MasterClass Series

The IHPE is pleased to have launched our Masterclass Series 2025!

There are five planned sessions through the year, focusing on advocating for positive health, preventing ill health, and reducing inequalities. This year, our topics include physical activity engagement, mental health promotion, obesity prevention, brief interventions for health promotion relating to alcohol misuse, and breast cancer prevention, treatment and care. We focus on ways in which we can promote health to people of all ages, through community initiatives, or by promoting health through ‘healthy settings’ such as workplaces and hospitals.

 

Upcoming Masterclasses

parkrun: the world’s largest public health promotion in physical activity, 20th March 2025

Our host, Professor Holly Blake, IHPE Trustee and Professor of Behavioural Medicine from the University of Nottingham, was delighted to welcome Professor Steve Haake to deliver the first session in the series on Thursday 20th March 2025, 12:00-13:00 (GMT). Steve is Professor of Sports Engineering and the Director of Engagement, Advanced Wellbeing Research Centre, at Sheffield Hallam University in the UK. He is a physicist by training but has worked in engineering, sport, and public health. He has been Chair of the parkrun Research Board since 2015, although this is currently in abeyance. He published his first popular science book in 2018 “Advantage Play: Technologies that changed Sporting History”, and has published six edited books of conference proceedings, authored around 240 journal, conference and other articles for magazines such as New Scientist and Physics World. He gives regular popular talks and has appeared frequently on television and radio. In 2021, he appeared on Radio 4’s The Life Scientific, hosted by Jim al-Khalili. In 2014, Research Councils UK identified him as one of the 10 most inspirational scientists in the UK.

Steve delivered a lively and engaging session called ‘parkrun: the world’s largest public health promotion in physical activity? How it works and who it works for’. There was a great turnout from IHPE members and non-members.

He introduced parkrun and talked about its impact on those who take part using surveys from the UK, Ireland and Australia of more than 170,000 parkrun participants. We learned about who takes part in parkruns, what motivates them to take part, and what the impacts are and for whom. There was much engagement from the audience with an interactive Q&A at the end.

You can watch the recording below.

Thank you for taking an interest in our CPD and we look forward to seeing you at the next Masterclass Session.

parkrun research at SHU
ParkRun Research Projects
ParkRun Literature

Promoting Mental Health in the Workplace Setting – 20th May 

Our second Masterclass in the series “Promoting mental health in the workplace setting” took place on Tuesday, 20 May 2025, 10:00-11:00 (GMT).
Our three speakers included:
Professor Holly Blake, Professor of Behavioural Medicine and a health psychologist at the University of Nottingham, in the UK. Holly is a prolific author and is listed in the Stanford Top 2% of cited scientists in the field of public health and health services. Her research focuses on work and health, self-management of chronic conditions and digital innovations for health and wellbeing. Her work has been cited as best practice in policy documents in the UK, Europe, Asia and Australasia, including the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, and the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work.
Dr Juliet Hassard, an occupational health psychologist and Reader in Human Resource Management and Organisational Behaviour, at Queen’s Business School, Queen’s University Belfast, in Northern Ireland. She is a sought-after speaker in the UK and Europe. Her research examines the design and development of psychologically safe and healthy workplaces through working systems, management and leadership practices, and organisational policies. Juliet has expertise in the impact, management, and prevention of work-related stress through prevention-orientated strategies.
Dr Louise Thomson, a practicing occupational health psychologist, an Associate Professor in Occupational Psychology at the University of Nottingham in the UK and lead academic for research support and consultancy at the Institute of Mental Health. She specialises in psychological, social and organisational issues in occupational health, mental well-being at work, job retention and return-to-work. Louise has played a role in policy development, such as the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines on both return-to-work and mental wellbeing at work.
In this session, Juliet presented the rationale for promoting mental health through workplace settings. This included the economic impact of mental ill-health, and the business case for organisations to invest in policies and practices to support mental health at work. The national and international policy context was outlined. Holly then talked about the important role of line managers in supporting mental health. She shared findings from four research papers. The first paper reported the typology of organisations that train their line managers in mental health (e.g., in what organisation types, sizes and sectors does this happen). The second paper looked at what policies and practices are offered by organisations to support mental health. The third and fourth papers presented the relationship between line manager training in mental health and improved organisational outcomes, such as sickness absence, presenteeism and indicators of business performance. Finally, Louise described the ‘Managing Minds and Work’ digital line manager training in mental health that we have developed at the University of Nottingham, providing examples of content and best practice.
You can watch the recording below.

 Prevention of Obesity in Children and Adolescents – July 16th

Our host, Professor Holly Blake, IHPE Trustee and Professor of Behavioural Medicine from the University of Nottingham, was delighted to welcome Professor Louisa Ells to deliver the third session in the series on Wednesday 16 July 2025, 10:00-11:00 (GMT).

Louisa is a Professor of Obesity at Leeds Beckett University and co-directs the Obesity Institute. She is an advocate of the voices of lived experience and specialises in compassionate multidisciplinary, cross-sector applied obesity research that addresses real world priorities. She is a registered public health nutritionist and Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health. With a wealth of research and public health experience, she has acted in advisory roles for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, and Public Health England (now the Office of Health Improvement and Disparities)
Her research focuses on obesity-related public health, service evaluation, inequalities and disordered eating, delivered using systematic reviewing, mixed methods, co-production and person-centred approaches.

Her research profile is evident in that in 2025 she has been awarded an NIHR Senior Investigator Award. Louisa delivered an engaging and informative session called ‘Prevention of obesity in children and adolescents’. There was fantastic attendance from both IHPE members and non members.

You can access the recording below.

She gave a background to obesity in children and adolescents, talked about the most recent evidence in the field including her own research. In the interactive Q&A, Louisa gave insightful responses to the questions and audience members shared resources.

We hope you enjoyed this CPD and we look forward to seeing you at the next Masterclass Session in September.

 

If you want to know more about this subject, you can access some of the resources discussed here:

Click Here for MasterClass Resources

September 29th (10:00 – 11:00 GMT): Health Promotion in Urgent and Emergency Care (UEC) Settings

This session will explore the unique role of UEC settings in health promotion. We’ll hear from experts including Professor Holly Blake, Dr. Emma Adams, Lucy Morris RN, and Hon.Prof. Dr Frank Coffey, as they discuss the implementation of SBIRT (Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment) for alcohol misuse in UEC settings.

November 7th (11:00 – 12:00 GMT): Reducing Inequalities in Breast Cancer Prevention & Treatment

Professor Emma Wilson will lead this session, exploring inequalities in breast cancer prevention, treatment and care and discussing how we can improve access to prevention and treatment for all women.

 

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