Welcome to Your Quarterly Newsletter from RSPH

Relaunch of our New RSPH Website

The RSPH has had a revamp of its website, creating a brand-new look. With easier navigation, and a modernised feel, we hope you enjoy and are able to find all the information and resources you need. For any comments or thoughts, please contact Fay Jeffery and to visit the website click on www.rsph.org.uk. 

Training Solutions Blog

A huge thanks to everyone who has subscribed and is following our Training Solutions blog posts. If you did not already know, the blog, which went live in October 2010, is a great way for us to tell you about current public health news and to ensure you are kept up to date with all the latest events and courses. Moreover, it provides us with the chance to hear about your thoughts and opinions on key public health issues – so please feel free to leave comments and open up a discussion.
To visit our blog please click here and you can also follow us on Twitter 

Liberating Health Improvement – The Report

During February, the RSPH hosted a seminar entitled ‘Liberating Health Improvement’. Participants came from around the country to explore opportunities and challenges associated with the recent Public Health White Paper “Healthy Lives, Healthy People“ to discuss its impact on the delivery of health improvement.

The format for the seminar was short presentations followed by group work and discussion and much lively debate. The morning was facilitated by Maureen Murfin, who was the National Lead for Health Trainers and the first presentation slot enabled Professor Richard Parish (CEO, RSPH) and Martin Seymour (Principal Consultant, Healthy Communities Programme, LGID) to set the scene with a review of current policy from both health and local government perspectives. Participants then discussed opportunities and challenges presented by the proposed reforms.

The next speaker was Lucy Gate from the Department of Health, Health Inequalities National Support Team (HINST). Lucy gave an overview of national approaches to behaviour change and talked through progress of a ‘Health Gain Programme’ that recommends personal level, systematic, health improvement messages at every appropriate contact with health and social care practitioners. Discussion afterwards highlighted the many difficulties associated with scaled delivery, not least how to manage capacity building and capability issues. Some very useful and practical ways of rising to the workforce challenge were captured.

The seminar ended on a real high with some personal reflections and excellent examples of joined up partnership working from Graham Rushbrook (RBE Consultancy, London).

The seminar was the culmination of a short scoping review commissioned by RSPH in order to help us understand and respond to the needs of commissioners and providers who are charged with taking forward the new agenda. The findings will also be used more widely to help inform and shape discussions with policy makers at local and national levels.

To view the presentations and to read the full report please click here. For any further information please contact Heather Davison.

Enabling and Guiding Choice for Health and Wellbeing

The ambition for ‘Making Every Contact Count’ a concept developed by NHS Yorkshire and the Humber, and now a region wide programme is to implement new ways of working within changing service models by making the most of every opportunity to promote a healthy lifestyle. This prompted RSPH Training Solutions to bring you this unique suite of programmes called ‘Enabling and Guiding Choice for Health and Wellbeing’.

Designed to satisfy personal and professional development in the context of opportunistic advice and brief intervention, our quest is to keep you updated in skills and knowledge for contemporary practice.
Elements of this suite of short courses may be commissioned and customised to your organisation, policies and area of practice.

For a full list of our short courses please download the   Suites Behaviour Change document.  

All Party Parliamentary Group on special inquiry into the Public Health White Paper and opportunities for better health

The All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Primary Care & Public Health held an inquiry into the Public Health White Paper to discuss whether it truly seizes opportunities for better health and the RSPH were invited to give evidence. The RSPH worked closely with the Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH) to produce a joint submission for the inquiry.

The ADPH and RSPH welcomed the opportunity to contribute to this inquiry by the APPG. We recognise that the Public Health White Paper and the associated changes raise huge opportunities for public health, but with such changes there are also risks. In this submission, we seek to highlight key issues that we believe will need to be addressed to ensure real improvements in health outcomes and the reduction of health inequalities.

To view the questions and responses to the inquiry, please download the ADPH RSPH submission document

RSPH receives the MHFA Champions Award 2010

MHFA England CIC is a Community Interest Company that provides training for people to deliver the Mental Health First Aid course. 

Poppy Jaman, National Director for MHFA England CIC said, “We are extremely proud to award the RSPH the MHFA Champions Award for 2010. The support we have received in the last year and half during our transition into a Community Interest Company has been invaluable. The accreditation we receive for our Instructor Training Programme from the RSPH is crucial to its quality assurance process. Through this partnership we have been introduced to lots of partners and subsequently developed influential relationships within the public health sector”.

RSPH Health Promotion and Community Well-Being Organisation And Partnership Awards: Four years of supporting good practice

The Royal Society for Public Health is pleased to announce that this year nine organisations will be submitting evidence for our scheme. These organisations range from Local Councils, Primary Care Trusts, to National and Local Communities and Third Sector organisations.

This is the fourth year that RSPH has been supporting and encouraging good practice in Health Promotion.

The aim of the awards is to recognise achievement in the development and implementation of health promotion and community well-being strategies, in support of the health promotion workforce.

The level and depth of assessment is tailored to the size and capacity of the organisation or partnership applying. Submissions are considered by RSPH assessors and a peer appraisal group.  Click here for more information.

Level 2 Award in Health Promotion Course

“Thank you for the RSPH Health Promotion course. It was brilliant and inspiring”

This exciting and very practical five day course is designed to meet the increasing needs of a wide range of individuals to acquire fundamental knowledge and skills in health promotion.

The Award provides candidates with an opportunity to work and train within a multi-disciplinary group, exploring and examining basic theory in relation to the concepts, influences and determinants of health.

The qualification route for Health Promotion (General Health and Well Being) consists of the core unit Principles of Health Promotion, and a route-specific unit Promotion of General Health and wellbeing. The learning outcomes are assessed by coursework consisting of a reflective account of health promotion (for assessment of unit HP1) and a small pilot health promotion project (for the assessment of unit HP3).

Whilst HP1 focuses on the concepts of health and health promotion, HP3 considers the impact and effect of lifestyle on body systems, methods of disease prevention and appropriate health promotion messages.

By outlining plans for a general health promotion project, designed for a specific target group, participants will have identified the rationale for the project, planning, methodology and materials that would be used in delivery, as well as methods of evaluation to assess the projects effectiveness.
For further information click here.

If you want to promote better health in your workplace join a British Heart Foundation (BHF) Health at Work seminar near you

Learn how to inspire a healthy workforce through BHF’s free Health at Work programme, and develop a practical action plan for your workplace.

Health at Work is a package of support from the BHF that provides you with the tools to plan and implement a health and wellbeing programme in your workplace. Click here to sign up for free and receive your ‘quick guide to health at work’ and access the range of practical resources for coordinators and employees, plus regular updates.