Public Health Strategic Lead
Tameside Council
Contract Type: Permanent
Salary: Grade K. SCP 44 £55,691 - SCP 47 £60,036
Hours Per Week: 36 hours
Base Location: Tameside One
Assessment Date: 11th June 2026
The Role
This is a great opportunity to join our Public Health team at Tameside MBC. Tameside is one of the ten boroughs in Greater Manchester and is a 10 minute train ride into Manchester City Centre. We work closely with the other nine local authorities and public health teams across Greater Manchester, which includes the GM Combined Authority, led by the GM Mayor Andy Burnham. There are some exciting GM-wide programmes which this role will have the direct opportunity to lead on such as sexual and reproductive health as part of Live Well.
The team has a strong leadership role and voice across the organisation and is at the core of many of the exciting developments to improve the borough and the lives of our residents in the coming years. This role will provide strategic leadership as part of the Public Health Senior Team and will work with partners to improve health outcomes across the population, as identified in the Tameside Corporate Plan and Health & Wellbeing Strategy.
It is an exciting time to join Tameside council with lots of positive improvements happening now to realise our vision that Tameside can be a place where everyone can achieve their hopes and ambitions. This role will be a key part of that exciting work, whilst ensuring we are close to our residents across each of our nine towns.
This role will provide advice, guidance and strategic leadership in the Public Health team and across the organisation and wider network of partners. This will particularly focus on two key areas of public health responsibility:
- sexual and reproductive health
- children and young people
This will include leading on in-house and commissioned programmes of work aligned to the above areas, as well as supporting delivery of key services such as the Integrated Sexual Health Service and the Healthy Child Programme, among others. This will also be a generalist public health role with the opportunity to have flexibility around the areas covered depending on skills, experience and priorities across the directorate and council.
The role will have a strong focus on partnership working across a range of services within the council, and external agencies in the NHS, other statutory partners and the VCFSE sector. There will be a varied range of responsibilities including supporting and developing current and future commissioned services; assessment of need utilising various sources of data and intelligence; development and delivery of short, medium and long term plans to improve health outcomes and tackle inequalities; budget management; working with key stakeholders to ensure that services are delivered as part of a whole system; and having a community focus, embedding resident voice into strategic priorities and service delivery.
This will support our approach and partnership working to make sure we get the right help, in the right place, at the right time to the people living in Tameside. This role will be crucial to getting the most out of our partnerships to improve the health of our residents by providing support at an early stage.
Here at Tameside council, we are passionate about being values-based and supporting all our teams to adopt the STRIVE values we work by. This includes supporting and investing in our people through the council’s People Plan. The post holder will be supported to develop as a leader.
About You
We are seeking an experienced professional with expert-level knowledge and understanding of improving health outcomes for communities and the relevant public health challenges. You will have excellent problem solving, communication and political skills as well as experience of commissioning. We are looking for someone with the energy and drive to make a major contribution to further improving health outcomes and tackling inequalities for some of our most vulnerable residents. Prior experience working with a range of partners and organisations in a public health context, and leading commissioned services would be desirable, however we are seeking people with a wide range of public health/public sector experience.
The post holder will lead major programmes of work and will have responsibility for the strategic leadership of sexual and reproductive health and the health of children and young people across the borough. A high level of intellectual rigour, political awareness, negotiation and motivation skills and flexibility are required as well as the ability to communicate effectively within diverse settings.
A high level of tact, diplomacy and leadership is required and an ability to understand other cultures, advise, challenge and advocate to enable effective working across organisational boundaries and influencing without direct authority.
About Us
Tameside, we are committed to ensuring all our Citizens lead long, fulfilling and healthy lives. We are committed to supporting economic growth, providing high quality health and care services, protecting our most vulnerable and creating strong and supportive, self-sufficient communities.
We recognise that our people drive our success and enable the organisation to deliver on its vision, purpose and priorities, and that our people are our most important resource and asset. Our values underpin our practice and behaviours, and are at the heart of everything that we do; and we understand that how we do things is just as important as what we do. We pride ourselves on living by our STRIVE values of Support, Trust, Respect, Integrity, Value Diversity and Engage. Our values underpin our practice and behaviours and are at the heart of everything that we do. How we do things are just as important as what we do.
Our employees’ skills, experience and knowledge are essential to our success along with their happiness, wellbeing, commitment, enthusiasm and motivation to be the best they can be.
This is a politically restricted post.
This position is subject to Basic Disclosure Procedures.
If you have completed the GM Elevate (Leadership Development) Programme, please indicate this within the ‘About You’ or ‘Supporting Statement’ section of your application.
Unfortunately, at this time we are not able to offer sponsorship.
We are committed to developing a culture which respects individuals, appreciates difference and allows everyone regardless of background to reach their full potential. We are proud to be an accredited disability confident employer. Reasonable Adjustments will be considered in accordance with the Equality Act 2010 in relation to the Job Role Criteria.
Our rewards and benefits package can be viewed here
For a discussion about the role, please telephone Anne Whittington, Consultant in Public Health, on 07971117006.