Building public health evidence skills in local authorities

The CLAHRC West training team ran a new training course in Swindon for local authorities during May, called ‘Understanding evidence for local authorities’. Specially designed for people working in council departments outside public health, the course was attended by staff from planning, housing and environmental health teams.

The decisions these kinds of teams make have the potential to impact on the health of the communities they serve. But traditionally they aren’t trained in the critical use of research evidence.

It can be hard to engage these groups with this kind of training in research evidence, as they may not appreciate the direct relevance to their jobs. Councils are under increasing pressure so this may also be a barrier to taking up training.

However, with eight attendees from as far afield as Bournemouth, the CLAHRC West training team were delighted with the response to this new course. All attendees said that they would recommend the course to others, and commented on how relevant the research papers that they looked at during the course were to their roles.

One participant commented that the course was useful because it helped them:

“Understand the concepts involved in reviewing evidence and get an understanding of whether the information presented actually helps me to make an informed decision.”