Working in Public Health

Public health has always been central to the population’s health and wellbeing, and people working in public health come from a wide range of disciplines and backgrounds. This practical and accessible book maps out comprehensively the range of exciting and varied options open to those considering a career in public health. Uniquely, it provides helpful information on how to become either a fully-fledged specialist or to work in an operational practitioner role.

This second edition provides an update on the variety of public health roles and the settings from which the workforce operates, with the inclusion of new material on climate change and sustainability. Written from a UK perspective, it nevertheless includes a chapter on working in international and global health. Each chapter is illustrated by career case studies and vignettes from people currently working in public health, illustrating their impact on improving or protecting the health of communities, as well as reducing inequalities.

In an era when the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown the spotlight on just how important public health roles are, this book should be essential reading for anyone aspiring to put public health at the heart of their own working life.

Fiona Sim trained in both general practice and public health and has held senior roles in public health, NHS management, education and the civil service. She has had a longstanding focus on building capacity and capability to improve health and reduce inequalities, including leading the establishment of voluntary regulation of public health specialists while at the English Department of Health. She is a former Chair of the Royal Society for Public Health, and was joint Editor-in-Chief of Public Health for 20 years until 2020. She was awarded an OBE for services to public health in 2015.

Jenny Wright’s career spanned social work, research, NHS planning and management before she entered public health. She qualified as a specialist in public health in the early 2000s as soon as this was made possible for those from backgrounds other than medicine and ran a highly successful public health consultancy within the NHS. The latter part of her career was devoted to public health workforce development, focusing on developing the first UK-wide competence framework applicable to the whole public health workforce. She also led the work to develop and run the first UK public health careers website.