Great2Run

Variously called health coaches, advocates, consultants and trainers, health champions work with people to help them to improve their health and well-being. They can help people who are ready to make changes to set and achieve realistic goals associated with their health. Health championing can take place within the workplace, a wide range of community settings and within the family. You can even be your own health champion!

The role of the Health Champion is not to give advice on health by way of nutritional or training plans. Rather, it is to inspire and motivate people, to support them as they make their own decisions about what to do, and to signpost them to qualified people in existing healthcare services who are able to give professional advice.

So, if you have a work colleague or links with community groups of people who are ready to make lifestyle changes to improve their health, you can help them by becoming a health champion. This programme focuses on positive changes people can make in relation to healthy eating and exercise.

We can only work with groups to deliver this Award.

Much depends on the setting within which the health champion works.  Some health champions work with groups (in which case, the champion and the group may set their agenda together), others work with individuals.

Whichever, you will need to be able to:

• Build a rapport so that clients feel comfortable talking to you about their lives
• Enable people to explore issues they may have relating to their health
• Explore options people have when it comes to goal setting
• Signpost people to available information and services that will support them with the changes they wish to make
• Support the development of a personal action plan and help people to monitor their progress.

A Health Champion enables people to take responsibility for their behaviour, especially that which impacts on their health. A Health Champion sets an example of good health and supports others to make their own choices.  In this way, the changes people do make are well thought-through, deeply personal, and more sustainable.  A Health Champion is not a teacher, a counsellor or a coach.  S/he does not give advice or tell people what they should do.

You should be trained and qualified in the role and you can do this by taking the Royal Society for Public Health’s level 2 Award in ‘Understanding Health Improvement’.  This is a 10-hour Award that culminates in a short 45 minute examination.  Our Better Health materials deliver the Award and support Champions in their working role.  The notes can be printed out so that you learners don't have to spend hours in front of a computer, and can sit and read them in more comfort.

We can only offer this programme to groups.  Please contact us if you want to run a Health Champion programme in your community or workplace.  (You can ask your employer or group leader to do this for you if you are reading this as an individual). We can arrange instant access to materials without the need to fill in lots of forms.  The examination will be held in an examinations centre near your group.  Where the group is large enough (usually 10 or more) we can hold the examination for you at your convenience.

Yes, it is.  The Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) is a government-recognised, national awarding body, and we are an approved RSPH centre.  Your Award will be recognized by employers, colleges, the NHS, and community organizations across the UK.

The Award will be useful if you work in the areas of health and well-being, health and safety, health and sport studies and community and social studies as it will add to your understanding of broader health issues, health inequalities, people’s perceptions of their health, and barriers to change.

In particular, this Award is recognized as an access route to the City & Guilds level 3 Health Trainer Award.

Learning Materials cost just £55.00 per person. This includes organization of the examination where appropriate. The RIPH examination fee is a further £11.50 and must be paid on the day of the exam.

Click here if you want to join the Better Health Programme and use our materials to achieve the Award.

The National Qualifications Framework (NQF) sets out the levels at which qualifications can be recognised. Only qualifications that have been accredited by the regulatory authorities are included in the NQF.  The Framework runs from entry level up to level 8.  Other Level 2 equivalents are BTEC First Diplomas and Certificates and GCSE’s (Grades A-C).

No, you don’t but it will help you to have some experience of study and to know something about healthy living.  This Award works best if you have, or are thinking of working towards, other awards and qualifications in the area of well-being.  It is recommended that candidates for this Award have good oral communication skills, basic standards of literacy and numeracy and an ability to relate to people from a wide variety of backgrounds.

This Award represents 10 hours of study time.  You will also have to spend 45 minutes doing the examination.  This is all that’s necessary for the Award.  However, you will find reading references throughout the materials and you will be directed to websites too.  These links and references are there to enable you to read more about the aspects of well-being and its promotion in which you are really interested.  You might find, therefore, that you spend more than 10 hours enhancing your knowledge.  We hope you do, and that you are motivated to go on learning as a result of your experience with us.

This is most unlikely to happen. As the programme only involves 10 hours of study, everyone completes eventually.  If you have any concerns about being ready for an exam, you should talk to your group leader or employer link.

You have to take the exam if you want to get the Award and, while we think the learning materials have merit in their own right, we would advise individuals to do the exam and get the accreditation and recognition you deserve for their efforts.

Where possible, your group leader or employer will try to set an examination date that suits everyone.  We cannot hold a separate exam for one or two individuals who are unable to attend.  Individuals can usually register with the Royal Society for Public Health to sit the exam as they hold regular exam days in London.

It is a formal examination which means that you must follow general examination rules.  You can't take notes into the examination room with you and must work in silence throughout, sitting at least 1.5 metres from other candidates.  The question paper is multiple choice and you will have to indicate your choice of answer simply by filling in the circle next to your choice(s). 

For a sample exam paper  click here.

For more on multiple choice exams click here.

We hope this will not happen.  The materials will provide you with all the information you need and will give clear directions regarding learning outcomes.  If you do not succeed at a first attempt, you can have another.  You will have to pay another examination fee.  Please feel free to contact us with any queries you may have ahead of the exam.

You can call yourself a Health Champion and say that you have the Royal Society for Public Health level 2 Award in Understanding Health Improvement.

You can email any queries to us and we will respond as quickly as we can.  This service is only available during normal office hours so if you email us during a weekend, you may not get a reply until the following Monday.

Yes, when you have passed the Award, you will receive your certificate directly from the Royal Society for Public Health.

That depends on your focus and interests.  As an example, we are recruiting for ‘Great Health Champions’ to work within 'Take to the Streets' (www.greatactivity.org) a national activity programme, helping those interested to take part in physical activity through a range of different events – running, walking, swimming, cycling...  Great Health champions are volunteers and work within their local communities to support those looking to exercise as a way of being more healthy.  Contact us if you would like to know more about this.

More generally, Health Champions work very well in the workplace and you should approach your employer to discuss the possibility of setting up teams of Health Champions to support colleagues who are trying to make positive lifestyle changes.  If you are an employer reading this, please get in touch with us to find out more.  If you an employee, you could approach your employer to find out if s/he will support your training.

Once you have your Award, you can approach a range of organizations and ask if they have a need for your services.  These may be: guides, scouts, youth and other community groups, schools and colleges, gyms and leisure centres, care homes, day centres, hospices, doctors’ surgeries . . . the list is endless.

Strictly speaking, no.  Someone calling themselves a Health Trainer should hold the City & Guilds level 3 Certificate for Health Trainers.  You may be able to use this Award as an access route to the level 3 Certificate.  For further details click here.

As part of this programme, you should make contact with your nearest Health Trainer by contacting your local Primary Care Trust.  S/he will be able to support you in your role.  As the level 3 Certificate is a lengthier course at a higher level, a Health Trainer will have had more experience and training in the role and may be part of an NHS structure that can support people who need help beyond that which you are able to provide.