Head of Environmental Hazards and Emergencies Department

Head of Environmental Hazards and Emergencies Department

Join to apply for the Head of Environmental Hazards and Emergencies Department role at UK Health Security Agency

Head of Environmental Hazards and Emergencies Department

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Join to apply for the Head of Environmental Hazards and Emergencies Department role at UK Health Security Agency

Any UKHSA Core HQ or Scientific Campus – Birmingham, Chilton, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Porton

Job Summary

The Environmental Hazards and Emergencies (EHE) Department provides authoritative scientific advice to government, the NHS and other bodies. EHE’s mission is to prepare for and prevent future health security hazards, strengthen capability and to respond to chemical and environmental emergencies, and build the UK’s capacity on health security for new and long-term exposure to environmental hazards.

The EHE Department comprises of multidisciplinary teams of scientists working across geographically dispersed locations within England and Wales. The department is responsible for providing specialist advice at local, national and international level on the public health impact of acute and chronic non-infectious environmental exposures. Scientists collaborate with academia on research and evidence reviews to underpin this advice, such as via the National Institute of Health Research Health Protection Research Units (HPRU). Many scientists also sit on cross government and multi-agency expert groups relevant to environmental public health. EHE also provides support to the Department of Health and Social care (DHSC) expert committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants (COMEAP).

The post is to head the EHE department leading RCCE’s agenda on air quality, noise and the acute and chronic national and frontline support for chemical and environmental hazards and responsibility for RCCE’s chemical emergency preparedness, as part of the wider UKHSA arrangements.

The Postholder Will

• Provide strategic and Scientific management of a significant area of work at a senior level, autonomously, being responsible for developing strategy/business plans, creating and managing the operational framework to deliver the specified outcomes including a delegated budget.
• Be responsible both for planning a work programme and maintaining systems and capabilities that anticipate likely future needs, and for ensuring that RCCE preparedness is appropriate both for its lead expert role in an incident/emergency involving chemicals and environmental hazards and for its wider support role in the event of a major infectious disease outbreak.
• Set the strategic direction, and ensuring through, planning, exercising and training that the Division has an effective, efficient and proportionate response to chemical and environmental incidents and emergencies, with appropriate mechanisms in place to provide the required support to central government and other key stakeholders, in close collaboration with the other parts of UKHSA.
• Have departmental management duties also include corporate governance, health and safety, quality control, the recruitment and career development of staff.

This post involves significant UK travel.

Job Description

Your key responsibilities will include:

• Taking full responsibility for: budgetary control, including a negotiated annual income target; the delivery of negotiated annual operational targets; and adherence to all statutory and UKHSA policy requirements.
• Ensure that authoritative, timely and consistent public health advice on matters related to chemical exposures (both acute and chronic) is provided to internal and external frontline stakeholders across England, and to work with the Devolved Administrations, when appropriate, to ensure co-ordination and consistent advice for the public during emergencies.
• The early identification of emerging issues and public concerns in order to engage with appropriate expertise within RCCE and elsewhere to develop appropriate advice, the promotion of a culture in which experience and knowledge is shared and the dissemination of consistent advice to all those who need it.
• Have a thorough understanding of, and be able to influence, legislation/regulations relating to environmental public health at National, European and International levels.
• Have the expertise and standing to represent the UKHSA nationally, to advise policy makers and regulators on the environmental public health aspects of Government strategy and regulation, engage widely, including with UK Government/Devolved Administrations and international bodies, to contribute to the optimum regulation and management of activities/events that could pose an environmental public health risk to populations in the UK.
• Support the work of UKHSA at high level in meetings pertaining to environmental public health, and in dealing with the media and special interest groups who can often be confrontational.
• Develop and maintain relationships with internal and external stakeholders. Pro-actively manage stakeholders, respond to and resolve conflict between them when this arises through facilitation or other appropriate mechanisms.
• Work with colleagues in RCCE to develop a robust evidence-based framework of national advice.
• Influence funding bodies on the need for research to address the most pressing policy needs, develop a programme of applied scientific research in line with RCCE\’s corporate strategy and the needs of the frontline.
• Foster research initiatives with academic partners in particular translational research.
• Promote a departmental culture for the publishing of scientific papers/articles/reports which are subject to peer review.
• Take responsibility for developing and maintaining software and databases relevant to the work of the Department, particularly those for recording UKHSA response to acute and chronic environmental incidents and enquiries.

The duties/responsibilities listed above describe the post as it is at present and is not intended to be exhaustive. The Job holder is expected to accept reasonable alterations and additional tasks of a similar level that may be necessary.

Your Key Responsibilities Will Include

• Taking full responsibility for: budgetary control, including a negotiated annual income target; the delivery of negotiated annual operational targets; and adherence to all statutory and UKHSA policy requirements.
• Ensure that authoritative, timely and consistent public health advice on matters related to chemical exposures (both acute and chronic) is provided to internal and external frontline stakeholders across England, and to work with the Devolved Administrations, when appropriate, to ensure co-ordination and consistent advice for the public during emergencies.
• The early identification of emerging issues and public concerns in order to engage with appropriate expertise within RCCE and elsewhere to develop appropriate advice, the promotion of a culture in which experience and knowledge is shared and the dissemination of consistent advice to all those who need it.
• Have a thorough understanding of, and be able to influence, legislation/regulations relating to environmental public health at National, European and International levels.
• Have the expertise and standing to represent the UKHSA nationally, to advise policy makers and regulators on the environmental public health aspects of Government strategy and regulation, engage widely, including with UK Government/Devolved Administrations and international bodies, to contribute to the optimum regulation and management of activities/events that could pose an environmental public health risk to populations in the UK.
• Support the work of UKHSA at high level in meetings pertaining to environmental public health, and in dealing with the media and special interest groups who can often be confrontational.
• Develop and maintain relationships with internal and external stakeholders. Pro-actively manage stakeholders, respond to and resolve conflict between them when this arises through facilitation or other appropriate mechanisms.
• Work with colleagues in RCCE to develop a robust evidence-based framework of national advice.
• Influence funding bodies on the need for research to address the most pressing policy needs, develop a programme of applied scientific research in line with RCCE\’s corporate strategy and the needs of the frontline.
• Foster research initiatives with academic partners in particular translational research.
• Promote a departmental culture for the publishing of scientific papers/articles/reports which are subject to peer review.
• Take responsibility for developing and maintaining software and databases relevant to the work of the Department, particularly those for recording UKHSA response to acute and chronic environmental incidents and enquiries.

The duties/responsibilities listed above describe the post as it is at present and is not intended to be exhaustive. The Job holder is expected to accept reasonable alterations and additional tasks of a similar level that may be necessary.

Person specification

Essential Criteria

• A higher scientific degree in environmental sciences, chemistry, toxicology or equivalent experience in science, chemistry, or toxicology to PhD level
• Significant experience in complex chemical and environmental exposure or risk assessments and the interpretation of this information for input to regulation and policy
• Significant experience in leading and managing scientific teams
• Experience of budget management and/or commercial acumen
• The ability to critically appraise and review reports, publications and other written or presentational material from internal and external colleagues.
• The ability to work collaboratively with a variety of stakeholders, including colleagues in UKHSA; senior officials from Government and NHS bodies and local authorities; representatives of other UK bodies and commercial organisations; senior staff in international organisations
• Highly developed communication skills to negotiate with senior stakeholders on difficult and controversial issues, and present complex and sensitive information to large and influential groups, members of the public and the media
• Ability to respond effectively and to sudden unexpected demands and develop a managed response. Take decisions on difficult and contentious issues where there may be a number of courses of action
• Ability to work under pressure and to tight and often changing deadlines. Ability to judge the appropriate level of personal resource to allocate to tasks and to take decisions/provide information/advice on appropriate timescales, regardless of the quality and quantity of data gathered and personal depth of expertise in the topic
• Skills for delivering results through managing through others and using a range of levers in the absence of direct line management responsibility
• Significant demonstrable experience in supporting national policy development in support of and working in collaboration with central government departments and agencies
• Demonstrable skills and experience in acute and chronic incident response and emergency preparedness and response, to incident director level, in chemical and other public health emergencies
• Ability to work irregular hours (including on-call) and travel nationally and internationally as required
• An understanding of, and commitment to, equality of opportunity and good working relationships

Alongside your salary of £68,568, UK Health Security Agency contributes £19,864 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• 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 employer contribution of 28.97%

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths, Experience and Technical skills and Ability.

Stage 1 – Application & Sift

You will be required to complete an application form. You will be assessed on the 14 essential criteria listed, and this will be in the form of a:

• Application form (‘Employer/ Activity history’ section on the application)
• Up to 1500-word Statement of Suitability

This should outline how you consider your skills, experience, and knowledge, provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with reference to the essential criteria.

The Application form and Statement of Suitability will be marked together.

Longlisting: In the event of a large number of applications we will longlist into 3 piles of:

• Meets all essential criteria
• Meets some essential criteria
• Meets no essential criteria

Piles Meets all essential criteria will be moved through to the shortlisting stage.

Shortlisting: In the event of a large number of applications we will shortlist on:

• A higher scientific degree in environmental sciences, chemistry, toxicology or equivalent experience in science, chemistry, or toxicology to PhD level

Please do not exceed 1500 words. We will not consider any words over and above this number. If you are successful at this stage, you will progress to an interview. Unfortunately, late applications will not be considered.

Please note you will not be able to upload your CV. You must complete the application form in as much detail as possible. Please do not email us your CV.

Feedback will not be provided at this stage.

Stage 2: Interview (success profiles)

You will be invited to a (single) face to face interview. In exceptional circumstances we may be able to offer a remote interview.

Behaviours, technical, experience, ability and strengths will be tested at interview

The Behaviour\’s Tested During The Interview Stage Will Be

• Communicating and Influencing (lead)
• Seeing the Big Picture
• Making Effective Decisions
• Leadership
• Managing a Quality Service

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Location

This role is being offered as hybrid working based at any of our Core HQ’s. We offer great flexible working opportunities at UKHSA and operate using a hybrid working model where business needs allow. This provides us with greater flexibility about how and where we work, to get the best from our workforce. As a hybrid worker, you will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of your contractual working hours (approximately 3 days a week pro rata, (averaged over a month) working at one of UKHSA\’s core HQ’s (Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, and London) or at one of our scientific campus sites (Colindale, Porton and Chilton).

Our core HQ offices are modern and newly refurbished with excellent city centre transport link and benefit from benefit from co-location with other government departments such as the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC).

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is Security Clearance and Developed Vetting.

For meaningful National Security Vetting checks to be carried out individuals need to have lived in the UK for a sufficient period of time. You should normally have been resident in the United Kingdom for the last 10 years as the role requires Security Check (SC) and Developed Vetting (DV) clearance. UK residency less than the outlined periods may not necessarily bar you from gaining national security vetting and applicants should contact the Vacancy Holder / Recruiting Manager listed in the advert for further advice.

Eligibility Criteria

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

Reasonable Adjustments

The Civil Service is committed to making sure that our selection methods are fair to everyone.

To help you during the recruitment process, we will consider any reasonable adjustments that could help you.

An adjustment is a change to the recruitment process or an adjustment at work.

This is separate to the Disability Confident Scheme.

If you need an adjustment to be made at any point during the recruitment process you should:

Contact the recruitment team in confidence as soon as possible to discuss your needs.

You can find out more information about reasonable adjustments across the Civil Service here: https://www.civil-service-careers.gov.uk/reasonable-adjustments/

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Your application may be rejected and/or you may be subject to disciplinary action if evidence of plagiarism is detected. Examples of plagiarism can include presenting the ideas and experience of others, or generated by artificial intelligence (AI), as your own.

Organisation info

We pride ourselves as being an employer of choice, where Everyone Matters promoting equality of opportunity to actively encourage applications from everyone, including groups currently underrepresented in our workforce.

UKHSA ethos is to be an inclusive organisation for all our staff and stakeholders. To create, nurture and sustain an inclusive culture, where differences drive innovative solutions to meet the needs of our workforce and wider communities. We do this through celebrating and protecting differences by removing barriers and promoting equity and equality of opportunity for all.

Please visit our careers site for more information https://gov.uk/ukhsa/careers

Internal Fraud check

If successful for this role as one aspect of pre-employment screening, applicant’s personal details – name, national insurance number and date of birth – will be checked against the Cabinet Office Internal Fraud Hub and anyone included on the database will be refused employment unless they can show exceptional circumstances. Currently this is only for External candidates to the Civil Service.

International Police Check

If you have spent more than 6 months abroad over the last 3 years you may need an International Police Check. This would not necessarily have to be in a single block, and it could be time accrued over that period.

Security Clearance Level Requirement

Successful candidates must pass a disclosure and barring security check.

This role may also require Security Check (SC) clearance, if this is required, for meaningful National Security Vetting checks to be carried out individuals need to have lived in the UK for a sufficient period of time. You should normally have been resident in the United Kingdom for the last 5 years as the role requires Security Check (SC) clearance.UK residency less than the outlined periods may not necessarily bar you from gaining national security vetting and applicants should contact the Vacancy Holder / Recruiting Manager listed in the advert for further advice.

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is developed vetting (opens in a new window).See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is developed vetting (opens in a new window).See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).

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.

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.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job Contact

• Name : Harry McCullagh
• Email : harry.mccullagh@ukhsa.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : recruitment@ukhsa.gov.uk

Further information

The law requires that selection for appointment to the Civil Service is on merit on the basis of fair and open competition as outlined in the Civil Service Commission\’s Recruitment Principles. If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles, and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance, you should contact UKHSA Public Accountability Unit via email: Complaints@ukhsa.gov.uk If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission: Visit the Civil Service Commission website here.

Seniority level

• Seniority level

  Executive

Employment type

• Employment type

  Full-time

Job function

• Job function

  Management and Manufacturing

• Industries

  Hospitals and Health Care

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