Senior public health appointments

The Faculty provides advice to employers and others on appointments procedures for senior public health posts at consultant level in the UK. The Faculty also has a statutory role in the appointment of consultants.

Specific guidance for employers, Faculty Advisers and Faculty Assessors about their role in the Advisory Appointments Committee (AAC) process is available, together with job descriptions and panel compositions for posts at various levels.

Employing Information and Intelligence Staff

Guidance for the use of the National Job Description Templates and Job Specifications (JDs & PSs)

A suite of job descriptions and person specifications for levels 4-8c has been developed for those working within Information and Intelligence roles based on Agenda for Change bandings.  These will support a common approach in terms of knowledge, skills and job demands required for individual posts, as well as consistent levels of pay for those doing the same jobs but in different organisations.

There was a six-step development process to ensure that the job descriptions and person specifications would meet the needs of the stakeholders in different organisations.

 

Background

The Public Health Skills and Career Framework, which was published in 2007, is a tool for describing the skills and knowledge needed across all groups, domains and levels of the public health workforce. It was developed in response to the strong expressed need for a mechanism that facilitates collaboration and coherence across this diverse workforce, in order to maximise its collective contribution and underpin the influence of public health in the UK. The Public Health Skills and Career Framework provides this by helping to ensure rigour and consistency in skills, competence and knowledge at all levels, regardless of professional background, and by enabling flexible public health career progression.

In order to support the Public Health career framework and consistency of job content and salary levels, a suite of job descriptions and person specifications (JDs & PSs) for levels 4-8c has been developed based on Agenda for Change (AfC) bandings and in line with the national NHS job evaluation scheme. These will support a common approach in terms of  knowledge, skills and job demands required for individual posts, as well as consistent levels of pay for those doing the same jobs but in different organisations.

Process of development

There was a six-step development process undertaken to ensure that the job descriptions and person specifications would meet the needs of the stakeholders in individual organisations as well as meeting the Agenda for Change job evaluation criteria:

  1. A range of JDs & PSs for each AfC banding was collected from current posts in England and Scotland
  2. Using the range a single JD & PS was developed per band although some still have options reflecting the flexibility available in the national Information Technology profiles used for matching these posts
  3. A national AfC job evaluation expert assessed the JDs & PSs to ensure that they met the relevant scoring criteria as outlined in the job evaluation scheme and the national Information Technology profiles. Where necessary alterations were made to ensure that each one was within the required scoring range
  4. A reference group was convened to assess that each JD & PS met the needs of stakeholder organisations
  5. Amendments were made and the JDs & PSs were then sent back to the AfC job evaluation expert for re-assessment
  6. Final amendments were made based on the AfC assessment prior to publication.

Job descriptions

How to use the JDs & PSs

Each JD & PS has been carefully written to reflect the job content at each AfC band level and to meet the job evaluation scoring criteria for that band, it is therefore important to ensure that this is retained by following the process outlined below:

Job Description

  1. Remove the line that indicates the level (2nd line on 1st page)
  2. Job Title: Choose one of the options given
  3. Complete the reporting to and location sections
  4. Job Purpose: Retain the wording and add other requirements if required. The latter however needs to be done with care as additional requirements could lead to additional job demands which could alter the job evaluation scores, especially if reflected in the key result areas. This in turn could result in a different outcome when matched than that predicted. Where there are options (as in Level 5)  choose the most appropriate sentences
  5. Job Scope:  Retain the wording and add other requirements if needed but take into account the guidance given in number 4 above. Where there are options (as in Level 6)  choose the most appropriate sentences
  6. Organisation Chart: Add for your organisation
  7. Key Result Areas for this Post: Complete as required for the post taking into account the guidance given in number 4 above.
  8. Core Responsibilities: If you wish to remain in the framework do not change these       at all unless there are options stated as this will change the scoring. Both options will enable the scoring to remain within band as these options are reflected in the appropriate national profile so it is safe to either remove an option or to join them together

Person Specification

  1. The essential criteria should remain the same, but desirable can be changed.

Once the job descriptions and person specifications have been completed they should be submitted to a matching panel in line with the national AfC agreement.