North Somerset Council
Public Health Specialty Registrar Training Prospectus
Overview
North Somerset Council is a unitary authority responsible for a population of approximately 230,000 people. Situated on the M5 corridor, it extends from the edge of Bristol and the River Avon in the north, to the River Axe and the Mendip Hills in the south. It has areas of beautiful countryside (including the Gordano Valley National Nature Reserve, and the Mendip Hills, a designated area of outstanding natural beauty), splendid coastal areas and distinctive towns and villages. The Council has no overall political control with the administration being formed of a coalition between Labour, the Liberal Democrats, Greens and independents. The next election will be in 2027.
North Somerset has many district communities with 35 rural parishes and four towns: Weston-super-Mare (a large seaside resort which includes the famous Weston Grand Pier), Clevedon (a Victorian seaside town), Nailsea (a new town built around the original village), and Portishead (a seaside town with its own marina and views across the River Severn and the two Severn Bridges). It is also home to Bristol Airport, a substantial and expanding commercial concern, and the area is very well connected to the rest of the UK and beyond by road, rail, air and sea.
The training location presents an interesting challenge for prospective Public Health Registrars. Whilst, overall, most health and well-being measures for the area are better than average, there are substantial health inequalities with differences in life expectancy at birth of some ten years between those people living in the most affluent and the most deprived areas (which are predominantly in and around the area of Weston-super-Mare). North Somerset is also home to a higher proportion of people aged over 65 years than nationally (23.5% vs 17.9%) and an increasing prevalence of long-term conditions.
The Public Health team works closely with its counterparts in both Bristol and South Gloucestershire. North Somerset Council is part of the Bristol, North Somerset, and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG) Integrated Care System (ICS), and works alongside BNSSG Integrated Care Board (ICB), whose boundaries are congruent with the three local authorities. Clustering between BNSSG and Gloucestershire ICBs will impact the local NHS system in the coming years. We also work closely with local academic partners at the University of the West of England, University of Bristol, and University Centre Weston.
More information on the characteristics of North Somerset can be found on the Council website here: https://www.n-somerset.gov.uk/council-democracy/statistics-data/north-somerset-area-profile-statistics
About the training location
The Healthy and Sustainable Communities Directorate is led by Matt Lenny, Director of Healthy and Sustainable Communities (including DPH role). We have an enthusiastic team of three Public Health Consultants who all bring recent experience of the public health training programme and oversee their own portfolios:
Georgie MacArthur: Georgie oversees the health improvement and health inequalities domain, and thereby has responsibility for key services for children and young people (including public health nursing contracts), mental health and wellbeing, and physical activity (including oversight of a number of in-house ‘health trainers’). Georgie also holds an academic post at the University of Bristol.
Sam Hayward: Sam is responsible for the healthcare public health and harm risk reduction functions of the team. This includes close working with partners on the ICS footprint, as well as leadership on drug and alcohol services, and smoking cessation support.
Andy Cross: Andy’s role combines health protection responsibilities with oversight of the regulatory services (food and commercial safety, environmental protection, licensing, and trading standards teams) and our community safety team. Andy works closely with colleagues at UKHSA, and leads the team’s contributions to emergency planning through the LRF and other forum’s.
Matt and the three Consultants are supported by service leads and other public health specialists, who collectively form a team of approximately 40 staff. The wider directorate also includes planning and sustainable places teams so there is a good opportunity to engage broadly across the council and influence the wider determinants of health.
Our vision and principles
The North Somerset Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2025-2028 sets out our vision, shared ambitions, principles, and the actions we will take to improve health and wellbeing and to reduce health inequalities across North Somerset. The vision set is to work together to ensure equality of opportunity for everyone in North Somerset to start, grow up, live, work, age and die well and to enjoy good wellbeing and health.
The strategy is centred around five key approaches to improving health and wellbeing:
- prevention - ensuring children have the best start in life and preventing health and wellbeing problems throughout life
- early intervention - intervening as early as possible to address any health and wellbeing needs in people’s lives
- holistic action and support - implementing person-centred action on all factors that influence people’s lives
- healthy and caring communities - empowering people and communities to be connected, healthy and resilient through strengths-based approaches, trauma-informed practice, and engagement and involvement
- tackling inequalities - prioritising action to ensure equal opportunity access to services, experience, and outcomes, to reduce inequalities between groups.
Underpinning the work to achieve our vision are the following principles that guide partnership work:
- partnership, collaboration, co-design and co-production
- a focus on tackling inequalities
- taking a place-based approach
- using data, intelligence and insight to drive decision-making
- connecting people and sharing and building power with communities and building on local strengths
- using trauma-informed and compassionate approaches to improving health and wellbeing
- being anti-racist and taking a pro-equity approach through all that we do.
Training opportunities
Public health registrars at all stages of their training are welcome. The Director of Public Health and all three consultants are Educational Supervisors, with Andrew Cross as the Speciality Tutor. Others in the team, provide project supervision and training.
There are considerable opportunities to work not just on the more traditional public health training topics, but with staff elsewhere in the Council, especially concerning environmental health, food safety, community safety, trading standards, children’s services and adult services. There are also opportunities to learn about Council governance systems and decision-making - which is crucial to the delivery of population-level health improvement interventions and the development and implementation of strategy.
We see public health registrars as important members of the Directorate Leadership Team as well as the wider team. We seek to provide a broad experience that will both meet educational requirements and be varied and enjoyable. We encourage registrars to share their learning experiences with the wider team, and there can be opportunities to do this more widely in the Council. We have good relationships with neighbouring councils and the NHS and are happy to support buddy arrangements and joint-learning opportunities.
What do Registrars think of North Somerset
“My first placement on the training scheme has been with NSC. I’m so glad to have been able to work in such a supportive team. I’ve had the opportunity to work on some really exciting public health projects with real impact, as well as working with a broad range of stakeholders including the voluntary sector and members of the public. I’ve really appreciated the guidance and support I’ve received from supervisors and team members to broaden my knowledge and develop my personal and professional skills. Whilst being well supported, I’ve also been given the space to pursue topics of interest, being able to shape my own workplan to meet learning outcomes and make the placement a really enjoyable experience.”
Charlotte Cadwallader, Phase 1 Registrar (ST2)
“North Somerset is an excellent training location. A public health registrar at North Somerset can expect to access a range of opportunities for learning, across the training curriculum, in a supportive environment. As a registrar, you are provided the (supervised) freedom to take responsibility for streams of work, and perform a valued role in the directorate’s leadership team. The post works best as a contrast to experiences in larger, city-based public health teams”.
Lewis Peake, Phase 2 Registrar (ST4)
Key contacts:
For further information, please contact:
Andrew Cross (andrew.cross@n-somerset.gov.uk) Public Health Consultant lead for Public Protection and Regulatory Services and Public Health Speciality Tutor (Tel: 07385378521)
Healthy and Sustainable Communities Directorate
North Somerset Council
Town Hall
Walliscote Grove Road
Weston-super-Mare
BS23 1UJ
This page was last updated March 2026