Over the past decade there have been major advances in public health workforce development in Wales and the UK. The UK’s Chief Medical Officer recognised in 2001 that “most people, including managers, have a role in health improvement and reducing inequalities, although they may not have recognised this”. The Public Health Skills & Career Framework describes knowledge and competence for core and defined areas of public health, split across nine different career levels, from people with little knowledge of public health who may undertake specific public health activities under direction, through to those whose main role is in public health practice, right up to multidisciplinary public health leaders who set strategic direction and determine priorities across organisations and areas of public health work.
Consultant-grade public health posts are now open to those from non-medical backgrounds, including environmental health, and many EHPs have taken up positions of this nature. Formal recognition of the status of public health practitioners has also been achieved through the establishment of a Public Health Practitioner Register. The next stage is to increase recognition of the role of the ‘wider workforce’.
This session will consider a recent project in Wales to scope and design a training programme to address core and defined competences for the wider workforce for public health in Wales. The session will discuss the approach taken to identifying what is required, and how existing training opportunities have been reviewed for potential incorporation into a flexible programme. Findings from consultation and engagement with employers and likely participants will be considered and the final programme design presented. Delegates will be invited to consider how they could support the role of the wider workforce in the promotion and protection of public health in their context.
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