Catalogue description Records of the Health Education Council and Successors

The Health Education Council was set up in 1968 by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Services, as the effective replacement of the Central Council for Health Education, as recommended by the Cohen Committee on Health Education, which reported in 1964. It was incorporated under the Companies Acts and operated as a registered charity, being constituted for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Although the Council was an independent body, it was mainly funded by central government.

The Council comprised a chairman and nineteen other members from the fields of health education, local government, the media and business, appointed by the secretary of state. Its core functions were to advise and promote health education, to act as the national centre for expertise in health education, to provide information, and to commission research into health education.

In April 1987, the Council's functions were transferred to the Health Education Authority, which was created as a special health authority of the National Health Service. The Authority continued in existence until it was wound up in March 2000 and most of its functions, apart from the public information function, which went to Health Promotion England, were passed to the newly-created Health Development Agency.

The Health Development Agency (HDA) was a special health authority established in 2000 to develop the evidence base to improve health and reduce health inequalities. It worked in partnership with professionals and practitioners across a range of sectors to translate that evidence into practice.

Following the Department of Health's 2004 review of its 'arm's length bodies', the functions of the Health Development Agency were transferred in their entirety to the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) on 1 April 2005 (NICE was renamed the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence on 1 April 2013).