Health Protection Officer

At Solihull Council, we pride ourselves on being small enough to care, but big enough to make a difference. The Public Health Team is committed to protecting, promoting, and improving the health and well-being of the people of Solihull, supporting people to live longer and healthier lives by improving health and wellbeing and reducing inequalities. We work closely with our public sector partners, businesses, the voluntary sector, and communities. Our residents are at the heart of everything we do, and we always put them first.
We have an opportunity for a Health Protection Officer to join us on a fixed term contract or secondment until September 2025. Working closely with the Director and Deputy Director of Public Health, you will contribute to strategic development and improvement of health protection processes.
You will have a key role in facilitating partnership working across the system to provide assurance across key health protection functions: prevention, response, and surveillance. In particular, we are always working to ensure our most vulnerable residents are supported so that everyone has an equal chance to be healthier, happier, safer and more prosperous. You will work in close partnership with Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board, NHS Provider Trusts across the system, UK Health Security Agency, and Birmingham City Council Public Health. You will also contribute to the delivery of national and local campaigns to ensure Public Health messages and communications are clear.
As part of the system-wide response to infectious diseases, you will support UK Health Security Agency and other partners in managing outbreaks, serious incidents, and other significant events.
We are committed to improving the health and wellbeing of all our residents. We work to reduce health inequalities across our borough so that everyone has an equal chance to lead a healthy life. To support this commitment, you will also collaborate with other internal and external partners for whom prevention and management of infectious diseases is key e.g. the education sector, Adult Social Care, Solihull Community Housing, agencies supporting refugee resettlement and newly arrived communities.
To be successful in this role you will be an enthusiastic and highly motivated individual who has developed their expertise and knowledge in either a local authority, NHS, UK Health Security Agency, or a similar environment. Interpreting data will also be one of your key strengths, as well as having the ability to identify, engage and work effectively and collaboratively with a wide range of stakeholders, across multiple services.
In return, working for Solihull offers you the opportunity to develop your professional skills and experience with the challenge and variety that supporting public services provides.
As an employee of Solihull Council, you will benefit from a flexible and agile working environment, competitive salary, a range of working options, an extensive wellbeing offer, as well as attractive staff benefits including a generous leave entitlement with the opportunity to purchase up to 10-days additional leave per year, a flexitime scheme, staff discounts and access to the Local Government pension scheme.
We recently adopted our smarter ways of working model which recognises that work is about what you do and not where you go. As part of this, this role will involve working on a hybrid basis which includes a combination of working from home and from our offices in central Solihull. Whilst your base location is not important, you must be willing to travel to the office as and when needed in order to fulfil the needs of the service.
Closing date for completed applications is Tuesday 22nd August.