Training overview

Training Curriculum

Public health specialty training supports you to achieve the 2022 faculty of public health curriculum, based around key competencies needed to be an effective consultant in public health. The curriculum will help you to build on basic skills, consolidate knowledge into public health skills and consolidate those skills in increasingly complex work and diverse environments. You will progress through 2 training phases, each of which has specific milestones.

Placements

Registrars will benefit from training in a region with a diverse set of General Medical Council (GMC) approved placements, with core training based around placements within local authorities and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), which remain the two largest employers of consultants in public health nationally. More specialised placement opportunities are also available in areas such as universities (which are mandatory for academic registrars), Integrated Care Boards, NHS provider Trusts and regional organisations such as NHS England and the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities.

Most registrars starting the scheme will begin their training journey at a local authority public health training placement, alongside their Master’s in Public Health studies. Your local authority placement opportunities will generally be in your allocated training zone, which may be:

• Coventry and Warwickshire
• Black Country
• Herefordshire and Worcestershire
• Birmingham and Solihull
• Staffordshire and Shropshire
   

A minimum 4-month full time equivalent placement is required at the West Midlands Health Protection team, part of UKHSA. Towards the end of this placement, registrars must undertake and pass a regional on-call assessment to allow them to work out-of-hours duties in health protection (‘on call’). Registrars complete a minimum of 50 shifts of non-resident on call to support demonstration of curriculum learning outcomes.

Efforts are made to place registrars within or near their original training zones throughout the training scheme, subject to placement availability and training needs. Please note the West Midlands in a large geographical area, and trainees should expect to travel to take advantage of educational opportunities.

Exams

Membership exams are the core assessments that are fundamental to qualifying from the training scheme, along with the achievement of all core curriculum competencies. As well as dedicated learning time within the Master of Public Health (MPH), you will receive dedicated tutorials and mock exams to help you prepare.

Success in the Diplomate Exam (DFPH) depends on a strong knowledge base, a thorough understanding of the context and application of that knowledge, and a certain amount of exam technique. Although completing the MPH will give you a good academic grounding in public health and helps you to prepare, the DFPH exam is a challenge for most, if not all registrars.  It will be up to you to prepare well and make the most of the support that will be available to you, and you must take advantage of the regional support offered.

The Final Membership Exam (MFPH) is a scenario based, face-to-face exam in which candidates are expected to demonstrate excellent public health skills in communication, handling information, problem solving and dealing with uncertainty. A larger proportion of registrars pass this exam at the first attempt compared to the DFPH exam. You will perform better in this exam if you have regularly taken responsibility for handling everyday public health problems in a team context - for example, drafting a response to an MP’s enquiry to your Chief Executive Officer,Chief Executive Officer (CEO), or answering press enquiries at your local authority office.

Length of training

Specialty training in public health takes 5 years, and proportionately longer for those training less than full time (LTFT). You will be funded to obtain a full Master’s in Public Health qualification at the University of Birmingham during your first 2 years of training. This will provide you with a foundation for your FPH exams and professional career.

For those new registrars who have already completed a relevant postgraduate degree in public health, you will have the opportunity to take level 7 courses which will support your attempt at the DFPH examination and which map to the FPH curriculum.

Registrars with significant public health experience and who have passed the FPH examinations will be considered for the combined programme and may be appointed to a later stage of training.

Academic learning support

All public health consultants carry out disciplined investigations and analyse and interpret data. These abilities are fundamental to all of aspects of public health and academic rigour underpins our practice. Understanding and explaining complex information is a key public health skill. Through your training you will become competent in communicating public health, in person-to-person and small group discussions, verbal presentations to different audiences, and in written presentations.

The school actively promotes teaching and research excellence for all public health registrars, and we have a range of placements and partnerships across the academic public health sector in the region to facilitate this. We also commission academic learning tutorials for registrars at all stages of training to support you with your academic career development.

Flexibility in training

Many registrars can work flexibly in their public health placements during training, and your training arrangements will always be expected to fall within your contractual obligations (junior doctor contract/ Agenda for Change as applicable). The flexibility of each placement in terms of timing of the working day and place of work will be based on the organisation policy of the hosting placement provider.

Whilst many public health placements operate on a hybrid basis, 2 to 3 days working in person is expected for full time trainees. The cost and time pressures of commuting should be carefully considered if you live some distance away and choose not to relocate to the West Midlands for training.

Many registrars chose to work LTFT during their training, to support their work life balance or caring responsibilities. Further information on LTFT training is available here.

Yearly Assessment

In common with all higher specialist training programmes, we have a yearly assessment process the Annual Review of Competency and Progression (ARCP). Trainees must make satisfactory progress during the year to continue into the next part of the scheme.

The WM Registrars provided a webinar covering a day in the life of a registrar, the recruitment process and the key public health skills. The video can be viewed below:

Further regional public health taster events are being arranged. Please contact the Freshdesk support hub.