Practitioner registration task and finish group

This month a new task & finish group starts working for UKPHR on the first review of practitioner registration since the system was devised in 2010.

The new group, to be chaired by Professor Susan Powell of Manchester Metropolitan University, will examine options and recommend plans to UKPHR’s Education & Training Committee for aligning standards, practices and processes with the several developments in relation to public health practitioners that have emerged since the current arrangements were settled.

These developments include:

• The UK review of the Public Health Skills & Knowledge Framework;
• Public Health England’s work on developing a Skills Passport and the increasing use of e-portfolios by local practitioner registration schemes;
• Health Education England’s “deep dive” study of practitioner registration in England;
• Changes in the core and wider public health workforces, for example the emergence of a new cadre of Health trainers, and changes under consideration because of strategic reviews, for example the Review of Public Health in Scotland;
• The piloting of Advanced Practice (Public Health) in Wales;
• Improved mapping and designing of Degree and other courses provided by Higher Education Institutions and other providers aimed at readying students for practitioner registration; and
• UKPHR’s progress in relation to the introduction of a revalidation scheme for all registrants.

The task & finish group will also examine opportunities for innovation, development and simplification which UKPHR can undertake alone or in partnership with other organisations. In doing so, the group will engage with potential partners and stakeholders and invite proposals from them where appropriate.

The group will meet for the first time on 27^th July and is expected to carry out its task over a period of approximately a year. There will be consultation in relation to such change and development that the group may propose.