Capabilities Framework - a basic overview
The strategic map of capabilities needed across public health for achieving Pae Ora.
Kia ora, good day, my name is Samuel Anderson and I was the project lead and author of the Capabilities Framework (CF). It was published in 2024 by the National Public Health Service (NPHS) - who I work for - which is part of Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora.
The CF can be downloaded here.
This post is an overview of the CF covering the basics for anyone interested across public health.
Sharing the CF across the sector is one of the objectives of Capability Matters, and in my next post I will expand upon this one, going over the what and why in greater detail before branching out to cover different angles and learnings.
I hope this helps the wider sector to learn about the CF and begin using it beyond NPHS. We are all in the public health and Pae Ora game together.
What is the Capabilities Framework?
The CF is a strategic map of the capabilities – skills, knowledge, and behaviours – needed across NPHS and public health in Aotearoa New Zealand. The capabilities are needed for continual growth to deliver on Pae Ora, achieve health equity, and support healthy futures for all New Zealanders.
The CF is a New Zealand-specific, holistic framework covering all public health workers (kaimahi), roles, and disciplines through its use of the Core Public Health Functions for New Zealand model (2015).
Note: ‘public health’ in this context is not healthcare like hospitals, GPs, etc. Rather than treat individuals, our aim is to prevent, delay, and mitigate diseases and bad health from happening in the first place across communities and all of society. The CF covers kaimahi working in this proactive side of health.
What are the capability areas?
The capabilities are in two groupings:
Shared capabilities – for all kaimahi including foundational knowledge and professional practices that enable all public health work.
Diverse capabilities – for specific groups and individuals depending on their team, role, function, or other characteristics.
All capabilities are based on the foundation and values of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, equity, and Pae Ora. There are specific capabilities for these areas and they are also interwoven throughout providing context for all skills, knowledge, and behaviours in public health.
What does the CF enable?
In public health, the CF is a strategic foundation for:
human resources management including recruitment, learning and development (L&D), onboarding, workforce planning, team and programme leadership, etc.
development of public health education, curriculum, and learning activities
individuals identifying growth areas and supporting professional development planning
In these ways and more, the CF enables the workforce to be fit for purpose and continually growing to meet the challenges of the ever-evolving public health environment.
The CF is itself a great learning resource for anyone engaged in the sector. It gives a macro view of public health in Aotearoa, highlights the diversity of the workforce and what each part brings, and thus encourages interconnections and cross-functional collaboration. I hope it inspires public health to work together for enhanced collective action.
What are capabilities?
Capabilities are defined as the broad skills, knowledge, and behaviours that public health needs to be continually growing in to deliver on Pae Ora.
The CF is not like a competency checklist for everyone working in the sector; that’s not expected or possible. Rather, the CF represents the collective growth needs of the whole public health workforce to meet our shared Pae Ora objectives. I will write about the differences between capabilities and competencies in a future post.
Individuals should consider how they can be developing in the shared capabilities and what mix of the diverse capabilities are relevant to them.
How was the CF developed?
It was created by the NPHS L&D team across 2023 and 2024 in partnership with over 200 NPHS kaimahi representing diverse voices and subject matter experts. The CF thus represents the perspectives and capability needs of the operational public health workforce; of public health’s hands-on practitioners who intimately understand the work and know what it takes to succeed.
The project lead and author was me, Samuel Anderson. It was commissioned and shepherded through to completion by the NPHS National L&D Manager, Ken Trass. Our governance group was made up of NPHS directors including Māori, Pacific, and clinical leadership. We also partnered with Te Aka Whai Ora | Maori Health Authority. Many people helped in different ways; a full list of acknowledgements is in the CF.
Who can use the CF?
Anyone within public health. The CF is flexible to be used by different groups for different purposes. Please let me know how you’re using it!
How does it relate to other frameworks?
The CF covers all of public health ensuring for the first time that all public health workers in Aotearoa New Zealand are covered by such a framework.
Some roles and cohorts have pre-existing competency frameworks, standards, and continuing professional development (CPD) systems in use; the CF has been designed to work alongside these rather than replace them.
How can I find out more?
Read the full framework – download link here.
Subscribe to Capability Matters for future posts, information, and resources unpacking the CF delivered directly to your email inbox.
If you want to get in touch, send me an email at capabilitymatters [at] proton [dot] me - inserting the obvious punctuation.
Thanks for reading,
Cheers :)
Samuel
So important to have a comprehensive overview and collaborative approach of public health esp in this era - thanks for the invite to the conversation