Principal Public Health Practitioner

Job overview

Band 8a Principal Public Health Practitioner – Childhood Obesity

This is a Principal Public Health role in the Powys Public Health Team to drive forward the implementation of a systems-wide approach to obesity prevention in Powys.

This will include maintaining effective partnerships and networks with statutory, voluntary and private sector organisations at a local and regional level. The post-holder will provide specialist advice and support on the development of public health/health promotion programmes and support community health development approaches and initiatives to address health inequalities, with a particular emphasis on systems working to prevent childhood obesity. The postholder will have a lead role in projects and programmes within the public health directorate's annual work plan focusing on driving forward the delivery of the whole systems approach to health weight action plan.

This post is a fixed term/secondment appointment until 31 March 2026 due to maternity cover. Please ensure that your line manager/current employer would support a secondment before applying.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will have a lead role in the local implementation in Powys of the national obesity strategy Healthy Weight: Healthy Wales using a whole system approach.   The main duties of the job will include:

• Strategic leadership and collaborative working with strategic partners.
• Policy and strategy development and implementation.
• Developing health programmes and services to improve health outcomes and reduce health inequalities.
• Surveillance and assessment of the population’s health and wellbeing.
• Promotion and protection of the population’s health and wellbeing.
• Leading a team within the Powys local public health team and line management of staff.
• Contributing to the leadership and management of the public health team.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The main responsibilities of the job include:

Leading on the implementation of the whole system approach to healthy weight in Powys using the  nine-step methodology developed by Public Health Wales.  In Powys, the whole system approach to healthy weight programme has been agreed as one of the Public Service Board's priorities and this work is currently focused on "children, families and access to healthy food".

Strategic leadership and collaborative working with strategic partners including the Powys Public Service Board and Powys Regional Partnership Board.

Developing and implementing policy and strategy including working with stakeholders to agree and implement strategic partnership action plans.

Developing and implementing health programmes, interventions and services to improve health outcomes and reduce health inequalities in Powys.

Providing leadership and management for the public health team's healthy weight work.  This will include:

-leading the planning and implementation of the whole system approach to healthy weight work in Powys.

-leading and managing the work of the Powys healthy weights/obesity systems team (part of the public health team).  This will include line managing a senior public health practitioner (healthy weights) and matrix managing the team's admin and support officer.

-providing leadership and management for the Powys Healthy Preschools Scheme.  This has a focus on obesity prevention and is aligned in Powys to the local whole system approach to healthy weight programme.  This will include line managing a senior public health practitioner (healthy schools/preschools), overseeing the development and delivery of an action plan and monitoring and reporting progress.

-leading on the development and implementation of interventions that contribute towards the promotion of healthy weight focusing on children, families, healthy eating and access to healthy food.

-providing support and public health advice to the health board in relation to work to develop weight management pathways in Powys.

-direct line management of two Band 7 senior public health practitioners (as outlined above).

-developing and implementing action plans, preparing and submitting high quality reports for a range of internal and external audiences, planning and chairing meetings and events, finding, assessing, analysing and interpreting data and evidence, attending and presenting at meetings and events including at strategic partnership level, engaging effectively with a range of stakeholders including senior strategic partners, evaluating interventions, and monitoring and reporting on progress.

As a senior member of the Powys local public health team, the post-holder will also be expected to contribute to the wider leadership and management of the public health team as a whole.

You will be able to find a full Job description and Person Specification attached within the supporting documents or please click "Apply now" to view on Trac.

The ability to speak Welsh is desirable for this post; Welsh and/or English speakers are equally welcome to apply.