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| EHJ October 2002, pages 310-312
The environmental health profession is facing its biggest
crisis. Local government must take responsibility and act
now to raise recruitment levels, says Andrew Statham
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Since 1995, there has been an 80 per cent reduction in applications
to environmental health courses. In 2000, there were less than 300
applications for all environmental health courses. During the last
three years, three environmental health courses have closed and
all remaining courses are struggling for numbers in an attempt to
remain viable.
By 2005, the projected shortfall of environmental health officers
could be as many as 1,000, although this is a conservative estimate.
Any initiatives introduced now are unlikely to have a significant
effect for at least three years, and we will need to train 500 new
EHOs every year to address the current and worsening shortfall.
Of the 9,500 EHOs currently registered with the CIEH, only 4,500
work in local authorities. There is already a serious recruitment
shortfall in local authorities, but this problem will be compounded
in future years by the demographic time bomb, which will affect
all public sector industries.
Due to their wealth of skills and training, EHOs can and are used
in a multi-functional way, for example dealing with foot and mouth
outbreaks, involvement in emergency planning and working with community
safety issues. EHOs are central to the emerging public health agenda,
but this agenda cannot be addressed without the appropriate numbers
of qualified, competent people being available. EHOs are these people.
Anyone looking through the recruitment adverts in the Environmental
Health News will notice an increasing trend towards filling environmental
health vacancies with people who do not require an environmental
health degree. As a result, we are losing the multi-disciplinary
professional.
Local government must take full responsibility for the recruitment
and training of EHOs who will ultimately be delivering the policies
for local government.
The CIEH does have a major programme to address issues concerning
training and examinations, attracting new students, the core curriculum
and support for existing degree courses. But this is not enough.
We must have the political support within local government in order
to achieve the essential practical training elements required to
produce competent people.
The Government, at national and local level, when questioned, always
claims to value environmental health but does the reality match
the rhetoric? The facts would suggest that this is not the case.
Over the last decade we have witnessed the fragmentation of the
service in many authorities. The number of environmental health
practitioners at corporate management team level has decreased and
with that the "health" voice at the senior level of local
authority management is absent.
The portfolio of environmental health/public protection/health
and social wellbeing for elected members often comes way down the
list of areas members wish to get involved in after the more "sexy"
areas of local government policy. Once engaged, however, individual
elected members often find the environmental health service area
very challenging, enjoyable and very worthwhile.
The "emperor's new clothes" of local government reform
has been fully embraced by national local government bodies. We
are now in a situation where local government has lost the ability
to "do" in favour of the ability to plan, produce strategies,
participate in short-term pilots and be audited. This is with the
full participation of national representative bodies who seem to
believe that "service" is a bad thing.
It is fully justifiable to say that local government at national,
and to some extent at local level, has let down and continues to
let down the environmental health service.
The recent audit commission report into recruitment and retention
in the public sector drew the following conclusions:
- people join the public sector to make a positive difference
to the lives of service users;
- people want a job that satisfies them, with a reward package
that meets their needs;
- people leave because they are overwhelmed by paper work and
bureaucracy;
- insufficient resources and unmanageable workloads produce extensive
stress;
- environmental health officers feel undervalued by both the Government
and the public; and
- a change agenda that is imposed and largely irrelevant is a
daily feature of public sector life.
This situation has arisen with the full collaboration of the national
local government bodies who have done practically nothing to address
the "real" crisis in the public sector - recruitment and
retention. The situation is way past the time of "political
spin" of merely raising the profile of regulatory bodies. The
time is for concerted and direct action by our national local government
representatives to demand from central government proper funding,
support, recognition and involvement.
Andrew Statham is head of community services at Boston BC. The
views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not
necessarily reflect those of his employer. This is an edited version
of a paper first presented at the CIEH conference in Harrogate.
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| As the crisis surrounding the recruitment of
new environmental health officers deepens, students
continue to suffer from a shortage of paid placements.
New professional Rob Easton offers a sobering insight
into his own rout e to qualification
I decided at the age of 15 that I wanted to be an environmental
health officer after hearing a talk at school on microbiology
and food safety from a local EHO. Work experience was
arranged during the summer holidays and I spent a week
with different officers learning more about the job.
The short time I spent in the department was enough
for me to decide that I wanted to pursue a career in
the environmental health profession.
When I came to make a decision about going to university,
I was lucky because I knew EHOs from my time at the
local authority and they were able to give me advice
on university courses and what route to take to becoming
an EHO. What I did not appreciate at the time, was the
requirement for a practical paid placement during the
third year. Fortunately, my university accepted me on
the course on the understanding that I would find a
placement as soon as possible. My local authority came
to the rescue and offered a placement. Unfortunately,
it would be completely unpaid. It was only when I got
to university that I realised the significance of the
paid year and found that many of the students I was
studying with had arranged their practical training
months before enrolling on the course.
During my A-levels, I had a part-time job at the local
McDonalds. This started as a means to earning some money
to go out on a Friday night and to keep my Austin mini
on the road, but by the time I was 18 I had trained
as a shift manager. McDonalds offered me a bursary while
I studied at university (a McSholarship) and this helped
considerably to finance my way through the course.
The hardest period was during the year out. The bursary
was only offered during my study years and the amount
was not sufficient in the first two years for me to
save for the year out. Although I received no income,
I still had to maintain a car to get to and from work,
as well as cover other costs. I had made a decision
when I first started to study that I would not get into
debt while at university. I did not want to be repaying
the loans from my time at university years after graduation.
This meant that my normal working week consisted of
working 8.30am to 4.30pm at the local authority and
then working two or three evenings a week, and both
Saturday and Sunday, at McDonalds. On top of that I
had a paper round every morning of the week. This all
amounted to somewhere in the region of 80+ hours a week.
I do not wish to sound ungrateful to the local authority
that I spent my third year with. The time I spent with
them enthused me even more about environmental health
and I learnt much from those around me. I am of the
opinion that if it were not for the support and guidance
from the officers working in the council, I would not
have pursued the varied and exciting career I have had
since graduation. I would never have thought that the
skills I gained while completing my meat inspection
in Wiltshire would be used 15 months later to inspect
a camel slaughter hall in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia at 2.30
in the morning.
When I began my degree in 1995, I was the only one
on the course to not have a paid placement. Now I listen
to students just starting the degree and the picture
is much worse. The financial burden on students is even
greater with course fees, even during the year out.
I recognise that those wishing to study at university
have to accept student debt, but other professions are
not experiencing the same crisis in recruiting. The
added cost of the study year will prevent otherwise
enthusiastic students from entering the environmental
health profession.
I finally graduated from university with a first class
degree (and some debts). The extra workload in the final
year meant that I had to reduce the time spent at McDonalds,
and spend more time on college work. Since graduating
I have worked in Dubai and Saudi Arabia as a food safety
consultant, at North Dorset DC as an EHO, and am currently
employed as regional health and safety manager for Compass
Roadside. The hard work and long hours were worth it
in the end. |
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HELP US TO HELP YOU
Talk of a "recruitment crisis" within the
environmental health profession is currently rife, with
much of the blame being heaped on the poor public image
that EHOs have incurred through negative media representation
and the perceived professional hurdles - professional
logbook, APC (assessment of professional competence),
work placement, student debt etc - students have to
overcome just to qualify.
But, in truth, the situation that the profession finds
itself in today stems from 20 years of local government
decay. Budget cuts that have slashed training funds,
a steady decline in the availability of work placements,
and a reduction in the active promotion of the work
of environmental health at a local level, have all taken
their toll.
In order to reverse the predicament, the CIEH is developing
a number of strategies geared towards improving awareness
of the importance of the environmental health profession
in children of school age, young people on "gap"
years working in the private sector, mature students
and those working within local authorities.
But the CIEH cannot reverse the decline on its own.
In addition to the new careers material, a careers website,
"speakers packs" and free targeted presentation
skills training, the organisation is currently developing
a communications programme aimed at engaging the 30
per cent of CIEH members who work, not in local authorities,
but in the private sector. According to Michael Dunmore,
CIEH communications director: "The subject of recruitment
came up as part of the public relations officer day
discussions at conference last month. We have now to
look at that and the whole issue surrounding the promotion
of the profession at local level".
Nick Bannister, CIEH education officer goes even further.
"Local authorities must try to provide work experience
for 14 year-olds, who have to do such placements as
part of the national curriculum," he says."It
whets the appetite [for a future career in environmental
health] and reaches the kids in the playground."
According to Mr Bannister, there are many different
options open to local authorities trying to halt the
decline in staff numbers. "The obvious one is to
provide training places," he says. "But, pay
for it". As he points out, the private sector would
not get away with routinely offering unpaid work placements,
so why should local authorities? "You could pay
students pro-rata for the time they actually spent working,"
he continues. "The students could return during
Christmas and the summer holidays, and would benefit
over the whole course of their education."
Other options include local authorities working in
partnership to provide training and joint-sponsorships.
This would provide the added benefit of students gaining
invaluable training across the board at different authorities.
As a substantial CIEH public relations campaign gears
up, only time will tell if potential students can be
convinced that a career in environmental health is an
attractive proposition. But one thing is for sure, the
Chartered Institute needs your help before it is too
late... |
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