Director of Public Health

Job summary

Are you an experienced public health professional and dynamic systems leader with a strong track record in improving population health and wellbeing at a pace necessary to achieve our ambitions for our residents?

Bradford is the UKs youngest city, with more than a quarter of people aged under 18 and is among the most diverse with over 150 languages spoken. Our residents, businesses and local leaders are passionate about Bradford. While we are rich in local assets that can facilitate better health and wellbeing, our population also faces many challenges, including high levels of poor health, poverty and experiences some of highest levels of health inequalities in England. Working relationships with partner organisations are strong, and this post will contribute to our achievement of greater cross-sectoral integration through systems-leadership and delivery of joint priorities.

As a public health professional, Bradford is an exciting and vibrant place to work, and we have a reputation for delivering innovative approaches and helping to make health and wellbeing everyones business. We have a strong focus on applied research working in partnership with the Bradford Institute of Health Research; more recently securing £5m to develop research capacity and capability across the Council with a focus on wider determinants of health. Bradford will be UK City of Culture 2025, so this is an exceptionally exciting time to be part of team Bradford.

Main duties of the job

The Director of Public Health is the system leader for improving the health and wellbeing of residents, reducing inequalities in health outcomes and protecting local communities from public health hazards. As such, the Director of Public Health is a statutory chief officer of the authority and the principal adviser on all health matters to elected members, officers and partners, with a leadership role spanning health improvement, health protection and healthcare public health. Section 73A(1) of the NHS Act 2006, inserted by section 30 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012, gives the Director of Public Health responsibility for:

• all of their local authoritys duties to improve public health
• any of the Secretary of States public health protection or health improvement functions that s/he delegates to local authorities, either by arrangement or under regulations these include services mandated by regulations made under section 6C of the 2006 Act, inserted by section 18 of the 2012 Act
• exercising their local authoritys functions in planning for, and responding to, emergencies that present a risk to public health
• their local authoritys role in co-operating with the police, the probation service and the prison service to assess the risks posed by violent or sexual offenders
• such other public health functions as the Secretary of State specifies in regulations
• producing an independent annual report on the health of local communities

About us

If you have the passion, skills and experience to join us as Director of Public Health please email smr@bradford.gov.uk to request an application pack.