545296
research-article2014
RSH0010.1177/1757913914545296Current Topics & OpinionsCurrent Topics & Opinions
Current Topics & Opinions
A passport to ‘Public Health’ success Anna Sasiak, Robert Parsons and Kathryn Rowles of Public Health England explain the concept of developing a skills passport for public health workers at all levels, and set out the potential benefits and uses of this tool. The recent restructuring of the public health (PH) system in England, as part of a wider re-organisation of the healthcare system,1–3 has placed PH back into the heart of the community and local government, creating opportunities to align PH workforce needs within the wider landscape of workforce development and a new organisation, Public Health England (PHE), whose mission is ‘to protect and improve the nation’s health and to address inequalities’. The PH community has been given an opportunity to work collaboratively across organisational and professional boundaries, breaking down silos and enabling new and innovative approaches to the PH problems facing our population. PHE is an Executive Agency of the Department of Health and one of its key roles is to work in partnership with other local, regional and national organisations to strengthen the capacity and capability of the PH workforce, including the facilitation of career movement across the system, enabling employees to gain broad career experience in different sectors of employment, for example, local government, the voluntary sector and the healthcare sector.
The Concept of A Skills Passport For Public Health This PH system restructure has also complicated the professional and career landscape by introducing a panoply of different employers, such as the 152 Local Authorities across England and many organisations from the voluntary sector, each with their own employment
expertise and strategic input. These structures, needs and priorities. During levels are broadly in line with the UK the consultation that led up to the National Health Service ‘Agenda for restructure of the PH system, there was Change’6 grading structure, but are not recognition of the need for a tool to help employees navigate and plan careers in, an exact match. Many people whose PH and across, this complex environment. activities are at a less expert level may The concept of a ‘Skills Passport’ was themselves be qualified professionals in proposed during the consultation another career, for example, a teacher process for the Department of Health’s who wishes to understand and promote Public Health Workforce Strategy, PH as part of their teaching duties. published in May 2013.1 The idea of a Any ‘Skills Passport’ will only be useful (and used) if it meets the tool that could help PH needs of its intended workers to evidence their Any ‘Skills audience and with this as skills and navigate their Passport’ will only a guiding principle PHE careers was well be useful (and engaged with a range of received, but the detail of used) if it meets stakeholders, representing what the passport would the needs of its the views of the PH do, and how it would intended audience workforce, to determine work, revealed itself on what a useful passport closer examination to be might look like and what it might do, a ‘wicked problem’4 that could only be solved by a collaborative approach by as taking into account the wide range of potential users and their differing levels of many interested stakeholders as skills and expertise and aligning with, but possible. not duplicating, existing tools for There was initial agreement that any professional development and evidencing ‘passport’ should be based on, and skills. reflect, an existing PH development framework. Underpinning development for a professional sector is agreement on DEVELOPING The Skills the functions and roles at different levels Passport with The of professional practice and the Public Workforce in Mind Health Skills and Knowledge Framework The initial phase of passport (PHSKF)5 provides this for the PH development has focussed on establishing a reference group of workforce in the United Kingdom. First representatives from a broad range of developed in 2008, this framework stakeholder organisations. We were able provides information on the professional to obtain views and engage on the knowledge and experience needed by concept of a passport and its potential PH workers at all levels, from those functions, in order to ensure that PHE whose roles have some aspects of PH and partners can develop an innovative practice to those working at the highest tool that the PH workforce and level with considerable knowledge,
Copyright © Royal Society for Public Health 2014 SAGE Publications ISSN 1757-9139 DOI: 10.1177/1757913914545296
September 2014 Vol 134 No 5 l Perspectives in Public Health 255
Current Current Topics Topics &Opinions & Opinions employers will find genuinely useful and helpful. This is key to actually establishing the real needs both of the people who will use this tool and also of their employers who might wish to make use of it to inform their workforce development planning. The engagement process surfaced a number of challenges and opportunities and is a useful case study of what can be achieved through a co-production approach. One of the key questions was ‘Who is the Skills Passport for?’. Is it a resource for individuals to help them navigate careers within PH or would it help employers to know the skills of their workforce for planning and gap analysis? Linked to this is the issue of verification from a line manager or supervisor. Is this necessary to confirm the skills and experience being expressed in the passport? The views of the reference group tended towards divergence, being either strongly for or against various stand points, such as: •• Is the name ‘Passport’ a misleading term, engendering expectations of ‘safe passage’ to higher career
levels? If so, what would be a useable alternative? •• Is the tool primarily for the employee or their employer’s benefit and would the individual feel able to record honest reflections on events or outcomes if they thought their employer would have access? If the employer was supporting access to the passport, should it benefit from being able to run a skills analysis of its workforce?
•• The need for adequate resources both in terms of people to make the project happen and a realistic appreciation of the financial support that will make this sort of project sustainable.
There is still a significant amount of work to do as we move into the phase of formal passport development, design and piloting, but the opportunity for users and employers to have their say in what a passport could and should enable will ensure a workable pilot that There was broad agreement that a will indicate whether this tool is useful pilot would be worth pursuing, with a on many levels across the PH system. view to demonstrating how the tool The engagement process for the Skills would help PH workers. This pilot Passport has also contributed to a should include staff working in different wider networking initiative which is fields and at different levels of the bringing together colleagues from PHSKF to gauge the broad applicability across the wider system who contribute of the tool. to the development, in Lessons learnt from this its broadest sense, of project to date are: form a platform for continuing and their area of the PH workforce and will form a •• The need to test sustainable assumptions with as collaboration, to platform for continuing wide a group as the benefit of the and sustainable collaboration, to the possible representing entire PH benefit of the entire PH those who would use workforce workforce. the tool;
References 1 . Department of Health. Healthy Lives, Healthy People: A Public Health Workforce Strategy 2013. Available online at: https:// www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/ uploads/attachment_data/ file/197403/2900899_28781_Healthy_ lives_v0.8.pdf (Last accessed 10 th June 2014). 2. Health and Social Care Act 2012. Available online at: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/
3.
4.
ukpga/2012/7/pdfs/ukpga_20120007_en.pdf (Last accessed 10th June 2014). Department of Health. Healthy Lives, Healthy People: Our Strategy for Public Health in England 2010. Available online at: https://www. gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/ attachment_data/file/216096/dh_127424.pdf (Last accessed 11th June 2014). Grint K. Leadership: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
256 Perspectives in Public Health l September 2014 Vol 134 No 5
5. PHORCaST. The Public Health Skills and Knowledge Framework (PHSKF) 2014. Available online at: http:// www.phorcast.org.uk/page.php?page_id=313 (Last accessed 10th June 2014). 6. NHS Employers. NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook. Available online at: http:// www.nhsemployers.org/your-workforce/pay-andreward/nhs-terms-and-conditions/nhs-terms-andconditions-of-service-handbook (Last accessed 9th June 2014).
research-article2014
RSH0010.1177/1757913914545296Current Topics & OpinionsCurrent Topics & Opinions
Current Topics & Opinions
A passport to ‘Public Health’ success Anna Sasiak, Robert Parsons and Kathryn Rowles of Public Health England explain the concept of developing a skills passport for public health workers at all levels, and set out the potential benefits and uses of this tool. The recent restructuring of the public health (PH) system in England, as part of a wider re-organisation of the healthcare system,1–3 has placed PH back into the heart of the community and local government, creating opportunities to align PH workforce needs within the wider landscape of workforce development and a new organisation, Public Health England (PHE), whose mission is ‘to protect and improve the nation’s health and to address inequalities’. The PH community has been given an opportunity to work collaboratively across organisational and professional boundaries, breaking down silos and enabling new and innovative approaches to the PH problems facing our population. PHE is an Executive Agency of the Department of Health and one of its key roles is to work in partnership with other local, regional and national organisations to strengthen the capacity and capability of the PH workforce, including the facilitation of career movement across the system, enabling employees to gain broad career experience in different sectors of employment, for example, local government, the voluntary sector and the healthcare sector.
The Concept of A Skills Passport For Public Health This PH system restructure has also complicated the professional and career landscape by introducing a panoply of different employers, such as the 152 Local Authorities across England and many organisations from the voluntary sector, each with their own employment
expertise and strategic input. These structures, needs and priorities. During levels are broadly in line with the UK the consultation that led up to the National Health Service ‘Agenda for restructure of the PH system, there was Change’6 grading structure, but are not recognition of the need for a tool to help employees navigate and plan careers in, an exact match. Many people whose PH and across, this complex environment. activities are at a less expert level may The concept of a ‘Skills Passport’ was themselves be qualified professionals in proposed during the consultation another career, for example, a teacher process for the Department of Health’s who wishes to understand and promote Public Health Workforce Strategy, PH as part of their teaching duties. published in May 2013.1 The idea of a Any ‘Skills Passport’ will only be useful (and used) if it meets the tool that could help PH needs of its intended workers to evidence their Any ‘Skills audience and with this as skills and navigate their Passport’ will only a guiding principle PHE careers was well be useful (and engaged with a range of received, but the detail of used) if it meets stakeholders, representing what the passport would the needs of its the views of the PH do, and how it would intended audience workforce, to determine work, revealed itself on what a useful passport closer examination to be might look like and what it might do, a ‘wicked problem’4 that could only be solved by a collaborative approach by as taking into account the wide range of potential users and their differing levels of many interested stakeholders as skills and expertise and aligning with, but possible. not duplicating, existing tools for There was initial agreement that any professional development and evidencing ‘passport’ should be based on, and skills. reflect, an existing PH development framework. Underpinning development for a professional sector is agreement on DEVELOPING The Skills the functions and roles at different levels Passport with The of professional practice and the Public Workforce in Mind Health Skills and Knowledge Framework The initial phase of passport (PHSKF)5 provides this for the PH development has focussed on establishing a reference group of workforce in the United Kingdom. First representatives from a broad range of developed in 2008, this framework stakeholder organisations. We were able provides information on the professional to obtain views and engage on the knowledge and experience needed by concept of a passport and its potential PH workers at all levels, from those functions, in order to ensure that PHE whose roles have some aspects of PH and partners can develop an innovative practice to those working at the highest tool that the PH workforce and level with considerable knowledge,
Copyright © Royal Society for Public Health 2014 SAGE Publications ISSN 1757-9139 DOI: 10.1177/1757913914545296
September 2014 Vol 134 No 5 l Perspectives in Public Health 255
Current Current Topics Topics &Opinions & Opinions employers will find genuinely useful and helpful. This is key to actually establishing the real needs both of the people who will use this tool and also of their employers who might wish to make use of it to inform their workforce development planning. The engagement process surfaced a number of challenges and opportunities and is a useful case study of what can be achieved through a co-production approach. One of the key questions was ‘Who is the Skills Passport for?’. Is it a resource for individuals to help them navigate careers within PH or would it help employers to know the skills of their workforce for planning and gap analysis? Linked to this is the issue of verification from a line manager or supervisor. Is this necessary to confirm the skills and experience being expressed in the passport? The views of the reference group tended towards divergence, being either strongly for or against various stand points, such as: •• Is the name ‘Passport’ a misleading term, engendering expectations of ‘safe passage’ to higher career
levels? If so, what would be a useable alternative? •• Is the tool primarily for the employee or their employer’s benefit and would the individual feel able to record honest reflections on events or outcomes if they thought their employer would have access? If the employer was supporting access to the passport, should it benefit from being able to run a skills analysis of its workforce?
•• The need for adequate resources both in terms of people to make the project happen and a realistic appreciation of the financial support that will make this sort of project sustainable.
There is still a significant amount of work to do as we move into the phase of formal passport development, design and piloting, but the opportunity for users and employers to have their say in what a passport could and should enable will ensure a workable pilot that There was broad agreement that a will indicate whether this tool is useful pilot would be worth pursuing, with a on many levels across the PH system. view to demonstrating how the tool The engagement process for the Skills would help PH workers. This pilot Passport has also contributed to a should include staff working in different wider networking initiative which is fields and at different levels of the bringing together colleagues from PHSKF to gauge the broad applicability across the wider system who contribute of the tool. to the development, in Lessons learnt from this its broadest sense, of project to date are: form a platform for continuing and their area of the PH workforce and will form a •• The need to test sustainable assumptions with as collaboration, to platform for continuing wide a group as the benefit of the and sustainable collaboration, to the possible representing entire PH benefit of the entire PH those who would use workforce workforce. the tool;
References 1 . Department of Health. Healthy Lives, Healthy People: A Public Health Workforce Strategy 2013. Available online at: https:// www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/ uploads/attachment_data/ file/197403/2900899_28781_Healthy_ lives_v0.8.pdf (Last accessed 10 th June 2014). 2. Health and Social Care Act 2012. Available online at: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/
3.
4.
ukpga/2012/7/pdfs/ukpga_20120007_en.pdf (Last accessed 10th June 2014). Department of Health. Healthy Lives, Healthy People: Our Strategy for Public Health in England 2010. Available online at: https://www. gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/ attachment_data/file/216096/dh_127424.pdf (Last accessed 11th June 2014). Grint K. Leadership: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010.
256 Perspectives in Public Health l September 2014 Vol 134 No 5
5. PHORCaST. The Public Health Skills and Knowledge Framework (PHSKF) 2014. Available online at: http:// www.phorcast.org.uk/page.php?page_id=313 (Last accessed 10th June 2014). 6. NHS Employers. NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook. Available online at: http:// www.nhsemployers.org/your-workforce/pay-andreward/nhs-terms-and-conditions/nhs-terms-andconditions-of-service-handbook (Last accessed 9th June 2014).
