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Public Health Consultant - Swindon Borough Council
Salary: 500.00 Per Hour
Hours: 37 Hours
Working Schedule: Monday to Friday
Contract Length:6 Month Contract
Location: Civic Campus, Euclid Street, Swindon, SN1 2JG
Job Details
The post holder will fulfil a generalist Public Health Consultant role and is expected to demonstrate expertise across the full range of relevant competencies as set out by the Faculty of Public Health.
The postholder will act as a change agent, improving health outcomes in Swindon through systems and partnership working.
Their work will be informed through assessment of need, an understanding of methods of meeting those needs and of approaches to gaining ownership across organisations and communities.
The areas for which you will provide direct leadership will be agreed in your job plan and may change over time in line with the needs of the organisation.
On behalf of the local authority, the postholder working with the Director of Public Health (DPH) and other consultant colleagues will lead on improving the health and wellbeing of the residents which is underpinned by the statutory duty placed on local government to take such steps as it considers appropriate to improve health of its residents.
The postholder will take responsibility for a set of strategic objectives of the local authority and the Health and Wellbeing Board in line with the agreed job plan and will act as a change agent to enable delivery of relevant outcome indicators from the public health, NHS and social care outcome frameworks.
The postholder will be expected to work across organisations, be able to influence budgets held by those organisations as well as advocate for change effectively.
They will hold direct managerial responsibility for services and budgets which directly contribute to these objectives will also have greater strategic responsibilities across the council and other agencies.
Strategic objectives for this senior post will be negotiated according to organisational requirements, key priorities and expertise within the directorate and will be outlined in the job annual job plan.
The lead areas will be agreed by the DPH in negotiation with the postholder but may include:
Ensure development and maintenance of systems and processes to enable the authority to work with partners to respond to major incidents including health protection threats. He or she on behalf of the authority and the DPH will lead on those aspects that the Secretary of State delegates to the authority.
She/he will ensure that partner organisations (UKHSA, OHID, the ICS, and NHS England) have appropriate mechanisms, to enable surge capacity to be delivered as and when required.
On behalf of the authority to take responsibility for ensuring delivery of the public health mandated services such that the full range of benefits are delivered to residents of the authority. These services include sexual health services, NHS Health Checks, specialist public health support to the NHS.
This will include taking responsibility for the relevant outcome indicators within Public Health, NHS (and Social Care) Outcome Frameworks and working across organisational boundaries.
To lead work across all Council directorates as well as influencing partnership boards (dealing with health determinants) to maximise health improvement opportunities and the reduction of inequalities in health outcomes amongst residents.
This will include using the Outcome Frameworks as well as exploring other relevant routinely collected data systems for suitable indicators.
To lead on improving health and social outcomes for a particular client group; early years, children, working adults, older adults, learning disabilities, mental health etc.
The work will include working across the entire Council, NHS bodies (the Council has a statutory duty to provide public health advice to local NHS commissioners and the Councils Health and Wellbeing
Board has a coordinating role for the whole of the health and care system) and other partner agencies.
It will also involve influencing private sector, voluntary sector and community sector organisations that can impact on health and influencing the attitudes and behaviour both of professionals and of the population generally.
In delivering the strategic objectives the postholder will be expected to demonstrate expertise in the full range of relevant competencies as set out by the Faculty of Public Health. This includes evaluation techniques, policy analysis and translation and ability to communicate effectively with a range of stakeholders including politicians.
In addition to any direct responsibility for managing staff or budgets, he/she will be responsible for change and improvement in the agreed areas of work and for supporting the delivery of the statutory duty of the Council to take the steps it considers necessary to improve the health of its communities.
Key Accountabilities
In delivering these responsibilities the postholder is expected to demonstrate expertise across the full range of relevant competencies as set out by the Faculty of Public Health and where required, take responsibility for resolving operational issues.
In negotiation with the Director of Public Health, the postholder may be asked to take on responsibilities that are underpinned by any of the FPH competencies.
The postholder will be expected to maintain both the general expertise as well as develop topic-based expertise as required by the DPH and will be expected to deputise for the DPH and when required.
The range of duties expected of the postholder include:
Taking responsibility for a range of public health issues and work across organisational and professional boundaries acting as a change agent managing complexity to deliver improvements in health and wellbeing.
Providing briefings on the health and wellbeing needs of local communities to Councillors, Council Officers, NHS Commissioners, the 3rd sector, the public and partners. Where required to so, the postholder will provide verbal briefing to Councillors, other colleagues and stakeholders in person which maybe at short notice.
Taking responsibility for development, implementation and delivery of policies. This may include taking the lead in developing detailed inter-agency and interdisciplinary strategic plans and programmes based on needs assessments which may lead to service specifications. The postholder will be expected to contribute appropriately to the procurement process.
Providing expert public health support and whole system leadership to ensure an evidence-based approach for commissioning and developing high quality equitable services, within and across a range of organizations including voluntary, public and private sector.
This includes the health service component of the mandated core service.
This will include expertise in evaluation and development of appropriate key performance indicators.
Utilising (and if appropriate developing) information and intelligence systems to underpin public health action across disciplines and organisations.
This may include providing leadership for collation and interpretation of relevant data including production of the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment.
Working with the DPH, this will include the integration of the appropriate elements of the public health, NHS and social care outcomes frameworks within the systems developed by the local authority as well as with relevant partner organisations.
Supporting the DPH in the development and implementation of robust strategies for improving the health and wellbeing of local communities including ensuring qualitative and/or quantitative measurements are in place to demonstrate improvements.
This may include taking responsibility for the judicious use of the ring-fenced public health grant and/or working with NHS Commissioners, Trusts, the contractor professions and UKHSA/OHID.
Providing the key local authority link to the research community, providing advice/support to colleagues and co-ordinating appropriate access to scientific information.
The postholder will be expected to take part in relevant research networks and to influence research programmes of such networks so that the research needs of the local authority are taken into account.
Taking responsibility for the training obligations of the directorate, including becoming an Educational Supervisor.
These duties will be agreed jointly with the relevant Head of the School of Public Health.
Underpinning much of these duties are public health tasks such as:
Undertaking health needs assessments as required to enable actions to be taken to improve the health of the local population.
Developing prioritisation techniques and managing their application to policies, services and to help resolve issues such as the investment-disinvestment debate.
Effective communication of complex concepts, science and data and their implications for local communities, to a range of stakeholders with very different backgrounds.
Understanding of evaluation frameworks and applying those frameworks to the benefit of local communities.
A capacity to apply the scientific body of knowledge on public health to the polices and services necessary to improve health and to formulate clear practical evidence-based recommendations
The understanding of human and organisational behaviour and the application of this knowledge to the achievement of change.
Inspire commitment to public health outcomes and to prevention as a core feature of public sector reform
Management arrangements and responsibilities
The postholder will be professionally accountable to Swindon Borough Council via the DPH. Professional appraisal will be required. An initial job plan will be agreed with the successful candidate prior to that individual taking up the post.
The postholder:
Will manage 2-12 staff (including trainees) and will be accountable for recruitment, appraisals, disciplinary and grievance procedures for directly line managed staff. The precise number of staff will
be dependent on the responsibilities agreed in the job plan.
Will manage budgets for lead areas outlined in the job plan and be an authorised signatory as outlined in the council scheme of delegation.
Will be expected to take part in on call arrangements for communicable disease control/health protection as part of local resilience arrangements
Will be expected to deputise for the Director of Public Health as required
Job Scope
Job role supervises 1-3 Public Health Principals and other Public Health staff of varying grades. The postholder will also be expected to be an accredited educational supervisor for the South West
Public Health Specialist Training Programme and supervise public health registrars and other specialty registrars as appropriate and required.
Typical tasks supervised/allocated to other
Development of local public health strategies and police
Commissioning and performance management of local public health services, interventions and projects
Prioritisation of tasks that are allocated to team
Ensure accurate and quick response to request for public health advice and information
Budget Holder
Responsibility
Direct responsibility for between 2-4 million for both public health commissioned services and programmes. Also supports the management of the ring-fenced PH Grant of circa 11m.
The post-holder working with the DPH will be expected to make best use of both public health department resources as well as influence the resources in the Council as a whole.
If interested please apply with your most recent CV.
