Deputy Director – Health Equity and Community Protection.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Support the development, application and quality assurance of tools to enable the systematic assessment of health equity e.g. Health Equity Assessment Tool, Health Impact Assessment/Equality Impact Assessment
• Work across the public health system to develop comprehensive engagement to magnify the community voice, groups and leadership in the work of health equity and inequalities, focusing on inclusion health groups, protected characteristics and vulnerable people.
• Work with NIHR Health Protection Research Units to ensure consideration of health equity in their aims and objectives, and to support UKHSA in developing further insight and evidence for the impact and management of infectious diseases and health hazards on specific groups including those in particular high-risk settings e.g. Care Homes, the Prison estate etc.
• As a system leader foster appropriate relationships and collaborations at national, regional and global levels
• Provide authoritative consultant-level public health advice to UKHSA Executive Committee, Directors, government departments and national partners on health equity and community protection implications of infectious diseases, environmental hazards and emergency incidents.
• Provide strategic leadership to ensure health equity and community protection approaches are embedded within preparedness, resilience and response functions, including pandemic preparedness, ensuring that the needs of vulnerable groups and communities experiencing inequalities are systematically considered in planning and response. Lead the development and continuous improvement of UKHSA's public health advice and guidance cell in incident response, ensuring the organisation can rapidly translate emerging evidence into authoritative advice and guidance during incidents, and emergencies.
• Provide senior public health leadership during incidents and emergencies, ensuring that decisions are informed by population health evidence, assessment of inequalities and consideration of vulnerable populations. Act as Incident Director or Strategic Response Director where required and ensure that health equity considerations are incorporated into preparedness and response activity.
• Lead and manage a division of approximately 30 - 40 people and its associated budget covering a range of public health disciplines. Lead the strategic development of the Health Equity, and Community Protection Division, ensuring it has the capability, capacity, culture and operating model required to deliver UKHSA's long-term ambitions. This includes workforce development, succession planning, fostering innovation and creating a high-performing, inclusive multidisciplinary team.
• Work closely with the Deputy Director Strategy to ensure an effective Health Equity Board.

The successful candidate will be appointed to the point of the Consultant salary scale appropriate to their years of seniority or if from a background other than medicine to NHS Agenda for Change Band 9.

Inclusion in the GMC Full and Specialist Register with a license to practice (or be eligible for registration within six months of interview).

If included in the GMC Specialist Register/ in a specialty other than public health medicine, candidates must have equivalent training and/or appropriate experience of public health practice.

Public Health Specialty Registrar applicants who are not yet on the GMC Specialist Register must provide verifiable signed documentary evidence that they are within 6 months of gaining entry at the date of interview; all other applicants must provide verifiable signed documentary evidence that they have applied for inclusion in the GMC.

Inclusion in the UK Public Health Register (UKPHR) for Public Health Specialists (or eligibility within six months of interview).

Non‑medical applicants who are not yet fully registered with the UKPHR must provide verifiable signed documentary evidence that they are within six months of gaining specialist registration at the date of interview. All other non‑medical applicants must provide verifiable signed documentary evidence that they have applied for inclusion in the UKPHR Specialist Register (for example, confirmation that a UKPHR specialist portfolio has been submitted).

External
Open to all external applicants (anyone) from outside the Civil Service (including by definition internal applicants).

Stage 1: Application & Sift

This vacancy is using / Competency based framework.

At sift stage you will be assessed against the essential criteria listed in the job advert.

You will be required to complete an:

• Application form ('Employer/ Activity history' section on the application)
• 1000 word Statement of Suitability.

Healthjobs UK has a word limit of 1500, but your statement of suitability must be no more than 1000.

This should outline how your skills, experience, and knowledge, provide evidence of your suitability for the role, referring to the attached Job Description & Person Specification.

You will receive a joint score for your application form and statement. (The application form is the kind of information you would put into your C.V -please be advised you will not be able to upload your CV. Please complete the application form in as much detail as possible).

Application form & Statement of Suitability will be marked together.

Please note feedback will not be provided at this stage.

Longlisting:

In the event of a large number of applications, we will longlist into 3 piles of:

1. Meets all essential criteria
2. Meets some essential criteria
3. Meets no essential criteria

If used, the pile(s) 'Meets all essential criteria' will proceed to shortlisting

Stage 2: Interview

Interview stage (competency based)

You will be invited to a face-to-face interview.

Interviews will be held week commencing 16th November 2026, please note these dates are subject to change.

This vacancy is being assessed using Competency based framework. During the interview we will assess against the below:

Knowledge
Experience
Skills and Abilities

You will be asked to prepare and present a 10-minute presentation at the start of your interview, around the subject of priorities in the role. The specific subject of this will be sent to you prior to interview; slides will be permitted.

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Successful candidates must pass a disclosure and barring security check. Please note that you will be required to undergo an Enhanced DBS check.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is Security Clearance.

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). UK residency less than the outlined periods may not necessarily bar you from gaining national security vetting and applicants should contact the Vacancy Holder / Recruiting Manager listed in the advert for further advice.

Internal Fraud Check

If successful for this role as one aspect of pre-employment screening, applicant's personal details - name, national insurance number and date of birth - will be checked against the Cabinet Office Internal Fraud Hub, and anyone included on the database will be refused employment unless they can show exceptional circumstances. Currently this is only for external candidates to the Civil Service.

Reasonable Adjustments

The Civil Service is committed to making sure that our selection methods are fair to everyone. To help you during the recruitment process, we will consider any reasonable adjustments that could help you. An adjustment is a change to the recruitment process or an adjustment at work. This is separate to the Disability Confident Scheme. If you need an adjustment to be made at any point during the recruitment process you should contact the recruitment team in confidence as soon as possible to discuss your needs.
You can find out more information about reasonable adjustments across the Civil Service here: Reasonable Adjustments, Civil Service Careers

Careers website

Please visit our careers site for more information UKHSA Hub, Civil Service Careers

NHS Pension

This role is offered under Agenda for Change (AFC) Terms and Conditions.

If you are already on AFC T&Cs or accept the role on a fixed-term contract, you will be enrolled in the NHS Pension Scheme or keep your current AFC Pension.
If you take the role on a loan or temporary promotion, you will retain your existing, substantive T&Cs.
If the role is available under either AFC or Civil Service T&Cs depending on your registration, your pension scheme will align accordingly.

From time to time, the role holder may be required to support UKHSA's incident response activity by contributing their appropriate expertise within an Incident Cell; during such periods, supported by the line manager, this work will take priority over normal day-to-day responsibilities, commensurate with their grade, skills and experience.

Future location

UKHSA is investing in a new state-of-the-art National Biosecurity Centre in Harlow, Essex, which will eventually bring together teams currently based at Canary Wharf, Colindale and Porton Down. For more details, please see: Huge biosecurity centre investment to boost pandemic protection - GOV.UK.

The new facilities will start becoming operational in the mid-2030s, with full completion by 2038. Staff will move in phases as facilities become available. If you're
appointed to a role currently based at Canary Wharf, Colindale or Porton Down, please note that we'll continue investing in these sites for the next decade. As we get closer to the transition, we'll provide full information about relocation support available to staff.

UK Health Security Agency promoted diversity in the workplace and is an Equal Opportunities employer

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service