PROFESSIONALLY ACCOUNTABLE TO: / NORTH LINCOLNSHIRE COUNCIL (and THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR HEALTH through PUBLIC HEALTH ENGLAND)
SALARY: / Circa £90k
1. PURPOSE OF JOB
As part of the council's new senior leadership team to be responsible with the Executive Director of People and Transformation (Head of Paid Service) for the corporate and strategic management of the council, influencing policy and practice.
To articulate, champion and develop the ‘council’s vision and priorities for North Lincolnshire: to be an area with aspiring people and inspiring places, striving to deliver excellent outcomes for the people and places of North Lincolnshire. The priorities are to:
· Enable communities to thrive and live active, healthy and fulfilled lives
· Support, safeguard and protect the vulnerable
· Shape the area into a more prosperous place to live, work, invest and play
· Commission to improve outcomes for individuals and communities
· Transform and refocus, ensuring we remain a dynamic and innovative council
To perform the statutory function of the Director of Public Health and fulfil the role of the most senior advocate for public health in North Lincolnshire with significant management responsibilities including managing the ring-fenced public health budget and the core public health service. S/he is the principal advisor on the health of the population and all health related matters.
The Director of Public Health (DPH) is a statutory chief officer of their authority and the principal adviser on all health matters to elected members and officers, with a leadership role spanning all three domains of public health: health improvement, health protection and healthcare public health. Section 73A(1) of the NHS Act 2006, inserted by section 30 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012, gives the Director of Public Health responsibility for:
· all of their local authority’s duties to take steps to improve public health
· any of the Secretary of State’s public health protection or health improvement functions that s/he delegates to local authorities, either by arrangement or under regulations – these include services mandated by regulations made under section 6C of the 2006 Act, inserted by section 18 of the 2012 Act
· exercising their local authority’s functions in planning for, and responding to, emergencies that present a risk to public health
· their local authority’s role in co-operating with the police, the probation service and the prison service to assess the risks posed by violent or sexual offenders
· such other public health functions as the Secretary of State specifies in regulations
· producing an independent annual report on the health of local communities
In order to deliver their responsibilities on behalf of the residents of North Lincolnshire the DPH will need to be a visible system leader in the health and wellbeing partnership arrangements. The DPH will be expected to use all the resources at their disposal to ensure that the local public health system is able to tackle the full range of determinants of health affecting communities in North Lincolnshire. Working with local communities, he/she should be able to inspire development of innovative solutions that support improvements in health and wellbeing and reduction in health inequalities whilst at the same time maintaining the confidence of Councillors and government.
2. COUNCIL ETHOS
The underlying ethos of the corporate management structure is that the Director of Public Health will operate at a strategic level employing an “aspiring people and inspiring places” perspective. The post holder will develop and sustain changes to culture and practice so that services improve outcomes for local people and are responsive to the communities’ needs.
At all times they will act in ways that are consistent with the council’s vision, ambition and core values and ensure that these are embedded throughout the council through leadership and managerial activities.
3. CORPORATE MANAGEMENT
1. As part of the senior leadership team, create a high performance culture that delivers excellence, best value, promotes success and continuous improvement with a core purpose of “aspiring people inspiring places”.
2. To participate in the planning and strategic management of the full range of council services working with other members of the council’s management team, to ensure a coordinated approach to commissioning and service delivery across the council and all partnering agencies.
3. To contribute to the council’s community leadership role building strong and sustainable partnerships with local, national and regional partners and agencies, raising standards for the area and ensuring the wellbeing for North Lincolnshire.
4. To contribute to all and uphold aspects of the council’s corporate governance arrangements,
5. To work with the Executive Director of People and Transformation (Head of Paid Service) and elected members to shape the strategic direction of the council, drive through service improvements and secure increased performance and continuous improvement across the council.
6. To undertake specific corporate roles and assignments as allocated by the Director of People and Transformation (Head of Paid Service) and play an active and supportive role in change management processes.
4. ROLE RESPONSIBILITY
The role requires the post holder to:
· be a transformational and visionary system leader and change agent, ensuring the public health service aims and objectives are aligned to the strategic direction and customer focus of the Council and the CCG;
· fully understand and be committed to addressing the relationships and cultures of organisations that impact on the wider determinants of health;
· display a high level of intellectual rigour and personal credibility;
· be highly visible across the health and social care economy and demonstrate in-depth knowledge of communities and good working relationships between public, private and voluntary sectors and local organisations;
· demonstrate high levels of political awareness;
· be able to work to different organisational cultures and to plan and implement programmes for short and long term health gain;
· be able to coordinate high quality advocacy across all three domains of public health: health improvement, health protection and health service quality;
· be flexible and able to cope with multiple and changing demands, and to meet tight deadlines;
· have exceptional people management skills both in relation to developing the public health community and in helping to develop the public health leadership of organisations and the wider workforce;
· have a proven record of previous accomplishments in improving the health of communities;
· Ensure that health priorities, service planning and delivery and budget are effectively managed, along with promoting and developing a health economy performance driven culture.
More specifically, the Director of Public Health for North Lincolnshire will:
· Take a system leadership role to drive forward the integration agenda between social care and the NHS both locally within North Lincolnshire and across the local health economy including the Sustainable and Transformation Plan footprint.
· To work closely with Directors responsible for people (children, vulnerable communities and older people) to ensure to develop, implement and maintain a “fit for purpose” integrated strategy which meets the needs of local communities and is cogent with the national approach.
· contribute to the wider system drive to make the most effective use of health and social care resources by encouraging fully the drive towards self-care by local people and communities
· be responsible for leading the development and driving the implementation of programmes to improve the health and wellbeing of the local population and to reduce inequalities in health – thereby leading the implementation of the Health and Well Being Strategy and the local NHS Commissioning Plan;
· provide public health advice to the Council, Clinical Commissioning Group, and other partner agencies on the identification of local health priorities, the implementation of action to address these priorities and the setting and monitoring of local targets;
· Ensure the delivery of the CCG ‘core offer’ of public health support as set out in the MOU and underpinning work programme, jointly with North East Lincolnshire reflecting the STP future agenda.
· Work in partnership with CCGs and Directors of Social care to take responsibility for Population Health and Care; including oversight and promoting population coverage of immunisation and screening programmes
· be responsible for producing an independent annual report on the health of the local population
· produce the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment;
· lead the development of the Health and Wellbeing Board and the Health and Wellbeing Strategy;
· play a powerful role in forging partnerships with, and influencing all local agencies to ensure the widest possible participation in the health and wellbeing agenda;
· work closely with Public Health England, NHS England and other relevant organisations to ensure high levels of local resilience;
· Work with the PHE Centre and NHS England to ensure local communities are protected from infectious disease threats (including food and water borne disease, pandemics, etc) and environmental hazards
· Ensure that the Council has implemented its EPRR responsibilities and through Co-chairing of the Local Health resilience Forum, that partner organisations (PHE, NHS England and the CCGs) have delivered their EPRR responsibilities.
· be a highly effective leader for the Public Health Service, ensuring that s/he continues to contribute appropriately to wider public health networks and to bringing public health practice, teaching and research together as appropriate;
· Play a key role in the process of reviewing, changing and leading the organisation. This involves confidently initiating and managing change in a challenging and complex environment.
· Deputise for, or represent, the Director of People and Transformation (Head of Paid Service) and/or other Directors as requested.
The Public Health Service
The Public Health Service holds responsibility for the three areas of public health practice:
§ Health improvement
§ Health protection
§ Healthcare public health
The overall aim of the Public Health Service is to lead the development and implementation of programmes to improve the health and wellbeing of the local population and to reduce inequalities in health.
As part of succession planning, the Director of Public Health will seek approval for the training of public health specialists - training opportunities to be provided for Foundation Programme doctors, GP Trainees, and Public Health Trainees.
CORE COMPETENCY AREAS
The DPH as a public health leader is expected to have both the technical expertise as well as the ability to use those techniques to both, lead and support the development of complex solutions to improve the health and wellbeing of local communities. In addition, they are expected to have skills and the attitudes to be able to present the results of applying their technical expertise so that they are understandable and stimulate actions by a range of individuals and organisations.
Surveillance and assessment of the population’s health and wellbeing
· To ensure the proper design, development and utilisation of major information and intelligence systems to underpin public health improvement and action for the population across disciplines and organisations;
· To receive, interpret, provide and advise on highly complex epidemiological and statistical information about the health of populations to the NHS, local authorities and voluntary organisations;
· To ensure the use of the best available evidence base to support the assessment of health needs, health inequalities, health impact assessment and the identification of areas for action within the local population;
· To produce an annual report on the health of the population of North Lincolnshire.
Assessing the evidence of effectiveness of health and healthcare interventions, programmes and services
· To provide expert public health advice and leadership to support and inform an evidence-based approach within ethical frameworks for commissioning and develop high quality equitable services, across primary, secondary and social care, and across sectors including local authorities, voluntary organisations, etc., in potentially contentious and hostile environments where barriers to acceptance may exist;
· To be responsible for leading on service development, evaluation and quality assurance governance in specific areas and for preparing and adjusting action plans in line with changing needs and changing geographical boundaries;
· To provide expert advice to support evidence based commissioning, prioritisation of services for the population (and in some circumstances for the individual) in order to maximise opportunities for health.
· To provide expert advice and leadership to promote greater self-care that will reduce the demand for health and social care services
Policy and strategy development and implementation
· To act in an expert advisory capacity on public health knowledge, standards and practice, across the spectrum of public health at board and corporate management level;
· To be responsible for the development and implementation of multi-agency long-term public health programmes as required, based on identification of areas of potential health improvement, the diversity of local needs and the reduction of inequalities;
· To ensure proper linkages between the health agenda and strategies related to the wider determinants including for example, community safety, the environment and sustainability.
Leadership and collaborative working for health
· To understand the Local Government environment and provide public health advice for the Borough’s councillors and staff;
· To take the lead role on behalf of the Health and Well Being Board in developing inter-agency and interdisciplinary short and long-term strategic plans for securing health improvement both in the general population and in vulnerable groups at high risk of poor health. This requires working in partnership with a range of agencies such as those in the statutory, non- statutory, voluntary and private sectors;
· To work with other professionals in the health sector and Council staff to raise awareness of their public health role;
· Provide expert advice and support to the CCG Clinical Directors on the Health and Wellbeing Board
· To lead on the integration of health, social services and voluntary organisations to promote effective joint working to ensure delivery of the wider government targets;
· To influence external agencies in their public health policy decisions by working with complex professional, managerial and population groups and other organisations in the statutory, non-statutory and private sectors;