Director of Public Health

Job responsibilities

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 (infectious diseases and environmental threats). 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 authority's 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 authority's functions in planning for, and responding to, emergencies that present a risk to public health.

- their local authority's 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.

In order to deliver their responsibilities on behalf of the residents of Thurrock Council the DPH will need to be a visible system leader in the health and wellbeing partnership arrangements. The DPH will be expected to use all the resources at their disposal to ensure that the local public health system is able to tackle the full range of determinants of health affecting communities in Thurrock, to improve population and planetary health. Working with local communities, to inspire development of innovative solutions that support improvements in health and wellbeing and reduction in health inequalities whilst at the same time maintaining the confidence of Councillors and government.

Qualifications

Essential

• The post holder must be a member of the Faculty of Public Health
• Qualifications
• The National Health Service Appointment of Consultants
• Regulations 1996 (legislation.gov.uk)
• In line with legislation, inclusion in the GMC Full and Specialist Register with a license to practice/GDC Specialist List or inclusion in the UK Public Health Register (UKPHR) for Public Health Specialists at the point of application.
• 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 currently on the UK public health training program and not yet on the GMC Specialist Register, GDC Specialist List in dental public health or UKPHR must provide verifiable signed documentary evidence that they are within 6 months of gaining entry to a register at the date of interview.*
• 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
• If an applicant is non-UK trained, they will be required to show evidence of equivalence to the UK CCT
• MFPH by examination, by exemption or by assessment, or equivalent

Experience

Essential

• Leadership
• Establishing and promoting a clear public health vision which is coherent with the business strategy and the political vision for the and consistent with Government policy and takes account of social and economic trends. This is about role modelling through their own actions the types of behaviours expected of others in creating a high performing public health culture.
• Developing an effective PH team with appropriate skill mix to enable the Authority to deliver its full range of PH responsibilities.
• Developing effective relationships with elected members to ensure a coherent PH vision and operational plan.
• Work with fellow directors to enable/ensure public health perspective/principles underpin all aspects of LA delivery.
• Work with communities and media to ensure needs of local communities are made explicit and addressed by the H&WB.
• Deliver the independent report of the DPH in such a way as to compel all members of the H&WB to take action.
• Community and population focus
• It means working together to a common agenda and objectives with a shared purpose and common values, always looking for ways to improve access to services by communities and individuals. This is seen by:
• Actively seeking to understand the communities that are served and promoting and demonstrating an active commitment to meet their needs.
• Setting new standards for innovation in commissioning and delivery of services that anticipate and exceed expectations.
• Engaging with a wide range of stakeholders and partners to gather and evaluate information and make collaborative judgements and decisions.
• Making timely and where needed, difficult decisions for the benefit of the people of Thurrock.
• Results Focus
• Co-development of a model of health with local stakeholders (including local communities) and the metrics to support; taking account of Public Health Outcomes Framework, the NHS Outcomes Framework and the Social Care Outcomes Framework.
• This is seen by:
• Acknowledging and working with ambiguity and complexity, making significant decisions where no precedents exist.
• Ensuring a best practice performance culture is developed and sustained.
• Setting, communicating and monitoring stretching organisational objectives and objectives.
• Pro-actively identifying corporate, directorate and service risks, and ensuring action is taken to mitigate them.
• Formulating risk management plans and creating a positive health and safety culture.
• Improvement and Change
• Developing and sustaining a culture of innovation and creativity underpinned by evaluation, where employees are engaged and have the desire to do things better, more efficiently and effectively to improve performance. This is seen by:
• Taking risks and moving into unchartered territory while taking accountability for results and failures.
• Welcoming the inevitable mistakes as part of the creative process.
• Suggesting the unthinkable to stimulate alternate ways of thinking.
• Focusing team performance on the achievement of outcomes that will maximise the resources available.
• Finding new ways of securing or deploying significant amounts of financial resource to meet new objectives.
• Advocating and role modelling the use of evaluation techniques to support innovation.
• People Development
• Knowing and managing the strategic talent requirements for the organisation. It is about promoting and encouraging a culture where people focus on developing themselves and others to deliver improvement while developing careers. This is seen by:
• Holding direct reports accountable for people development generally and specifically for releasing high performers for personal development.
• Articulating the many long-term benefits of talent management and developing the talent pools required for succession.
• Ensuring comprehensive workforce plans are in place.
• Functional competencies
• Demonstrates detailed knowledge of methods of developing clinical quality assurance, quality improvement and evidence based clinical and/or public health practice.
• Full and high level of understanding of epidemiology and statistics, public health practice, health promotion, health economics and health care evaluation. Develops service practices and ensures appropriate application. Provides advice on the more complex instances.
• Detailed knowledge and experience in driving and assisting in the management of change in a variety of settings, proactively seeking opportunities to create and implement improved service effectiveness.
• Detailed knowledge of personnel management. Carries out effective performance management of staff and demonstrates understanding of policies related to pay, capability, disciplinary matters and grievances. Plans department activities and use of staff resources effectively. Participates in workforce planning and training needs assessments.
• Demonstrates knowledge of project management tools and techniques. Sufficient skill to develop and implement large scale projects, utilising and leading multi-skilled project teams.

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.

UK Registration

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