Associate Professor represents UK Environmental Health professionals at World Health Organisation event

The workforce challenges faced by the environmental health profession and the need to attract new people to these critical roles were among the key topics discussed by a UK Associate Professor at a World Health Organisation (WHO) event in Germany.

Zena Lynch, who is an Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Birmingham and a Chartered Fellow with the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH), represented CIEH at the three-day WHO European Environment and Health Process meeting in Bonn.

Associate Professor Lynch had submitted a case study to the WHO on behalf of CIEH regarding the role, education and training of the Environmental Health Practitioner (EHP) and was invited to the Germany event to discuss the themes of the case study in more detail.

Panel members for her session included Herwig Ostermann, Executive Director of the Austrian Public Health Institute and Sebastien Denys, Director, Environmental and Occupational Health Division, Public Health France and the Chair of the International Association of National Public Health Institutes. The panel was chaired by Robert Otok, Director of the Association of Schools of Public Health in the European Region.

Associate Professor Lynch said she was “honoured” to be invited and said that while the role of an EHP varies considerably across different countries, recruitment challenges were a common issue across the board.

She said: “I was able to discuss the specific job profile of the EHP in the UK and the educational standards and curriculum, including the professional standards framework, the technical elements and how we ensure competence in practice via registration.

“I also discussed the Chartered and Fellow routes, alongside the CPD requirements, which are unique to the UK. Key messages were around visibility, attracting more young people into the profession and the need to work closely with local authority and industry partners to do this, alongside the need for high level support.

“I was able to share the work being carried out to develop framework to passport qualifications to different countries, career ambassadors, mentoring and the new awards for excellence and research.

“Interestingly, the role of the EHP varies considerably with different emphasis in areas such as occupational health, epidemiology and technical competencies such as Geographic Information Systems (GIS), but the challenges we are facing in terms of recruitment were common across different countries.

“Of particular interest is the WHO Public Health competency framework, which is currently being updated, creating an opportunity to map linkages as part of the planned CIEH curriculum review.

“The sessions also offered a very valuable opportunity to learn from and reflect on many novel and innovative cases from other countries in areas such as finance and economics governance and communication."