About the job

Job summary

This is a challenging and rewarding specialist epidemiology role in UKHSA’s surveillance and response to Tuberculosis, other mycobacterial infections, emerging influenza (including zoonotic), Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), legionella, Mycoplasma pneumoniae, community acquired pneumonia and other acute or emerging respiratory infections including new coronavirus infections.

The role is a joint appointment between the UKHSA TB and Acute Respiratory units and hosted within the UKHSA Travel Health, Zoonoses, Emerging Infections of Pandemic Potential & Respiratory & TB (TARZET) division of the Clinical and Public Health Group, working closely with information, administrative, clinical, and scientific staff. 

The TB and Acute Respiratory Infections (ARI) Units are a multidisciplinary team s delivering surveillance, epidemiology, public health and clinical advice, microbiology and virology, incident and outbreak response, and advice to government. We work closely with Health Protection Teams, Field Service, NHS England and NHS Trusts, with international agencies and colleagues, and in an integrated way academic partners, with associated research opportunities.

The key elements of the role are: 

• Surveillance and situational awareness of acute respiratory (other than vaccine-preventable infections) and mycobacterial infections, particularly tuberculosis.
• Delivery of the UKHSA-owned objectives in the collaborative TB Action plan 2021-6, supporting the UK’s commitment to WHO targets for TB elimination.
• Preparation for emerging respiratory infections that may have severe public health implications and that may have pandemic potential e.g., emergent new zoonotic influenza, MERS outbreak or other new coronavirus infections.
• Development of community acquired pneumonia (CAP) surveillance – working with system partners to develop a work programme to address the public health burden posed by CAP.
• Surveillance of legionella and mycoplasma pneumoniae infections.
• Advice and support to the incident management teams responding to such threats on epidemiological issues.
• Cross-government liaison with policy colleagues and other sectors including animal health.
• Support the delivery of the UKHSA strategy, the delivery of the objectives set out in the annual remit letter to the Agency and other strategic plans as appropriate.

Job description

The post is subject to the core competencies as set out by the Faculty of Public Health for Consultant appointments and the post holder will be expected to demonstrate expertise in all of them (Appendix A).

 The post holder is required to:

 Take a lead role in the surveillance and situational awareness of respiratory and mycobacterial infections working with the heads of teams and principal scientists in the TB and Acute respiratory infections units and other disciplines to lead on public health risk assessment of these threats and associated communications.

• Contribute to and develop strategic and operational plans for mycobacterial and acute respiratory infections.
• Collaborate with internal and external partners to investigate, manage, and control outbreaks and incidents of mycobacterial and acute respiratory infections.
• Be a member of the TB Unit and Acute respiratory infections unit management teams and TARZET senior staff team, with involvement in business planning and development of surveillance, research, and training strategies.
• Support the deputy director and heads of teams to ensure day-to-day operational delivery of TARZET and the TB and Acute respiratory infections units’ responsibilities and developing new, more efficient and safer approaches to delivering services. Deputise where appropriate, using leadership approaches and skills.
• Provide specialist input to public health guidance and supporting documents for the acute respiratory and mycobacterial infections; leadership on publishing specific documents will be agreed with the units heads.
• Supervise Epidemiological Scientists, Information Officers, Epidemiology Fellows, Specialist Registrars in Public Health Medicine / Specialist Trainees, administrative team members and other staff as appropriate.
• Provide specialist epidemiological advice in relation to the investigation and control of incidents of mycobacterial and acute respiratory infections, working with regional health protection teams and other stakeholders where required.
• Develop epidemiological response capabilities to assess and respond to emerging acute respiratory infections and mycobacterial infection risks.
• Liaise with cross-government stakeholders in relation to situational awareness, public health risk assessment, response advice and preparation for incidents that may have public health implications e.g., emergent respiratory pathogens that may have pandemic potential.
• Collaborate with laboratory specialists to prepare for these infection threats.
• Other duties as agreed by negotiation between the post holder and the unit heads.

Person specification

Additional Responsibilities 

• Promote the of professional standards including training, research, and audit.
• Develop and implement research in collaboration with internal and external partners.
• Contribute to the scientific knowledge base through the development and publishing of academic manuscripts.
• The post’s holder may also be required to travel outside the area to assist with the epidemiological investigations of outbreaks in other parts of the country and may on occasion be required to travel internationally e.g., to international conferences or liaison with international partners.
• The post’s holder may after agreement (which should not reasonably be withheld), be required to undertake other duties as required, which fall within the grading of this post, to meet the needs of the service.
• The post’s holder will be required to participate in on call duties, to meet the needs of the Clinical and Public Health group.
• The post’s holder will participate in departmental quality improvement programmes including clinical audit.

Management Arrangements 

The job plan and the job description will be subject to review in consultation with the post holder in the light of the needs of the employing organisation and the development of the speciality of public health and any wider developments in the field of public health. 

The Consultant will:

1. Be expected to take on the line management of some staff. Where line management responsibilities are agreed this will include recruitment, appraisals, disciplinary and grievance responsibilities.
2. Manage budgets as agreed.
3. Support specialty registrars in Public Health and FETP other trainees/fellows in relation to day to day working.

Medically qualified members of the Service are expected to play certain roles in medical leadership, in relationship with the medical profession and in bringing a medical perspective to public health advice. A medically qualified holder of this post would be expected to share these roles with other medically qualified members of the team. 

Internal

• Principal Scientists, Consultant Epidemiologists, Consultants in Public Health Infection, Microbiology, and Infectious Diseases, and Epidemiological scientists.
• Clinical and Public Health Group Head, Directors, and Deputy Directors.
• Consultants in Communicable Disease Control (CCDC) and Health Protection information staff in UKHSA Regional teams and Field Service Consultant Epidemiologists.
• Laboratory services of UK Health Security Agency.
• UKHSA Regional directors and staff.
• Colleagues in other UKHSA Directorates.

External 

• NHS England.
• Clinical and laboratory staff in NHS.
• Academic colleagues.
• Epidemiologists in Devolved Administration Public Health Agencies.
• Department of Health and Social Care.
• Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
• Cabinet Office.
• Animal and Plant Health Agency.

Benefits

• 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 average employer contribution of 27%

Things you need to know

Selection process details

At the United Kingdom Health Security Agency (UKHSA) our mission is to provide health security for the nation by protecting from infectious disease and external hazards.  We are a trusted source of advice to government and to the public, focusing on reducing inequalities in the way different communities experience and are impacted by infectious disease, environmental hazards, and other threats to health.

Our mission is challenging, innovative and in the spotlight. We will work to ensure our people have the diverse skills, experiences and backgrounds we need to thrive, that our employees are representative of the communities we serve and feel valued and enabled to play their part in delivering our work.

Creating our working culture is an ongoing process which we are developing by listening and learning together, hearing and acting upon diverse voices and opinions to develop a common sense of identity and effective ways of working.

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

Applicants are strongly advised to use the criteria in the Person Specification of the Job Description as sub-headings in their application to make it clear how they meet each of the selection criteria.

The successful candidate will be appointed to the point of the Consultant salary scale appropriate to their years of seniority or if from a background other than medicine to

Candidates must be included  in the GMC Full and Specialist Register with a license to practice (or be eligible for registration within six months of interview) or be included on the UK Public Health Register (UKPHR) for Public Health Specialists at the point of application.

If included in the GMC Specialist Register/ in a specialty other than public health medicine, candidates 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 they are within 6 months of gaining entry at the date of interview; all other applicants must provide verifiable signed documentary evidence that they have applied for inclusion in the GMC.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. 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) (opens in a new window)
• 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 (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) 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 (opens in a new window). 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.