What is Health Coaching?
Health coaching is a partnership between health and care practitioners and people. It guides and prompts people to change their behaviour, so they can make healthcare choices based on what matters to them. It also supports them to become more active in their health and care. Health coaching is defined in Universal Personalised Care as:
Helping people gain and use the knowledge, skills and confidence to become active participants in their care so that they can reach their self-identified health and wellbeing goals.
There are two distinct approaches to using Health Coaching:
Health Coaching Services – Health Coaches as a new stand-alone service targeting a specific group e.g., supporting healthy behaviour changes in diabetes. Health coaches need to have completed a minimum of 4 days training (accredited training through the Personalised Care Institute) to become an EMCC Accredited Health Coach
Health Coaching Skills – training health and social care staff and voluntary sector representatives or carers to use health coaching skills as part of their consultations or conversations, as an approach to practice or mind-set. Health coaching skills can be used to enhance an existing service, as part of wider workforce development. This is usually a 2-day training in Health coaching skills and is particularly recommended for Social Prescribing Link Workers and Care Coordinators
The Personalised Care Institute
The Personalised Care Institute provide information on training providers and courses that meet the standards required with recommendations of training levels for different staff groups.
NHS England
A Guide to the Requirements and Implementation Checklists for Employing a Health and Well-being Coach – please see Annex C
Health Coaching Implementation and Quality Summary Guide
NHS England » Tools to implement supported self-management
Additional Information
Sample job descriptions and recruitment support documentation –
Health Coaching Conversations training – details of local training is available here