The FPH curriculum

The curriculum is based on an understanding of what a Consultant in Public Health needs to know and needs to be able to do. The curriculum builds basic skills onto a knowledge platform and consolidates those skills in increasingly complex work and diverse environments.

Training is delivered across two phases. The first phase concentrates on the acquisition of knowledge relevant to public health practice and gives an opportunity for development of skills in increasingly complex service work and exposure to health protection work. The diplomate (DFPH) and membership (MFPH) exams should be passed. The second phase of training allows for consolidation of competence and development of specialist skills in an area of interest or possible future career options.

• Registrars and Supervisors should carefully read and continually refer to the training curriculum and the curriculum webpages, available on the FPH website.
• The curriculum describes 89 learning outcomes across ten key areas that registrars are expected to achieve and agree signoff with their Educational Supervisor. An assessment blueprint describes key elements of each learning outcome that must be achieved for partial or full sign-off. 

E-portfolio

The FPH electronic portfolio (ePortfolio) system provides Specialty Registrars with a central platform for the management of information and documentation on progression of learning to meet the public health specialty training curriculum during their time in training. The e-Portfolio allows trainees to relate documentation and evidence to the curriculum and incorporates the ability to record various sign-offs. For FPH guidance on using the e-portfolio please refer to the FPH e-portfolio webpages and to access the ePortfolio please click here.

It is the registrar's responsibility to keep the e-portfolio up-to-date and an accurate and comprehensive record of training. 

KA10

KA10 was a new addition to the 2015 Public Health Specialty Training Curriculum, designed to assess “integration and application of competencies for consultant practice” – i.e. the ability to work at senior level in complex and unpredictable environments. FPH guidance states that summative assessment of KA10 should be no different from other key areas, that is through Activity Summary Sheets, Workplace-based Assessments and multi-source (360) feedback. An optional, formative process described by FPH – the “KA10 panel” – is intended to help registrars in their progress towards consultant level working and should assist with preparation for AAC. This should happen near the end of ST4. The panel discussion is based on the registrar’s work to date and does not require the identification of new projects; it is a matter of reflecting on work to date and the synthesis of actions, leading to a development plan to inform training in ST5.

The training programme KA10 policy below outlines the process for arranging a KA10 panel, along with sample reflections and guidance for panel members.