Digital and consumer bosses encouraged to apply for CEO of new body

Candidates have until 14 September to apply to run the new arms-length body that will sit alongside NHS England and NHS Improvement under the eye of the Department of Health and Social Care.

It will be formed from NHS Test and Trace – described as “the infrastructure established to deal with covid-19” in the job advert – with the Joint Biosecurity Centre that provides an “independent analytical function”, and Public Health England, which the government declared less than a fortnight ago would be disbanded to make way for the NIHP.

The NIHP will provide “a single command structure to advance the country’s response to the covid-19 pandemic,” the job specification said.

It added: “The successful candidate will have a proven track record as a successful chief executive, or equivalent, of a significant organisation with a large headcount and a combination of physical and digital operations, ideally in the health or life sciences or potentially from a consumer or citizen-facing sectors, where multi-channel face-to-face and digital/ecommerce are both critical channels to market.

“They will demonstrate an understanding of, and experience in, fast moving digital organisations with insight into how data, science and technology act as enablers in delivering best in class citizens services.”

PHE was formed in 2013 from 70 separate organisations and its 2019-20 budget was less than £300m. The NHS Test and Trace has a budget of £10bn this year.