National Population Health Fellowship
Population health is an approach aimed at improving the health of an entire population. It is about improving the physical and mental health outcomes and wellbeing of people, whilst reducing health inequalities within and across a defined population. It includes action to reduce the occurrence of ill-health, including addressing wider determinants of health, and requires working with communities and partner agencies.
The need for more population health is increasingly reiterated in policy and research, which is why Integrated Care Systems are responsible for optimising outcomes and reducing health inequalities at the population level.
This is an opportunity for healthcare professionals from both NHS and non-NHS organisations, providing it is someone who is in a role that has relevance to Population Health, interested in population health and passionate about health inequalities. The fellowship targets early to mid-career healthcare professionals providing NHS services (AfC band 6 and above, or equivalent; dentists-in-training; doctors-in-training post-FY2 and their SAS equivalent). The aim of the fellowship is to develop a network of professionals from a non-population health background with population health skills to benefit place-based healthcare systems across England.
It is a one-year part-time programme at two days a week alongside your substantive post, which starts on Tuesday 5th of September 2023. Fellows will work on a supervised population health project which is focused on health inequalities and will be supported by a taught programme. Supervision for the project will be provided by a Public Health Consultant.
Reimbursement of your salary element of the participation in the fellowship will be provided to your substantive employer and you must discuss this opportunity with your line manager and educational supervisor (if applicable) of your intentions to apply.
Applications are invited for the six Fellows in Population Health, funded by NHS England, and based in the one of the following Integrated Care Organisations hosted by the Public Health teams commencing the programme on 5 September 2023:-
Devon Integrated Care Organisation – hosted by Public Health team, Devon County Council
The Population Health Fellow (PHF) will build on the work and role of the last two PHF and will sit within an existing ICS Population Health team with leadership from the DPH at Torbay who is the SRO for Health Inequalities and Prevention. For this cohort supervision will be through Dr Emily Youngman who has a Healthcare lead. The programme aligns to and links with the Population Health Programme.
The benefits of the project will ensure that the population health programme has a demonstrable impact on health inequalities. The project is not new but builds on earlier system work through the prevention programme and wider health inequalities and PHM work. An example of work undertaken by previous posts included assessing access to long covid services to determine the impact on health inequalities and social prescribing.
The fellow would work to the DPH SRO for the Health inequalities and Prevention group, with supervision from the Devon Public Health team. The PHF will be part of a team with Senior ICS Health Inequalities leads, programme management and population health management support and the Head of Health Inequalities and Prevention.
The Fellow will provide a bridge to the Population Health work and will work with PH and ICS colleagues on the programme to ensure the priority actions over the 2023/24-year meet the CORE20PLUS5 objectives and impact on health inequalities. The programme of work will match the applicant’s areas of interest and development.
Population Health Management remains a core component of the Population Health Programme with plans in 2023/24 to strengthen leadership and system-wide awareness of health inequalities through a range of activities including action learning sets, and the support and investment that continues to be made in the work of the Local Care Partnerships (LCP’s)
Cornwall Integrated Care Organisation – hosted by Public Health team, Cornwall Council
Building on current activities we envisage this post will support elements of the operational plan and specifically focus on the health inequalities and core 20 plus 5 agenda. However, we may have candidates with specific interests that align to our focus but is or specific interests to the individual. In these situations we will encourage their interests and develop suitable PHM related work.
Somerset Integrated Care Organisation - hosted by Public Health team, Somerset County Council
Target Population Group – Dependent drinkers
Expected benefits – At present we are seeing a lot of people presenting as an emergency to services with advanced liver diseases who were not previously known to services. Modelled estimates form 2018/19 suggest that there are 5,202 possible alcohol dependent adults in somerset, with around 80% of these not accessing support through SDAS. Somerset has higher than average rates on some indices of hospital admissions linked to alcohol use especially in young people and women. The aim of this programme would be to use existing local data and modelling to increase proportion of dependent drinkers identified and supported by effective, evidence-based services.
Outputs: We are flexible to take the project in a variety of directions dependent on the skill set of the Fellow recruited. We have options to work across primary care, secondary care and the voluntary sector. Outputs could include analysis to better understand the characteristics of the local cohort of dependent drinkers, design and implementation of effective interventions, and or running of awareness campaigns to reach this at-risk cohort.
Project status: New. This would be a new project area but embedded within a number of pre-existing strands of work including work on secondary care liver function screening, suicide prevention, hepatitis C eradication and behavioural support.
Key stakeholders:
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Alison Bell, Consultant in Public Health and lead for public health addiction commissioning in Somerset.
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Carl Morrison, Health Promotion Manager – Substance Use, Public Health
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Amanda Payne, Service Manager – Drugs and Alcohol, Public Health,
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Liver Team Somerset NHS Foundation Trust
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Specialist Somerset Drug and Alcohol Service (SDAS) Drugs and alcohol (somerset.gov.uk)
Bath/Swindon/Wiltshire Integrated Care Organisation – hosted by Public Health team, Wiltshire Council
Target population or group - People (all ages) with an acute respiratory admission in the last 3 years who were eligible for but didn’t have a COVID, flu or PPV vaccination.
Expected benefits of the project for population health and/or to staff, patients or others - Improved uptake of vaccinations and opportunity for brief intervention and/or signposting for support around risk factors (smoking, malnutrition, chronic liver disease due to alcohol abuse and poor dentition) and good hygiene (handwashing, use of tissues) and housing (cold or damp house is linked to increased susceptibility). Expect this will lead to improved respiratory health, quality of life and reduce the likelihood of acute respiratory crisis and the need to access urgent and emergency care in the target population. It will also reduce the need to access interventional medicines. The prevention of acute presentations will also reduce non elective admissions, and associated pressures on hospital and community-based services.
Outputs anticipated in the timeframe of the one-year fellowship - Improved vaccination uptake in target populations. Reduction in respiratory related ED attendance and hospital admissions in the target populations.
Whether this is a new project or an existing one - This is a new project but will build upon existing work around vaccinations and good work developed during COVID around proactive outreach.
Key individuals plus internal and external stakeholders, with whom the fellow would expect to interact to undertake the project - During winter, as respiratory group chaired by Nicola Jakeman (Associate Clinical Director – Urgent and Emergency Care – BSW ICB) and attended by respiratory consultants from the 3 acute providers in BSW was set up. We will step this back up and review the membership inviting additional members from primary care, medicines optimisation and community respiratory teams. Key internal stakeholders will include our primary care and vaccination leads. Support will also be provided by our Kevin Cardis (BI Vaccination Lead).
Bristol/North Somerset/South Gloucestershire Integrated Care Organisation - hosted by Public Health team, Bristol City Council
System-wide modelling
The BNSSG Strategy Network, which brings together the leads for strategy from local ICS organisations, has agreed to a system wide modelling project. Some initial scoping work has been undertaken led by ICB business intelligence colleagues and presented to the strategy network, following which the network has asked that the BNSSG strategic intelligence collaborative lead and progress the system modelling further.
The purpose of the project is to model future health and care need, demand and outcomes for the ICS population, initially over a 5 year time frame. It will involve developing modelling of various scenarios for the system and their impact. It is likely to include using the current population segmentation approach and modelling changes in segments over time under different scenarios.
Through population health work we intend to explore including scenarios such as the impact of the rise in cost of living, and quantifying potential impact of preventative approaches, to support evidence and intelligence led prioritisation and implementation of approaches and interventions to improve population health and reduce inequality. This may include modelling impacts on specific groups of the population, to specifically address inequalities in health. Part of the early work will be supporting development of the model to be a full system model, identifying suitable data from across the system in addition to NHS data. Outputs will be defined in terms of contributions to outcomes, as set out in the BNSSG System Outcomes Framework.
It is these population health, prevention and inequalities aspects of the modelling project that the Population Health Fellow would play a significant part in.
The outputs of modelling will be presented to system leaders, hopefully by the Population Health Fellow if timescales allow, to agree appropriate action to improve population health.
As above this is a project in its very early stages, and we anticipate a Population Health Fellow being a key member of the working group currently being set up to progress the system modelling project.
The working group is likely to involve the ICB associate director of business intelligence (Chris Davies), other BI colleagues, public health consultants (Dr Viv Harrison, Dr Jo Copping, Dr Gemma Morgan, Sam Hayward) and public health intelligence specialists, ICB Head of clinical effectiveness and research (Adwoa Webber) and other members of the virtual Population Health Improvement Team. The working group will report on system modelling progress to the ICS strategic intelligence collaborative, and the Strategy Network.
As an alternative project: the Population Health Fellow could play a significant role in a project linked to an merging priority within the ICS strategy. This could be specified once the strategy is more developed (and prior to the fellow starting), working with the virtual Population Health Improvement Team.
Gloucestershire Integrated Care Organisation – hosted by Public Health team, Gloucestershire County Council
The Population Health Fellow will have the opportunity to work on a prevention and health inequalities project as part of the delivery of the new Integrated Care Strategy.
In Gloucestershire we have been an Integrated Care System since 2018 and already have a well-developed approach to working together with examples of joint commissioning, shared delivery and aligned budgets. As a system, we have worked well to progress new integrated care models for our patients and have prioritised developing positive relationships, building trust, and engaging with and enabling communities and individuals. Across the county we have strong Primary Care Networks and Integrated Locality Partnerships supported by integrated teams who are improving patient access and experience, delivering outcomes which enhance wellbeing and independence, and improving health equity.
The One Gloucestershire Integrated Care Strategy was published in December 2022 and builds on the work already in place across the county, whilst recognising that working in a formalised partnership allows for greater ambition. It focuses on three pillars of delivery - making Gloucestershire a better place for the future, transforming what we do and health and care services today.
‘Prevention’ is a key theme throughout the Strategy and as a result the One Gloucestershire Prevention Delivery Programme Group has been established. Furthermore, The Hewitt Report (DHSC, 2023) positions prevention, population health management and tackling health inequalities as the key to sustainable solutions to improving population health and reducing pressure on the health and care system.
The Population Health Fellow will work with our Prevention Delivery Programme Group on a 12 month project to delivery health outcomes for a defined population.
If you are applying from a training programme you will be required to provide a letter at the application stage from your training programme director to confirm that they will release you from the programme.
This national fellowship is regionally delivered. Please visit National Population Health Fellow website for more information.
For more detailed information about the role please refer to FAQs and Rough Guide for Cohort 4 which can be found on this link or contact PublicHealth.SW@hee.nhs.uk
Closing date - Tuesday 9th May 2023 at 5 pm.
Interview date - Friday 9th June 2023