Senior Public Health Officer

Public Health exists to protect, promote and improve people’s health and wellbeing, doing so through using the best available evidence to understand health needs, shape service design and support staff development. Within this context we are currently looking to employ a Senior Public Health Officer to join our well established and highly regarded public health team at Lincolnshire County Council. This is an exciting opportunity to play a significant role in supporting our public mental health, suicide prevention and self-harm work programme.

About the Role

Our work covers the 3 key overlapping areas of public mental health across the life course:

• mental health promotion
• prevention of mental health problems and suicide prevention

• reducing premature mortality, supporting recovery and improving inclusion of people living with mental health problems

In the UK, thousands of people end their lives by suicide each year, and suicide is the leading cause of death for men under 50. In England, one in five of us will think about suicide in our lifetime, and one person dies by suicide every two hours. Lincolnshire has high rates of death by suicide and we work closely across a range of partners with a shared vision for Lincolnshire to be a place where there are fewer deaths from suicide; where people have hope, feel able to speak openly about suicide, and everybody receives the support they need.

In this context, this role requires a good understanding of the strategic landscape around suicide and self-harm prevention and support the implementation of the Suicide Prevention Strategy for Lincolnshire, taking day to day responsibility for delivery action plan linked to the strategy.

The postholder will be responsible for some key tasks as follows:

• Lead task and finish groups as required in order to deliver the Suicide Prevention Strategy commitments.
• Support the evaluation of the strategy to ensure it is delivering the desired outcomes.
• Lead and manage the Suicide Prevention Network for Lincolnshire, bringing together people who are interested in contributing to our shared vision for suicide prevention.
• Grow and establish a new work programme around self-harm prevention, providing system leadership in this area of practice.
• Represent the local authority in local, regional and national forums on suicide prevention and self-harm.
• Oversee the budget for public mental health in line with decisions taken by the budget holder and the Suicide Prevention Strategic Group for Lincolnshire.

• Provide public health advice and support to other public mental health areas of work as required, for example gambling related harm, mental health, dementia, learning disabilities and autism.

About You

Public Mental Health is a complex and ever-changing topic, you will need to have an excellent knowledge of public health research and guidance regarding mental health and suicide prevention. Preferably with experience of working in public health and being a registered public health practitioner or prepared to work towards this, you must be able to display:

• An excellent awareness and knowledge of public mental health, including suicide prevention and self-harm
• A positive leadership style with a commitment to achieving high performance
• A clear commitment and proven ability to deliver high quality outcomes with a drive and enthusiasm for change
• The ability to negotiate, influence and enthuse colleagues both internally and across partner agencies
• A commitment to working in collaboration with partners from all sectors with an ability to successfully deliver results at an operational level

• A good knowledge of guidance and strategies that govern mental health, suicide prevention and self-harm, including national and local strategies as well as Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) and National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance and recommendations.

About the Team

The Public Health team are an enthusiastic, caring and hard working group of people who are passionate about making life better and helping others, we strive to commission quality services and to help other partners to do the same in order to achieve the best outcomes possible.

We are professionals in our field and people look to us for advice and guidance, so we need to be knowledgeable, confident and excellent communicators (both verbal and written) to get the best from our work.

Our relationships with our partners are key to making change happen, not just within our services but across the entire statutory and voluntary sector.

We offer great career development and training opportunities with options to progress within Public Health to the highest of levels should you wish.

About Our Offer

Along with a competitive salary we offer;

• A Contributory pension
• Comprehensive benefits package including excellent discount schemes and cycle to work
• Flexible working policies
• Career progression opportunities
• A generous annual leave entitlement plus the option to buy more

• An award-winning employee health and wellbeing offer

Further details can be found in our rewards and benefits brochure

What Next

If you would like an open and informal discussion regards this role then please contact David Stacey via email on david.stacey@lincolnshire.gov.uk

PLEASE NOTE: It is imperative that your covering letter/personal statement clearly states why you have applied, how you meet the essential and desirable criteria for the role as set out in the job description and what you feel you can bring to this role, the team and the wider County Council.

Applications Close on 15 September 2024 and interviews will be held 25 September 2024.