Membership, Learning and Professional Advisory Group update

I thought it might be helpful for members to have an insight into some of the work of Membership, Learning and Professional Advisory Group (MLPAG), which meets on a quarterly basis. 

The Workforce Satellite Panel, focussing on recruitment and retention, has now been established and is meeting regularly. More information on their work can be found here. . As part of our drive to encourage people into environmental health (EH) careers, we are finding out what attracts young people to EH as a career and the type of support CIEH membership can usefully offer. To help with this, we recently undertook a student survey which is now closed and the feedback is being analysed. 

The new overhauled Chartered status route, which has been subject to a thorough review, based on valuable feedback from members is now up and running. We are encouraging members who qualify, to apply for their Chartered status. Alongside this, the CPD scheme is also being updated taking into account member’s feedback.

The Research Award winner, Tim Betts, has been announced, and MLPAG would like to extend their congratulations to him on his outstanding work, alongside Amy Burns, Nathan Matthews, Sam Nordland and Holli Reynolds who all received commendations for their work. Information on the awards is available to view online. The award was made possible by Former President, Tim Everett, who is sponsoring the awards as part of a drive to promote research in EH. Thank you to Tim Everett for his initiative and support of these awards.

We are delighted that early discussions are taking place with REHIS around mutual recognition agreements. Alongside this work, mutual recognition of EH qualifications in Australia and England/Wales/Northern Ireland is being developed, with a view to this being extended further in the future. This underpins the valuable work being done by academics to continually develop the Environmental Health courses.

Finally, I would like to thank Steve Cooper, who has come to the end of his office with MPLAG, for volunteering his valuable time and providing valuable guidance and steer over the years and we welcome Jonathan Hayes who will be joining us going forward.

For those who want more information, the meeting notes are always published and can be found here.

Best wishes,

Zena Lynch
(Chair of MLPAG)