Principal Public Health Scientist

Job description

Job responsibilities

Specific duties of the role will vary depending on the type of guidance being produced (e.g. business as usual/incident response) but include:

• Respond to commissions to develop new guidance for the public and specific settings including the health and social care system
• Respond to public health incidents by contributing to the stand-up and operation of advice and guidance cells. This will involve working directly with subject matter experts and other incident response cells to produce and update guidance for the public and high-risk settings in dynamic and fast paced situations
• Lead on updating published guidance in line with new evidence, regulatory changes and/or new policies
• Proactively engage with stakeholders to develop relationships and agreed ways of working to support the effective provision of high quality guidance across UKHSA
• Contribute to the evaluation, quality assurance and governance of assets produced by the Guidance team
• Secure input from a range of partners including behavioural science, communications, rapid evidence, expert stakeholders and legal/policy
• Ensure health inequalities, Public Sector Equality Duty and accessibility considerations are given to all guidance products
• Participate in working groups or committees as required
• Contribute to the development of systems and process to ensure good governance and a learning culture
• Deputise for the Head of Guidance as necessary

Other

The above is only an outline of the tasks, responsibilities and outcomes required of the role. You will carry out any other duties as may reasonably be required by your line manager.

The job description and person specification may be reviewed on an ongoing basis in accordance with the changing needs of the organisation.

Incident response work may involve a change in working patterns including weekend working and overtime.

For a full list of essential and desirable criteria, please refer to the attached job description.

Selection Process Details

Stage 1: Application & Sift

Competency-based assessment

You will be required to complete an application form. You will be assessed on the essential criteria, and this will be in the form of:

• an Application Form (Employer/ Activity history section on the application)
• a 1,500 word Statement of Suitability.

This should outline how your skills, experience and knowledge provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with reference to the essential criteria.

The CV and Statement of Suitability will be marked separately, and you must pass both to move forward to interview.

Longlisting: In the event of a large number of applications we will longlist into 3 piles of:

Meets all essential criteria Meets some essential criteria Meets no essential criteria

In the event of a large number of applications we will shortlist on the lead criteria of: Experience of guidance development.

Please note that candidates in the Disability Confident Scheme will be shortlisted if you meet the minimum essential criteria.

Late applications will not be considered.

If you are successful at this stage, you will progress to interview & assessment

Please do not exceed 1,500 words. We will not consider any words over and above this number.Feedback will not be provided at this stage.

Stage 2: Interview

You will be invited to a remote interview where you will be tested on your knowledge, experience, skills & abilities.

There will be a 10 minute presentation on the day of your interview; further detail will follow in due course.

Date of interviews to be confirmed.

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Eligibility CriteriaExternalOpen to all external applicants (anyone) from outside the Civil Service (including by definition internal applicants).

Location

This role is being offered as hybrid working. We offer great flexible working opportunities at UKHSA and operate using a hybrid working model where business needs allow. This provides us with greater flexibility about how and where we work, to get the best from our workforce. As a hybrid worker, you will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of your contractual working hours (approximately 3 days a week pro rata, averaged over a month) working at one of UKHSA's core HQs (Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, and London). Our core HQ offices are modern and newly refurbished with excellent city centre transport link and benefit from benefit from co-location with other government departments such as the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC).

Security Clearance Level Requirement

Successful candidates must pass a disclosure and barring security check.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is Basic Personnel Security Standard.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Masters in Public Health or equivalent experience

Knowledge and Experience

Essential

• Experience of working with other government agencies
• Experience of working on own initiative and as part of a team
• Experience of guidance development

Skills/Capabilities/Behaviours

Essential

• Clear communicator with excellent oral and written communication skills
• Resilient and able to cope with multiple competing demands and tight deadlines
• Commitment to reducing health inequalities
• Strong planning and organisational skills and ability to work at pace
• Good public health and scientific knowledge and ability to understand complex technical issues
• Ability to assimilate and distil information to support consensus development

Equality and Diversity

Essential

• An understanding of and commitment to equality of opportunity and good working relationships.

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).

Employer details

Employer name

UK Health Security Agency

Address

London,Leeds,Birmingham,Liverpool

London,Leeds,Birmingham,Liverpool

E14 4PU

Employer's website

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/uk-health-security-agency (Opens in a new tab)