Bristol City Council

Training Location Prospectus

Bristol and its population

Bristol enjoys a reputation as a vibrant, thriving city. It is one of England’s core cities, rapidly growing, with a relatively young and increasingly diverse population. Bristol is culturally, socially and economically very varied, with some stark contrasts. The city has significant public health challenges – while it ranks as one of the healthiest of the core cities overall, within Bristol there are large and persistent differences in health and healthy life expectancy, and areas among the most deprived 1% of the country lie alongside affluent areas. Bristol offers a wealth of leadership opportunities for public health work alongside many city partners within the One City approach to improve health and address inequalities in health outcomes, as well as strong academic partnerships with both University of Bristol and University of the West of England.

Public Health in Bristol City Council

Bristol has a directly elected Mayor, elected for a 4-year term. The current Cabinet consists of the Mayor (elected May 2016) and cabinet members. The cabinet provide leadership, propose the budget and policy framework and implement policy through executive directors. The elected mayor has ultimate responsibility for all major policy decisions. The council is preparing to move to a committee system from 2024.

The Bristol One City approach brings together a wide range of public, private, and third sector partners within Bristol. They share an aim to make Bristol a fair, healthy and sustainable city; a city of hope and aspiration, where everyone can share in its success. A One City Plan documents these aims and targets, which are delivered through themed partnership Boards: Children and Young People. Economy and Skills, Environment, Health and Wellbeing, Homes and Communities, Transport, and Culture. Bristol is a City of Sanctuary, offering welcome, safety and hope to every person seeking sanctuary.

Communities and Public Health division sits within the Council’s Adults and Communities Directorate and works with colleagues across the whole council. The division includes the Public Health team, Neighbourhoods and Communities, and Environmental Health (including Port Health). 

The Training Location and Team

Specialty registrars, other trainees and consultants are based in City Hall on College Green in the centre of the city, together with the rest of the public health team. Hybrid and agile working is actively encouraged and supported across the council with all staff having laptops and supporting technology to work in a variety of locations including from home.

Registrars are an integral part of the Communities and Public Health Division, participating in public health department management team meetings and learning and collaborative opportunities across the council.

Public Health Bristol offers a rich learning environment for registrars. Registrars from other specialties undertake training placements in the public health team, including Community Reproductive and Sexual Health, Community Paediatrics, and GP Scholars. Bimonthly specialty training meetings are held for Educational Supervisors and Specialty Registrars to discuss training issues together.

Monthly Learning and Evidence sessions on a range of topics are led by public health staff including registrars, covering Policy and Public Health Programmes, as well as the use of Research Evidence in practice.

Educational Supervisors

  • Christina Gray - Director of Communities and Public Health
  • Jo Williams – Specialty Tutor for Bristol City Council. Consultant in Public Health, Healthy Children and Families. Consultant Senior Lecturer, University of Bristol.
  • Sally Hogg - Consultant in Public Health, Healthy People, Healthy Place.
  • Julie Northcott - Consultant in Public Health, Protecting Health, Quality and Safety.
  • Katie Porter - Consultant in Public Health, Protecting Health and Migrant Health.
  • Leonie Roberts – Consultant in Public Health, Inclusion Health.
  • Joanna Copping - Consultant in Public Health. Population Health and Sexual Health.
  • Viv Harrison - Consultant in Public Health, Population Health (Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire), embedded in the Integrated Care Board.

A number of other senior members of the public health team are accredited Activity Supervisors and experienced in working with registrars and other trainees towards achievement of learning outcomes across the width of the work of the department.

Academic Links 

Bristol has excellent links with the two Universities in the city, with active research collaborations with University of Bristol Centre for Public Health, and with the University of West of England Centre for Public Health and Wellbeing. Registrars have opportunities to support academic learning, as well as teaching and research opportunities.

The Bristol department has strong links with the local National Institute for Health Research infrastructure, with roles on the Research Oversight Groups of ARC (Applied Research Collaboration) West, which brings opportunities for collaborative research and access to training and seminars.

The Council is a partner in Bristol Health Partners,a collaboration across local NHS organisations, the two universities and the councils, to promote health and improved service delivery through integration and development of health services, research and education.

Wider Partnerships and Opportunities

  • Integrated Care Board (ICB) and the NHS The Public Health team works closely with NHS colleagues as part of the Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board. Members of the senior public health team participate in ICB steering groups and programme boards, with one educational supervisor seconded to the ICB to lead on Population Health. This provides excellent training opportunities around population health and systems leadership.
  • UK Health Security AgencyThere are numerous opportunities for joint work with UKSHA. Registrars contribute to the out of hours health protection on call rota with UKSHA. The local UKSHA office is located in Bristol. In Bristol City Council we have a daily duty desk, which can provide registrars training in the local authority roles and responsibilities in health protection. 
  • Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID). We have strong links to the regional team, and there are opportunities to be involved in South-West networks, alongside colleagues from other local authority areas.
  • NHS England South West. We work with the regional Screening and Immunisations Team to improve update of screening and immunisation coverage, and colleagues in Dental Public Health to ensure oral health improvement. We also work with ICB colleagues on the delivery of NHS England transformation programmes.

Recent examples of Registrar work

  • Development of a citywide drugs and alcohol strategy
  • Undertaking a maternal obesity benchmarking exercise
  • Supporting the COVID-19 response in Health Protection work with the duty desk team
  • Working with Children’s Centres to promote the Healthy Start scheme
  • Design of an evaluation framework for the Healthy Schools Programme
  • Bristol Food Equality Action Plan
  • Needs assessment of children and young people’s mental health
  • Audit of school entry hearing and vision screening
  • Writing a research proposal on around evaluating missed opportunities for contraception among vulnerable young women, with the University of Bristol and sexual health services
  • Using the ICB systemwide dataset to examine cancer screening inequalities
  • Design of a reverse care pathway for lung cancer to better understand opportunities for prevention and early intervention.

What registrars say about Bristol

"Bristol offers an incredibly wide range of opportunities for involvement in the full breadth of public health work in a rapidly changing and complex urban setting.  Such diversity lends itself well to tailoring work to your learning needs, regardless of stage in training."

" Bristol's large public health team are a great resource to tap into!"

"I have found the team are really interested in you making the most of learning opportunities to meet learning outcomes."

" I have enjoyed working with a really diverse range of colleagues; clinicians, specialists, commissioners, health promoters, community champions, managers, councillors, council staff, academics, community organisations and Bristol residents."

 

Key contacts

For more information please contact:
Dr Jo Williams, Consultant in Public Health and Bristol Specialty Tutor

Bristol City Council

Public Health Department
Bristol City Council
City Hall
College Green
Bristol
BS1 5TR

 

This page was last updated in November 2022