
Public Health Strategist (child and maternal health) PO6
Job title: Public Health Strategist (Child and Maternal Health)
Directorate: Families
Hours of work: Full time – 36 hours per week
Permanent contract
Grade: PO6
Waltham Forest Council is looking to appoint a Public Health Strategist on a permanent contract to join its Public Health Team. This role has a specific focus on child and maternal health.
We are seeking a highly motivated and enthusiastic person who is passionate about maternal and children’s public health We are looking for someone who is resourceful, competent and with a record in problem solving skills, with a good grasp of health intelligence and a genuine ethos of partnership working. The successful candidate will have strategic vision, will be comfortable working across organisational and professional boundaries and will work with partners across diverse communities and agencies.
The successful candidate will bring energy, drive and innovation to make a difference, working through challenges to improve outcomes for children and families in Waltham Forest. This is a great opportunity to develop and influence the public health agenda and to build on work to tackle inequalities. This role would ideally suit a candidate with experience of children’s public health.
About us
Waltham Forest is a vibrant, diverse home to approximately 275,000 residents, approximately 67,000 children in East London. The Public Health team is embedded in the council’s core business and has well developed relationships across the council and with partners.
The leaders of the borough are firmly committed to public health, and the principles of early intervention and prevention and ensuring the Best Start in Life making this an excellent place to work in collaboration to achieve genuine improvements for residents.
The Public Health Team is committed to providing a stimulating environment within which to work, running monthly reflective practice sessions, journal clubs and providing opportunities for personal development through training, education, shadowing and on-the-job learning.
The role
The post holder will work in co-operation with other colleagues within Public Health, Council directorates, the local Clinical Commissioning Group and NHS and voluntary sector and will need to establish and maintain a wide and varied range of working relationships. This is especially true across early years settings, and with maternity, health visiting, school nursing and children and family centre services. The post holder will need to develop a good understanding of the context of services in the borough which impact on children’s health and health inequalities.
While the position is a universal public health strategist role, the portfolio to be covered by the candidate will focus on child and maternal health, covering the following areas:
- Commissioning of the Healthy Child Programme (School Nursing, Health Visiting, Family Nurse Partnership)
- Commissioning of other children’s health services (Best Start Service (breastfeeding, healthy weight, oral health); Healthy Start Vitamins
- Support to the Children’s Health and Wellbeing Board and the Maternity and Early Years Steering Group
- Work to implement the Council’s Best Start in Life Strategy (for 0-5s)
- Partnership working around high profile areas, for example CAMHS and SEND
This post will work alongside other members of the public health team, particularly those with roles around child health, including a Senior Strategist (Health in Schools & Violence Against Women and Girls), a Healthy Early Years officer, a Public Health Officer (Life Chances); and the Consultant-level holder of the overall children’s portfolio. The role may potentially include some line management responsibility.
We invite applications from individuals who are skilled at managing relationships and negotiating across a wide range of organisations, who understand the challenges faced by local authorities and the NHS, and who will provide strong leadership in contributing to the work of our dynamic public health team.
Your application should set out how you meet the job role profile.
For further information please contact Joe McDonnell , Director of Public Health on: joe.mcdonnell@walthamforest.gov.uk
Likely interview date: w.c. Monday 1st August 2022
Equal Opportunities
Waltham Forest is a diverse borough where diversity is valued and is integral to both, service delivery and employment of its staff. The Council is proud of its rich mix of communities and as the largest employer in the area, it works hard to respond to the changing needs of its population. We use our statutory duties on race, gender and disability equality and best practice in respect of age, faith and sexual orientation to ensure equality of opportunity in the workplace. The Council is committed to meeting its 4 equality objectives: - Promoting equality of opportunity - Opposing all forms of discrimination, intolerance and disadvantage - Ensuring our workforce reflects the diverse communities of Waltham Forest at all levels. - Providing fair, appropriate, accessible and excellent Services to all. Respecting Diversity is a core Council value. To support the above and reduce the risk of bias in its recruitment activities, the council is operating an anonymous shortlisting process, which hides personal information that can identify individuals until their application has been considered for shortlisting. The council also operates a scheme whereby, for jobs graded up to and including scale SO2, internal candidates are considered first. This includes those candidates who self-identify as having a disability for the purposes of the Disability Confident scheme. For more information, please refer to our recruitment and selection policy
How to apply
Application Information
Application Information The councils preference is for on-line application forms. However if you have a disability and are unable to complete an on-line application, please email recruitment@walthamforest.gov.uk so we can arrange an alternative.
For more information on how to complete your application form, follow this link: Applying for a job at Waltham Forest Council
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