Job Description

To lead on improving the health and wellbeing of Isle of Wight residents which is underpinned by the statutory public health duty placed on local government to take such steps as it considers appropriate to improve health of its residents. The post-holder will take responsibility for a strategic objective of the Council and the Health and Wellbeing Board and act as a change agent to enable delivery of relevant outcome indicators from the public health, NHS and social care outcome frameworks. The post-holder will be expected to lead across organisations, be able to influence budgets held by those organisations as well as advocate for change effectively, to improve population and planetary health. The post-holder will deal with complex public health issues, provide public health advice and leadership to other system partners, and provide strategic input to inform public health and wider system commissioned decisions.



They will provide leadership of the public health team and take a creative and flexible attitude to changes in roles and function according to population and business need. A formal job plan will be agreed between the post holder and the line manager (the Director of Public Health) three months after commencing the post and at least annually thereafter. Strategic Public Health Leadership Provide strategic leadership and management for the Council, deputising for the Director of Public Health and promoting cross-council solutions to deliver the Councils public health outcomes for their communities. Leading a range of public health issues and work across organisational and professional boundaries acting as a change agent managing complexity to deliver improvements in health and wellbeing and influencing work to others outside of public health such as council colleagues and the NHS.



Lead on a number of complex programmes commissioning services (drugs and alcohol., Sexual Health, Domestic Abuse, Behavioural risk factors and oversight of screening and immunisation programmes) with over 300 staff. Providing briefings on the health and wellbeing needs of local communities to Councillors, Council. Strategically leading the development, implementation and delivery of complex public health policies and programmes across the system. This will include taking the lead in developing specialist detailed inter-agency and interdisciplinary strategic plans and programmes based on needs assessments which may lead to service specifications (and supported by the Strategic Manager).



The post-holder will be expected to lead the appropriate to the procurement process. Providing expert public health support and whole system leadership to ensure an evidence-based approach for commissioning and developing high quality equitable services, within and across a range of organisations including voluntary, public and private sector. This includes the health service component of the mandated core service. This will include expertise in evaluation and development of appropriate KPIs.



Leading and developing information and intelligence systems to underpin and inform public health action across disciplines and organisations. This includes providing leadership for collation and specialist interpretation of relevant data including strategic leadership and direction of the JSNA, PNA and the statutory Public Health Annual report. Leading on behalf of the Director of Public Health, this will include leading integration of the appropriate elements of the public health, NHS and social care outcomes frameworks within the systems developed by the local authority as well as with relevant partner organisations. Lead in the development and implementation of robust strategies for improving the health and wellbeing of local communities including ensuring qualitative and quantitative measurements are in place to demonstrate improvements.



This may include taking responsibility for the judicious use of the ring-fenced public health grant and working with ICSs, Trusts, the contractor professions, OHID, NHS England, and UKHSA. Providing the key local authority link to the research community, providing advice and support to colleagues and co-ordinating appropriate access to scientific information. The post-holder will be expected to take part in relevant research networks and to influence research programmes of such networks so that the research needs of the local authority are considered. Taking responsibility for leading the training obligations of the public health team, including becoming the Educational Supervisor.



These duties will be agreed jointly with the relevant Head of the School of Public Health. Service Management To provide highly effective leadership and management to the public health team and commissioned public health and clinical services ensuring a positive impact across both partners and communities. Ensure the development of staff and embed a culture of continuous improvement to maintain efficiency and maximise public health outcomes. To undertake all aspects of strategic service planning and delivery in line with the organisational and directorate objectives including financial and workforce planning, policy development, and process / system improvement.



Ensure best practice is adopted throughout the service. To be accountable for ensuring the delivery of all service outcomes under their portfolio and performance targets for areas of responsibility. This will include system accountability for the relevant portfolio also.