DHSC hiring three £110,000 policy directors

The OHP is taking on responsibility for the prevention work of Public Health England, which is due to be abolished later this year.

One will cover diet, obesity and healthy behaviours; and another addiction and inclusion – two of the major themes picked out as key areas of focus for the new unit. A third director, with a wide ranging and potentially powerful remit, will take on “cross-cutting and enabling functions”.

The three roles will command salaries of around £110,000 though “pay flexibility may be available for exceptional candidates”.

The job advert said “experience of working in health or public health in a clinical, professional, policy, or delivery role is desirable but not essential”.

The directors will report to the OHP’s joint leads: its director general Jonathan Marron, who was latterly DG for public health at DHSC, and the deputy chief medical officer for health promotion, who has yet to be recruited.

The government has been advertising for a new DCMO for health promotion, with applications closing on 27 June. The post will be focused on “non-communicable diseases, health improvement and wider public health”.

Three ‘key roles’ on policy

The OHP will be “the home of the government’s health promotion and prevention agenda”, addressing “the top preventable risk factors, improving the public’s health and narrowing health inequalities,” according to the policy directors job advert.

One of the three roles is a “director of public health policy, innovation, and systems”, who will “sit at the heart of the OHP”. This “key role” will lead the development of a health promotion strategy, overseeing policy for the public health system.

It will also ensure “key partners,” including the NHS, “are able to work together effectively, with clear accountabilities and connections”. And “oversee system-wide funding for public health, including management of fiscal events”.

The new OHP will focus on “a range of major themes, including healthy weight, addiction and inclusion, and children’s health”. Two of the new directors will cover two of these themes.

The director of addiction will develop and deliver government strategy for “tackling key addictive risks to health – drugs, alcohol, gambling and tobacco”. They will “focus on driving down the prevalence of addiction and dependency, and prevention of all forms of violence”, as well as working on “related policies to support vulnerable or excluded groups”.

The director of diet, obesity and healthy behaviours will deliver “an ambitious package of regulation” around nutritional reformulation, weight management, and increasing physical activity in pursuit of the 2030 obesity reduction targets.

They will also be in charge of “three large scale government contracts” worth £250m, covering health food schemes, school sports and physical activity, and the healthy weight programme.

The DHSC was approached for comment.