DH England and the Government Health Departments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have, between them, funded a two-year programme to take forward implementation of the Public Health Skills and Career Framework.

Overseeing this work is a collaborative of public health organisations together forming the Public Health Workforce Programme Management Group.  The aim is to ensure that public health workforce development at a national level is integrated.

Membership of the management group consists of representatives from: Skills for Health (SfH) , Public Health Resource Unit (PHRU) , Royal Society of Health (RSH) , Royal Institute of Public Health (RIPH) , UK Voluntary Register for Public Health Specialists (UKVR) and the Faculty of Public Health (FPH). (insert links here)

The group reports to the 4 UK countries. In England this is through the Health Improvement Workforce Programme Board; formal reporting mechanisms are being established in Wales, Scotland and N.Ireland

HHThe main strands of the work are:

• FPH – work with all key public health professional groups and the UKVR to endorse shared standards for public health practitioners based on PHSCF, audit examinations, and establish the feasibility of higher specialist training for defined specialists

• UKVR – work with all public health regulatory bodies to develop a regulatory framework for practitioners, based on PHSCF

• RSH – on behalf of Shaping the Future Collaboration – develop health promotion training and development pathways based on PHSCF

• PHRU – develop and implement communication strategy for implementation of PHSCF, with particular focus on employers, teaching organisations, workforce planners, and wider workforce groups

• SfH – develop an interactive web-based version of the PHSCF, develop national occupational standards for health protection,  support implementation of the PHSCF with particular focus on employers and wider workforce groups