Job Description

Details

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Reference number

407854
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Salary

31,224 - 36,176
Per annum, Pro Rata
A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%
GBP
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Job grade

Executive Officer###

Contract type

Permanent###

Type of role

Administration / Corporate Support###

Working pattern

Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time###

Number of jobs available

1

Contents

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Location About the job Benefits Things you need to know Apply and further information

Location

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Colindale

About the job

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Job summary

The Gastrointestinal Infections, Food safety & One Health (GIFSOH) Division is located at Colindale within UKHSA's Epidemic and Emerging Infections Directorate.


The Division's main functions constitute providing specialist (including clinical and genomic) epidemiology and surveillance for Gastrointestinal Infections (GI), coordinating the investigation of national outbreaks, advising government on the risks posed by various gastrointestinal pathogens, and responding to national and international health concerns.


The Division manages the above functions across a broad range of pathogens including enteric and food borne bacteria, viruses, and parasites. It plays an important role in Food safety and One Health and has several years' experience in using advanced techniques such as whole genome sequencing to track national and internal outbreaks and antimicrobial resistance in foodborne bacteria.


The GIFSOH Division aims to:

Identify and manage local and national outbreaks of gastrointestinal infections Provide quality assured GI pathogen surveillance outputs and foodborne outbreak investigation data Provide national epidemiological services for public health purposes Describe trends in the incidence and prevalence of gastrointestinal illness and promote public health policy recommendations Inform progress towards global health sector strategy on Food Safety and One Health Lead and contribute to research in gastrointestinal infections
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Working for your organisation

We pride ourselves as being an employer of choice, where Everyone Matters promoting equality of opportunity to actively encourage applications from everyone, including groups currently underrepresented in our workforce.


UKHSA ethos is to be an inclusive organisation for all our staff and stakeholders. To create, nurture and sustain an inclusive culture, where differences drive innovative solutions to meet the needs of our workforce and wider communities. We do this through celebrating and protecting differences by removing barriers and promoting equity and equality of opportunity for all.

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Job description

The main responsibility of the postholder will be to contribute to the surveillance, epidemiology and investigation into outbreaks of intestinal infectious disease (IID) for GIFSOH Division at Colindale. This will involve providing specialist administrative and technical support for a range of surveillance programmes and outbreak investigations.


The workload is extremely varied and includes:

maintaining surveillance databases, extracting data providing graphical and written summary surveillance reports to internal and external stakeholders supervising the collection of epidemiological data from collaborating organisations, clinicians and patients assisting epidemiologists in the development and introduction of new surveillance applications for the department providing logistical support for investigations into national outbreaks of IID extracting surveillance data for the preparation of scientific reports and papers for publications and providing a comprehensive secretariat function for scientific working groups and incident management team (IMT) meetings

Main Duties and Responsibilities:

Surveillance

Responsible for the efficient administration of gastrointestinal infections databases by ensuring timely entry of data; data validation; reconciliation; timely production of reports; troubleshooting any problems relating to departmental databases and ensuring that the reference data are kept up to date in the databases. Provide technical support for electronic surveillance systems for gastrointestinal infections through design & implementation of routine data outputs. Write and run ad hoc queries on gastrointestinal diseases databases in response to internal and external information requests and amendments to data. Produce tabular and graphical outputs in electronic and paper format for distribution to collaborators and for placement within the public domain. Formulate data queries for answering information requests, both from within UKHSA and from outside, including Freedom of Information requests. Undertake regular extraction of data from SGSS for use in the production of reports etc using appropriate software. Contribute to the training of colleagues by providing step by step guidance on the use of gastrointestinal diseases databases on data entry, data submission, data reconciliation and running queries and to develop and maintain Standard Operating Procedures for the administration of gastrointestinal diseases databases. Assist departmental epidemiologists in the development, piloting and introduction of new surveillance systems. Contribute to the development of the Division's web content Ensure data security at all times, including during transfer between organisations. Adhere to the Data Protection Act and Caldicott principles in the handling and dissemination of data, including during transfer between organisations.

Outbreak Investigation

Provide administrative aspects of national outbreak investigations:

Act as the administrative focus for gastrointestinal infection incident management teams. Collect and record microbiological data, demographic information and patient contact details and filing all relevant documentation collected during gastrointestinal infection outbreak investigations and ensuring that confidentiality protocols are adhered to. Collect and collate data for production of reports and summaries.

Secretariat

Attend and provide a comprehensive secretariat function for gastrointestinal infection outbreak incident management teams by arranging meetings, minuting, transcribing Minutes, producing Agenda's and Action Tables and where appropriate following-up on action points. Attend and provide a comprehensive secretariat function for joint UKHSA/other government departments/stakeholder meetings by minuting, transcribing Minutes, producing Agenda's and Action Tables, following-up on action points and distributing to UKHSA and external colleagues. Attend and provide notes from weekly GI Update meeting. ###

Person specification

Essential criteria

Educated to degree level in relevant science subject or equivalent level qualification or significant experience of working at a similar level in specialist area (in the maintenance, analysis of data) Experience in data management, handling, analysis and reporting Advanced knowledge of Microsoft Access, Word, Excel, Outlook and Powerpoint Ability to produce accurate and consistent work, showing sound numeracy skills Ability to show good organisational, interpersonal and data presentation skills Ability to work well on own initiative as well as in teams to tight deadlines whilst prioritising and coordinating workload Ability to communicate proactively, accurately and succinctly with the ability to negotiate in a friendly and tactful manner with a wide range of health, IT and academic professionals Ability to deal with problems in a calm, efficient and timely manner and willingness to cross-cover roles if required Understanding of information governance issues including an awareness of data protection and confidentiality Understanding of and commitment to equality of opportunity and good working relationships

Desirable criteria

Experience of working in communicable disease surveillance Ability to provide a formal Secretariat function

Benefits

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Alongside your salary of 31,224, UK Health Security Agency contributes 9,045 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%

Things you need to know

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Selection process details

This vacancy will be assessed using a competency-based framework which will assess your qualifications, knowledge and experience and / or skills and abilities outlined in the essential criteria.

Stage 1: Application & Sift

You will be required to complete an application form. You will be assessed on the listed (10) essential criteria, and this will be in the form of a:

Application form ('Employer/ Activity history' section on the application) 1000 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 together.

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

The following will be taken through to the next stage:

Meets all essential criteria Meets some essential criteria

Shortlisting:

In the event of a large number of applications we will shortlist on the following:

Experience in data management, handling, analysis and reporting

Desirable criteria may be used in the event of a large number of applications / large amount of successful candidates.


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


Please do not exceed 1000 words. We will not consider any words over and above this number.


Feedback will not be provided at this stage.


Please note you will not be able to upload your CV. You must complete the application form in as much detail as possible. Please do not email us your CV.

Stage 2: Interview

You will be invited to a (single) face to face interview.


Knowledge, experience, skills & abilities will be tested at interview.


There will be a technical assessment at interview stage.


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

Eligibility Criteria - External

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

Location

This role is being offered as office based at our Scientific Campus in Colindale.


If based at one of our scientific campuses, you will be required to have a Counter Terrorism

Check security vetting check as a minimum. For meaningful National Security Vetting checks to be carried out individuals need to have lived in the UK for a sufficient period of time. You should normally have been resident in the United Kingdom for the last 3 years as the role requires Counter Terrorism Check (CTC) clearance. In exceptional circumstances UK residency less than the outlined periods may not necessarily bar you from gaining national security vetting and applicants should contact the Vacancy Holder/Recruiting Manager listed in the advert for further advice.

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 Counter-terrorist Check.


For meaningful National Security Vetting checks to be carried out individuals need to have lived in the UK for a sufficient period of time. You should normally have been resident in the United Kingdom for the last 3 years as the role requires Counter Terrorism Check (CTC) clearance. UK residency less than the outlined periods may not necessarily bar you from gaining national security vetting and applicants should contact the Vacancy Holder / Recruiting Manager listed in the advert for further advice.

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.

Internal Fraud check

If successful for this role as one aspect of pre-employment screening, applicant's personal details - name, national insurance number and date of birth - will be checked against the Cabinet Office Internal Fraud Hub and anyone included on the database will be refused employment unless they can show exceptional circumstances. Currently this is only for External candidates to the Civil Service.

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.
Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is counter-terrorist check .



See our vetting charter .
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) 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
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Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code 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 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.###

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 and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy .

Apply and further information

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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

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Job contact :

Name : Gurkamal Bhambra Email : gurkamal.bhambra@ukhsa.gov.uk
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Recruitment team

Email : recruitment@ukhsagov.uk ###

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 Commission's 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: Complaints@ukhsa.gov.uk 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