Public Health Specialist Practitioner
Job Description
Job title: Public Health Specialist Practitioner
Job Category: Project Management
Location: Civic Offices, New Road, Grays, Essex, RM176SL, Thurrock Council
Hours Per Week :37.00
Pay: £205.05 per day
Flexible and hybrid working available, with a minimum of 2 days per week office working.
We are seeking an exceptional and engaging Public Health Specialist Practitioner to join the Public Health Team at Thurrock Council on a maternity cover basis within the Healthcare Public Health sub-team. This is an exciting opportunity to work collaboratively with a wide range of stakeholders to deliver meaningful public health impact, improving health outcomes and reducing health inequalities across the local population.
The postholder will play a key role in delivering healthcare public health priorities identified within the Council’s Corporate Plan, Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy and Public Health Service Delivery Plan. The Healthcare Public Health workstream strengthens prevention-focused, system-wide approaches that improve health outcomes and reduce inequalities, working closely with NHS partners, local government colleagues and wider stakeholders to support evidence-based commissioning, service improvement and population health initiatives.
The postholder will:
Work closely with NHS Primary Care, Greater Essex Integrated Care Board (ICB) partners and Integrated Neighbourhood Teams to improve health outcomes and reduce health inequalities.
Collaborate with Health Intelligence colleagues to analyse and respond to quality improvement measures, outcomes, and insights from the JSNA, Health Needs Assessments, Health Equity Audits and the Director of Public Health Report.
Lead on key healthcare public health projects, including health equity initiatives and the commissioning, monitoring and continuous improvement of the NHS Health Checks programme.
Provide specialist public health advice to inform commissioning, service development and system-wide prevention priorities.
Support the development and delivery of evidence-based pathways and targeted interventions aligned with local population health needs.
Contribute to reporting, governance and assurance processes through high-quality briefings, summaries and data-driven insights.
Build and maintain strong partnerships across the Council, NHS and wider stakeholders to support collaborative, prevention-focused approaches.
This role requires strong public health knowledge, analytical skills, and the ability to influence and work collaboratively across organisational boundaries to improve population health outcomes and reduce health inequalities for Thurrock residents.
Skills and abilities – essential
Strategic thinker with proven leadership skills.
Self-starter with the ability to organise and prioritise conflicting workloads and meet
strict deadlines whilst working across the service, other council departments and partner
organisations.
Excellent oral and written communication skills with the ability to adapt the
presentation to different audiences.
Effective interpersonal, motivational and influencing skills.
Substantially numerate with the ability to analyse and interpret complex public health
qualitative and quantitative data.
Proven ability to undertake health needs assessments including critical appraisal of
evidence.
Ability to manage delegated budgets, forecast risk and effectively escalate this to the
Public Health Senior Leadership Team.
Highly developed skills in partnership working across all sectors to improve public
health outcomes, reduce health inequalities and improve services.
Proven ability to design, develop, interpret and implement policies and strategy.
Proven ability to lead and manage teams and foster good working relationships across
the Public Health department and with colleagues in other teams across the council.
Highly developed influencing and collaborative working skills in complex environments
and across sectors to achieve public health outcomes.
Ability to multi-task in a fluid and changing environment with competing priorities.
Ability to prioritise, plan and manage own workload and that of a team.
Clear understanding of project planning and management including the monitoring
and evaluation of projects.
Multimedia communication and presentation skills
Information knowledge management skills.
Experience of commissioning public health services and performance management of
Ability to develop a culture of continuous quality improvement where excellence is the
norm.
1b. Skills and abilities – desirable
2a. Special knowledge – essential
Degree in Public Health related subject or equivalent professional qualification together
with documented evidence of experience of working in a Public Health role
Evidence of Continuing Personal and Professional Development relevant to public
health policy and practice.
Strong understanding of practical and theoretical knowledge of public health practice,
health promotion models and community health development.
Understanding of epidemiology and statistics, public health practice, health promotion,
health economics and health care evaluation.
Demonstrable understanding of social and wider determinants of health and health
inequalities.
Knowledge of local and national strategies, policies and legislation relevant to the
programmes of work.
Knowledge of methods of developing clinical quality assurance, quality improvement
and evidence based clinical and/or public health practice.
Good understanding of NHS and local government cultures, structures and policies and
interfaces between health and social care.
2b. Special knowledge – desirable
Achieved or working towards registration as Public Health Practitioner with UKPHR
(UK Public Health Register) at the point of application.
Project management training and qualification e.g. PRINCE 2
3a. Experience – essential
Substantial experience in a public health role within a complex public sector environment.
Proven experience of working with diverse groups across a range of organisations
and professional disciplines across health and social care to improve service outcomes.
Demonstrable experience of managing projects or public health programmes.
of commissioning a wide range of public health related service provision at population level.
Experience of undertaking Health Needs Assessments and contributing to Joint
3b. Experience – desirable
4a. Other requirements – essential
To behave in accordance with our values.
Commitment to the principles of agile working including the ability to work flexibly with
regards to both hours of work and location of work including remote and home working as required.
commitment to public health principles.
To maintain appropriate public health professional standards and competencies in
line with job role using a suitable audit tool – Public Health Knowledge and Skills
Able to manage and prioritise own workload.
Be able to work under pressure and exercise good judgement
Be able to manage confidential information sensitively
4b. Other requirements – desirable
5a. Equalities – essential
Understanding of and commitment to principles of equality and diversity and
compliance with Thurrock Council policies.
Demonstrate understanding of how the principles of equality and diversity impact on
questions of health equity and health inequalities. Ability to integrate health equity and
health inequalities considerations into plans, strategies, service delivery and practice.
