RSPH is pleased to announce the launch of the Level 2 Award in Improving the Public’s Health. This is a new qualification that will help empower the 20 million potential members of the wider public health workforce to contribute to the ‘radical upgrade in prevention’ demanded by the NHS Five Year Forward View.
RSPH’s Rethinking the Public Health Workforce report identified approximately 20 million people across 57 occupations in England, outside of the core public health workforce, who have the potential to positively influence the public’s health. The new qualification has been designed to support these professionals into this enhanced role.
The content will provide the underpinning knowledge and skills necessary to support and encourage positive lifestyle changes including the principles of health improvement, mental health and wellbeing, communication skills to deliver health messages, and understanding local health issues.
Sectors that can or are already taking on this role include blue light services, housing and education, sports and leisure and social care providers, as well as a wide range of allied health professionals.
Mark Cummings, Health Trainer and Outreach Manager at Kent Community Health NHS Trust, said: “In order to tackle the growing public health challenges faced by 21st century Britain, it is more important than ever that more professions understand how they can actively engage in improving the public's health. RSPH’s Level 2 Award in Improving the Public’s Health has been designed to ensure that they are competent in doing so.
“Whether taken on by people in uniformed services, communities or the commercial workplace, the new qualification will equip the wider workforce with the knowledge and confidence to deliver public health messages across a variety of settings – and importantly, to consider health issues in their own sector and community and find effective ways to address them.
