The School aims to accommodate the evolving role of the speciality to allow a choice of career path and to cover the academic, health protection and service components of public health practice.
The principles which underpin the maintenance of high quality Public Health Training across the Thames Valley region include:
- Explicit region-wide standards for training are adopted and reviewed annually.
- The training provided in all training locations is appraised periodically.
- Progress is reviewed in a systematic and constructive manner annually.
- Trainers are provided with appropriate support and continuing education.
The School offers a range of accredited training placements. Initial training places will be based in a service location in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire or Milton Keynes for one year with a minimum of three months training with the Health Protection Team (SE TV UKHSA) at Chilton. The structured programme also includes training time in an academic unit with appropriate placements to suit career choice in the final two years of training.
The Thames Valley School of Public Health speciality training cohort is relatively small with 27 StRs, including Academic Clinical Fellows, Academic Clinical Lecturer and approximately 9 Foundation trainees per year. It offers the opportunity to undertake the prestigious Masters in Global Health Sciences and Epidemiology at Oxford University and academic placements in internationally renowned academic units at Oxford University. A wide range of training opportunities are also available in health protection and service public health (including public health placements in the acute Trusts). Besides being involved in education and training for Public Health practitioners and the wider workforce the school provides opportunities for resident doctors from clinical specialities to gain PH knowledge and skills relevant to their speciality. Resident doctors from paediatrics, plastic surgery and oncology are some of those from other clinical specialities who have taken advantage of these placements.
The School is accountable to the GMC through its various Training Programme Directors for ensuring that:
- Recruitment and appointment of trainees to specialty training is done and in accordance with GMC principles.
- Training posts in all specialties offer training of outstanding quality.
- Thorough accurate assessment of the competencies of trainees occurs as required by the GMC and that these competencies are recorded in portfolios.
- Teaching and training follow the Faculty of Public Health curricula for each specialty.
- Public Health Registrars in difficulty receive appropriate remedial training and other measures.
- Please visit the Oxford School of Public Health website for more information about the school.