There is no single standard model for health trainer services as health trainers work in a range of settings to engage and support individuals and communities. It can therefore be difficult to make like-for-like service comparisons to monitor progress and encourage improvements.
RSPH has worked together with Health Education England, Wessex team, to produce a benchmarking framework and toolkit that will support these services to make comparisons and demonstrate their value and effectiveness.
The framework aims to bring together elements of the services that can be benchmarked and compared, reflecting both the 'core' health trainer activities and broader support they offer through their work. RSPH developed it using a collaborative process of consultations with health trainer services and interviews with commissioners and service leads.
The framework allows services to record key information about their performance relating to both their core activities and the additional support that they may be commissioned to provide (e.g. group health improvement work, outreach activities within the local community and building partnerships with other services). A toolkit has also been developed to help with the collection and interpretation of the service data.
The framework should have a broad application across many settings. It can allow services to monitor their performance and build on the success of their activities. It will help commissioners to identify the achievements of the health trainer services they commission and enable a comparison of services activities.
Claire Cheminade, Public Health Wider Workforce Lead, Health Education England, Wessex team: “We recognised that health trainers work in a wide variety of settings and their work includes activities outside those originally envisaged for their services. We commissioned RSPH to develop this benchmarking framework and toolkit as aids for the assessment, comparison and monitoring of the services. These tools have been developed to be used by health trainers, service leads and commissioners across the country to help identify best practice and provide recognition for the positive impact that health trainers have in supporting the health of those in their communities”.
