Impact of EU Accession
on Public Health in
Croatia
Towards A European
Framework for Public Health
Competencies
Andrija Stampar School of Public Health
17th January 2011
Christopher Birt
www.aspher.org
Competencies
• these are increasingly under discussion
generally, being applied to many
professional disciplines;
• are being applied in health services in
both medical and non-medical situations;
• attempts to apply them to public health
since around 1990.
www.aspher.org
What is a competency?
Typically, competencies are general
descriptions of the abilities needed to
perform a particular role in an
organisation. Competencies should
be described in terms such that they
can be measured. (Free Management
Library, www.managementhelp.org, June 07)
www.aspher.org
Approaches in PH
• USA: Schools of PH defined few general
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competencies to inform curricula – top /
down approach
UK: Faculty of PH defined competencies as
basis for determining progress in training
UK: UK PH Skills and Career Framework;
attempt to define competencies for 7 levels
of PH employment – bottom / up, starting
with workforce
www.aspher.org
What health
organisations are
now using in UK
www.aspher.org
Meanwhile…
employers are defining ever more
precisely the qualifications,
experience and skills required for
specific posts (including in PH); in PH
they are beginning to use the Skills
and Career Framework.
www.aspher.org
In USA:
Competencies sound like essay
questions! e.g.
“Describe how social, behavioural,
environmental, and biological factors
contribute to specific individual and
community health outcomes.”
www.aspher.org
Still in USA…
Other competencies appear to be
aspirations! e.g.
“Engage in dialogue and learning from
others to advance public health
goals” or
“Apply social justice and human rights
principles when addressing
community needs”.
www.aspher.org
So the problem is
that American
competencies (thus
far) cannot be
measured!
www.aspher.org
In the ASPHER
programme
we were determined that:
• competencies should be precise, and
as far as possible, measurable, and
• competencies should be relevant to
genuine PH practice, and thus
• competencies should be relevant to
employers, NGOs, etc.
www.aspher.org
The six “core theme”
(domain) working groups
• Methods (epidemiology and biostatistics;
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qualitative methods);
Social environment and health;
Physical, chemical and biological environment
and health;
Health policy, organisation, management and
economics;
Health promotion and prevention;
Cross-disciplinary themes, including strategy
making;
Ethics and related themes.
www.aspher.org
What might PH
competencies be for?
• standard setting and curriculum setting for education
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and training based on real PH situations;
standardisation of PH training and practice across
Europe;
indicators of completion of stages of training;
role definition and standardisation of PH job
descriptions;
matching candidates to PH job vacancies;
mobility of PH professionals across EU borders.
www.aspher.org
For this ASPHER initiative,
we considered that:
• the ASPHER Core Competencies
would be designed primarily to
support PH education and training;
• however, they would stand or fall by
their relevance (or not) to service
public health workforces addressing
real life public health problems.
www.aspher.org
Currently ASPHER
seeks:
• extension of dialogue between schools and
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employers (e.g. at workshops, etc.);
establishment of “independent” Europewide overseeing body (“Academy”,
“Institution” – is there a better title?)
responsible for the ongoing production of
European lists of competencies;
involvement of wider PH movement in
Europe;
dialogue with and commitment from
governments, health ministries, and PH
www.aspher.org
employers.
Refinement of
Competencies
• in 2011, a complete new list of
competencies will be published;
• also this year, in 2011, a list of “MPH”
competencies will be published;
• later a list of “employer-friendly”
competencies will be published;
• what other tailor-made lists should
follow?
www.aspher.org
ASPHER needs to share
this work with the wider
PH community!
ASPHER has been happy to take a lead
thus far, but we have invited the
following organisations to work with us
to assist ASPHER to develop the project:
EPHA (European Public Health Alliance)
EHN (EuroHealthNet)
EHMA (European Health Management Association)
www.aspher.org
Governance:
• we need to prepare for permanent body to lead
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on this;
with EPHA we shall arrange special meetings in
major cities for main PH stakeholders, and
meetings with government representatives,
etc.;
we plan a meeting at the WHO European
Conference 2011, to which EC will also be
invited, leading to:
establishment of an “Academy” or “Institute”
or…. (to be named!)
www.aspher.org
Next stages
• we continue to refine competencies
in workshops involving all
stakeholders;
• appropriate versions (the MPH
version?) should be translated into
other European languages;
• how should we next develop the
project?
www.aspher.org
What health
organisations are
now using in UK
www.aspher.org
The UK Skills and
Career Framework
• would something like this at a
European level assist PH capacity
development?
• if so, which organisations should be
involved?
• which types of organisations would
be likely to use the product?
www.aspher.org
Now is time for questions
and discussion –
thank you for listening!
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