Secondments

The Chemical Hazards and Poisons Division (CHaPD) welcome trainees and secondees from professionals working in public health, medicine and environmental health. We offer places to specialists on the public health training scheme (see below), and can also offer places to Environmental Health Officers and medical Registrars on an ad hoc basis. 

Within CHaPD there is a wealth of expertise including specialists in toxicology, environmental epidemiology, risk assessments and Geographical Information Systems. The CHaPD units are made up of multi-disciplinary teams who are able to provide good opportunities to understand the wide range of skills and expertise required for environmental public health and chemical incident response.

CHaPD has five regional offices, in Chilton (Oxfordshire), Cardiff, London, Birmingham and Nottingham, as well as smaller offices in Manchester, Gloucester and Newcastle. Those on secondment are able to access other CHaPD supra-regional expertise as well as that in the rest of the HPA. There is plenty of opportunity to write and publish papers, carry out teaching sessions and give presentations.

To discuss your requirements and suitability, please contact your local office.

Public health training scheme

An attachment to CHaPD for a minimum of 3-6 months is considered a useful part of public health training for those who wish to continue in the field of health protection, and beneficial to those who might pursue a more general public health career. It enables an understanding of the role and functions of the chemical incident provider units. Most CHaPD Units have local agreements with the Deaneries within their region to be able to offer secondments to public health trainees. All CHaPD Units are able to draw on national resources within the HPA to offer a number of opportunities to trainees.

As a Specialist Registrar or Public Health Associate Trainee at CHaPD you might: take part in the daytime on-call rota (9am-5pm) once or twice a week; take on a number of different projects; follow the process of an Environmental Permit application and learn how it works; undertake site visits; participate in multi-agency meetings; liaise closely with other stakeholder agencies involved in minimising the risk to the public of chemical incidents and other non-infectious environmental hazards; and get the opportunity to attend some excellent courses and seminars.

The induction process covers all that you might need to know (or at least where to find what you might need to know) to be safe on-call and there are regular CPD/training sessions organised within the department. There is no out of hours on-call for Specialist Registrars/Associates although opportunities arise to participate in chemical/emergency planning exercises across the country. Other interesting work to get involved with ranges from Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) and emergency planning to environmental epidemiology / public health issues like waste management, land contamination and the health effects of fires. The posts are well supported by senior CHaPD staff who all have many years of experience in providing training.

Last reviewed: 24 May 2011