EHJ April 2005, pages 20-21

Education is key to the future of the profession. Head of education, Paul Robinson, explains what his team is doing to address the changing landscape of environmental health

In education we have to be ahead of the game. One of our roles is to predict what will be wanted from the profession in five, 10, even 15 years' time so that we can ensure the profession is properly equipped for the demands placed on it.

It should therefore not come as a surprise that we started the process of repositioning the CIEH and the profession over four years ago with the development of an education strategy and it is still ongoing. The traditional role for EHPs who work as local authority enforcement officers in food safety, health and safety, housing or environmental protection is on the wane. The new public health agenda requires the profession to work in a myriad of different agencies across a range of different subjects.

The increase in numbers of EHPs in the private sector requires different skills to those required by EHOs in the past. All EHPs, however, need to understand how the chemical, biological, physical and social stressors in our environment impact upon human health. We also have to understand the complex network of agencies delivering public health and maintain an in-depth technical knowledge. A tall order, unless we are properly trained for the job, which is exactly what the new curriculum and associated experiential learning is designed to provide students and EHPs of the future. This was one of the drivers for change when, four years ago, we started to design the new curriculum to meet changing demands on the profession. The process was completed last year with universities changing their degrees to deliver the new curriculum.

Environmental health graduates will now better understand the potential impacts of our environment on health and how best to protect the public's health and improve our overall wellbeing. They will also understand how to work in partnership to achieve these goals because things are often far too complex for us to achieve solutions on our own. Students will, of course, still have to acquire the necessary technical knowledge. It is just the context in which they will be applying this knowledge that is changing.

In order to produce a more diverse environmental health workforce, we are now allowing students with non-science qualifications onto environmental health degrees. We are also supporting different methods of delivering courses and broadening the type of courses we will consider accrediting.

There are people working in local authorities, the Health Protection Agency, central government, primary care trusts and government agencies who are contributing significantly to environmental health and who we would like as members of the CIEH. We have developed a new grade of membership, accredited associate, for these people. Although we are still waiting for the agreement of the Privy Council, we expect this new membership grade to be available layer this year. Accredited associate membership will also provide a new pathway to qualifying as an EHP.

The repositioning of the profession and the CIEH has also influenced the way we position environmental health as a career. Local government is only one potential employer for an EHP. Student EHPs are increasingly getting work experience with agencies like the HSE, HPA, PCTs and the FSA and within private sector organisations. We have also been encouraging local authorities to link with other organisations and agencies to offer experiential learning opportunities to students. Milton Keynes DC has pioneered such a scheme with its local PCT and we are encouraging other organisations to follow suit.

A new website, funded by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, set to go live as EHJ goes to press, will provided a much improved information source for 14-to-18-year-olds looking for inspiration on a future career in environmental health. A self-assessment tool will allow students to see if an EHP career is the right choice for them.

But the repositioning is not just about students and new entrants to the profession. It is also about supporting our existing membership through lifelong learning and continuous professional development. Research, creating an environmental health evidence base and sharing best practice are key to a sustainable profession. The education unit is working on this with colleagues in the policy team and the events team to ensure that CIEH members can access the right knowledge, at the right time, to make the right decisions to meet the challenges of the new public health era. We want to ensure that EHPs have the necessary skills, knowledge and competencies to make a real difference.

Policy is central to the CIEH's mission in promoting environmental health. Director of policy, Ian Foulkes, explains the policy role and project areas for the future

Policy is perceived by many as somewhat of a dark art. It is certainly a job that is largely misunderstood by those who have never worked in it. Greater clarification of the hows, whys and what ifs of policy in the context of CIEH will hopefully assist all members to maximise their individual and collective contributions to the process and therefore benefit from the products of the process.

The starting point of the policy process is the mission of the CIEH. It defines what the organisation exists to do - any activity that contributes to that mission is therefore legitimate; anything that does not isn't. The sheer breadth of environmental health, and the fact that the mission requires the CIEH to maintain, enhance and promote improvements in public and environmental health, means that applying focus to the policy activities the CIEH undertakes is vital. With only eight staff in the policy team it is essential that resources are prioritised towards the key issues, and the Policy Development Board exists to provide that strategic direction to the secretariat. It must be stressed, however, that merely because an issue does not feature in detail on the policy work programme in a given year that it is considered not important - it simply reflects choices as to relative priorities.

Having considered mission and focus, consideration must next be given to time scale. Policy is a "long ball game". It deals not with the "here and now" but with the future - typically five-10 years into the future - attempting to shape the future agenda to secure the fulfilment of the CIEH mission. In looking to the future, however, it will always be the case that the products of the policy process will be developed so as to be of direct assistance to practitioners - such products can and do include, toolkits, conferences and seminars or guides.

CIEH, in fulfilling its mission, works with many partners and stakeholder groups, however, as far as possible there will be an avoidance of duplication of effort. CIEH acts as a critical friend to many other bodies, supporting them when they contribute to the furtherance of environmental health but equally, constructively challenging them when they fail to perform to the standards that the CIEH would expect.

Without doubt, the most vital resource available to the CIEH policy process is the members of the institute. The welding together of the "ground truth" from members, with the political and policy skills of the CIEH secretariat, allows the organisation to produce credible and well-rounded policies and comments on key issues. This partnership is necessary to ensure that various sectoral interests can be put together into a coherent, balanced response that reflects the comments received but delivers a strategic rather than parochial view.

Over the coming 12 months, CIEH will continue to ensure that the relevance, importance and vital contribution that EHPs make to securing the health of communities is recognised in government and elsewhere. In order to ensure that the CIEH has a proactive capability, a number of special project areas have been built into the programme. These include a new focus on health and safety, issues around obesity and nutrition, local governance, the environmental health evidence base, implementation of the Housing Act and sustainable development. Working on defined projects allows human and financial resources to be brought to bear on an issue, and provides for the production of policy positions for the CIEH and also tangible products of direct use to practitioners