Senior Public Health Practitioner

37 hours per week – part-time, hybrid working available and secondments will be considered

Newcastle City Council is seeking to appoint a Senior Public Health Practitioner to work in the Fair and Healthy Childhoods portfolio within the Public Health team at Newcastle City Council.

We are looking for a dynamic candidate who is looking for a challenge and focused on using their public health expertise and experience to make a meaningful improvement to the health and wellbeing of Newcastle residents. The role will involve leading on a key public health agenda and managing a small team, providing evidence-based public health expertise, design effective programmes and interventions and building capacity through partnership working and leadership.

We want all children and young people in Newcastle to have healthy and happy childhoods - we know that this helps get the right building blocks in place for a happy and dignified life. This portfolio includes a range of universal interventions (e.g., the Healthy Child Programme, working with schools and other educational settings) as well as targeted work to reduce inequalities (e.g. delivering the Holiday Activity and Food Programme, focus on the health needs of vulnerable young people). The impact of the pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis present huge challenges for our work with children and families, but the evidence tells us that intervening in early years can have a big impact on lifelong health and wellbeing.

The successful candidate will be responsible for leading and influencing public health action across the Newcastle system. This will involve developing, implementing, and evaluating a range of public health interventions, contributing to the overall aims of the department service plan and local authority priorities.

Senior Practitioners are expected to have significant experience of working at a strategic level with a broad range of partners across the domains of public health and be passionate about addressing health inequalities.

Applications are sought from individuals with a postgraduate qualification in a Public Health or related field who have broad and detailed knowledge of specialist public health practice. Knowledge and experience of developing, implementing and evaluating Public Health Interventions to improve health and wellbeing and reduce health inequalities within the population, and with experience of strategic leadership.