Deputy Director of Health Protection in Regions

Job responsibilities

Along with the Regional Deputy Directors of Health Protection, the postholder will contribute to national work on developing a comprehensive health protection system across England, working closely withcolleagues at a regional, national and sometimes international level.

Strategic Leadership and Partnerships

Working closely with the Director of Health Protection in Regions and Regional Deputy Directors for Health Protection,

1. Provide visible leadership and direction for regional UKHSA contribution to protecting the publics health and reducing health inequalities across England through interventions to protect the population by preventing and mitigating hazards and threats. 2. Provide strategic and transformative leadership to enable teams within the Directorate to see the bigger picture and understand political, economic, social, environmental and technological impacts of activity, interventions and change.3. Providing expert support and constructive challenge, influence and inform stakeholders and key working relationships within the agency and wider system (inside and outside of Government) to drive and innovate in delivery of objectives.4. Be a credible senior leader and work across the Agency, Local Government, NHS and Other Government Departments to provide health protection leadership.5. Deputise as required for the Director of Health Protection in Regions.6. Provide advice to Ministers on matters of health protection with the ability to brief orally and in writing at short notice.7. Act as National or regional Incident Director as required.

Management and leadership1. Peer leadership and management including managing Regional Deputy Directors of Health Protection, ensuring an integrated approach across all regions and culture of quality and delivery.2. Develop the strategic outcomes framework for health protection in regions.3. Lead the function to deliver defined outputs to the required quality, within budget and on-time.4. Develop staff members to be the best they can be through robust internal communications appropriate delegation, effective appraisal and mentoring, and visible leadership.5. Develop innovative practice and service delivery models, both within the Health Protection in Regions directorate, CMA group, UKHSA and external agencies and government departments, actively involving wider teams.6. Actively promote diversity and equality of opportunity both within the UKHSA and with external stakeholders, valuing difference and external experience. 7. Understand and interpret the political and cultural operating context inside and outside the Civil Service to help inform your advice and lead your teams.8. Role model continuous professional development and ensure your teams have the capability and skills they need to deliver.Other

• Participate in Regional Deputy Director national on-call rota- Play your part in leading the organisation, including taking on corporate roles and projects which support the Agency

For full details, please see the attached Job Description & Person Specification.

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

Stage 1: Application & Sift

This vacancy is using Competency based assessment.

At sift stage you will be assessed against the essential criteria listed in the job advert.

You will be required to complete an:

Application form (Employer/ Activity history section on the application) 1500 word Statement of Suitability.

The Application Form and Statement of Suitability will be scored together.

Healthjobs UK has a word limit of 1500, your statement of suitability must be no more than 1500.

This should outline how your skills, experience, and knowledge, provide evidence of your suitability for the role.

You will receive a joint score for your application form and statement. (The application form is the kind of information you would put into your C.V please be advised you will not be able to upload your CV. Please complete the application form in as much detail as possible)

If we receive a large number of applications an initial sift against the essential criteria.

Longlisting: In the event of a large number of applications we may longlist against the essential criteria for Qualifications.

Please note feedback will not be provided at this stage.

Stage 2: Interview

You will be invited to a remote interview.

Interviews will be held week commencing 25th August 2025, please note these dates are subject to change.

This vacancy is being assessed using essential criteria. During the interview we will assess you against the below:

StrengthsPrevious Skills and ExperienceTechnical skills and Ability

You will be asked to prepare and present a 5 minute presentation (no slides). The subject of this will be sent to you prior to interview.

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

This role is being offered as hybrid working based at any of our Core HQs. 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) or at one of our scientific campus sites (Colindale, Porton and Chilton).

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).

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 Security Clearance.

For meaningful National Security Vetting checks to be carried out individuals need to have lived in the UK for a sufficient period of time. You should normally have been resident in the United Kingdom for the last 5 years as the role requires Security Check (SC). UK residency less than the outlined periods may not necessarily bar you from gaining national security vetting and applicants should contact the Vacancy Holder / Recruiting Manager listed in the advert for further advice.

Education/Qualifications

Essential

• Inclusion in the GMC Full and Specialist Register 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)
• If included in the GMC Specialist Register/GDC Specialist List in a specialty other than public health medicine/dental public health, candidates must have equivalent training and/or appropriate experience of public health practice.
• Public health specialty registrar applicants who are not yet on the GMC Specialist Register/GDC Specialist List in dental public health/UKPHR must provide verifiable signed documentary evidence that they are within 6 months of gaining entry at the date of interview; all other applicants must provide verifiable signed documentary evidence that they have applied for inclusion in the GMC/GDC/UKPHR specialist registers
• If an applicant is UK trained in Public Health, 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.
• Applicants must meet minimum CPD requirements (i.e. be up to date) in accordance with Faculty of Public Health requirements or other recognised body

Personal Qualities

Essential

• Able to influence senior professionals and stakeholders including directors and CEOs
• Strategic thinker with proven leadership skills and operational nous in health protection
• Able to see the bigger picture and understand political, economic, social, environmental and technological impacts
• Highly developed interpersonal and influencing skills, with the ability to establish credibility quickly with a diverse network of senior stakeholders and to present issues simply and effectively, both orally and in writing.
• Able to develop highly effective teams, leading with energy and enthusiasm, creating a culture of innovation, flexibility and responsiveness
• Commitment to team-working, and respect and consideration for the skills of others
• Able to demonstrate and motivate organisations to contribute to improving the nation's health protection through mainstream activities and within resources
• High standards of professional probity

Experience

Essential

• Experience leading a regional health protection team and can provide peer leadership to others
• Experience of communicable disease control in a wide variety of settings including out of hours on call
• leader who has highly developed interpersonal and influencing skills, with the ability to establish credibility quickly with a diverse network of senior stakeholders and to present issues simply and effectively, both orally and in writing
• Experience and demonstrable competency in dealing with environmental hazards/chemical incidents
• Experience of emergency planning including leading work in regions
• Experience of using complex information to explain public health issues to a range of audiences
• Experience leading major health protection incidents
• Experience of acting as a source of expertise and innovation to set professional standards, creativity and driving continuous improvement in health protection delivery.
• Extensive media experience demonstrating delivery of effective health behaviour or health protection messages

Desirable

• Experience using your influence to make a positive difference across the Civil Service and externally.

Skills

Essential

• Strategic thinker with proven leadership skills and operational competence
• Dynamic risk assessment, management and global judgement
• Able to demonstrate and motivate organisations to contribute to improving the public's health and wellbeing through mainstream activities and within resources
• Ability to lead and manage the response successfully in unplanned and unforeseen circumstances
• Aptitude to understand complex issues that may be outside of established skill sets, such as statistical policy, health economics and technical implementation.
• Developing people and teams through training, mentoring and coaching
• Effective interpersonal, motivational and influencing skills
• Sensible negotiator with practical expectation of what can be achieved

Knowledge

Essential

• Understanding of decision-making processes at national and local level in both government and health and care settings.
• In depth knowledge of methods of developing clinical quality assurance, quality improvement, evaluation and evidence based public health practice
• Strong and demonstrable understanding of interfaces between health, social care and key partners (dealing with wider determinants of health)
• 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).