Team Lead - Field Epidemiology

Team Lead – Field Epidemiology - Revised 29th January 2024

About the Organisation:

NHS Scotland is committed to encouraging equality and diversity among our workforce and eliminating unlawful discrimination. The aim is for our workforce to be truly representative and for each employee to feel respected and able to give their best. To this end, NHS Scotland welcomes applications from all sections of society.

Public Health Scotland is Scotland’s lead national agency for improving and protecting the health and wellbeing of all of Scotland’s people.  Our vision is of a Scotland where everybody thrives. Our focus is on increasing healthy life expectancy and reducing premature mortality. To do this, we use data, intelligence and a place-based approach to lead and deliver Scotland’s public health priorities.

The role of the Clinical and Protecting Health Directorate is to protect the people of Scotland from infectious and environmental hazards; enable high-quality clinical and public health knowledge, research and innovation; and support improvement of clinical and public health practice by using audits at a national and local level.

The Post:

An exciting and novel opportunity has arisen within the Clinical and Protecting Health Directorate of PHS, where we are creating a Field Epidemiology Team (FET).  The FET will provide a national service to support NHS Boards, other partners and the PHS national response to new health protection incidents. These include outbreaks of infectious diseases, including SARS-CoV-2 variants but also a range of other pathogens and public health incidents including environmental or chemical incidents. FET is part of the Environment and Emergency Response Division at PHS.

The post-holder will have the opportunity to develop Scotland’s first Field Epidemiology Team at a time of strategic importance, in this pandemic recovery phase of epidemiological transition. It will add to a current network of health protection teams across Scotland, providing support and training in a range of key areas for the preparation, investigation and management of outbreaks and incidents. This will be an exciting, fast-paced and dynamic post which will require scientific and epidemiological expertise, leadership, programme development abilities, data science capacity, management experience and excellent network-building skills.

The post-holder will be an enthusiastic, adaptive individual who will support the integration of national and local incident and outbreak work of the highest quality for Scotland.

The Candidate:

You will be responsible for creating and developing a new team and work collaboratively with colleagues within PHS and across sector stakeholders, in particular with local Health Protection Teams.  You will lead on key aspects of outbreak management, epidemiologic analyses of the data, coordinating advice and guidance on specialist aspects with PHS topic teams, where relevant.

You will have strong communication skills, as you will have responsibility for interpreting and preparing timely investigative and scientific reports; publications will be encouraged as a means of sharing learning. You must be incisive, decisive and collaborative, as rapid assessment and decision-making leading to implementation of agreed actions will be required.

Location and Working Pattern:

The post will be based in Glasgow or Edinburgh PHS premises. However, it should be noted that PHS is currently in the process of relocating from Central Quay, Glasgow to Bothwell Street, Glasgow from early 2024. 

PHS operate a hybrid working model with a mixture of working at home and days in the office each week however should the postholder not reside in Scotland they would be expected to attend for work in Scotland in person for a few days on a monthly basis. Remuneration for travel funding outwith Scotland is negotiable. 

A relocation package is available which contributes to relocation expenses for those who meet the application requirements and wish to relocate to Scotland.

There will be an expectation of travel to local areas for some meetings and events to engage with local teams. 

Work pattern - Monday to Friday, 37.5 hours per week.

This post will be included in the out-of-hours rota and will be recompensed under Agenda for Change terms and conditions.

During times of public health emergency, or other urgent business need, you may be required on a temporary basis to work your normal contracted working hours over 7 days including weekends, in order to meet the needs of the service.

It is a condition of this employment that you must live and remain a resident within the UK for the post in which you will be employed with PHS.

Benefits:

Our benefits package includes pension scheme, comprehensive range of work life balance policies, occupational health services, learning resource centres and discounted leisure, financial and shopping benefits

This post is eligible for re-allocation expenses within the UK, should candidates require to move base in order to take up post.

It should be noted that NHS Scotland’s agenda for change rates are favourable in comparison to other UK nations.

Further Information:

For an informal discussion on the post, please contact Dr Maria Rossi, Consultant in Public Health Medicine and Head of Division (EER) on maria.rossi@phs.scot or Fiona Mackenzie, Head of Service on fiona.mackenzie13@phs.scot.

Closing date for completed applications is 11th February 2024.

Interviews will likely be held in the month of March. 

Further information on PHS is available from: www.publichealthscotland.scot

Please note that the majority of correspondence is sent by e-mail only, so please check your e-mail regularly (including junk folders).

Public Health Scotland is an equal opportunities employer and as such guarantees to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for our vacancies