Principal Public Health Scientist

Job Summary

The UKHSA Guidance team is part of the Clinical and Public Health Response (CPHR) Division.

CPHR consists of three teams led by the Deputy Director of Clinical and Public Health Response:

• CPHR Advice team (includes Senior Medical Advisors and Consultants in Public Health)
• CPHR Guidance team
• CPHR Evidence review team
  
  
  

Collectively CPHR provides evidence reviews, quality assured guidance, and clinical and public health advice on all hazards and threats across the agency and to the NHS, Other Government Departments (OGDs) as well as internationally. We provide clinical and public health leadership 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to mitigate health security threats and support incident response.

Working in a team of public health scientists and operations staff the postholder will support UKHSA through the provision of high quality public health guidance.

The CPHR Guidance team leads on developing standards and quality assurance processes for all hazards guidance production and publication across the organisation and provides expert guidance support to public health incidents via the National Response Centre (NRC) as requested.

Job Description

The postholder will:

• Support the development of all hazards health protection guidance for a range of audiences including the public, the health and adult social care system and high-risk settings
• Provide scientific support to develop and summarise the evidence base (working with the CPHR Evidence team) and translate it into guidance content
• Work closely with knowledge and evidence specialists to update guidance in line with emerging evidence and policy
• Audit guidance against the UKHSA Quality Standards for Guidance Development
• Work across the organisation to improve the quality and consistency of guidance for both business as usual and incident response
• The postholder will report to the Head of Guidance and will be expected to work closely with the Evidence and Advice teams across CPHR.
  
  
  

Person specification

Specific duties of the role will vary depending on the type of guidance being produced (e.g. business as usual/incident response) but include:

• Respond to commissions to develop new guidance for the public and specific settings including the health and social care system
• Respond to public health incidents by contributing to the stand-up and operation of advice and guidance cells. This will involve working directly with subject matter experts and other incident response cells to produce and update guidance for the public and high-risk settings in dynamic and fast paced situations
• Lead on updating published guidance in line with new evidence, regulatory changes and/or new policies
• Proactively engage with stakeholders to develop relationships and agreed ways of working to support the effective provision of high quality guidance across UKHSA
• Contribute to the evaluation, quality assurance and governance of assets produced by the Guidance team
• Secure input from a range of partners including behavioural science, communications, rapid evidence, expert stakeholders and legal/policy
• Ensure health inequalities, Public Sector Equality Duty and accessibility considerations are given to all guidance products
• Participate in working groups or committees as required
• Contribute to the development of systems and process to ensure good governance and a learning culture
• Deputise for the Head of Guidance as necessary
  
  
  

Other

The above is only an outline of the tasks, responsibilities and outcomes required of the role. You will carry out any other duties as may reasonably be required by your line manager.

The job description and person specification may be reviewed on an ongoing basis in accordance with the changing needs of the organisation.

Incident response work may involve a change in working patterns including weekend working and overtime.

For a full list of essential and desirable criteria, please refer to the attached job description

Qualifications

Essential Criteria

• Masters in Public Health or equivalent experience
  
  
  

Knowledge And Experience

• Experience of working with other government agencies
• Experience of working on own initiative and as part of a team
• Experience of guidance development
  
  
  

Skills/Capabilities/Behaviours

• Clear communicator with excellent oral and written communication skills
• Resilient and able to cope with multiple competing demands and tight deadlines
• Commitment to reducing health inequalities Strong planning and organisational skills and ability to work at pace
• Good public health and scientific knowledge and ability to understand complex technical issues
• Ability to assimilate and distil information to support consensus development
  
  
  

Equality and Diversity

• An understanding of and commitment to equality of opportunity and good working relationships.
  
  
  

Alongside your salary of £54,416, UK Health Security Agency contributes £15,764 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• 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 employer contribution of 28.97%
  
  
  

Selection process details

Stage 1: Application Sift

Competency-based assessment

You will be required to complete an application form. You will be assessed on essential criteria, and this will be in the form of:

• an Application Form (‘Employer/ Activity history’ section on the application)
• a 1,500 word Statement of Suitability.
  
  
  

This should outline how your skills, experience and knowledge provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with reference to the essential criteria.

The Application Form and Statement of Suitability will be marked separately, and you must pass both to move forward to interview.

Longlisting: In the event of a large number of applications we will longlist into 3 piles of:

• Meets all essential criteria
• Meets some essential criteria
• Meets no essential criteria
  
  
  

In the event of a large number of applications we will shortlist on the lead criteria of: Experience of guidance development.

Please note that candidates in the Disability Confident Scheme will be shortlisted if you meet the minimum essential criteria.

Late applications will not be considered.

If you are successful at this stage, you will progress to interview assessment

Please do not exceed 1,500 words. We will not consider any words over and above this number.

Feedback will not be provided at this stage.

Stage 2: Interview

You will be invited to a remote interview where you will be tested on your knowledge, experience, skills abilities.

There will be a 10 minute presentation on the day of your interview; further detail will follow in due course.

Date of interviews to be confirmed.

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Location

This role is being offered as hybrid working. We offer great flexible working opportunities at UKHSA and operate using a hybrid working model where business needs allow. This provides us with greater flexibility about how and where we work, to get the best from our workforce. As a hybrid worker, you will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of your contractual working

hours (approximately 3 days a week pro rata, averaged over a month) working at one of

UKHSAs core HQ’s (Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool and London). Our core HQ offices are modern and newly refurbished with excellent city centre transport link and benefit from benefit from co-location with other government departments such as the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC).

Eligibility Criteria

Open to all external applicants (anyone) from outside the Civil Service (including internal applicants).

Reasonable Adjustments

The Civil Service is committed to making sure that our selection methods are fair to everyone.

To help you during the recruitment process, we will consider any reasonable adjustments that could help you.

An adjustment is a change to the recruitment process or an adjustment at work.

This is separate to the Disability Confident Scheme.

If you need an adjustment to be made at any point during the recruitment process you should:

Contact the recruitment team in confidence as soon as possible to discuss your needs.

You can find out more information about reasonable adjustments across the Civil Service here: https://www.civil-service-careers.gov.uk/reasonable-adjustments/

International Police check

If you have spent more than 6 months abroad over the last 3 years you may need an International Police Check. This would not necessarily have to be in a single block, and it could be time accrued over that period.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Your application may be rejected and/or you may be subject to disciplinary action if evidence of plagiarism is detected. Examples of plagiarism can include presenting the ideas and experience of others, or generated by artificial intelligence (AI), as your own.

Careers website

Please visit our careers site for more information https://gov.uk/ukhsa/careers

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality Requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service
  
  
  

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commissions recruitment principles (opens in a new window) .

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.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window) .

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window) .

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : Lisa Tweedie
• Email :
  
  
  

Recruitment team

• Email :
  
  
  

Further information

The law requires that selection for appointment to the Civil Service is on merit on the basis of fair and open competition as outlined in the Civil Service Commissions Recruitment Principles. If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles, and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance, you should contact UKHSA Public Accountability Unit via email: If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission: Visit the Civil Service Commission website: https://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/

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