Chief Medical Advisor

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is seeking a permanent Chief Medical Advisor. This is an SCS2 grade role and an outstanding opportunity to work in the largest Civil Service Department that touches the lives of citizens the length and breadth of the UK.

This is a unique opportunity for a senior medical professional to provide expert advice to inform policy, legislation, and delivery decisions at the UK’s biggest public service department, where we administer the State Pension and a range of working age, disability and ill health benefits to around 20 million claimants and customers.

This role will be the Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) for Clinical Governance and Clinical Profession. The postholder will build strong relationships with senior leaders, including the Permanent Secretary, ministers, and external stakeholders, ensuring clinical advice is accurate and of the highest quality. The role requires strong team leadership, promoting an inclusive environment for clinicians to encourage development and growth while ensuring compliance with legislative requirements.

As the Department’s most senior medical professional, you will provide expert advice on clinical policy and clinical governance matters to DWP Ministers and senior leaders across DWP including the DWP Executive team. The role will also work closely with other clinical teams across government as well as external organisations such as regulatory bodies, external providers and charities.

The Department has an ambitious reform agenda including priorities set out in the Get Britain Working White Paper and the Pathways to Work Green Paper and a focus on tackling rising youth inactivity.

As Chief Medical Advisor you will bring professional expertise to complex problems, influencing right at the heart of decision making. You will be a strong relationship builder, able to work effectively across a large and complex organisation, and operate as an inspiring leader.

This role has four major components:

• Leading a team of approximately 50 colleagues providing clinical advice across DWP, you will act as the Department’s expert on clinical policy matters and work with officials across the Department to ensure Ministers receive the highest quality advice on clinical policy.
• Provide the in-house clinical advice relating to disability, work, and health within DWP for Ministers and the Executive team.
• Operate as Head of Clinical Profession, where you will be responsible for training, appraisal, and revalidation of c.200 clinicians in DWP, ensuring they are in good standing with their regulatory body. There is also a dotted line of professional responsibility to 5,500 healthcare professionals within contracted provider organisations.
• As SRO for Clinical Governance, you will oversee the DWP Caldicott Guardian and Clinical Safeguarding Lead, providing final sign-off for sanctions and waivers on behalf of the Secretary of State.

The successful candidate must be able to demonstrate their knowledge, experience and skills against the following essential criteria:

• Excellent strategic thinking skills, with the ability to understand both complex policy detail and high level, strategic connections across a broad portfolio and an outstanding eye for critical detail.
• Experience of delivering practical and innovative responses to complex issues and responding to unplanned circumstances.
• Strong technical skills relevant to clinical safeguarding with expertise in occupational health or functional medicine.
• Evidence of exceptional leadership and ability to lead multidisciplinary clinical education teams and/or programmes to ensure understanding of all roles across the 5,500 strong clinical profession, including the ability to motivate and inspire an experienced and diverse clinical team.
• Ability to demonstrate credibility to inspire the respect of both internal and external stakeholders at Director level and above.

Applicants must also meet the following qualification and membership requirements:

• A clinically active doctor with license to practise with GMC.
• Candidates must meet minimum ‘Continuing Professional Development’ (CPD) requirements (i.e. be up-to-date) in accordance with the requirements of the appropriate recognised professional body.
• Medical qualification MBChB or equivalent.
• It is desirable that applicants hold a faculty of medical leadership recognition to ensure profession leadership is credible.

Prior Civil Service experience is not a pre-requisite, however, applicants must demonstrate the ability to operate at scale in a complex environment. DWP are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity in our organisation, we welcome applications to help us reflect the citizens we serve.

This role can be based in the following DWP Hub locations: London, Leeds, or Sheffield. Hybrid working policy: The expectation is that this role would require the successful candidate to be in the office more than 60% of the time. Travel to other DWP and official locations including London is required which may include overnight stays.

Alongside your salary, the Department for Work and Pensions contributes 28.97% towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme.

Applicants will be required to provide an up-to-date CV and supporting statement (up to 1,250 words) detailing how you meet the role’s requirements. You will also provide a completed online diversity monitoring form.

The closing date for applications is Monday 2nd March 2026 at 10:00am. To apply, please email DWP@allenlane.co.uk.

In addition to Security Check (SC) level clearance, this role will also be subject to an Enhanced Check. Candidates who do not already have this level of clearance can have this undertaken post-appointment. In all cases the appointment remains conditional on this level of security clearance.

DWP is recognised as a Disability Confident Leader, demonstrating the departmental commitment to attracting, recruiting and retaining disabled people and supporting them in achieving their full potential. We run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria for the advertised role.

This vacancy is also part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans initiative.

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