Consultant Epidemiologist - Acute Respiratory Infections (ARI)

Job responsibilities

The post is subject to the core competencies as set out by the Faculty of Public Health for Consultant appointments and the post holder will be expected to demonstrate expertise in all of them (Appendix A).

The post holder is required to:

• Take a lead role in the surveillance and situational awareness of respiratory and mycobacterial infections working with the heads of teams and principal scientists in the TB and Acute respiratory infections units and other disciplines to lead on public health risk assessment of these threats and associated communications.
• Contribute to and develop strategic and operational plans for mycobacterial and acute respiratory infections.
• Collaborate with internal and external partners to investigate, manage, and control outbreaks and incidents of mycobacterial and acute respiratory infections.
• Be a member of the TB Unit and Acute respiratory infections unit management teams and TARZET senior staff team, with involvement in business planning and development of surveillance, research, and training strategies.
• Support the deputy director and heads of teams to ensure day-to-day operational delivery of TARZET and the TB and Acute respiratory infections units responsibilities and developing new, more efficient and safer approaches to delivering services. Deputise where appropriate, using leadership approaches and skills.
• Provide specialist input to public health guidance and supporting documents for the acute respiratory and mycobacterial infections; leadership on publishing specific documents will be agreed with the units heads.
• Supervise Epidemiological Scientists, Information Officers, Epidemiology Fellows, Specialist Registrars in Public Health Medicine / Specialist Trainees, administrative team members and other staff as appropriate.
• Provide specialist epidemiological advice in relation to the investigation and control of incidents of mycobacterial and acute respiratory infections, working with regional health protection teams and other stakeholders where required.
• Develop epidemiological response capabilities to assess and respond to emerging acute respiratory infections and mycobacterial infection risks.
• Liaise with cross-government stakeholders in relation to situational awareness, public health risk assessment, response advice and preparation for incidents that may have public health implications e.g., emergent respiratory pathogens that may have pandemic potential.
• Collaborate with laboratory specialists to prepare for these infection threats.
• Other duties as agreed by negotiation between the post holder and the unit heads.

Additional Responsibilities

• Promote the of professional standards including training, research, and audit.
• Develop and implement research in collaboration with internal and external partners.
• Contribute to the scientific knowledge base through the development and publishing of academic manuscripts.
• The posts holder may also be required to travel outside the area to assist with the epidemiological investigations of outbreaks in other parts of the country and may on occasion be required to travel internationally e.g., to international conferences or liaison with international partners.
• The posts holder may after agreement (which should not reasonably be withheld), be required to undertake other duties as required, which fall within the grading of this post, to meet the needs of the service.
• The posts holder will be required to participate in on call duties, to meet the needs of the Clinical and Public Health group.
• The posts holder will participate in departmental quality improvement programmes including clinical audit.

The job plan and the job description will be subject to review in consultation with the post holder in the light of the needs of the employing organisation and the development of the speciality of public health and any wider developments in the field of public health.

The Consultant will:

1. Be expected to take on the line management of some staff. Where line management responsibilities are agreed this will include recruitment, appraisals, disciplinary and grievance responsibilities.
2. Manage budgets as agreed.
3. Support specialty registrars in Public Health and FETP other trainees/fellows in relation to day to day working.

Medically qualified members of the Service are expected to play certain roles in medical leadership, in relationship with the medical profession and in bringing a medical perspective to public health advice. A medically qualified holder of this post would be expected to share these roles with other medically qualified members of the team.

Internal

• Principal Scientists, Consultant Epidemiologists, Consultants in Public Health Infection, Microbiology, and Infectious Diseases, and Epidemiological scientists.
• Clinical and Public Health Group Head, Directors, and Deputy Directors.
• Consultants in Communicable Disease Control (CCDC) and Health Protection information staff in UKHSA Regional teams and Field Service Consultant Epidemiologists.
• Laboratory services of UK Health Security Agency.
• UKHSA Regional directors and staff.
• Colleagues in other UKHSA Directorates.

External

• NHS England.
• Clinical and laboratory staff in NHS.
• Academic colleagues.
• Epidemiologists in Devolved Administration Public Health Agencies.
• Department of Health and Social Care.
• Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
• Cabinet Office.
• Animal and Plant Health Agency.

Other Information

External - Open to all external applicants (anyone) from outside the Civil Service (including by definition internal applicants)

Applicants are strongly advised to use the criteria in the Person Specification of the Job Description as sub-headings in their application to make it clear how they meet each of the selection criteria.

The successful candidate will be appointed to the point of the Consultant salary scale appropriate to their years of seniority or if from a background other than medicine to

Candidates must be included in the GMC Full and Specialist Register with a license to practice (or be eligible for registration within six months of interview) or be included on the UK Public Health Register (UKPHR) for Public Health Specialists at the point of application.

If included in the GMC Specialist Register/ in a specialty other than public health medicine, candidates must have equivalent training and/or appropriate experience of public health practice.

Qualifications

Essential

• Inclusion in the GMC Full and Specialist Register for Public Health Medicine with a license to practice/GDC Specialist List (or be eligible for registration within six months of interview) Or Inclusion in the UK Public Health Register (UKPHR) for Public Health Specialists (or be eligible for registration within six months of interview) Or Inclusion in the GMC Full and Specialist Register in a specialty other than public health medicine, candidates must have a minimum of 6 months' training and/or work experience in a health protection setting
• If an applicant is UK trained, they must ALSO be a holder of a Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT), or be within six months of award of CCT by date of interview If an applicant is non-UK trained, they will be required to show evidence of equivalence to the UK CCT
• Applicants must meet minimum CPD requirements in accordance with the requirements of Faculty of Public Health/ Royal College of Pathologists/Royal College of Physicians or other recognised body
• MFPH by examination, by exemption or by assessment or equivalent MRCPath or MRCP in accordance with Faculty of Public Health requirements or other recognised body

Personal Qualities

Essential

• Strong commitment to public health principles
• Able to prioritise work, and work well against a background of change and uncertainty
• Adaptable to situations, can handle people of all capabilities and attitudes
• Commitment to team-working, and respect and consideration for the skills of others
• Self-motivated, pro-active, and innovative
• High standards of professional probity

Experience

Essential

• Significant strategic experience of leadership for public health
• Staff management and training
• Scientific publications, presentation of papers at conferences, seminars etc
• Experience of communicable disease control in a wide variety of settings including out of hours on call
• Experience of working with other agencies
• Experience of emergency planning
• Experience in the application of epidemiological methods such as case control and cohort studies to investigate public health problems
• Experience in using analytical and statistical software e.g., R, python

Desirable

• Practical experience in facilitating change
• Practical experience in developing public health guidance

Skills

Essential

• Strategic thinker with proven leadership skills
• Proven excellent oral and written communication skills (including dealing with the media)
• Proven and effective interpersonal, motivational and influencing skills
• Ability to respond appropriately in unplanned and unforeseen circumstances
• Good presentational skills (oral and written)
• Sensible negotiator with practical expectation of what can be achieved
• Substantially numerate, with highly developed analytical skills using qualitative and quantitative data
• Ability to apply epidemiological methods and statistics
• Computer literate, including with skills in using analytical software e.g., R, python and other relevant software of epidemiological utility e.g., geospatial and referencing software
• Ability to design, develop, interpret, and implement policies
• Ability to concentrate for long periods (e.g. analyses, media presentations)
• Resource and staff management skills
• Project Management skills
• Budget management skills

Desirable

• Ability to risk assess and advise on prophylaxis and health surveillance of infectious diseases of public health importance
• Training and mentoring skills

Knowledge

Essential

• High level of understanding of epidemiology and statistics, public health practice, health promotion, health economics and health care evaluation
• Understanding of NHS and local government cultures, structures, and policies
• Knowledge of methods of developing clinical quality assurance, quality improvement and evidence based clinical and/or public health practice
• Understanding of social and political environment
• Understanding of interfaces between health and social care
• An understanding of the public sector duty and the inequality duty and their applications to public health practice
• Understanding of key agencies involved in health protection
• Understanding of clinical infectious diseases services
• Understanding of the laboratory methods for diagnosis of respiratory infections and their role in disease surveillance and incident response

Desirable

• Knowledge of grant development and research methodology

Equality and Diversity

Essential

• An understanding of and commitment to equality of opportunity and good working relationships, both in terms of day-to-day working practices, but also in relation to management systems

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).