Health Protection Specialist

Job summary

The postholder will support the Public Health Manager HealthProtection in assuring that statutory responsibilities in relation to health protection are effectively discharged in relation to the development, implementation and assurance of local health protection programmes for Cumberland, including health emergency planning, promotion of national screening and immunisation programmes and community infection prevention and control.

The Health Protection Team works collaboratively with colleagues in neighbouring Local Authorities and across the whole of our local health economy to identify risks, proactively implement preventative measures and respond swiftly and effectively to ongoing and new threats to population health. This includes the local monitoring and promotion of national screening and immunisation programmes and Infection Prevention and Control initiatives, such as those aimed at the reduction in healthcare associated infections and reducing antimicrobial resistance as well as targeted local programmes of audit and training with our providers.

At times of local or national outbreaks of infectious diseases or local incidents which may present a risk to the health of our population, the team needs to respond quickly and work dynamically and flexibly alongside health protection, adult social care and healthcare partners to swiftly implement effective control and recovery actions.

Main duties of the job

To develop and deliver bespoke IPC training packages to compliment the IPC training programmes for social care providers across Cumberland.

To provide specialist IPC advice and support to key NHS and social care providers across Cumberland in order to protect health, reduce communicable disease outbreaks and Health Care Acquired Infections.

To provide IPC advice and support to incidents and outbreaks of communicable diseases across Cumberland (and in line with the arrangements contained within the Cumbria & Lancashire Outbreak Plan).

To develop and deliver infection prevention and control (IPC) quality improvement initiatives with social care providers across Cumberland and in collaboration with key NHS and social care partners.

To assist the Public Health Manager (Health Protection) with other health protection duties, as required. These include, emergency planning, resilience and response (EPRR) responsibilities, oversight & assurance of the NHS vaccination & screening programmes and asylum seeker, refugee & evacuee (ASRE) Public Health health screening work. 8. To attend and contribute to appropriate subgroups e.g., local IPC groups & committees, Cumbria Resilience Forum, Health Resilience Forum (HRP), Cumbria Health Protection Oversight Group (HPOG), NHS Vaccination and Screening Boards & meetings, and ASRE meetings and forums to maximise the health and well being of our population.

About us

Cumberland Council is a unitary council responsible for all local authority services for the area of Cumberland, which covers an area of 3,012 square kilometres and has a population of 276,876.

The Council was established in 2023 to replace Allerdale Borough Council, Carlisle City Council, Copeland Borough Council and Cumbria County Council.