Health Education Council and Health Education Authority

Records created by The Health Education Council (HEC) 1968-1987, The Health Education Authority (HEA) 1987-2000 and some belonging to The Health Development Agency (HDA) 2000-2005, where there has been overlap with the records of the HEA - its predecessor body.
Includes early responses to AIDS, smoking, alcohol, antenatal care, health education in schools, TB, nutrition, sex education, contraception and family planning. Information of major health promotion campaigns and other public health initiatives.

This collection includes material which has not yet been catalogued. Additions to an archive are referred to as 'accruals'. A summary of the uncatalogued materials in this collection is provided under 'Accruals'.

1963-2008

513 boxes, 2 digital items Uncatalogued: 672 digital items

The collection is split into an A and B section, these relate to the Registered and Non Registered files. The registered section (A) contained files labelled with a registered number as a form of internal cataloguing. This has been followed in the cataloguing structure and is recorded in the "Previous Numbers" section of the catalogue. The non registered section (B) contained files and loose papers with no registered number, a form of internal cataloguing. The structure of the registered sections was followed where possible and then material was grouped in sections that seemed most likely.

Gift, 2/6/2014

The Health Education Council was established in 1968 by the government, as a company limited by guarantee. The HEC was concerned with the planning and promotion of health education at a national level in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It was an independent NDPB supported in main by the Department of Health and Social Security and was registered as a charity. In April 1987, the Council's functions were transferred to the HEA.
The Health Education Authority was established in 1987 as a special health authority to encourage health education and health promotion and largely funded by the UK government's Department of Health. The HEA 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 Health Developement Agency.

At Wellcome Collection: Two videoreels containing 'Heartbeat Award' and 'Heartbeat', 1987 have been transferred to the Moving Image and Sound Collection. See online catalogue for more details.

The records were not selected for permanent preservation by The National Archives as they did not fall within their selection criteria. They were presented to the Wellcome Trust by the Lord Chancellor under s.3(6) of the Public Records Act 1958 and thereby cease to be public records and become the property of the Wellcome Trust. As such the Freedom of Information Act 2000 does not apply, but the Wellcome Library should make the records available for public access under comparable terms and conditions. The Places of Deposit Officer at the TNA, Nicholas Coney, approved the presentation, but due to its timing in the financial year the information will not be published until the next but one annual report, however the TNA are obliged to give details upon request.

Acc 2786, received 2026:

Digital surrogates of HEA / HEC grey literature (including reports and other publications produced by HEA/HEC), originally housed in the HEA library. Material spans the period 1970-2000s, although most of the material dates from 1980s-1990s. Digital surrogates accepted as physical copies of these publications are believed to have been destroyed in a fire at Iron Mountain storage centre in July 2006. 672 digital items (4.87 GB).

Crown copyright

This collection has been partially catalogued and the catalogued part is available to library members. Some items have access restrictions which are explained in the item-level catalogue records. Due to ongoing work to improve our collections management systems we are unable to facilitate access to uncatalogued material until 2027.