Job summary
The Principal Health Protection Practitioner (PHPP) has a key leadership role within the multi-disciplinary HCAI, Fungal, AMR, AMU & Sepsis Division Incidents Outbreaks and Stewardship (IOS) team. You will have day to day operational leadership responsibility to ensure the team work collaboratively and effectively in the management of incidents and outbreaks in health and care settings and due to antimicrobial resistance, novel pathogens and other biological hazards (e.g. contamination incidents).
Location:
This role is available at all core and scientific locations with hybrid/remote working available. The locations are:
Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Porton Down, Colindale, Chilton
Salary &Grade:
Grade 6 - £65,302 - £75,129(National), £67,288 - £76,967 (Outer), £69,275 - £78,805 (Inner).
AfC Band 8c - £70,417 - £81,138 (National), £78,163 - £88,884 (Inner), £75,853 - £86,574 (Outer).
Main duties of the job
The post holder will work both collaboratively and autonomously, with authority, using advanced knowledge and skills, to help develop and deliver services across professional, functional and geographical boundaries through a networked approach. This involves acting as a catalyst for change in practice and service development, appropriately challenging boundaries to identify innovative solutions that best meet the needs of the service, stakeholders and staff.
About us
Benefits:
- Learning and development tailored to your role.
- An environment with flexible working options
- A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity.
- A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%
- Range of health and wellbeing support.
Job description
Job responsibilities
As the Principal Health Protection Practitioner your main responsibilities will include:
Expert Practice:
- Work autonomously within professional boundaries to provide advanced specialist practitioner knowledge and advice in health protection.
- Lead and co-ordinate new initiatives in the prevention and management of communicable diseases and health and care acquired infections involving key professionals in the health and care system.
Consultancy & Partnership Working:
- Manage, develop and sustain key working relationships with a wide range of stakeholders (internal and external) to ensure the IOS function works collaboratively and achieves multi-professional engagement that facilitates the continual improvement in the quality of health protection responding to local, regional and national policies and initiatives as appropriate.
- Identify health protection priorities for the HCAI, Fungal, AMR, AMU & Sepsis Division IOS team and develop the action plans, policies and strategies to meet these priorities.
Please review the JD for a full list of responsibilities.
Selection process details:
STAGE 1 - APPLICATION & SIFT:
You will be required to complete an application form. This will be assessed in line with the full list of essential criteria as detailed in the attached job description please do provide evidence of how you meet this.
It is important through your application and Statement of Suitability of 1250 words that you give evidence and examples of proven experience of each of the essential criteria (for full details of all essential criteria please refer to the attached job description):
If you are successful at this stage, you will progress to an interview.
STAGE 2 INTERVIEW
This post will involve an interview by video.
As part of the process, candidates will be invited to interview which will involve an in-depth discussion of your previous experience and professional competence in relation to the criteria set out in the Person Specification. Candidates will also be asked to participate in a session where they will be required to prepare and deliver a 5/10-minute presentation to the panel. This will be followed by a question-and-answer segment. The presentation will be designed to assess each candidates experience in line with the requirements of the role. Full details will be provided prior to the interview.
Expected Timeline:
Advert close: 23:55hrs on 7th January 2024 unfortunately, late applications will not be considered. Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.
Shortlist: w/c 8th January 2024
Interviews: January 2024
Please note these dates could be subject to change.
Job description
Job responsibilities
As the Principal Health Protection Practitioner your main responsibilities will include:
Expert Practice:
- Work autonomously within professional boundaries to provide advanced specialist practitioner knowledge and advice in health protection.
- Lead and co-ordinate new initiatives in the prevention and management of communicable diseases and health and care acquired infections involving key professionals in the health and care system.
Consultancy & Partnership Working:
- Manage, develop and sustain key working relationships with a wide range of stakeholders (internal and external) to ensure the IOS function works collaboratively and achieves multi-professional engagement that facilitates the continual improvement in the quality of health protection responding to local, regional and national policies and initiatives as appropriate.
- Identify health protection priorities for the HCAI, Fungal, AMR, AMU & Sepsis Division IOS team and develop the action plans, policies and strategies to meet these priorities.
Please review the JD for a full list of responsibilities.
Selection process details:
STAGE 1 - APPLICATION & SIFT:
You will be required to complete an application form. This will be assessed in line with the full list of essential criteria as detailed in the attached job description please do provide evidence of how you meet this.
It is important through your application and Statement of Suitability of 1250 words that you give evidence and examples of proven experience of each of the essential criteria (for full details of all essential criteria please refer to the attached job description):
If you are successful at this stage, you will progress to an interview.
STAGE 2 INTERVIEW
This post will involve an interview by video.
As part of the process, candidates will be invited to interview which will involve an in-depth discussion of your previous experience and professional competence in relation to the criteria set out in the Person Specification. Candidates will also be asked to participate in a session where they will be required to prepare and deliver a 5/10-minute presentation to the panel. This will be followed by a question-and-answer segment. The presentation will be designed to assess each candidates experience in line with the requirements of the role. Full details will be provided prior to the interview.
Expected Timeline:
Advert close: 23:55hrs on 7th January 2024 unfortunately, late applications will not be considered. Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.
Shortlist: w/c 8th January 2024
Interviews: January 2024
Please note these dates could be subject to change.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Allied Health Professional with current professional registration e.g. UKPHR
- Master's in Public health, or higher degree in a related subject, or evidence of CPD in health protection and documented experience at master's level practice
- Recognised qualification in Infection Prevention and Control or demonstrable equivalent experience
Desirable
- Recognised teaching qualification or equivalent experience, e.g. PGCE or NVQ Level 4 Certificate in Education
Knowledge and Experience
Essential
- Significant experience in a health protection role at a senior management level with specialist knowledge and expertise in Health Protection including Communicable/Infectious Disease Control including Outbreak Management
- Experience of Acute and/or Community Infection Control
- Expert knowledge of infection, environmental health and disease control
- Experience of surveillance of infection and disease theory and application
- Experience of collaborative multi-agency/multi-disciplinary working and ability to engage and work with stakeholders at all levels.
- Understanding of evidence-based policy and practice, epidemiology and research methods and their application to health protection policy and practice.
- Demonstrable evidence of effective people management and of leading and managing teams within a changing environment
- Good understanding of immunisation and screening programme including implementation and management of new vaccine programmes and travel health
- Good understanding of non-infectious environmental hazards including Emergency Planning
- Good understanding of and ability to work under the current Health and Social Care Act (e.g. safe guarding vulnerable adults; data protection, information governance)
- Experience of leading and maintaining quality and governance frameworks including leading and developing robust audit and service improvement practices
- Experience of demonstrating leadership, education and service development achievements
- Experience of effectively engaging with the media e.g. reactive press statement
Desirable
- Experience of project principles techniques and tools such as Prince 2 and Managing Successful Projects
Skills and Capabilities
Essential
- Proven ability to build trusted stakeholder relationships networks in a politically sensitive and/or changing environment with the ability to use effective influencing and negotiation skills in and beyond own team.
- Able to challenge behaviours, attitudes and culture which are a barrier to the improvement of the working environment and the quality of services
- Highly effective verbal, written and presentation communications skills; capable of constructing and delivering clear ideas and concepts concisely and accurately for diverse audiences
- Able to manage and prioritise a range of complex and diverse issues simultaneously and competing priorities.
- Ability to interpret, analyse and disseminate complex and/or sensitive information/ data sets in a concise yet insightful way, pre-empting and evaluating issues and recommending appropriate course of action(s) to large and influential groups
- Highly organised with the ability to prioritise work for self and teams; working flexibly across a range of professional issues.
- Proven capability to plan over short, medium and long-term timeframes and adjust plans and resource requirements accordingly
- Proven ability to handle challenging and multi-faceted issues taking a problem-solving approach to ensure proactive and effective resolution
- Competent in the use of MS office (Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint)
- Proven track record of successfully introducing service improvement/ transformation or successful management of significant organisational change in a complex environment.
Desirable
- Evidence of understanding of the principles of workforce profiles, strategic workforce planning and workforce deployment issues
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Allied Health Professional with current professional registration e.g. UKPHR
- Master's in Public health, or higher degree in a related subject, or evidence of CPD in health protection and documented experience at master's level practice
- Recognised qualification in Infection Prevention and Control or demonstrable equivalent experience
Desirable
- Recognised teaching qualification or equivalent experience, e.g. PGCE or NVQ Level 4 Certificate in Education
Knowledge and Experience
Essential
- Significant experience in a health protection role at a senior management level with specialist knowledge and expertise in Health Protection including Communicable/Infectious Disease Control including Outbreak Management
- Experience of Acute and/or Community Infection Control
- Expert knowledge of infection, environmental health and disease control
- Experience of surveillance of infection and disease theory and application
- Experience of collaborative multi-agency/multi-disciplinary working and ability to engage and work with stakeholders at all levels.
- Understanding of evidence-based policy and practice, epidemiology and research methods and their application to health protection policy and practice.
- Demonstrable evidence of effective people management and of leading and managing teams within a changing environment
- Good understanding of immunisation and screening programme including implementation and management of new vaccine programmes and travel health
- Good understanding of non-infectious environmental hazards including Emergency Planning
- Good understanding of and ability to work under the current Health and Social Care Act (e.g. safe guarding vulnerable adults; data protection, information governance)
- Experience of leading and maintaining quality and governance frameworks including leading and developing robust audit and service improvement practices
- Experience of demonstrating leadership, education and service development achievements
- Experience of effectively engaging with the media e.g. reactive press statement
Desirable
- Experience of project principles techniques and tools such as Prince 2 and Managing Successful Projects
Skills and Capabilities
Essential
- Proven ability to build trusted stakeholder relationships networks in a politically sensitive and/or changing environment with the ability to use effective influencing and negotiation skills in and beyond own team.
- Able to challenge behaviours, attitudes and culture which are a barrier to the improvement of the working environment and the quality of services
- Highly effective verbal, written and presentation communications skills; capable of constructing and delivering clear ideas and concepts concisely and accurately for diverse audiences
- Able to manage and prioritise a range of complex and diverse issues simultaneously and competing priorities.
- Ability to interpret, analyse and disseminate complex and/or sensitive information/ data sets in a concise yet insightful way, pre-empting and evaluating issues and recommending appropriate course of action(s) to large and influential groups
- Highly organised with the ability to prioritise work for self and teams; working flexibly across a range of professional issues.
- Proven capability to plan over short, medium and long-term timeframes and adjust plans and resource requirements accordingly
- Proven ability to handle challenging and multi-faceted issues taking a problem-solving approach to ensure proactive and effective resolution
- Competent in the use of MS office (Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint)
- Proven track record of successfully introducing service improvement/ transformation or successful management of significant organisational change in a complex environment.
Desirable
- Evidence of understanding of the principles of workforce profiles, strategic workforce planning and workforce deployment issues
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.
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).
Additional information
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.
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).
