About the job

Job summary

• To support the Chief Dental Officer (CDO), ensuring the First Minister, Minister for Health and Social Services, Director General for Health and Social Services and the CDO receive appropriate, timely, high quality and professional advice in respect of the practice of dentistry and the promotion of good oral health for the people of Wales.
• The role provides essential and regular support to the CDO, Director of Primary Care, Head of Dental Branch and the wider dental team. The CDO’s lead role in policy requires close support from the DCDO to facilitate delivery and to manage much of the day-to-day work of the dental agenda.
• The DCDO supports the CDO in professional matters and in the delivery of the vision for dental services and oral health in Wales. The work of the DCDO also has a direct impact on delivery of the organisations policies and priorities. The DCDO will be expected to deputise for the CDO when required and appropriate to do so.

Job description

Job specific information: 

The on-going work of the Primary Care Division and Dental Branch in its contribution to the provision of safe and effective dental and oral health services for the public in Wales:

 1. Advice (proactive and reactive):

• to the First Minister, the Minister for Health and Social Services, Director General Health and Social Services, Chief Dental Officer, other Groups and Divisions of the Welsh Government;
• through attendance at and co-operation with the statutory Welsh Dental Committee and regular meetings of the Consultants in Dental Public Health of Public Health Wales, officials in other UK health departments, NHS England, BDA and General Dental Council (GDC);
• through participation in inter and intra-departmental working, in joint teams with the National Health Service, where necessary in a leadership role; and
• to the profession in Wales via written and electronic communications.

2. Policy development:

• developing policy, legislation and standards which promote good oral health by working closely with policy directorates across Welsh Government, particularly by managing dental policy, in agreeing standards for the provision and delivery of dental care.

3. Monitoring:

• the oral health of Wales on the basis of the epidemiology and against agreed targets;
• dental service provision of Local Health Boards (LHBs) by the study of performance data, including outcome measures; and
• scrutinising LHB, Healthcare Inspectorate Wales and Healthcare Education and Improvement Wales responsibilities relating to the development of quality assurance and improvement processes.

 4. Negotiation:

• with other UK health departments to secure the interests of the First Minister and the Minister for Health and Social Services; and
• with the profession, via extant negotiating forums for general dental services GDS), Community Dental Services and Hospital Dental Services on matters relating to terms of service and operational issues.

 5. Liaison

•   nationally and within the UK with statutory and academic bodies and learned societies, with professional representative organisations, including those responsible for Dental Care Professionals;
•   with the Chief Dental Officers and their deputies for England, Scotland and Northern Ireland;
•   with the GDC, by attendance at Council meetings;
•   with Public Health Wales;
•   with service managers of LHBs;
•   with NHS Business Services Authority; and
•   patient representative organisations and, where appropriate, the media.

 6. Securing training, staffing and research

• securing and growing sufficient and effective undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing education and training opportunities for the dental team in Wales;
• attendance at Cardiff University Dental School bilateral liaison meetings;
• by encouraging research and clinical audit and by the advancement of clinically effective provision within the primary care setting;
• by advocating appropriate workforce arrangements for Wales by promoting participation in, or leading, workforce studies in Wales, including arrangements for expanding effective skill mix.
• Supporting Health Education Improvement Wales (HEIW) on workforce planning, development and strategic initiatives to grow the dental workforce across Wales.

 7. Management

• inputting into the management of the workload of the Dental Branch; and
• maintain the highest professional standards within Welsh Government by meeting the continuing professional development requirements of relevant faculties of the Surgical Royal Colleges, College of General Dentistry and the General Dental Council.

Person specification

The post holder is directly accountable to the Chief Dental Officer and fulfils the role of Deputy Chief Dental Officer. To DCDO will support the Chief Dental Officer, dental branch and Welsh Government colleagues to deliver agreed objectives and to: ensure the provision of timely appropriate and high-quality professional advice on dental services and oral health to Ministers and officials in the Welsh Government, other Government departments and to the NHS and other publicly funded bodies; support the Minister, senior officials, the dental profession, and external stakeholders, to shape and deliver policy objectives within available resources to improve the clinical and cost effectiveness and availability of NHS dental and oral health promotion services in Wales; work with a wide range of external stakeholders to ensure advice on improving oral health and enhancing the availability and quality of dental services in Wales is up to date and evidence based; provide strong and effective leadership, representing Welsh Government and Wales interests in dentistry and oral health improvement to the dental profession and other stakeholders in the UK When appropriate to work with the other UK Chief Dental Officers and their teams on joint policy deliver the Programme for Government and other strategies including the Oral health and dental services response to A Healthier Wales, supporting the dental system reform programme and lead workstreams informing the dental reform strategic oversight group. What your organisation will expect?  Professional Roles You will be a Principal/Professional Advisor for a specific subject/area, on behalf of the organisation. (This may include a professional qualification or being a member of a chartered profession). What your team will expect? You will be a strong leader with experience of building and developing high performing teams, inspiring and motivating in order to deliver results through others. You will be able to build co-operation between teams and provide direction across teams. You will have a demonstrable understanding of diversity, inclusion and equality of opportunity, promoting a culture of inclusion, creating an environment where individuals feel safe to challenge, share ideas and express concerns and embracing new ways of working. You will create a culture of continuous self-development, role-modelling self-learning and development, whilst encouraging others to take all opportunities available. You will ensure ensuring that opportunities are available to all staff regardless of their background, supporting everyone to reach their full potential. What your stakeholders will expect? You will establish, build and maintain effective relationships or partnerships with key organisational stakeholders (e.g. Ministers and senior employees in the organisation and external organisations, often with conflicting views). You will have high level of representational, influencing, interpersonal and organisational skills together with the ability to negotiate effectively with a range of contacts and/or relationships (e.g. directly advising Ministers and/or the most senior officers externally, acting as a primary/lead contact on behalf of the organisation). You will work with a high level of autonomy, demonstrating an ability to take/make decisions (with significant risk/impact) on behalf of the organisation whilst balancing the impact/risk associated with those decisions.

Benefits

All Welsh Government staff are members of the Civil Service, and as a result are eligible for:

• Civil Service Pension Scheme
• 31 days annual leave (pro-rated for part time)
• training and development opportunities
• Cycle2Work Scheme
• Smart Working flexible working arrangement
• Green Car Scheme (subject to availability)

If you are an active Civil Service Pension member you can continue your membership throughout your employment with us.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours.

Welsh Government, like all other Government Departments use Success Profiles when we recruit. For each role we consider what you will need to demonstrate to be successful. This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job. It raises performance and improves diversity and inclusivity.

The selection process and stages are:

Number of Stages:	2 stage process
Stage 1	Application Form
Stage 2	Interview

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.