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Evaluation of the UK Public Health Skills and Knowledge Framework (PHSKF): implications for international competency frameworks

BACKGROUND: The value of competency frameworks for developing the public health workforce is widely acknowledged internationally. However, there is a lack of formal evaluations of such frameworks. In the UK, the Public Health Skills and Knowledge Framework (PHSKF) is a key tool for the public health...

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Autores principales: Bornioli, Anna, Evans, David, Cotter, Claire
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7301561/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32552689
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-09024-6
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author Bornioli, Anna
Evans, David
Cotter, Claire
author_facet Bornioli, Anna
Evans, David
Cotter, Claire
author_sort Bornioli, Anna
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The value of competency frameworks for developing the public health workforce is widely acknowledged internationally. However, there is a lack of formal evaluations of such frameworks. In the UK, the Public Health Skills and Knowledge Framework (PHSKF) is a key tool for the public health workforce across the UK, and this study presents the evaluation of the PHSKF 2016 version, with the aim of reflecting on implications for international public health competency frameworks. METHODS: A sequential explanatory design was employed. An online survey (n = 298) was completed with stakeholders across the four UK nations and different sectors. This was followed by 18 telephone interviews with stakeholders and survey completers. Quantitative results were analysed descriptively; qualitative transcripts were analysed with thematic analysis. RESULTS: Most respondents had used the PHSKF occasionally or rarely, and most users found it useful (87%) and easy to use (82%). Main purposes of use included team/workforce development (e.g. setting of standards) and professional development (e.g. identify professional development opportunities). Some positive experiences emerged of uses of the PHSKF to support organisational redevelopments. However, 23% of respondents had never used the framework. Areas for improvement included greater clarity on purpose and audience, the need for more support from employers and for clear career progression opportunities, and stronger links with other competency frameworks. CONCLUSIONS: The development of a digital version of the PHSKF, together with improving buy-in from the workforce and employers could make an important contribution towards UK public health workforce development. Further evaluation and shared learning internationally of the implementation of public health competency frameworks would support global public health workforce development.
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spelling pubmed-73015612020-06-18 Evaluation of the UK Public Health Skills and Knowledge Framework (PHSKF): implications for international competency frameworks Bornioli, Anna Evans, David Cotter, Claire BMC Public Health Research Article BACKGROUND: The value of competency frameworks for developing the public health workforce is widely acknowledged internationally. However, there is a lack of formal evaluations of such frameworks. In the UK, the Public Health Skills and Knowledge Framework (PHSKF) is a key tool for the public health workforce across the UK, and this study presents the evaluation of the PHSKF 2016 version, with the aim of reflecting on implications for international public health competency frameworks. METHODS: A sequential explanatory design was employed. An online survey (n = 298) was completed with stakeholders across the four UK nations and different sectors. This was followed by 18 telephone interviews with stakeholders and survey completers. Quantitative results were analysed descriptively; qualitative transcripts were analysed with thematic analysis. RESULTS: Most respondents had used the PHSKF occasionally or rarely, and most users found it useful (87%) and easy to use (82%). Main purposes of use included team/workforce development (e.g. setting of standards) and professional development (e.g. identify professional development opportunities). Some positive experiences emerged of uses of the PHSKF to support organisational redevelopments. However, 23% of respondents had never used the framework. Areas for improvement included greater clarity on purpose and audience, the need for more support from employers and for clear career progression opportunities, and stronger links with other competency frameworks. CONCLUSIONS: The development of a digital version of the PHSKF, together with improving buy-in from the workforce and employers could make an important contribution towards UK public health workforce development. Further evaluation and shared learning internationally of the implementation of public health competency frameworks would support global public health workforce development. BioMed Central 2020-06-18 /pmc/articles/PMC7301561/ /pubmed/32552689 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-09024-6 Text en © The Author(s) 2020 Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research Article
Bornioli, Anna
Evans, David
Cotter, Claire
Evaluation of the UK Public Health Skills and Knowledge Framework (PHSKF): implications for international competency frameworks
title Evaluation of the UK Public Health Skills and Knowledge Framework (PHSKF): implications for international competency frameworks
title_full Evaluation of the UK Public Health Skills and Knowledge Framework (PHSKF): implications for international competency frameworks
title_fullStr Evaluation of the UK Public Health Skills and Knowledge Framework (PHSKF): implications for international competency frameworks
title_full_unstemmed Evaluation of the UK Public Health Skills and Knowledge Framework (PHSKF): implications for international competency frameworks
title_short Evaluation of the UK Public Health Skills and Knowledge Framework (PHSKF): implications for international competency frameworks
title_sort evaluation of the uk public health skills and knowledge framework (phskf): implications for international competency frameworks
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7301561/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32552689
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-09024-6
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