Motion no: 30
The Public Health Agency (PHA) recognises that reducing health inequalities is central to ensuring economic and social progress and that reducing entrenched health inequalities is not something that the PHA alone can achieve.
In 2015 the Royal Society of Public health published “Understanding the wider public health workforce” which highlighted the need to look beyond the public health workforce to people who are able to encourage people to lead healthier lives and support them to change
NIC ICTU is the representative body for 34 trade unions with over 215,000 members across NI and prides itself on being the largest civil organisation in Northern Ireland
Congress calls on the Northern Ireland executive committee of the Irish Congress of trade unions to take steps to develop its membership to allow them to become the wider public health workforce in Northern Ireland.
We also call on the committee to ask the Northern Ireland Assembly to initiate discussion across all government departments, and with professional bodies, employer organisations and the trade unions movement around who should be involved in supporting the public’s health. These discussions should ensure that education and training is provided to the wider workforce ensuring that they are equipped with the requisite skills, competencies and confidence to deliver the public health message across a variety of settings.
