Welcome to the London, Kent, Surrey and Sussex
School of Public Health
Huge Thank You to London KSS Public Health Registrars
December 2020
The last few months have been immensely hard for everyone. Many of you have been working very hard to support the Coronavirus response and for that I am truly grateful as are so many of your public health colleagues. Some of you have been at the very forefront of academic findings, national government decisions or evidence, the development of systems for testing or vaccine planning, the management of our populations wellbeing through local authority responses or in healthcare settings, or supporting health protection teams, the LCRC or the health protection KSS system. I hope you can find yourself in there.
Rachel, Head of School.
Introduction to London and KSS School of Public Health
The London and Kent, Surrey and Sussex School of Public Health offers a range of exciting opportunities which you might expect with the capital and surrounding areas. These include access to rural, urban and inner-city areas with local government, with diversity, inequalities and high profile public health at their centre. In addition, we offer experiences at the very centre of government, regional government, world renowned research and academic departments, five health protection teams which include two major airports plus the numerous entry points on the coast within our area.
London, Kent, Surrey and Sussex is illustrated by the dark blue patch towards the right hand base of the UK. If you are unfamiliar with the area, we suggest you check out the places you are interested in and the travel times from where you live or are planning to live.
The School has more than 120 trainees, and presently offers programmes at prestigious teaching centres across our area.
How is the School governed?
We have a Head of School, Rachel Wells, who works with an experienced team of Training Programme Directors who cover the School’s geography. You will be allocated to a TPD on arrival in the school and we do our best for you to remain with that person throughout your training. Each TPD has a key workstream to support and a geographical area to cover.
The Head of School reports to the Postgraduate Dean for Public Health and key decisions are brought to the School Board which meets quarterly.
An essential element of the role of the School is to ensure that good quality training is provided for those on the programme and also in developing public health training more broadly. Part of the role of the School involves working with other partners like Public Health England and new training environments to develop public health training that is fit for the future.
Each placement has an Educational Supervisor who is accredited by the School to ensure that quality support is available, and all ES are invited to attend meetings for updates and CPD on educational and supervision support.
2020 Public Health ST1 Recruitment – Come Join us
We are currently confirming placements for the August 2021 intake and the details of these will be published here soon. Keep an eye on this page for further details.
Starting out in LKSS
In LKSS all initial placements are in local authorities for all trainees, the MSc is in second year for those that require it. During your first year you will also be inducted to your health protection team, and then spend a more extensive period with them usually after your first year. Some of these arrangements have been adapted to take account of the demand of Coronavirus work.
Once you start we usually hold a week-long induction where you get to know each other, your TPDs and other people in the system. This year this was a remote arrangement due to Coronavirus, and although this went well, we hope to meet you in person in 2021!
To find out more about training in Public Health, please visit:
The UK's Faculty of Public Health: www.fph.org.uk
Curriculum https://www.fph.org.uk/training-careers/specialty-training/curriculum/
Exams https://www.fph.org.uk/training-careers/the-diplomate-dfph-and-final-membership-examination-mfph/
Lead Employer information
All trainees within London and KSS are employed by Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. All employment related enquiries (such as contracts, HR) should be made to them: imperial.publichealth@nhs.net
Existing Public Health Registrars
All existing registrars are able to raise issues with TPDs, or the HEE team who support the School. Most queries regarding the practicalities can be made via the Portal –https://lasepgmdesupport.hee.nhs.uk/support/home
Career and educational decisions regarding placements, OOP, support for personal or training issues should be made to your TPD.
All registrars can escalate to the Head of School if an issue cannot be resolved.
Using the Portal
Many queries and submission of forms can be made via the dedicated Portal https://lasepgmdesupport.hee.nhs.uk/support/home
Most of the documents you are likely to need can be found here.
TPD touch points
Introduced in 2020 for new arriving registrars the touch points have proved to be helpful in supporting each other and discussion over the clarifications. This has been particularly important during the Pandemic where everyone begun working remotely and did not have a chance to meet in person.
Your TPD share contact details directly with their Registrars and each has a specific workstream for a lead area, these include:
- Academic lead
- Educational Supervisor Development
- Placement Quality
- Supporting Return to Training
Supporting the wider workforce
Rachel Wells plays a pivotal role as Head of school and Health of the Academy of Public health. The aim of the Academy of Public Health is to broaden the purpose and role of public health education and development into the wider public health workforce, whilst supporting those currently and potentially working within core public health workforce.
The Academy delivers a range of programmes which include integrating public health into specialty medical education and training, developing public health skills and knowledge in primary care and public health practitioner development.
Public Health Practitioner (PHP) Development
The Academy is responsible for the professional development of Public health Practitioners (PHPs) within London. PHPs can work within the full breadth of public health from health improvement and health protection, to health information, community development, and service delivery. PHPs work within a wide range of settings from the NHS and local government to the voluntary, and private sectors. Their development includes voluntary registration on the UKPHR practitioner register, but also nurturing their talent and promoting entry points into the workforce. This strategy sets out our work in this area, which is done in partnership with HEE, PHE and a range of stakeholders. If you would like to know more please contact Lori Atim.
Useful Links to Academy Work
Trauma Informed Systems in Kent
Academy of Public Health Knowledge Hub
Toolkit to embed public health into paediatric education and training
Paper outlining cross-professional learning between public health and psychiatry trainees
Contact details:
Programme Lead: Lara Hogan
Programme Manager: Lori Atim
Public Health Practitioner Scheme Coordinator: Samantha Gentry-Marshall