Gloucestershire County Council

About Gloucestershire

“Gloucestershire is a large county with a number of public health challenges including rural isolation and urban deprivation”

Gloucestershire is a large county in the north of the Severn Deanery with a population of around 628,000. The county is made up of six districts which include large rural areas in the Cotswolds and the Forest of Dean as well as some more urban areas. Just over 50% of the county is in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The county town is the city of Gloucester, and other principal towns include Cheltenham, Cirencester, Stroud, and Tewkesbury. 

Gloucestershire has a diverse population which is relatively prosperous compared to the country as a whole but has significant pockets of deprivation. The health of people in Gloucestershire is generally better than the England average and life expectancy for both men and women is higher than the England average.

Under the Health and Wellbeing Board, the main priorities are Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), mental wellbeing, best start in life, physical activity, healthy lifestyles/healthy weight, housing and social isolation. Further priorities are also identified under the prevention agenda of the Integrated Care System.

With the newly formed Integrated Care Board (ICB) and Integrated Care Partnership (ICP) we take collective responsibility for managing resources, delivering NHS standards, and improving the health and wellbeing of the population we serve - breaking down barriers to deliver better health and care. This is a real opportunity to do more at pace and at scale in Gloucestershire than ever before.

Gloucestershire has a two tier system of local government. The Public Health team is based in Gloucestershire County Council which works with six District Councils. The County Council is responsible for strategic planning and commissioning many public services including social care, education, transport and highways, libraries, and waste disposal as well as Public Health. District Councils are responsible for housing, leisure and recreation, environmental health, waste collection, and planning applications.

Public Health Team in Gloucestershire

“A friendly team who are committed to public health training and development.”

The Public Health in Gloucestershire sits within the Prevention, Wellbeing and Communities Hub. This includes the Director of Public Health, an Assistant Director of Prevention, Wellbeing and Communities, a senior leadership team (consisting of Consultants in Public Health and Heads of Commissioning), Senior Commissioning Managers supported by Commission Managers, Commissioning Support and administrative support.

Training Opportunities in Gloucestershire

“The strong Consultant involvement in training is a real strength of the team.”

The Gloucestershire Prevention, Wellbeing and Communities Hub offer an exciting and varied range of training opportunities for Public Health Registrars at all stages of training both within the Council and through project placements with NHS Gloucestershire.

Gloucestershire County Council

“This is an ideal training placement to gain experience of a two tier system of local government and in a ICB area.”

Gloucestershire County Council is based in the city of Gloucester. A training placement with the Council Prevention, wellbeing and communities Hub offers Registrars the opportunity to develop core skills and competences in Public Health, and to work with Local Authority colleagues to influence wider determinants of health such as education, transport, crime and disorder, and the environment.

Work you might do in the team includes undertaking a review of the evidence base for a public health programme, carrying out a needs assessment on a health topic or for a population group, developing a service specification for commissioning a public health programme or monitoring and evaluating outcomes from a programme.

As a Registrar in Gloucestershire you will have the opportunity to work with a number of project supervisors who will ensure that you are given the appropriate level of responsibility for your stage of training. More senior Registrars will be encouraged to take on strategic leadership roles and work collaboratively with colleagues in the Council including Elected Members, and partner agencies, with appropriate supervision from their Education Supervisor.

Examples of work Public Health Registrars in Gloucestershire have undertaken include:

  • Developing a partnership framework approach to improving lives for children and young people in Gloucestershire
  • Using whole systems working to develop and deliver an oral health promotion strategy for Gloucestershire
  • Producing a communicable disease incident and outbreak control plan for the Gloucestershire Local Health Resilience Partnership Board
  • Working to pilot a place based approach to tackling Adverse Childhood Experiences

NHS Gloucestershire

“I worked closely with the NHS on many projects during my training.”

NHS services in Gloucestershire are commissioned by a single county-wide Integrated Care Board (ICB) - NHS Gloucestershire. This has a membership of 82 GP Practices and has a strong focus on Public Health working closely with the County Council Prevention, Wellbeing and Communities team and other commissioners in the County Council.

NHS Gloucestershire are able to offer project placements to StRs based in Gloucestershire County Council. You will have a Project Supervisor in the NHS and continue to be supervised by a Consultant in Public Health.

A project placement in the NHS Gloucestershire will give you the opportunity to focus on healthcare public health learning outcomes. Projects that you might work on include writing or appraising business cases and service specifications for clinical services, development of clinical guidelines and quality standards, development of Effective Clinical Commissioning Policies and involvement in the Exceptional Funding process.

Another example is a project placement with our hospitals trust. “A project placement at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust provides a unique opportunity to develop public health skills in an acute hospital setting."

The Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one of the largest hospital trusts in the country and provides high quality acute elective and specialist care for a population of more than 612,000 people. The Trust runs both Cheltenham General and Gloucestershire Royal Hospitals but also sees patients at clinics in all of the smaller hospitals across the county. It is responsible for the provision of all the national screening programmes to the population of Gloucestershire. It is committed to the playing its part in promoting the health of the population of Gloucestershire and has an active Health and Wellbeing Programme for staff and patients.

Placements offer a unique opportunity to cover health and care public health learning outcomes and can be tailored to provide an opportunity to cover other areas including:

  • Health protection, including infection control and emergency planning
  • Delivery and evaluation of screening programmes
  • Health promotion
  • Health Information and information governance
  • Leadership
  • Policy and strategy development
  • Patient and Public Involvement
  • Risk Management
  • Communication
  • Research governance and ethics

Examples of projects undertaken by Public Health Registrars on placement here are:

  • Work with Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to develop an optimal model for the configuration of hospital services for the County (literature review, gathering and review of expert clinical opinions, patient, public and carer engagement and involvement and liaison with expert external bodies)
  • Developing a Equality Impact Assessment Framework for trust use that incorporates assessing the impact of service changes on wider health inequalities as well as on groups with protected characteristics.

 

Key contacts

For further information please contact:

Zoe Clifford, Specialty Tutor & Consultant in Public Health 

Gloucestershire County Council

Public Health Department
Gloucestershire County Council
Block 4, 2nd Floor
Gloucestershire County Council
Shire Hall
Westgate Street
Gloucester 
GL1 2TG

 

This page was last updated in October 2022