Consultation starts on new route to Register for specialists

UKPHR is today starting a consultation on its proposal for a new route to registration for public health specialists. The proposed new route represents a significant step forward in UKPHR’s development. It will be all the more significant because two existing routes to registration are to be discontinued when the new route is set up. The consultation runs for 3 months from today. Click here for further information on how to take part.

Chair of UKPHR’s Board, Professor Patrick Saunders, says that it is important to get the design of the new route right and responses are sought from individuals and organisations to help ensure that the new route is robust:

“UKPHR wants help from all who have something to offer in the co-production of the framework for this new route to registration for public health specialists. We also have a firm commitment to transparency and accountability and this detailed and extensive consultation shows us putting our commitment into practice. We welcome responses from a very wide a range of stakeholders and others with expertise and interest in the development of the core public health workforce.”

Currently, public health specialists are able to achieve registration by successfully completing the recognised qualification, the Public Health Specialty Training Programme. This is what UKPHR calls the “Standard Route”. They can also achieve registration after assessment of a portfolio of evidence showing their suitability. The new route is intended to replace existing portfolio assessment routes with a single alternative to the Standard Route. One of the purposes behind the change is to make the portfolio assessment route equivalent to the assessment route operated by the General Medical Council for medical practitioners.

It is intended that the new portfolio assessment route will match the most up to date curriculum for the Public Health Specialty Training Programme and the recently revised Public Health Skills & Knowledge Framework.