Job responsibilities
Research responsibilities:
Act as the UKHSA lead for authoritative advice in climate change providing expert advice to a range of stakeholders including public meetings.
- Developing and providing expert scientific advice and research on health impacts of climate change
- Providing scientifically sound health protection related advice to official bodies in the UK and overseas, and to individuals and organisations.
- Providing general advice directly to members of the public and officials on environmental exposures and likely health effects. This information can be imparted either in response to telephone or written requests or face to face at public meetings.
- Representing CCHS at a national and international level, providing advice in respect to climate change and environmental public health protection policy and standards and their implementation. This will usually involve providing input to development of policy and procedures nationally and internationally. This advice will have significant implications for work within UKHSA.
- Undertaking the necessary Research and Development including initiating projects, building research collaborations and seeking funding to underpin the expertise of the team and postholders.
- Undertaking Peer Reviews of draft publications prepared by outside individuals, as required from time to time by journals.
- Supervising higher degree students working on relevant research projects in collaboration with other academic experts.
Managing the delivery and development of the teams work programme which includes:
- Agreeing the overall work programme and budget with the Head of CCH / Deputy Director of CCHS. Working with research collaborators/partners from other organisations including international collaboration.
- Be responsible for the planning, design and execution of scientific or advisory projects in climate change and acting as lead researcher for initiating contracts and projects. Seeking funding for projects undertaken by the Unit and contributing directly to the work.
- Developing proposals for projects which are scientifically sound, appropriate and relevant to UKHSAs role in public protection.
- Seeking external funding where appropriate and negotiating the relevant contracts.
- Ensuring the work of the team is supervised and undertaken within appropriate and relevant quality management systems.
- Ensuring the work programme is managed within agreed financial and resource constraints.
- Ensuring all data/ information generated by the team is stored in an appropriate manner ideally in an electronic form consistent with UKHSAs information management policies.
- Communicating the results of the teams scientific work in peer reviewed journals and at conferences as well as in UKHSA publications. This responsibility includes writing scientific/ technical papers for publication in peer reviewed journals and writing contract reports and other publications. Consequently the postholder requires extensive knowledge of Microsoft Word and of data handling and processing packages.
Managerial Tasks
- Line management duties for a number of scientific, advisory and other staff including recruitment, training and supervision, appraisal, involvement in CCHS-level business planning.
- Monitoring staff performance and undertaking performance appraisal.
- Management of sickness, leave, discipline and other human resource issues within the team.
- Ensuring the Health and Safety of staff in the team.
- Ensuring that relevant UKHSA policies and procedures are followed within the team.
- Taking responsibility for identifying and managing corporate risks at team level.
Training
- To be responsible for on-going training of staff within your team.
- To take responsibility for the professional career development of members of the team including supervision of work for higher degrees.
- To supervise on-the-job training of team members.
- To assist in the training of other UKHSA staff and external staff on and climate change and related environmental topics.
- To undertake a teaching lecture load on relevant training courses run by UKHSA and also external bodies.
Working for the UKHSA
For more information on the UKHSA please visit: UK Health Security Agency - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
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
Any move to UKHSA from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at Childcare Choices | 30 Hours Free Childcare, Tax-Free Childcare and More | Help with Costs | GOV.UK
Selection process details
Your Statement of Suitability (no more than 1,000 words) should outline your skills, experience, and achievements, providing evidence of your suitability for the role, with reference to the essential criteria (outlined in the person specification section).
You will also be asked to provide information within the Employer/ Activity history section of the application form. This is equivalent to the information you would provide on a CV, setting out your career history.
STAGE 1 - APPLICATION & SIFT:
You will be required to complete an application form. This will be assessed in line with the advertised essential criteria please do provide evidence of how you meet this.
If you are successful at this stage, you will progress to an interview.
STAGE 2 INTERVIEW
This competition will involve an interview by Teams.
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 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.
The Competency framework will be used to assess and recruit the most suitable candidate.
For further information on the selection process, please refer to the attached Candidate Pack.
Expected Timeline:
- Advert close: 23:55hrs on 01/03/2023 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.
- Interviews: w/c 13/03/2023
Please note these dates could be subject to change.
Eligibility Criteria
Open to all external applicants (anyone) from outside the Civil Service (including by definition internal applicants)
Nationality requirements
Appointments to roles within UKHSA will be made in accordance with the Civil Service nationality rules. These can be found athttps://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nationality-rules
This job is broadly open to the following groups:
- UK nationals
- Nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
- Nationals of the Republic of Ireland
- Nationals from the EU, EEA or Switzerland with settled or pre-settled status or who apply for either status by the deadline of theEuropean Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
- Relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals working in the Civil Service
- Relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals who have built up the right to work in the Civil Service
- Certain family members of the relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's Recruitment Principles.
The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment.
Security clearance level requirement
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 Basic Personnel Security Standard. People working with government assets must complete Basic Personnel Security Standard checks.
For posts on UKHSA Civil Service terms and conditions, new entrants to the Civil Service are expected to start on the minimum of the pay band. For existing Civil Servants and roles advertised across government, the rules of transfer apply, i.e., level transfers move on current salary or the pay range minimum, transfers on promotion move to new pay range minimum or receive a 10% increase. Either case is determined by whichever is the highest.
Please Note
This role is to be appointed under Civil Service Terms & Conditions. Full details on the T&Cs are found https://www.ukhsa.reed.com/
Are you already a civil servant, or employed by a Civil Service Commission accredited public body? Please state home department on your application form.
Do you meet the nationality requirements for this post? https://www.ukhsa.reed.com/
