About the Thames Valley Practitioner Development Scheme

How does the scheme work?

Individuals successfully accepted on to the scheme’s cohort will be expected to submit three pieces of work to create an e-portfolio of evidence to demonstrate their knowledge, understanding and application of their ability to work at Level 5 of the career framework. There are 8 areas (34 standards) to address, which have been mapped to the Public Health Skills & Knowledge Framework.

The Thames Valley Scheme supports practitioners through the provision of four learning sets, facilitated by an educator. The individual will be mentored by a Registered Practitioner.   Individuals are also encouraged to attend the Faculty of Public Health Masterclasses.  Download the Public Health Practitioners Accredited Programme 2021 leaflet.

The individual will be expected to submit their completed e-portfolio within ten months.  Interested applicants should carefully consider the amount of work involved and the amount of personal time expected to be able to meet deadlines.

The portfolio of evidence will be reviewed by UKPHR trained assessors and verified by a panel to inform a recommendation to UKPHR.

Selection criteria

  • Employment within the Thames Valley geographical area (Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Milton Keynes). For those working outside the area, please see UKPHR for your local scheme.
  • Approximately 2 years’ public health experience, usually having occupied a public health practitioner post (see website for further information) at NHS Agenda for Change band 5 – 7 or equivalent in other sectors operating at Level 5. See the Health Career Level Framework  at Skills for Health, for more information.
  • Self-assessment against the Public Health Practitioner Standards. Applicants must be able to demonstrate (through completing the self-assessment form) a broad range of relevant experience.
  • A signed commitment to completing a portfolio against the Public Health Practitioner Standards for Registration in the timescale specified and full participation in all elements of the scheme.
  • A signed commitment from the line manager for active support and encouragement through practitioner attendance at the induction, learning sets, writing time for portfolio development, relevant CPD events, and progress reviews to address development needs, to a maximum of 8 days in the period specified.

Evaluations and feedback

An external evaluation of the scheme was carried out in 2016. A further external evaluation was done for the 2021 scheme and is available here.

You said We did

One of the recommendations of the 2021 evaluation was to respond to recipients following their feedback. This You said We did document outlines this. The Thames Valley Scheme would like to thank the assessors, verifiers and mentors for taking the time to complete the survey and your ongoing support.