UKPHR’s first changes to registration standards for practitioners

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Today UKPHR is publishing the first amended standards for practitioner registration. The standards govern the competences that public health practitioners must establish in order to be registered by UKPHR.

The original standards for practitioner registration were put into effect when practitioner registration began in 2011. After five years in operation, UKPHR reviewed the standards, aided by research from the late Allison Thorpe and support from a task & finish group widely drawn from public health stakeholders.

UKPHR consulted publicly on a draft of the amended standards from August to October 2018. This was a formal consultation over eight weeks setting out UKPHR’s draft proposed amended standards for practitioner registration as settled by the practitioner registration review task & finish group, assisted by a standards sub-group and a commissioned contractor.

The draft proposed amended standards were accompanied by draft guidance. The draft guidance was provided for illustrative purposes to aid understanding of UKPHR’s thinking. Guidance will be finalised and published later.

A report of the result of the consultation has been published alongside the amended standards on UKPHR’s website. Overall, there was strong support for UKPHR’s intention to amend the practitioner registration standards and strong support for much of the detail which UKPHR set out for the proposed amended standards.

However, there were numerous comments and suggestions aimed at improving the amended standards. These comments and suggestions were very helpful and UKPHR made changes to the draft amended standards as a result.

“This is a very significant moment in UKPHR’s development. Practitioner registration is maturing, and we are showing that the standards can be adapted to changes in public health practice and the demands placed on the workforce by the public health system.

“We have had regard to our first five-years’ learning from operating practitioner registration and external developments such as the revision of the Public Health Skills & Knowledge Framework. UKPHR is pleased now to present the amended standards for practitioner registration, which will be applied to assure the competence of public health practitioners who achieve registration with us.”

David Kidney, UKPHR Chief Executive

UKPHR’s Board decided at a meeting it held in November 2018 that, once finalised, the amended standards would be available for use from April 2019. UKPHR has published the amended standards early so that all relevant stakeholders can familiarise themselves with the amended standards in time for April’s start date. UKPHR will also be providing training for such stakeholders as assessors of portfolios in the run-up to the start date.

Practitioners who have already started to prepare for registration based on their knowledge of the original standards will be allowed time to complete their registration under those standards.