Professional Standards
The Faculty of Public Health (FPH) is the standard-setting body for public health in the United Kingdom. FPH provides professional advice to employers and others on statutory and good-practice procedures for senior public health appointments. In addition, FPH advocates on key public health issues and provides practical information and guidance for public health professionals, aiming to advance the health of the population through three key areas of work: health promotion, health protection and healthcare improvement.
FPH strives to maintain professional and educational standards for specialists in public health, as well as quality-assuring the profession, through its established continuing professional development (CPD) scheme and through the development of a revalidation system for public health specialists. For more information on these, please follow the links on the left.
PHWAG task group on regulation
The Public Health Workforce Advisory Group (PHWAG) advises the four UK countries on current issues and future planning for the public health workforce. It has a comprehensive membership of stakeholder groups who are concerned with, or have an interest in, workforce planning and development.
It is in the process of developing a suite of papers that will clearly state PHWAG’s views on a number of specific issues related to workforce development. Each paper should be read in conjunction with other issues, depending on the area of guidance required. The papers have been developed in such a way as to make them acceptable to all four of the devolved administrations of the UK.
Please see:
- Recommendations with regard to GENERALIST SPECIALISTS in public health
- Recommendations with regard to SENIOR PUBLIC HEALTH APPOINTMENTS
PHWAG commissioned a task group to consider and agree core principles around issues relating to regulation which includes, but is not limited to, the reasons for regulation, routes to registration, chartering, future competencies and standards applied, the role of Advisory Appointment Committees (AACs) and sub specialties. The remit of the task group is to agree principles of regulation for the UK public health workforce, including both specialists and practitioners, and to disseminate its findings to UK health departments, regulators, employers, professional bodies and others with an interest in protecting and improving the health of the public.
The group has previously agreed the following statements:
- The UK Public Health Specialist workforce should be regulated. This should include not just initial registration but revalidation to ensure the maintenance of standards and continuing professional development
- FPH is the professional standard-setting body for specialist public health practice
- The group supports in principle the idea of public health practitioner registration
- An AAC should be a requirement for all Public Health Specialist appointments.
