Public Health Analyst with Level 7 Apprenticeship

We are seeking an early-career data analyst to join our Public Health Intelligence Team as a Health and Care Intelligence Specialist Apprentice. We will support you to grow your expertise through practical experience and structured learning.

You will be employed as a Public Health Analyst, receiving a salary while undertaking fully funded apprenticeship training. This funded learning opportunity is open to applicants of all ages, not solely those under 21.

This is a 36 month fixed-term full-time position at 37 hours per week. At the end of the 36 month period, we hope to offer a permanent position but that cannot be guaranteed at this time.

Public Health Analysts collaborate with specialists within Kent County Council and the wider Kent and Medway Integrated Care System across a broad range of work programmes. One of the most important is contributing to the statutory Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) by producing health needs assessments, health equity assessments and surveillance of health trends.

The Level 7 Health and Care Intelligence Specialist apprenticeship is equivalent to masters degree level. The training provider is Jane Goodwin Associates (see links below for further information). Each week, 20% of work time is protected to complete the apprenticeship programme over 22 months. A further 14 months full-time paid employment follows to embed the learning.

Job description

The post holder will be responsible for supporting the development of effective and evidence-based public health information activity. This will involve describing the health needs of an area, or sub-group within the population, in the context of the wider determinants of health such as socio-economic factors. The post holder must understand the relevance of health inequalities and be confident to explain their findings in both written and verbal formats.

They will support the Senior Intelligence Analyst function providing support across multiple projects including health needs assessment, equity audits, data retrieval and data maintenance. The post holder will provide specialist advice on health intelligence, statistics and statistical techniques, and health data sets.

Main duties and responsibilities:

Be a resource for data analysis, interpretation and presentation, utilising spreadsheets, maps and analytical tools (such as R) across a wide range of data sets

Provide analysis and interpretation in response to external requests for information

Collaborate with members of the Public Health Team, and colleagues across the Health and Care sector as required to help answer requests from customers seeking help, advice or information on analytic methods and statistics.

Provide advice and guidance on health intelligence issues including the development and analysis of health-related data sets and information.

Maintain and quality assure surveillance outputs.

Summarise findings of statistical analyses in a robust technical manner but also in plain English to communicate complex information to specialists and non specialists.

Promote public health methodologies to support other public health professionals locally and regionally

Ability to travel to meet the requirements of the service

Commitment to equalities and the promotion of diversity in all aspects of working

Footnote: This job description is provided to assist the job holder to know what their main duties are. It may be amended from time to time without change to the level of responsibility appropriate to the grade of post.

Person specification

Knowledge

Essential

• - Knowledge of current public health policy
• - Knowledge of Data Protection, Freedom of Information and transparency and confidentiality issues.

Experience

Essential

• Substantial experience of working with detailed record level data sets such as health and care records
• Practical experience of accessing and appraising complex data sets
• Experience in the use of statistical methodologies for analysing, interpreting and understanding data sets
• Experience in the development of systems for the inputting, storing and dissemination of information
• Experience of project-based working

Qualifications

Essential

• Undergraduate degree or equivalent experience

Skills and Abilities

Essential

• - Highly numerate with skills and experience of the analysis and interpretation of data, including statistical techniques and procedures
• - Ability to analyse and interpret health, healthcare or demographic data or local authority data
• - Confident using Excel for basic analysis (filtering, sorting, pivot tables)
• - Hands-on experience using R statistical programming language to support practical data analysis tasks.

KENT VALUES AND CULTURAL ATTRIBUTES

Essential

• Kent Values:
• - We are brave. We do the right thing, we accept and offer challenge
• - We are curious to innovate and improve
• - We are compassionate, understanding and respectful to all
• - We are strong together by sharing knowledge
• - We are all responsible for the difference we make
• Our values enable us to build a culture that is:
• Flexible/agile - willing to take (calculated) risks and want people that are flexible and agile
• Curious - constantly learning and evolving
• Compassionate and Inclusive - compassionate, understanding and respectful to all
• Working Together - building and delivering for the best interests of Kent

About the employer

The Kent Public Health Observatory is a specialist analytical function in Kent County Council. We provide health intelligence to support evidence based decision making. Our core purpose is to improve understanding of need, inequalities and outcomes across the population.

Kent County Council is committed to a hybrid working model with flexible hours. We also recognise the importance of maintaining connections via regular team office days. Please note the successful candidate is expected to work from our Maidstone office at least one day per week.