About the Maximising Population Health and Prevention in curricula programme
The toolkit to maximise population health and prevention in curricula aims to support educators of all regulated health and care professionals, to maximise population health and prevention-learning in their respective curricula.
It is a combination of easy-to-use guidance with signposting to reputable learning resources in the field of population health and prevention, and a platform to showcase good practice examples.
The target audience for the guidance are the educators of healthcare professionals, both educators in Health Education Providers and in clinical practice.
A seven-step model was developed as a guide to support Health Education Providers to take a holistic approach to maximising population health and prevention in curricula.
This tool will be useful to educators when designing a new course or redesigning an existing one, curriculum-design teams may start at the beginning of the proposed seven-step model or dip in and out at any point of this tool.
More information
The NHS Long Term Plan outlines a new service model for a 21st century NHS, focused on population health need, with action on prevention and reducing health inequalities. The workforce will transform to deliver this. Future healthcare professionals must be trained to support this transformation, embedding population health and prevention within undergraduate and postgraduate curricula as a priority.
The professional regulators have embedded population health and prevention competencies into the standards required for professional regulation so that all healthcare professionals now need some elements of population health and prevention to be registered. Therefore, Health Education Providers that train healthcare professionals need to embed population health and prevention into their curricula. They have expressed the need for practical support to enable them to do this. This work was commissioned in response to this expressed need.
This toolkit was first developed in 2018 by Health Education England (now NHS England). The approach to this included a review of literature and mapping of the knowledge and skills needed by different professional groups in population health and prevention, and public health, as well as a review of literature to identify current practice of embedding PHP into curricula. A series of stakeholder interviews were also conducted to illicit educator issues and challenges in practice and examples of positive current good practice.
In 2024, this toolkit was updated by NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit to reflect the post-pandemic landscape and the impact that COVID-19 had on population health and prevention, as commissioned by the NHS England Workforce Training and Education directorate. An Expert Reference Group, made up of members from both the NHS and Higher Education Providers, supported the review of existing toolkit content and advised on changes and additions that were needed. They also supported a call for, and selection of, new case studies to reflect the increased emphasis on population health and prevention since the pandemic.
Acknowledgements
HEE would like to acknowledge the valuable contribution of the following organisations:
- NHS England
- Medical Schools Council
- Academy of Medical Sciences
- Academy of Royal Colleges
- Council of Deans
- Pharmacy Schools Council
- Dental Schools Council
- Faculty of Public Health
- Sheffield Hallam University
- Keele University
- Anglia Ruskin University
- University of Worcester
- University of Lincoln
- Hull York Medical School
Meet the team
Kate Lees
Public Health Consultant, EduQual LtdSandra O’Hagan
Public Health Consultant, EduQual LtdLivia Royle
Public Health Consultant, EduQual LtdMargit Veveris
Education Senior Project Manager, Workforce Training and Education, NHS EnglandKate Barrett
Programme Lead, NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support UnitKate Knight
Delivery Director, NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support UnitLaura Gifford
Graduate Management Trainee, NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit
NHSE TEL team members
Sarah Gray, TEL Education Content Programme Manager, NHS England
Chris Wood, TEL Education Content Senior Project Manager, NHS England
Karen Walker, TEL Education Content Lead Learning Designer, NHS England
Catherine Moran, TEL Education Content Graphic Designer, NHS England
How to access
In order to access the Maximising Population Health and Prevention in curricula programme, you will need an elfh account. If you do not have one, then you can register by selecting the Register button below.
To view the Maximising Population Health and Prevention in curricula programme, select the View button below. If you already have an account with elfh, you will also be able to login and enrol on the programme from the View button.
Not an NHS organisation?
If you are not an NHS health or care organisation and therefore do not qualify for free access elfh Hub, you may be able to access the service by creating an OpenAthens account.
To check whether or not you qualify for free access via OpenAthens, you can view the eligibility criteria and register on the ‘OpenAthens’ portal.
Registering large numbers of users
If you are a HR, IT or Practice Manager and would like to register and enrol large numbers of staff within your organisation for access onto the Maximising Population Health and Prevention in curricula programme, please contact elfh directly.
Organisations wishing to use their own LMS
For HR departments wanting to know more about gaining access to courses using an existing Learning Management System please contact elfh directly to express interest.
More information
Please select the following link for more information on how to use the elfh Hub.