The UK Public Health Register has registered and regulated Public Health Specialists since 2003 and is now looking into registering and regulating Public Health Practitioners, a workforce that at present remains largely unregulated but that have key public health roles.
The public health practitioner workforce covers a wide cross section of public health specialties in a wide range of settings, such as the NHS, local authorities, the voluntary, and private sector. They work across the full breadth of public health activity from health improvement and health protection, to health information, sustainable and community development, pharmacy, and nutrition.
For further information on this please see the sections below.
+ Background
The UKPHR has been commissioned by the four UK countries through the English Department of Health, the Welsh Assembly Government, the Scottish Government and the Department of Health and Social Services and Public Safety, to take forward the development of regulation for public health practitioners.
Public health practitioners are key members of the public health team and can have a great influence on the health and wellbeing of individuals, groups, communities and populations. At present a large proportion of the public health practitioner workforce are either not regulated at all or have their registration linked to their primary profession which may or not be related to the public health work they do.
A set of draft standards for regulation of practitioners was developed during the spring of 2008 using the Public Health Skills and Career Framework, (PHSCF) as the source document. These draft standards formed the basis for a series of pilot events which took place between May – July 2008, the purpose of which was to check the understandability and the applicability of the standards to the work of different individuals in public health.
+ Consultation on Practitioner Regulation
The findings from the pilot work were reported to the UKPHR Board in early September 2008 and recommendations made to focus on the process of implementation of a practitioner route to the register. Click here to download a copy of the report. The Board agreed in principle to the recommendations and a detailed consultation around the process of registration. The consultation took place from October 2008 – March 2009. . Click here to download a copy of the consultation document and proposed registration process.
The responses from the consultation have been collated and the findings presented to the UKPHR board, please click here to download the report.
During the summer of 2009 the standards for practitioner registration were revised using feedback from the consultation.Click here to download a copy.
+ Standards for Registration
A report on the results from the extensive consultations concerning the regulation of public health practitioners was made to the UKPHR Board in May 2009. Click here to download the report.
Over the summer 2009 considerable work went into the collation of the numerous helpful and constructive comments received including a re-drafting of the standards for registration. Our thanks go to every individual, group, and organisation that contributed. A full report of the consultation is available on our web site.
In re-drafting the standards for registration of public health practitioners we attempted to accommodate all of the comments received whilst ensuring an emphasis on the need for:
• simplicity
• robustness
• capability for cost-effective implementation
• clear focus on public health practice linked to the assessment of risk
• feedback from practitioners and employers as to what would work.
The final draft of the public health practitioner standards for registration were circulated for comment during the month of October 2009.
The standards were reframed around four areas of practice on which a public health practitioner will need to provide evidence to be registered.
1. Professional and ethical practice – at the heart of everything a public health practitioner does.
2. Technical competencies in public health – covers the essential knowledge and skills that anyone working in public health needs to have.
3. Application of public health competencies to public health work – relates to the specific functions that public health practitioners undertake
4. Underpinning skills and knowledge – needed by all public health practitioners to act effectively and achieve improvements in population health and wellbeing.
Responses to these revised standards were in the main very positive and we are once again grateful to all those that responded.
“ a breath of fresh air ... simple, down to earth and practical set of standards which relate to the reality of the people you are assessing”
“ seems to allow practitioners in more or less any area of public health to achieve the standards laid out...well done I say”
The final standards for registration can be downloaded here.
+ Registration for Public Health Practitioners
The UKPHR Board remains committed to ensuring a coherent regulatory pathway for public health practitioners is achieved. This commitment was re-stated at the September 2009 Board meeting.
While the four UK Departments of Health also remain committed to the development of specialists and practitioners who contribute to public health delivery, over the course of the past few months they have indicated their desire to carry out a review of the regulatory frameworks applied to public health professionals. This has been led by the DH England as professional regulation is not a devolved matter. This review is to ensure that current policy particularly that adopted over the last 5 years regarding the regulation of healthcare professionals, has been considered for the full range of public health professions.
The DH reported at the UKPHR September Board that this review would be due to report in December 2009, but the timetable has since slipped and the report is now due in February 2010.
In light of this development the UKPHR has been asked by the UK Departments of Health not to implement the route to practitioner registration until the review has reported. This would enable all concerned to consider the findings of the review carefully before moving forward. The UKPHR recognises the significance of this regulatory review and wishes to support the UK Departments of Health in this development through providing as much input to the review as is possible.
We are conscious that the work to date has raised expectations within the public health practitioner workforce for the early implementation to a regulatory pathway for those currently without a registration framework. However, this must be balanced against the needs of the regulatory review. The UKPHR has therefore agreed to move forward over the next 3 months in areas that will support and not prejudice the outcomes of the review, including the finalising of the regulatory standards and a mapping of these against existing frameworks for public health practitioner development.
This will enable us to make rapid progress once the review findings have been reflected upon over the next few months.
Initially the need for both practitioner and advanced practitioner registration ‘levels’ was identified. In the latter part of the development, work on advanced practice registration was suspended in light of the national work being undertaken by CHRE on advanced practice in regulation.
The purpose of the CHRE work was to establish whether ‘advanced practice’ is a regulatory issue. Although relevant to the UKPHR its focus was on the statutory healthcare regulators. CHRE emphasised the need for regulators to focus on the core of regulation, ensuring fitness to practice, and warned that much of what is currently called advanced practice represents career progression within a profession and not such a fundamental break of practice such that risks to the public are not adequately captured by existing standards of proficiency and ethics.
We will for the time being, focus attention on practitioner registration and will look to the review of regulatory frameworks applied to public health professionals, scheduled for autumn/ winter 2009 and led by the English Department of Health, to consider this further.
+ Engaging Existing Regulators
A parallel strand of work also took place which involved meetings with a variety of different regulators to discuss common regulatory issues such as; the process of registration and CPD.
This has enabled us to learn from other regulators and to ensure that the regulatory system being developed for practitioners is in line with others, as well as exploring possible dual registration. Click here to download a copy of the report.
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+ Contact us
If you have any questions or would like to be kept up the date with Practitioner Regulation developments please email the address below
zoe_clark_po@hotmail.com
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