Growing talent with purpose: Leicester's approach to development in public health workforce

The public health team at Leicester City Council has always had a strong ethos of staff development and training. For example, the service supports staff in undertaking Masters and related degrees and qualifications with NIHR funding, and registrars have access to a package of development as part of the UK Public Health Registration scheme. The service also ran one-off CPD sessions for sharing learning, available to all public health staff.

However, the Director of Public Health recognised that these opportunities for professional development were largely ad hoc, lacked join up and were inconsistent across levels of seniority. The DPH wanted to embed stronger pathways for staff development and progression from junior to senior roles, and to set up clearer mechanisms for staff to share learning from their own training and experiences with their peers.

To achieve this, a Workforce Development steering group was established, led by a public health consultant with workforce responsibility. Co-delivered with staff across the service, the project has successfully increased engagement and accessibility of development opportunities and embedded a culture of continuous improvement, boosting staff confidence and morale.

The key aims of the continuous development project, overseen by the steering group, were:

• Create clearer pathways for staff progression, from junior to senior roles
• Join up and coordinate ad hoc learning and development opportunities to improve accessibility and engagement
• Improving equity of access to development opportunities and training for staff at all levels
• Harness in-house skills and experience, and create mechanisms for peer sharing of knowledge
• Improve staff confidence and ability to find and take on development opportunities
• Upload a culture of workforce development and continuous improvement across the team.

The Workforce Development Group was established by the consultant lead to ensure that the project has the necessary resource and capacity. The group meets every three months, and is made up of staff from across the public health service. At the launch of the project, the consultant lead asked colleagues across the service for feedback to identify what was working well and where the gaps were in development opportunities. It was essential to design the programme around staff feedback so it could be genuinely impactful.

The steering group undertook a review of all the opportunities for formal training and development. This includes:

• Level 6 and level 7 apprenticeships in public health and data intelligence (supported by some salary funding from OHID grant for backfill)
• Masters of Public Health (funded by NIHR INSIGHT)
• Training as part of the UK Public Health Registration scheme
• Opportunities for teaching at University of Leicester and De Montfort University

Recognising that some colleagues may not want to commit to formal qualifications, but are still keen to access CPD and learning opportunities, the steering group has implemented a range of other development opportunities available to the whole public health workforce:

• Mentoring and coaching (developed in collaboration with the council’s HR and OD service)
• NIHR funded fortnightly research advice clinics, covering skills like how to set up journals and effectively search for literature
• A bi-monthly journal club
• A programme of informal, bi-monthly CPD sessions including specific programmes on research skills and health protection

This CPD drop-in programme built on previous sessions which had happened on an ad hoc basis, like one with a focus on health protection, which had been well received by colleagues. By designing a more regular programme, colleagues recognise that CPD is taken seriously by the service. The sessions also serve as an opportunity for peer learning, and colleagues are encouraged to present their own knowledge and experience and lead sessions. Sessions cover specific public health themes, as well as broader professional skills like project management. The sessions are recorded so there is now a bank of videos that colleagues can access at any time.

To improve access to and coordination of the range of development opportunities available, the steering group has set up a dedicated MS Teams PH Workforce Development channel. This channel brings together all resources, including the CPD session recordings and slides, toolkits to support the critical appraisal at journal club, information on opportunities and induction materials.

The project has received positive feedback from staff, and the effectiveness is evidenced by good engagement and participation levels in opportunities like the CPD drop-in sessions. Outcomes include:

• The public health service has a reputation within the council and across the sector for lifelong learning and career development;
• This reputation is supporting recruitment and retention, especially given competitive salaries across the region;
• Staff are working with high levels of technical expertise and are well equipped to deliver a high-quality, impactful public health service;
• The project upholds a culture of learning and development, giving staff the confidence to find and pursue new opportunities, and translating into wider initiatives like the internship programme for community wellbeing champions, which gives work experience and public health exposure to people in the community and VCS sector.

Now, the Workforce Development Group is developing a logic model to more formally monitor and evaluate the outcomes of the project and how effectively it is being delivered.