Each SIG will aim to support FPH in its core mission to improve the health and wellbeing of local communities and national populations, support the training and development of the current and future public health workforce, improve public health policy at a local, national, and international level, encourage and promote new research and understanding of public health, and lead our community’s response to some of the most pressing challenges facing the health of the public today.

The SIG will report to an agreed ‘parent committee’ as a recognised sub-group in all matters requiring approval or sign-off (e.g. publicising work, engaging with the media). Each SIG will report to one of the following committees: 

• Advocacy and Policy Committee
• Academic Research Committee
• EDI Committee
• Ethics Committee 
• Climate and Health Committee
• Global Health Committee  
• Health Improvement Committee
• Health Protection Committee
• Health Services Committee

If the SIG chair is unsure about which matters may require sign-off, or which committee they should report to, they should seek guidance from FPH’s Policy Coordinator: policy@fph.org.uk.

The SIG will:

2.1      Develop an annual work plan by 31^st March at the absolute latest each year. The workplan should outline the SIG’s programme of work for the year ahead and allocate responsibilities to SIG members for carrying the work forward to completion. Where possible, the work plan should correlate with the parent committee’s aims and objectives and reflect FPH’s organisational priorities and strategy.

2.2     Report to the parent committee at regular intervals.

·     The SIG will be required to submit its annual workplan to the parent committee by the deadline of 31^st March each year, using the FPH annual work plan pro forma.

·     At the time of annual workplan submission, the SIG will also submit a brief (~100 words) progress report to their parent committee, outlining progress made against the work plan, celebrating the accomplishments of the SIG, flagging any additional support needs, and noting any substantive changes to the work plan.

·     Attend parent committee meetings to update on SIG work throughout the year as agreed with the parent committee chair.

2.3     Submit all substantive public-facing work to the FPH Officers for sign-off. Feedback may also be sought from parent committees before submitting work to FPH Officers for approval. Examples of the types of work that will require approval from the FPH Officers include, but are not limited to:

·     Consultation responses

·     Reports

·     Position papers

·     Journal articles

·     Resources for service-users, policy makers or the general public

·     Letters to policy-makers or national governments

·     Conference presentations, papers or posters

All work will be required to have the FPH badge and/or be submitted with FPH letterhead and signed on behalf of the SIG.

See here for further details on how FPH is governed, including the process by which FPH statements are agreed, and the process by which FPH supports statements from other organisations.

2.4     Work in collaboration with FPH’s Communications Manager, David Parkinson on all media activity (excluding ad-hoc social media). The SIG must notify David Parkinson of any direct media contacts prior to issuing public statements or comment on behalf of the SIG. The SIG must liaise with the Communications Manager on:

·     Blog posts on FPH’s blogsite Better Health for All

·     Press releases

·     Comment pieces/editorials/letters to the editor/news stories for the press

·     Radio or television appearances

·     Social media infographics

David Parkinson can be reached at davidparkinson@fph.org.uk or 020 3696 1468. Please here for guidance from the FPH to support SIG members when engaging with media and the FPH Comms team.

2.5     The SIG may also provide opportunities for specialty registrars to fulfil their leaning outcomes with a project run by your SIG as part of their training. See further details on the Registrars Projects Scheme here.   

2.6     The SIG must adhere to all relevant FPH policies and protocols to ensure good governance. This includes but is not limited to FPH’s anti-racism framework, equality and diversity policy, ethical investment policy, customer charter, social media guidance, Governing engagements with commercial actors, Data protection guidance, and FPH staff values and behaviours. 

2.7     If the SIG is unable to abide by the above reporting and governance requirements, FPH reserves the right to temporarily or permanently suspend the SIG.

SIG Leadership

3.1      Every SIG must have a chair, who will hold no less a level of membership than MFPH and will be in good standing. Members of FPH who hold a level less than MFPH, with the exception of Student members, may be a co-chair of the SIG so long as the other co-chair is an MFPH or higher.

3.2     The chair of the SIG will be elected from within the SIG’s membership for a term of no more than three years, after which time they may be elected for one further period of three years. If required, the SIG may elect more than one person to serve together as co-chairs.

3.3     If required, the SIG may elect a vice-chair whose term shall be no longer than three years, after which time may be elected for one further period of three years.

General membership requirements

3.4     There will be no restriction on the number of members who can join an FPH SIG.

3.5     For the SIG to be considered an FPH SIG, it must have at least five FPH members with voting privileges. All categories of FPH membership, with the exception of Associate, Student, Practitioner, Enrolled Practitioner and International Practitioner have voting privileges.

3.6     In keeping with the FPH customer charter, all members of the SIG must also be FPH members. Non-FPH members can attend a maximum of two of the SIG’s meetings to learn more about the work of the SIG, but if they then wish to join the SIG they must also join FPH as a member. A good first step would be to encourage prospective SIG members to join FPH as an Associate member. See further detail on membership categories and costs here.

3.7     You are also encouraged to nominate prospective members of your SIG to join FPH as a member by distinction. Election to Membership or Fellowship of FPH via distinction is our way of recognising those who have made a significant contribution to public health and/or the work of FPH. To nominate a member by distinction or to learn more about how to do this, please contact the FPH membership department at membership@fph.org.uk.

3.8     If there is an individual who is not an FPH member and critical to the work of the SIG, then please contact the FPH policy team at policy@fph.org.uk.

3.9    There are no requirements for how the SIG will organise itself and its decision-making processes. Some larger SIGs may find it useful to establish an executive to carry forward the work plan and report to its parent committee, however there is no requirement to do so.

3.10   The chair of the SIG will determine the level of attendance required for SIG meetings to be quorate.

Conflicts of interest

3.11    SIG members are required to declare any conflicts of interest when joining a SIG. This information is available to SIG Chairs via the FPH Members Portal. 

3.12   Members should exclude themselves from discussion of items on which they had a conflict of interest.

3.13   If the conflict was likely to impact across their engagement with the SIG, then after discussion with the FPH Policy team, the declared conflict should be referred to the SIG’s parent committee so that committee can review the individual’s membership of the SIG and, if appropriate, agree exclusion from the SIG. There should be a right of appeal through the Executive Committee.

3.14   SIG chairs should review member conflicts of interest on a regular basis and, at the start of each SIG meeting, ask members to declare interests relevant to items on the agenda and/or new interests.

4.1      While the SIG will be mostly self-administering and have a great deal of autonomy to pursue its own agenda, FPH can support the SIG in the following ways:

                  i.   Providing relevant FPH guidance, policies and protocols to support the SIG  in its effective operation, including:

·     Annual work plan template and reporting templates (see 2.2).

·     Social media and communication guidance (see 2.4).

·     Other relevant policies, such as FPH’s data protection guidance, ethical investment policy, FPH customer charter, and FPH staff values document which can be found on the FPH Policies, Statements and Procedures webpage.

                 ii.   Providing access to, and free use of, services such as: teleconferencing facilities, videoconferencing facilities and meeting rooms in FPH’s office

                 iii. Providing opportunities for SIG members to publicise their work through all FPH communications channels, including the Faculty website and blog site

                 iv.  Providing communications support to help the SIG publicise its work to the national press

                  v.   Providing and maintaining a dedicated SIG page on the FPH website

                vi.   Assistance with logistics, promotion, and feedback for SIG events in accordance with the FPH Sustainable events policy.

4.2       SIG email addresses

i.      The FPH provides FPH email addresses to all FPH SIGs, in order to ensure secure and professional communication with SIG members in line with GDPR legislation.

ii.      A maximum of two people per SIG will be provided FPH email addresses.

iii.    The standard format for these will be FirstNameLastName@fph.org.uk.

iv.   The owners of these two chair email addresses will then be provided with access to a shared SIG inbox (with ExampleSIG@fph.org.uk as the standard format).

v.      For any queries around this, please contact policy@fph.org.uk.

4.3   Membership management

                   i.  In 2024, the FPH introduced a new ‘Committees and SIGs’ feature to the FPH Members Portal by which SIG chairs can manage the membership of their SIGs. This is now the only way that FPH members can join and leave FPH SIGs.

                 ii.  FPH members can join a SIG via the FPH members’ portal account, following the provision of details on their experience, capacity and conflicts of interest, following which their application will be automatically approved.

                iii.  The purpose of this system is to simplify the management of SIG membership, ensure it is maintained centrally and ensure that those who join SIGs are entitled to do so through their FPH membership. It is critical that going forward this is the only SIG membership system that is used. All external spreadsheets, Google docs and mailing lists must no longer be used, to ensure that FPH holds the most up-to-date details of SIG members.

                iv.  See guidance here on:

o  How prospective members can join and/or leave a SIG through the portal.

o  How SIG chairs can review details of SIG member applications, including conflicts of interest.

o  How to view SIG members and their details.

o  How to easily contact all SIG members, using the most up-to-date membership information.

                    v.         For any queries around this, please contact policy@fph.org.uk.

5.1      If a SIG has been inactive for at least 12 months and there is no evidence of further work in the foreseeable future, a decision will be taken on whether the SIG should close.

5.2     This decision will be taken by the chair of the SIG’s parent committee, following discussion with the SIG chair, and the chair of the FPH Advocacy and Policy Committee.

5.3     If the SIG remains viable, FPH will actively support its continuation as far as possible.

5.4     If a SIG is deemed to have acted inappropriately and/or posed a reputational risk to the Faculty, its activities may be suspended or permanently shut down. This decision will be taken by the chair of the SIG’s parent committee in conjunction with the chair of the Advocacy and Policy Committee.