RSPH report: the future for public health learning and development

"Paving the Way"

The Royal Society for Public Health has commissioned an in-depth report into the future learning and development landscape for the wider public health workforce.

Although the broad context for health improvement is well established, its architecture is undergoing a radical shift, from a health led service towards a public health system that is local authority led.

The report is based on interviews with people in a wide range of public health roles; in both practice and learning settings, Local Authorities, the NHS, and the third and the independent sectors.

The findings highlight the complexity of developing effective education and learning to support health improvement and the changes that will be needed to ensure that the workforce can operate effectively in the new environment. In particular:

·         ‘Health Improvement’ is still not a clearly understood term, and it is used to mean different things by various parts of the workforce.

·         Each area of the workforce has a different culture and uses specialist terminology in their work. This causes difficulties as they start to work together.

·         The traditional format of training is no longer appropriate, and new approaches are needed to support learning for the new public health workforce.

This report informs future education and learning in the light of the forthcoming Public Health Workforce Strategy. RSPH wants to share the learning from this work with practitioners and policy makers to stimulate, inform and shape ongoing discussions and bridge the gap between the policy and practice. The intention is to create an ongoing dialogue recognising that the best solutions are co-created.

For a copy of the final report contact Gina Mohajer on gmohajer@rsph.org.uk or download it from the RSPH website here>