An increased number of public health specialists are required to deliver effective public health interventions, which are required as part of the shift to prevention under the 10 Year Health Plan, especially in Local Authorities where there are significant vacancies for roles that require specialist registration. There are few options to fill these posts aside from expensive agency staff who have mixed effectiveness or recruiting one of c.75 newly registered specialists each year. One route to increase the number of public health specialists is to increase the numbers of candidates achieving specialist registration through portfolio assessment (SRbPA), which enables those working at senior level and with significant experience in public health to achieve specialist registration. Increasing the numbers of specialists via this route can support local authorities to ‘grow their own’ specialists and fill vacancies in areas, which are not at
