Jane Thomas

Dr Jane Thomas is a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health and a Qualified Educational Supervisor in Public Health. She has worked as an NHS Consultant in Public Health, as Joint Acting Director of Public Health and at a senior level in health promotion, education, training and research. Her research interests are informed by previous roles in local authorities, the Institute for Employment Studies, the NHS and the voluntary sector.

She has a Post-Graduate Certificate in Academic Practice and is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She has an Honorary Contract with the Office for Health Improvement & Disparities (OHID).

Her first degree was in Philosophy with Psychology (University of Sussex). She took an MSc in Politics and Sociology (Birkbeck College, University of London). She then completed a PhD on policy to reduce inequalities in health (London School of Economics and Political Science).

Her research interests broadly encompass 'public control over the wider determinants of health'. This includes 'access to information' and UK public health policy implemented in settings such as workplaces and local government.

Her interests are influenced by World Health Organization strategy, e.g. the Ottawa Charter (1986) and the Helsinki Statement (2014: 2-3,9). The latter document calls for safeguards to protect policies from distortion by commercial and vested interests; transparent policy making and access to information; participation of wider society in the development and implementation of government policy; and environmental sustainability. 

She is currently researching public views on the NHS, empowerment and public health leadership.

I am interested in supervising PhDs in social policy, and health policy in particular. A possible PhD project concerns attitudes towards NHS privatisation. Further areas I am interested in supervising include: inequalities in health, local government public health policy, empowerment and public control over the determinants of health, public access to information, public health leadership, policy on climate change and workplace health.

Jane is supervising PhD researchers, including:

practitioners' conceptions of 'holism' and midwifes' attitudes and practice concerning contraceptive advice.