09 Oct
UK Health Security Agency
London
Job description
Job summary
Please read through the attached information pack and get this signed off if you wish to apply for the role . Once signed please send to R Please ensure you have your line managers permission before applying to the role.
Launched in 2016, the UK Public Health Rapid Support Team (UK-PHRST) is an innovative government-academia partnership funded by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and co-led by UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), with a consortium of academic and implementing partners in the UK and internationally.
It comprises a multidisciplinary team of public health professionals and researchers with a novel integrated triple-remit of outbreak response, research, and capacity strengthening to prevent and control epidemics of infectious diseases in countries eligible for UK Official Development Assistance (ODA).
Both institutes contribute to and are responsible for delivery of the UK-PHRST triple mandate across outbreak response, research and capacity strengthening, with LSHTM leading the research programme and UKHSA who lead the outbreak response.
Main duties of the job
Outbreak Response
- Provide support on outbreak response activities for the country of deployment and the UK- PHRST for risk communication and community engagement activities, and the collection and analysis of operational social science data.
- Lead and / or contribute to the design, development, and implementation of targeted interventions (informed by community engagement, rapid social science research, community feedback data and appropriate theoretical approaches),
to assist with outbreak management and reduce spread of disease either nationally or in specific, affected areas.
- Lead and / or contribute to the development, elaboration and implementation of the risk communication and community engagement plan, ensuring this is underpinned by robust operational social science research, as part of outbreak response operations
- Ensure that rapid social science research, including analysis of community feedback data, is disseminated to other response pillars ( surveillance, case management etc.
and used to inform decision making across the response
Identify and develop strong partnerships with key stakeholders - community groups, leaders and other partners in the community and civil society - for the promotion of key practices to stop disease transmission.
About us
We pride ourselves as being an employer of choice, where Everyone Matters promoting equality of opportunity to actively encourage applications from everyone, including groups currently underrepresented in our workforce.
UKHSA ethos is to be an inclusive organisation for all our staff and stakeholders. To create, nurture and sustain an inclusive culture, where differences drive innovative solutions to meet the needs of our workforce and wider communities.
We do this through celebrating and protecting differences by removing barriers and promoting equity and equality of opportunity for all.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Liaise closely with local and regional counterparts for risk communication and social science (such as the Collective Service,
or the Social Science in Humanitarian Action Platform) ensuring coherence of strategy, materials and messages.
Ensure that technical material produced by the response locally integrates community
- Support management of outbreak priorities and activities with social science evidence-based advice, in line with outbreak response needs.
- Provide additional support to the development, implementation and evaluation of social and behavioural science components within the national outbreak response (, revisions to guidance documentation, advising on national intervention design and implementation).
- Support response in affected countries to reduce the impact of the outbreak, including scoping the need for further support and research.
- Work on sustainable RCCE and operational social science plans. Projects conducted by RCCE / Social Science UK-PHRST should aim to be sustainable even after the end of deployment.
- Support inter-agency coordination efforts for the risk communication and community engagement pillar to ensure harmonization of tools and approaches as well as information sharing amongst key stakeholders.
- Contribute to the development, strengthening and application of social data collection for risk communications and community engagement interventions, as well as for other pillars of the operation.
- Support cross-pillar coordination efforts, information sharing, and the design and implementation of integrated outbreak response approaches.
- Liaise with appropriate national and regional counterparts to integrate findings from knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) surveys, ethnographic studies, focus group discussions, key informant interviews, observation and other feedback from community engagement activities into operational decision-making platforms.
- During deployments or as part of capacity strengthening, train partner staff on RCCE and operational social science components ( establishing community feedback mechanisms, developing social listening skills)
- The UK-PHRST is a multidisciplinary team that includes a range of technical skillsets from across public health, core programme / operational management, and senior leadership.
Partnership Working
- Develop and nurture key relationships with a wide range of individuals and stakeholders as required for role.
- Contribute to strengthening regional and in-country capacity and capability through training and
Capacity strengthening and research
- Reservists may be requested to provide surge support for specific capacity strengthening or research projects, which may include activities which :
- Contribute to teaching / training programmes and activities on RCCE and / or social science.
- Contribute to the development and management of a capacity strengthening programme overseas, or global products such as the creation of new tools or updating existing guidelines.
- Teach colleagues and stakeholders on risk communications and community engagement and / or operational social science
- Support ongoing training activities within the UK-PHRST and partners.
- Develop teaching material and
- Conduct and contribute to UK-PHRST research projects for RCCE or social science.
- Analyse datasets with appropriate methodology to answer research
- Write research reports and peer-review
- Present at scientific conferences, meetings and other
Management
- Actively engage in meetings with internal and external
- Identify and seek to resolve potential
- Be responsible for managing own workload, including developing objectives and reviewing progress against these.
- Comply with UKHSA Information Governance standards, including understanding the ethical, legal and technical obligations for protection of personal patient information
- Line management as necessary within the team
The purpose and role of the UK-PHRST Reserve Cadre
The UK-PHRST reserve cadre will provide surge capacity to the core deployable team. Reservists will remain employed by their primary organisation and be released only when required to deploy for emergencies.
Reservists can also be asked to provide surge support for specific pieces of research or capacity strengthening work, although these requests are less common than deployments for outbreak response.
Reservists are expected to deploy up to two times during an 18-month period and will hold UK-HSA bank contracts. Deployments will be for four-to-six weeks.
The UK-PHRST has the following objectives :
- Support partners in ODA-eligible countries to prepare for, prevent, detect, and respond rapidly to disease outbreaks, with the aim of stopping a public health threat from becoming a health emergency
- Identify research questions with partners and deliver rigorous research with partners that improves the evidence base for best practice in disease outbreak prevention, detection, and response in ODA-eligible countries
- Support the strengthening and development of in-country capacity for improved national preparedness, prevention, detection, and response to disease outbreaks
Selection process
This vacancy will be assessed using a competency-based framework which will evaluate your qualifications, knowledge, and experience, and / or skills and capabilities outlined in the application.
Stage 1 : Application& Sift
You will be required to complete an application form. You will be assessed on the essential criteria listed in the Person Specification below.
This assessment will be in the form of
- CV / Application form (Employer / Activity history section on the application)
- 1000 words Statement of Suitability.
This should outline how you consider your skills, experience, and knowledge, provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with reference to the essential criteria.
Please note : The system will allow you to write up to 1500 words but please do not exceed 1000 words. We will not consider any words over and above this number.
The CV / Application form and Statement of Suitability will be marked together.
If you are successful at this stage, you will progress to interview and assessment.
Feedback will not be provided at this stage.
Unfortunately, late applications will not be considered
Stage 2 : Interview
You will be invited to a (single) remote interview.
During the interview we will assess your competencies against the criteria listed in the job description.
Knowledge, experience, skills & abilities will be tested at interview.
Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.
Location
This role is based at London (10 South Colonnade, Canary Wharf) but will involve overseas travel as required by the UK-PHRST
Eligibility Criteria
Open to all external applicants (anyone) from outside the Civil Service (including by definition internal applicants).
Security Clearance Level Requirement :
Successful candidates must be willing to undergo enhanced security clearance checks National Security Vetting whilst in-post.
The level of security needed is Security Check (SC) See our vetting charter. The successful candidate / s can undergo these checks once they are in post.
For meaningful National Security Vetting checks to be carried out individuals need to have lived in the UK for a sufficient period of time.
You should normally have been resident in the United Kingdom for the last 5 years as the role requires Security Check (SC) clearance.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
MSc or PhD in Social and Behavioural Science, Sociology, Anthropology, Psychology, Education, Communication, Public Relations or another relevant Public Health Communications related field
Knowledge and experience
Essential
- Knowledge of current developments in risk communication and community engagement and / or in operational social science in outbreaks or other public health emergencies
- Proven experience of rapid assessments, operational research, social data research and analysis, including participatory and qualitative methods, with proficiency in qualitative data analysis software such as NVivo, supported by peer-reviewed publications.
- Proven experience in the development and implementation of RCCE and rapid social science strategies and plans in LMICs
- Experience of delivering training and / or capacity development in risk communications, community engagement, health promotion, operational social science or communication for international development.
- Experience of qualitative data collection and analysis, including community feedback data, during outbreak response
Skills and capabilities
Essential
- Experience of providing effective project and people management.
- Able to apply risk communications / community engagement principles and concepts in acute emergency settings in LMICs
- Highly effective verbal, written and presentation communications skills; capable of constructing and delivering clear ideas and concepts concisely and accurately for diverse audiences.
- Able to build and maintain effective relationships with co- workers and key stakeholders both in the UK and overseas.
Desirable
- Understanding of information governance, data protection issues and data confidentially requirements.
- Ability to communicate (speak / read) at a working level in a second language (other than English), such as French, Portuguese, or Arabic.
▶️ UK-PHRST RCCE/Social Science Specialist (Reserve Cadre)
🖊️ UK Health Security Agency
📍 London