Consultant in Public Health MedicineorConsultant in Public Health

National

Job description

Job title Consultant in Health Protection orSpecialist in Health Protection

Region National

Employer Public Health Scotland

Accountable to Director of Public Health

Terms and Conditions

NHS (Scotland) Hospital Medical and Dental Staff and Doctors in Public Health and the Community Health Servic e orNHS (Scotland) Agenda for Change Terms and Conditions

Hours Full-time, part-time, job-share

Grade NHS Scotland Consultant (£84,984 to £112,925 per annum - pro-rata, if applicable); orAgenda for Change Band 8D (£85,811 to £89,732 per annum – pro-rata if applicable)

Public Health Scotland

Public Health Scotland is Scotland’s lead national agency for improving and protecting the health and wellbeing of all of Scotland’s people.

Our vision is of a Scotland where everybody thrives. Our focus is on increasing healthy life expectancy and reducing premature mortality. To do this, we use data, intelligence and a place based approach to lead and deliver Scotland’s public health priorities.

The scale of the challenge is so great that no one organisation or profession can address it alone. But together, we can. We are jointly sponsored by COSLA and the Scottish Government and collaborate across the public and third sectors. Launched on 1 April 2020, we are building on the firm foundations and the proud legacies of the Information Services Division, Health Protection Scotland and NHS Health Scotland. We will keep the best parts of them and will continue to deliver for partners and the public. But will also do things differently and do different things.

NHS Scotland Public Health Scotland 1

We provide advice and support to local government and authorities in a professionally independent manner. Our values of respect, collaboration, innovation, excellence and integrity will be at the heart of our work.

Public Health Scotland (PHS) wishes to appoint a number of consultants/specialists in Health Protection. The post(s) are available as full-time, part time or job share and are based at PHS, Meridian Court, Glasgow with opportunities for virtual working. Applicants from medical and scientific backgrounds, with appropriate specialist public health qualifications and registration are eligible to apply.

The mission of PHS as it applies to health protection is: ‘To transform information into evidence for action to protect the people of Scotland from infectious and environmental hazards.’

Within PHS the distinctive purpose of health protection is to work, in partnership with others, to protect the Scottish public by carrying out the following functions:

Monitoring infectious and other environmental hazards and exposures affecting the people of Scotland and the impact they have on their health.

Co-ordinating national health protection activity.

Facilitating the effective response to outbreaks and incidents.

Supporting the development of good professional practice in health protection.

Monitoring the quality and effectiveness of health protection services.

Research and development into health protection priorities.

Providing expert impartial advice on health protection.

Promoting the development of a competent and confident workforce in health protection.

Supporting commissioning national reference laboratories.

NHS Scotland

NHS Scotland consists of 14 regional NHS Boards which are responsible for the protection and the improvement of their population’s health and for the delivery of frontline healthcare services, 7 Special NHS Boards, and 1 public health body who support the regional NHS Boards by providing a range of important specialist and national services.

Details of each of NHS Scotland’s organisations can be accessed on the Scotland’s Health on the Web website.

NHS Scotland Public Health Scotland 2

Job Summary

PHS makes a major contribution to protecting and promoting public health in Scotland. To continue to develop this role PHS is seeking to recruit Consultants in Health Protection to join the senior professional team who provide specialist level leadership of the PHS Clinical Programmes.

The posts cover a portfolio of COVID-19 related work and general health protection duties to be agreed with the Clinical Director and based on the need of the service. These roles will be carried out by more than one person on mixture of full time and part-time basis.

The posts will provide consultant/specialist level input to the COVID-19 response and general health protection duties across existing health protection structural work groups e.g. Environmental Public Health / Gastrointestinal Infection & Zoonoses/Travel Health group, and the Blood borne viral / Sexually transmitted Diseases/ Immunisation / Respiratory infections. The roles will be split between flexibly between COVID-19 and Business as Usual activities as the COVID-19 response progresses.

The reactive element of the post generally involves supporting other frontline stakeholders who are responsible for local incident management. The post also involves taking a national leadership role for incident response under relevant circumstances where necessary, e.g. in relation to providing advice on impacts of maritime related incidents.

The clinical teams are supported for other functions (communications, specialist statistics, software development, quality assurance, library, guideline and workforce development and emergency preparedness) at PHS corporate level or via Scottish Health Protection Network groups.

The organisation is a recognised centre of epidemiological expertise and is responsible for ensuring that this is best applied to protect Scotland’s health. Based on a sound understanding of the epidemiology and related sciences in his/her topic area, the post-holder will monitor, assess and report on risks to health to a number of partner agencies. He/she will often act as a national spokesperson on public health issues related to his/her area of responsibility.

PHS has a role in co-ordinating health protection action, which may involve leading national project / task forces, programmes of activity and leading the investigation and management of a national level incident/outbreak. The post holder will contribute to and, where appropriate, lead PHS initiatives sponsored by the Scottish Health Protection Network (SHPN). This is a multi-agency, multidisciplinary group which has been formed to ensure the efficient and effective co-ordination of national programmes, joint developments and agreed priority initiatives in relation public health in Scotland.

PHS operates a 24/7 service and some of the post-holders may be expected to be available for out of hours, on-call work. As well as covering health protection for

NHS Scotland Public Health Scotland 3

infectious agent, PHS also covers non-communicable environmental (chemical and physical) hazards (except radiation, which is the remit of PHE). The post-holder should therefore have broad experience in all aspects of health protection work, especially in epidemiological investigation and outbreak management.

Strategic Leadership

Lead on COVID-19 response areas across PHS aimed at reducing the risks from SARS-CoV-2 and reducing the burden of ill health associated with COVID-19.

Lead or contribute to health protection topic areas as agreed with the Clinical Director and your consultant colleagues aimed at reducing the risks and burdens from infections and environmental challenges.

Maintain an overview of the extent to which risk reduction and health impact are being realized.

Participate in multi-agency planning and preparedness and the development of protocols for responding to any emerging infectious and environmental threats to the population of Scotland.

Recommend appropriate actions and interventions to improve risk reduction and positive health impacts.

When appropriate coordinate national health protection projects to achieve priority public health objectives identified by key stakeholders (e.g. Scottish Government, Food Standards Scotland (FSS), SEPA).

Report on these programmes to relevant PHS management, governance groups and other relevant bodies.

Participate in performance management and staff development of the multidisciplinary team working within your associated team.

Participate in the strategic development, business planning and relevant corporate functions of PHS.

Liaise with PHS management in ensuring the effective discharge of the above.

Stakeholder engagement and support

Develop and maintain close working links with key stakeholders e.g. Scottish Government, NHS boards, local authorities, SEPA, FSS, academic bodies, etc.

Seek views from stakeholders on their own priorities and needs for PHS services and how these can be improved.

NHS Scotland Public Health Scotland 4

Provide input to the development and implementation of relevant Scottish and UK Government public health policy (e.g. through participating in expert scientific advisory groups).

Ensure an effective and timely response to enquiries from the media, NHS management, parliamentary questions and other interested parties.

Assure the processes and outputs relating to the above and report on them to stakeholders, PHS governance groups and other relevant bodies.

Epidemic Intelligence and epidemiology

Support the development and maintenance of epidemic intelligence systems designed to monitor levels of infectious and environmental hazards and their consequences and the impact on these of health protection interventions.

Oversee the design, processing and uses of data so that findings of significance are identified, their relevance to risks to public health assessed and when necessary, alerts or other communications issued.

Ensure that the data processes involved in epidemic intelligence systems meet quality standards especially those related to confidentiality and statistics.

Participate in and when appropriate, lead the epidemiological investigation of priority health problems.

Lead the health protection investigation (epidemiological, microbiological and environmental) in incidents for which PHS has responsibility or when requested by boards.

Ensure effective liaison with partners’ especially Local Authorities, NHS boards, UK and ECDC/WHO counterparts and Scottish public health bodies.

Assure and sign off PHS reports on public health issues related to the above especially those which enter the public domain.

Monitoring and surveillance

Supervision of routine surveillance activities, including reporting e.g. weekly and ad-hoc reports; quality assurance, review and sign-off of surveillance outputs; interpretation of unusual case reports/clusters/potential outbreaks and incidents; dealing with data related enquiries in support of team members, including dealing with media/press enquiries and official requests (e.g. Scottish Government etc.).

Monitoring of UK and International Surveillance Systems alerts and liaison; scanning for reports for relevancy for Scotland/UK and making reports on local issues as required to European and other International networks.

NHS Scotland Public Health Scotland 5

Applying specialised Consultant experience and expertise to the analysis of routine and other surveillance data and conducting risk assessments to determine the need for further action by PHS and potential intervention, working with relevant data providers (e.g. NHS board Health Protection Teams and LA Environmental Health Teams).

Coordinating National Health Protection

Progressing specific health protection priorities in discussion with the Consultant programme lead/co-lead/the Clinical Director and your other Consultant/specialist colleagues as appropriate.

Supervision of activities of the team in relation to national health protection role for such work at PHS, Scotland, UK and International level.

Expert advice

Ensure the provision of expert advice on the epidemiology, prevention and control of relevant diseases including maintaining links with key local, UK and international experts and participating in PHS knowledge management systems.

Participate in and when appropriate, lead networks of professionals in the development of guidance on evidence based practice.

Supervise team work associated with updating health protection advice and guidance materials.

Respond to enquiries by the provision of expert advice to the full range of stakeholders including Scottish Government, NHS boards, local authorities, FSS, SEPA etc. on matters relating to relevant topics.

Ensure effective risk communication to the public and professionals e.g. via internet, social media, public materials etc.

Responding to incidents

Provide input into the management and investigation of relevant incidents and outbreaks involving:

o support to NHS boards via problem assessment groups (PAG) and Incident Management Teams (IMT) associated with environmental incidents;

o lead a national incident management team when appropriate;o provide resilience and cross cover for incident response in relation to

any outbreaks and incidents when required.

NHS Scotland Public Health Scotland 6

Education and training

Identify needs for education and training on the epidemiology and control of relevant diseases and support the PHS workforce development function in meeting them.

Respond to ad-hoc requests for input into education and training events specifically on relevant topics, including health impacts of exposure to infectious and environmental hazards.

Contribute to the training of Public Health Specialist Trainees and other health protection workforce.

Research and development

Lead the implementation and further development of the clinical programme and develop opportunities to implement the PHS R&D Strategy as it relates to the area of responsibility.

Ensure that there is an oversight of the current scientific literature related to the area of responsibility and that key findings, gaps in evidence and research needs are identified.

Liaise with stakeholders on the identification of research needs and the application of research findings to improving public understanding, policy, practice and service delivery.

Through collaboration with academic, private sector and NHS agencies, develop and where appropriate, lead a portfolio of research projects.

Related to the research projects and PHS work undertaken in the area of responsibility, optimise the number of publications of internet searchable specialist reports and peer-reviewed scientific articles.

General

Participate if required in the PHS in and out of hours on-call systems; for some of the posts the out of hours’ commitment will be a 1 in 6 or less frequently if job share with prospective cover.

Contribute to the organisation’s corporate work-streams as required e.g. Resilience, Clinical Governance, Clinical Effectiveness, Evidence Advice and Guidance, Epidemic Intelligence.

Ensure that work led by the post-holder follows PHS Clinical, Information and Research Governance guidelines.

Promote the work of PHS at conferences, seminars and workshops, both nationally and internationally, via presentations and lectures etc.

NHS Scotland Public Health Scotland 7

Contribute to the training of professionals attached to PHS for this purpose including training of Public Health specialist trainees.

Assist PHS in carrying out other appropriate duties as and when required.

Ensure adequate involvement in a programme of CPD in accordance with Faculty of Public Health requirements, and undertake revalidation or other measures required to remain on the GMC or UKPHR.

NHS Scotland Public Health Scotland 8

Indicative Job plan

Job title Consultant in Health Protection

Principal place of work Public Health Scotland, Meridian Court, Glasgow

Contract tenure Variable / Mixture of Whole time & Part time

Managerially accountable to Clinical Director or delegated nominee.

Professionally accountable to Clinical Director

Programmed Activities 10(9 programmed clinical sessions and 1 supporting Professional Activities)

37.5 hours per week if Agenda for Change

Extra Programmed Activities 0 (but may be offered during job planning)

Availability Supplement For at least one of the WTE posts Level 1 (8%) or £18.36 Per Session (up to a maximum of 9 Sessions per week)

Premium Rate Payment Nil (compensatory time per contract para 4.10.7)

Responsible for: 1. COVID-192. Specific clinical duties under job planning

NHS Scotland Public Health Scotland 9

Timetable of activities which have a specific location and time

Day Hospital / location Type of work

Monday Based at Meridian Court, Glasgow

Work may be undertaken at other locations, as necessary for the achievement of the objectives of PHS.Work may be done from home in accordance with the PHS working from home policy.

The following activities are undertaken:

Strategic/Programme Leadership Surveillance, investigation and risk

assessment Control measures Communication Knowledge Management Research and Development Training and Education Professional Development

Direct Clinical Care activities apply to 8 sessions. Supporting professional activities apply to 2 sessions.

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday Not applicable No timetables activitiesSunday

Activities which are not undertaken at specific locations or times

Participation as first on-call in the PHS Out of Hours rota for Public Health/Health Protection Incidents and Emergencies. On-call duties include provision of support and guidance, apropos communicable disease and environmental health issues, in response to queries or incidents including chemical, biological and nuclear incidents that might affect the health of the population of Scotland, as described in c) below. This may involve provision of direct assistance or input to Scottish NHS Boards or the Scottish Government.

Activities during Premium Rate Hours of Work e.g. hours out with 8am-8pm Monday to Friday

Activities during premium rate hours. PHS on-call Public Health duties while on the PHS Out of Hours on-all Rota, noted above. In addition, there may be meetings which of necessity must be held out with normal hours. These may be with members of the public, partner agencies and with other professionals. There may also be occasions when, due to pressures of work, normal daytime activities extend into premium rate hours.

Extra programmed activities

None.

Staffing support

Support provided through multidisciplinary teams including admin, epidemiology information and data management support.

NHS Scotland Public Health Scotland 10

Accommodation

Agile desk and readily available adjacent breakout rooms which allow multiple daily access for use by the consultant staff without recourse to pre-booking) with at least four chairs and a desk to facilitate team working. Work may be done from home in accordance with the PHS working from home policy.

Equipment

Desk and storage of sufficient size to allow effective office working. Office chair to a recognised HSE standard. Office networked desktop PC, laptop and RAS token (to support virtual working), smartphone of acceptable standard, on-call equipment (specified elsewhere). Access to teleconferencing and videoconferencing facilities and full virtual office suite.

Pre-arranged personal teleconferencing account to facilitate rapidity of outbreak response.

Any other identified resources necessary

Access to an appropriately supported library resource with specialist scientific and technical resources required.

Visual aids, flip charts, white & SMART boards for relevant work

NHS Scotland Public Health Scotland 11

Person specification

Attributes Essential Desirable

Education / qualifications

GMC-registered professionals Inclusion in the GMC Full Register ; and Inclusion in the GMC Specialist Register with a license to

practice

If included in the GMC Specialist Register in a specialty other than public health medicine, you must have equivalent training and/or appropriate experience of public health practice.

Public health specialty registrar applicants who are not yet on the GMC Specialist Register must provide verifiable signed documentary evidence that you are within six months of gaining entry at the date of interview.

Alternatively, you must provide verifiable signed documentary evidence that you have applied for inclusion in the GMC Specialist Registers.

GDC-registered professionals Inclusion in the GDC Specialist List

If included in the GDC Specialist List in a specialty other than dental public health, you must have equivalent training and/or appropriate experience of public health practice.

Public health specialty registrar applicants who are not yet on the GDC Specialist List must provide verifiable signed documentary evidence that you are within six months of gaining entry at the date of interview.

Alternatively, you must provide verifiable signed documentary evidence that you have applied for inclusion in the GDC Specialist List.

UKPHR-registered professionals Inclusion in the UK Public Health Register (UKPHR) for

Public Health Specialists

Public health specialty registrar applicants who are not yet on the UKPHR must provide verifiable signed documentary evidence

NHS Scotland Public Health Scotland 12

that you are within six months of gaining entry, as a Public Health Specialist, at the date of interview.

Alternatively, you must provide verifiable signed documentary evidence that you have applied for inclusion in the UKPHR Public Health Specialist Register.

Minimum 6 months training in health protection

Postgraduate qualification in Public Health MFPH , MRCPath or MRCP by examination, by exemption or by assessment

Competent in undertaking unsupervised on call duties in health protection*

Documented evidence of current or past competence at the level required to be designated as a Competent Person under the 2008 Public Health (Scotland) Act. Where past evidence of competence is presented, this competence must be able to be refreshed and updated.

Applicants must meet minimum CPD requirements (i.e. be up to date) in accordance with Faculty of Public Health requirements or other recognised body

Personal qualities

Able to prioritise work and work well against a background of change and uncertainty.

Adaptable to situations, can handle people of all capabilities and attitudes.

Commitment to team working and respect and consideration for the skills of others.

Self-motivated, pro-active and innovative.

Ability to work as part of a multi-disciplinary team.

High standards of professional probity.

Strong commitment to public health principles

Experience

Experience of and demonstrable competency in dealing with environmental hazards/chemical incidents.

Experience and demonstrable competency in dealing with communicable disease control in a wide variety of settings including incident management and out of hours on call.

Experience of working with other agencies

NHS Scotland Public Health Scotland 13

Ability to assess the need for prophylaxis of infectious diseases of public health importance

Networking with a range of colleagues from different disciplines engaged in Health Protection.

Leading and reporting on an epidemiological investigation.

Leading and reporting on a public health project or programme. Chairing multi-agency meetings and leading multidisciplinary teams.

Communicating on risks to public health especially to NHS professionals and the media.

Strategic thinker with proven leadership skills. Excellent oral and written communication skills (including dealing with the public and the media).

Leading an incident management team.

Experience of emergency planning

Training and mentoring Scientific publications, presentation of papers at conferences, seminars, etc

Experience working in Health Protection at consultant level in an NHS board (or equivalent).

Project management

Staff management and training

Practical experience in facilitating change

Budget management Participating in the development and implementation of public health policy related to one or more topics covered by the post.

An interest and previous experience in practical and academic research in relevant health protection topic areas

Skills

Effective interpersonal, motivational and influencing skills. Able to respond appropriately in unplanned and unforeseen circumstances.

Sensible negotiator with practical expectation of what can be achieved.

Substantially numerate, with highly developed analytical skills using qualitative and quantitative data

NHS Scotland Public Health Scotland 14

Computer literate.

Ability to design, develop, interpret and implement policies. Ability to concentrate for long periods( eg analyses, media presentations)

Resource management skills Methods of surveillance and epidemiological investigation, risk assessment, prevention and control of communicable and non-communicable diseases, risk communication and case, incident and programme management.

Broader public health practice (e.g. health improvement, health economics and health care design and evaluation) especially as it relates to one or more topics covered by one of the posts.

Knowledge and understanding

The NHS in Scotland especially its public health services and those related to diseases caused by infectious agents and environmental hazards.

Methods of research, critical appraisal of evidence, guideline development and statistical predictive modelling.

Local authorities and national non-NHS public bodies especially those which relate to one or more topics covered by one of the posts.

Legal and regulatory issues especially those which relate to one or more topics covered by one of the posts.

The social and political environment NHS and Governmental policy development especially as they relate to one or more topics covered by one of the posts

NHS Scotland Public Health Scotland 15

General conditions

Terms and conditions of service

The post is subject to either: NHS (Scotland) Hospital Medical and Dental Staff and Doctors in Public Health and the Community Health Service; or NHS (Scotland) Agenda for Change Terms and Conditions, and Pubic Health Scotland employment policies.As a Consultant in Health Protection, you will be remunerated at the NHS Scotland Consultant salary scale: £84,984 to £112,925 per annum (pro-rata if applicable).

As a Specialist in Health Protection, you will be remunerated at the NHS Scotland Agenda for Change Band 8D salary scale: £85,811 to £89,732 per annum (pro-rata if applicable).

Base

The post is nominally based at Meridian Court in Glasgow but may involve travel for which appropriate mileage rates will be paid. The office is open plan, an agile desk and all appropriate IT equipment will be provided including for remote working. A mobile phone will normally be provided. There are also options for entirely virtual working. The post holder will be expected to be available for on call for health protection and to participate in the communicable disease and environmental hazards control and emergency planning arrangements for Scotland.

On call arrangements

The postholder will be expected to be on call for health protection and public health and to participate in the communicable disease and environmental hazards control and emergency planning arrangements. Suitable training will be provided for those who need it in discussion with Public Health Scotland.

Indemnity

As the post holder will only be indemnified for duties undertaken on behalf of PHS, the post-holder is strongly advised to ensure that he/she has appropriate professional defence organisation cover for duties outside the scope of the NSS and for any private activity. For on call duties provided to other organisations as part of cross cover out of hours’ arrangements the NHS Litigation Authority has confirmed that those organisations will provide indemnity for the post holder.

Flexibility

NHS Scotland Public Health Scotland 16

It is expected that all staff will adopt flexible working practices to work across organisational boundaries and with relevant public health networks, to be able to meet the challenges and opportunities of working within the field of health protection.

Mobility

The post holder will be expected to work at any establishment at any time throughout the duration of his/her contract, normally within Meridian Court in Glasgow, but with full options for virtual working in most cases

Confidentiality

A consultant has an obligation not to disclose any information of a confidential nature concerning patients, employees, contractors or the confidential business of the organisation.

Public Interest Disclosure

Should a consultant have cause for genuine concern about an issue (including one that would normally be subject to the above paragraph) and believes that disclosure would be in the public interest, he or she should have a right to speak out and be afforded statutory protection and should follow local procedures for disclosure of information in the public interest.

Data protection

If required to do so, the postholder will obtain, process and/or use information held on a computer or word processor in a fair and lawful way. The postholder will hold data only for the specified registered purpose and use or disclose data only to authorised persons or organisations as instructed in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation.

Health and safety

Employees must be aware of the responsibilities placed on them by the Health & Safety at Work Act (1974) and its amendments and by food hygiene legislation to ensure that the agreed safety procedures are carried out to maintain a safe condition for employees, patients and visitors.

Smoking policy

NHS Scotland operates a no smoking policy. Smoking is not allowed in the workplace.

Equal opportunities policy

It is the aim of NHS Scotland to ensure that no job applicant or employee receives less favourable treatment on grounds of gender, religion, race, colour, sexual orientation, nationality, ethnic or national origins or disability or is placed at a disadvantage by conditions or requirements which cannot be shown to be justifiable.

NHS Scotland Public Health Scotland 17

To this end, each NHS Scotland Health Board has an Equal Opportunities Policy in place, and it is for each employee to contribute to its success.

NHS Scotland Public Health Scotland 18