Head of Clinical and Health Protection Quality & Governance: Sponsorship Available

Job summary

The Clinical Governance, Training, Workforce and Revalidation team, together with the team reporting through the Deputy Director for Health Protection Workforce, Infection Prevention and Control, Medicines Governance and Safeguarding (HIMS), ensure the organisation is operating within a robust clinical governance and quality improvement framework and the medical /public health professional workforce is working to appropriate professional standards.

This is a senior leadership role providing expert clinical and public health governance advice and leadership across UKHSA. The post holder will be responsible for the development, coordination, implementation and continuous improvement of UKHSA’s Clinical and Public Health Quality Management Framework and associated governance arrangements.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will provide strategic leadership for quality improvement, clinical governance, organisational learning and patient and public safety across UKHSA, whilst supporting the Clinical Quality Oversight Committee (CQOC) and associated governance structures in providing assurance regarding the quality, effectiveness and safety of Clinical and Public Health services.

Operating within UKHSA’s delegated quality management model, the post holder will coordinate cross-organisational quality intelligence, facilitate second-line assurance activities, support organisational preparedness for external inspection and review, and provide expert leadership to strengthen quality management arrangements across the Agency.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• The National Health Service (Appointment of Consultants) Regulations 1996 (legislation.gov.uk) In line with legislation, inclusion in the GMC Full and Specialist Register with a license to practice/GDC Specialist List or inclusion in the UK Public Health Register (UKPHR) for Public Health Specialists at the point of application
• If included in the GMC Specialist Register/GDC Specialist List in a specialty other than public health medicine/dental public health, candidates must have equivalent training and/or appropriate experience of public health practice
• Any public health speciality registrar applicants who are currently on the UK public health training programme and not yet on either the GMC, GDC or UKPHR specialist register must provide verifiable signed documentary evidence that they are within 6 months of gaining entry to a register at the date of interview Applicants going through the portfolio registration routes (GMC or UKPHR) are not eligible to be shortlisted for interview until they are included on the register. The six-month rule does not apply to these portfolio route applicants
• If an applicant is UK trained in Public Health, they must ALSO be a holder of a Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT) or be within six months of award of CCT by date of interview. If an applicant is non-UK trained, they will be required to show evidence of equivalence to the UK CCT
• Applicants must meet minimum CPD requirements (i.e. be up to date) in accordance with Faculty of Public Health requirements or other recognised body
• MFPH by examination, by exemption or by assessment, or equivalent

Desirable

• Master’s in public health or equivalent

Knowledge and Experience

Essential

• Significant strategic experience of leadership for public health
• Staff management and training
• Practical experience in facilitating change
• Experience of communicable disease control in a wide variety of settings including out of hours on call
• Experience and demonstrable competency in dealing with environmental hazards/chemical incidents
• Delivery of successful change management programmes across organizational boundaries
• Strategic thinker with proven leadership skills and operational nous
• In depth understanding of the health and care system and the relationships with both local national government
• In depth knowledge of methods of developing clinical quality assurance, quality improvement, evaluation and evidence based public health practice
• Strong and demonstrable understanding of interfaces between health, social care and key partners (dealing with wider determinants of health)
• Understanding of the public sector duty and the inequality duty and their application to public health practice

Desirable

• Media experience demonstrating delivery of effective health behaviour or health promotion messages

Skills, Capabilities & Behaviours

Essential

• Able to influence senior members including directors and CEOs
• Able to both lead teams and to able to contribute effectively in teams led by junior colleagues
• Commitment to work within a political system irrespective of personal political affiliations
• Adaptable to situations, can handle people of all capabilities and attitudes
• Commitment to team-working, and respect and consideration for the skills of others
• Self-motivated, pro-active, and innovative
• Able to demonstrate and motivate organisations to contribute to improving the public’s health and wellbeing through mainstream activities and within resources
• Ability to lead and manage the response successfully in unplanned and unforeseen circumstances
• Analytical skills able to utilize both qualitative (including health economics) and quantitative information
• Ability to design, develop, interpret and implement strategies and policies
• Substantially numerate, with highly developed analytical skills using qualitative and quantitative data
• Resource and staff management skills
• Project Management skills
• High standards of professional probity

Desirable

• Training and mentoring skills
• Scientific publications, presentation of papers at conferences, seminars etc

Equality and Diversity

Essential

• An understanding of and commitment to equality of opportunity and good working relationships, both in terms of day-to-day working practices, and in relation to management systems

Closing Date: 25 October 2026