Veterinary Lead

Overview

Do you want a strategic role safeguarding standards of animal health and welfare?

Have you got knowledge and experience of working with the UK livestock industry across all sectors?

Do you have the ability to influence others and guide your team in a shared strategy?

If so, we would like to hear from you!

APHA is a brilliant place to work where our people feel valued, have a voice and can be their authentic selves. We value difference and diversity, because it helps us be more innovative and make better decisions.

We are dedicated to being an inclusive employer, offering equitable opportunities for all individuals. Our goal is to build a diverse workforce, and we hope to attract applications from all backgrounds and underrepresented groups.

Role and responsibilities

As a Veterinary Lead, you will lead and manage a geographically dispersed, multi-disciplinary team, both during and between animal disease outbreaks. Reporting to the Head of Field Delivery (HoFD), you will be accountable for delivering operational excellence in veterinary leadership, stakeholder engagement, and customer service within your area. Your priority will be to safeguard Great Britain from animal-related threats through the effective and consistent application and enforcement of animal health, welfare, and veterinary public health policies.

You will play a pivotal role in the provision of veterinary advice to build effective relationships with Government policy customers, operational partners, veterinary profession stakeholders and commercial networks. By working with these stakeholders, you will influence national policy development and support the delivery of scanning surveillance aims and objectives. In addition, by building effective relationships with Other Government Departments and Local Authorities you will support collaborative working across areas of joint responsibility and emergency response.

As a Veterinary Leader it is important that you play a part in the strategic thinking and development of the Agency, ensuring the effective delivery of agreed public and animal health and welfare strategies and policies.

You will provide senior veterinary leadership, decision making and direction for all staff during incidents and in disease emergency situations.

You will be expected to analyse, define and manage the veterinary risks in the agreed area of responsibility to achieve the Governments’ animal health and welfare outcomes and, in conjunction with others, ensure that the effective deployment of appropriate resources achieves organisational priorities and outcomes under all circumstances. The role requires you to represent Welsh Government and APHA in dealings with local operational partners, stakeholders and the media.

The work you will be doing:

• Providing strategic veterinary leadership for the implementation of APHA’s veterinary and technical strategy, clinical governance, management and relationships within their area; acting as a senior APHA veterinary representative on strategic boards, at national and on occasion international meetings.
• Role modelling and embedding the necessary cultural changes required for the Agency to thrive, as APHA moves to a matrix system of management that supports increased flexibility, an agile response and digital ways of working.
• Providing veterinary leadership and direction for response to incidents and / or outbreaks of endemic or exotic notifiable disease including being available for deployment across GB.
• Ensuring that all veterinary and technical activities are delivered in accordance with desired policy outcomes, business plans and performance targets, working with the Head of Field Delivery (HoFD) to constantly seek improved efficiency and value for money.
• Making veterinary decisions where there is high impact and high uncertainty, taking into account policy considerations and ensuring that those decisions are based on the best available evidence.
• Building effective relationships with local senior stakeholders and partners to influence end user behaviour regarding compliance with animal health and welfare strategies and policies.
• Working with APHA colleagues and Senior Official Veterinarians to monitor and assure consistency of compliance with quality and safety standards of the Veterinary Delivery Partnership contractors in their area.
• Delivering the APHA vision to all staff and contributing to the corporate leadership of the Agency.
• You will be expected to role-model authentic and inspiring leadership, embedding the necessary performance improvements and culture changes.
• Contributing to the design, development and implementation of national policy initiatives and reforms, undertaking important roles on programme boards, project teams and working groups
• Participating in an on-call rota will be required as part of the role which attracts an allowance