Increasing the supply of Public Health Consultants with additional Portfolio Assessor Resource

COVID-19 has caused an increase in demand for Consultant appointments in public health. In England, this is reflected, in part, in the expansion of the Health Protection function in Public Health England (PHE), which will later form part of a new National Institute for Health Protection.

Some Department of Health and Social Care funding is being used to increase the number of Public Health Specialists registered with the UK Public Health Register.  The aim is to increase the number of public health specialists who can apply for consultant posts in PHE by rapidly assessing around 30 defined specialist portfolios in the next few months.

The first month of this work stream will be recruitment and training, with assessors in place by October 2020.  The additional funding will pay for the training of these assessors and will provide payment to assessors for completing portfolio assessments.

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