’s annual conference, Under-Secretary for Quality Lord Howe said: “Public health quality standards alongside and integrated with those for health and social care will provide a key tool to support Public Health England, local authorities and the wider public health community in achieving excellence.

“Our vision is over the next five years there will be a growing portfolio of NICE quality standards covering all the domains in all three outcomes frameworks.”

Professor Gillian Leng, Deputy Chief Executive and Director of Health and Social Care at NICE, commented that the new public health quality standards “will be a valuable tool for local authorities as they take on their new public health functions, and for Public Health England.

“By bridging the interface across health, social care and public health, NICE public health quality standards will help support integration across the three sectors.”

Clinical commissioning groups will be given free specialist expertise and advice from April 2013 to maintain high standards of public health.

A series of recommendations have been issued by the DH to support CCGs in delivering public health objectives through its Healthcare Public Health Advice Service.

Guidance to support the Provision of Healthcare Public Advice to Clinical Commissioning Groups outlines how local authorities should support and work alongside commissioners in tasks such as making Joint Strategic Needs Assessments and identifying areas for disinvestment.

Recommendations that the service should offer at various stages of the commissioning cycle are suggested in the document, such as interpreting and understanding primary and secondary care clinical data and advising CCGs on prioritisation and processes.

The document replaces the draft guidance published by the DH back in February 2012. As a result of the NHS reforms and the “shift of local leadership on public health to local authorities”, the report says, “it is critical that NHS commissioning continues to benefit from public health advice”.

The service, which will be provided by local authorities, will be the only means available to commissioners in obtaining public health expertise.

As part of the Health and Social Care Act 2012, CCGs will have access to public health advice, information and expertise in relation to the healthcare services that they commission and will be provided by local public health teams based in local authorities.

CCGs will have the freedom to determine how to organise public health arrangements depending on local requirements.

NICE has issued draft public health guidance to tackle the ever-increasing problem of obesity in England using a community-wide approach.

Draft recommendations advise that activities should be integrated within wider strategies, communities be involved to gather thoughts on obesity, and that private healthcare providers be used to implement local programmes.

Professor Mike Kelly, Director of the Centre for Public Health Excellence at NICE, said the recommendations “emphasise the importance” of working with local people to tackle obesity.

The health regulator estimates that the long term consequences of obesity cost the NHS around £5.1 billion each year.

Obesity increases the risk of diabetes, heart disease and certain cancers. Currently, more than a quarter of adult population are classed as obese.

Levels of obesity are rising in England and up to 60% of men, half of women and a quarter of children could be classed as obese by 2050.

NICE aims to tackle the problem by using an integrated community approach where local government and regional bodies and networks partner to plan and implement local strategies.

The new guidance is now open for consultation with NICE welcoming comments until 6 June.