Lack of statutory regulation for the majority of the public health workforce

Current patterns of regulation for specialist and practitioner routes in the public health sector combine both statutory and voluntary aspects. Regulation is about establishing and maintaining public confidence through high-quality professional practice.

The public health workforce is fragmented and contains within it many professions. Public health is recorded as a specialism by the General Medical Council and the General Dental Council, and public health consultants on these registers are subject to statutory regulation. However, the majority of public health workers, including some non-medically qualified specialists, are not subject to statutory regulation.

A voluntary UK Public Health Register was set up in 2003 for non-medically and non-dentally qualified public health specialists. Following the Scally Report (2010), the widening public health role of local authorities in England and the possibility of ‘any willing provider’ of public health, the role of statutory professional regulation to ensure safe and effective care has taken on a new dimension. Public health professionals are responsible for putting in place interventions that may have a negative as well as positive effect on the public. In either case some form of accountability is involved for all these professionals, and for maintaining public confidence in those making interventions. Professional and statutory regulation can be seen as a mechanism for ensuring a process of standards setting that can be applied to all facets of a health professional’s work. The ever increasing amount of public safety and health legislation, alongside regulatory frameworks emerging at national and international levels also implies the need for a regulated workforce well informed as to the standards and competences required of them.

A clearly defined public health workforce in terms of roles and occupations subject to nationally agreed standards of professional competence could result in long terms benefits in improved health and wellbeing outcomes. The idea would seem to be who regulates an agreed set of standards, on what agreed basis of education, training provision and continuing professional development, and for what range of professionals in public health practice. This could be achieved through extension of voluntary registration schemes currently available but strongly linked to statutory arrangements. Currently the Law Commission is consulting on regulation of healthcare professionals, the outcomes of which may have implications for the public health workforce.

Sources or references

• Review of the Regulation of Public Health Professionals (2010), DoH Public Health Development Unit
• Enabling Excellence: Autonomy and accountability for health and social care staff (2011) DoH
• Report to the Public Health - Commons Select Committee - Committee 2 .11.2011
• Regulation of Health and Social Care Professionals: Law Commission

Some of the information in this section is provided by stakeholders and expert groups, and does not necessarily represent the views of the CfWI.