London South Bank University (LSBU) has offered a masters’ course in public health and health promotion for more than thirty years. So, when Health Education England (HEE), Wessex, sought expertise to provide practitioner training to support those working towards the UK Public Health Register (UKPHR) Practitioner Registration Scheme, the Public Health Education & Training team (PHET@LSBU) were well-placed to deliver. Developed to meet UKPHR standards, the Public Health Practitioner Masterclasses offer vocationally relevant education to support the Public Health workforce.
First commissioned at Wessex to demonstrable success, the Masterclasses were then rolled out at HEE’s across the country – with PHET@LSBU initially delivering Masterclasses through to mid-2024. Since October 2022, 125 practitioners have been supported on their journey to professional registration.
The Masterclasses
An independent organisation, the UK Public Health Register (UKPHR) provides regulation to public health specialists, specialty registrars, and practitioners from across the United Kingdom. UKPHR registration – and the renewal of registration – ensures that core public health competencies are embedded in aspiring and experienced Public Health Practitioners’ professional knowledge and practice.
HEE provides localised practitioner development schemes, offering support programmes for individuals to develop their portfolio for registration. HEE Wessex were specifically looking to commission a delivery partner to aid in their practitioner UKPHR training.
How PHET met that need – are masterclasses the answer?
Sitting within the School of Health and Social Care at LSBU, the Public Health Education & Training team (PHET) was formally founded in 2022 as a specialist function, supporting the training and professional development of Public Health Practitioners in the UK, with education and training delivery work prior to this occurring since 2016. PHET has considerable experience in designing and delivering public heath learning programmes - ranging from half day workshops to short courses, including masterclasses designed to meet the specification of the commissioners and the learning outcomes desired by the Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH) and the identified needs of the participants.
To meet the brief from Wessex, the PHET team drew on experience from their previously successful projects and proposed a comprehensive suite of online masterclasses catering to the wide and varied development and educational needs of those within the sector.
Key topics addressed included:
- Public Health Policy & Context
- Ethical and Professional Public Health Practice
- Epidemiology and Risk
- Evidence for Public Health
- Planning, Implementing and Evaluating Public Health Interventions
Focused on the needs of participants and mapped to UKPHR standards, PHET designed the masterclasses to both meet the knowledge specifications required and provide participants the evidence they need for registration on the UKPHR Public health practitioner registration scheme.
Delivery
Highly adapted and experienced in online delivery, following the University-wide transition to online learning during the pandemic in 2020, the PHET team’s focus was to execute a balance of enabling participation and managing online engagement. To achieve this, the masterclasses are limited to 25 practitioners per session. This ensures those present are engaged and responsive to opportunities for interactive learnings, small-group discussions, reflections, and activities. Participants are also equipped with further reading materials, to foster a continuation of self-led learnings.
Collating data and responses
Evaluation was conducted in real time. Following each Masterclass, participants were asked to complete an anonymous online evaluation form. All Masterclasses scored highly in relation to how well the Masterclass met the learning objectives and supported participants to evidence knowledge of the UKPHR standards, the organisation and online delivery of the Masterclass, and applicability of the Masterclass to participants’ practice.
Voices from the Masterclass: Who found it useful?
Engagement in the Masterclasses have been excellent, and feedback demonstrates that the style and content is pitched appropriately for those preparing for UKPHR registration.
Meeting the diverse learning experiences, backgrounds and experience of participants is challenging but reflective of the incredibly diverse sector. Those attending the masterclasses have been varied and at differing stages of their careers – from those who have already completed a master's in public health to those considering a Public Health profession. Participants reported that the Masterclasses offered a clear overview that was helpful in clarifying concepts and approaches. For some, this was new material and for others it was seen as an important opportunity to review and develop existing knowledge. The direction to onward learning and resources was appreciated, and participants welcomed the introduction to tools and models relevant to their practice. The opportunities provided to discuss and share ideas with colleagues were also seen as valuable. Participants identified diverse ways that they would use the learning in their practice.
“I am very much grateful to learn in these sessions, what a brilliant opportunity to think of subjects which I might not necessarily have known how to approach otherwise, especially as I do not have any background in PH or health previously to joining the team”
“Thanks so much for sharing your expertise in such a clear and warm way. The sections were nicely broken down and whilst it has been a long time since I have approached data in this way, I was made to feel that this is all accessible “
“I really enjoy these sessions; they are very helpful, and I would definitely recommend this to others working in Public Health”
Outcomes
The Masterclasses are commissioned through Health Education England (HEE) for local practitioner schemes across England. Masterclasses so far have served Wessex, the Midlands, Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, the East of England, and the Northwest and Northeast regions. The team have so far delivered masterclasses to 16 cohorts and have another 6 cohorts scheduled through to April 2025.
The total number of participants that have taken part so far is 400.
PHET Team
The Masterclasses team, Professor Susie Sykes, Professor Jane Wills and Catherine Jenkins are practitioners in their respective fields and highly experienced qualitative researchers on a range of issues related to public health, health promotion and health literacy.
Susie Sykes
https://peoplefinder.lsbu.ac.uk/researcher/806yw/dr-susie-sykes
@susie_sykes_
Jane Wills
https://peoplefinder.lsbu.ac.uk/researcher/8015w/ms-jane-wills
Catherine Jenkins
https://peoplefinder.lsbu.ac.uk/researcher/91723/miss-catherine-jenkins
@CathLynneJ
https://www.linkedin.com/in/catherine-lynne-jenkins-516a8028/
Find out more about our training and development opportunities: [email protected]
