Subject: Management
‘In the context of the policy, strategic, and operating pressures facing your own system, reflect on what you see as the leadership and management development needs for the public health function over the next 10 years’.
The Individual Project question follows the basic logic. In broad terms it requires you to;
(a) Describe where you think your national health system is headed. This is not crystal ball gazing. What it does require, however, is that you summarise and present a critical response to the key trends identified in the literature under the heading of ‘international health reform’ and to indicate how these might affect your chosen health system.
(b) Highlight any key factors emerging out of that scenario that may have a significant impact on the pursuit of what you see as public health objectives (suitably defined) and also on the way that the public health function itself is organised and delivered in your system.
(c) Assess the scope for alignment between the disciplines of management and public health. Is there scope for greater convergence? Or are they significantly distinct in function and purpose?
(d) Indicate what you see as the key professional development needs for public health within your own health system over the next 10 years, and justify your response in light of points (a)-(c).
The above is solely intended as a possible guide. You may choose to highlight a particular programme or service within the health system and use it as an illustrative example. That would be perfectly acceptable— provided that you have justified why your particular programme or service helps us to answer the overall question posed by the Individual Project.