About the job

Summary

Working for DHSC, you’ll find it’s a pretty special place. Everyone is united behind our purpose – to enable everyone to live more independent, healthier lives for longer. You’ll feel that purpose everywhere – in conversations with colleagues and in the pride people demonstrate in their work. It’s what binds us together and drives us forward.

Job description

Obesity and poor diet accounts for around half of years of life lost and years lived with disability from all modifiable factors in England. The Chief Nutritionist will play a critical role in supporting the scientific underpinning of the Directorate’s programme of policy development and implementation within the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID). As well as leading an expert team, you will also become the face of the Directorate externally, on the national and international stage.

The Diet, Obesity and Healthy Behaviours Directorate is responsible for the successful delivery of the Government’s strategy to tackle obesity and help adults and children to have better diets and be more physically active, helping them to live healthier lives and achieving our ambitions for obesity reduction by 2030. The post holder will also oversee our nutritional science teams, including support to the Science Advisory Committee on Nutrition [Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)], the Nutrition and Health Claims Committee and scientific leadership on diet and nutritional data and surveillance. 

The Directorate is also responsible for the development of future proposals and policies to tackle obesity, working closely with the food industry, and to improve diet and increase physical activity. This role will also provide the scientific underpinning for this ambitious programme of work to improve health outcomes and reduce disparities. This includes, for example, reformulation, fortification, interventions within the food industry to support healthier food purchasing habits, Healthy Food Schemes, weight management services and programmes to increase the number of the people that are meeting the Chief Medical Officer’s guidelines for physical activity.

We are looking for a motivated individual to lead on nutritional advice and provide scientific input to the government’s strategy and policy development to tackle obesity, support people to consume a healthy diet and increase their levels of physical activity, working in close collaboration with the Ministerial team, other government departments, and external stakeholders. We welcome applications from outside the Civil Service, including from industry, academic or the third sector. 

For further information please see the candidate pack attached at the bottom of the advert.

Responsibilities

As Chief Nutritionist, you will:

• Provide scientific nutritional advice, working closely with the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition, and use this to inform and shape the development of government policies and programmes across the Directorate.

• Provide strategic leadership for the nutritional science teams within the Directorate and, in close collaboration with colleagues across OHID and to support other Government Departments.

• Demonstrate extensive knowledge of evidence and analysis in nutritional science and innovative approaches to improve the diet of the nation.?

• Have proven skills in the translation of scientific advice to inform the delivery of initiatives to improve diet and physical activity.

• Build, develop and maintain strong relationships with scientific and industry stakeholders and develop strategic partnerships with a range of other external stakeholders who have a role in nutritional science, evidence generation and synthesis, both in the UK and internationally.

• Represent OHID at external speaking events and in the media, drawing on your existing professional credibility to build its profile.

• Be a visible and inclusive leader and actively build an open and collaborative culture that empowers teams to deliver their best work in the Directorate and across OHID and wider DHSC.

• Support the continued design and development of OHID to ensure it can achieve its vision and objectives.

• For the right candidate, there is also the opportunity to lead a high performing team and oversee delivery of key programme activities.

• Finally, as one of the Department’s most senior leaders, you will also be a visible role model for the Civil Service Leadership behaviours. These can be found in the Civil Service Leadership Statement. We expect all our senior leaders to be:

- Inspiring – about our work and its future

- Confident – in our engagement with Others

- Empowering – to allow our teams to Deliver

Person Specification

• In order to be successful you must be able to demonstrate your skills and experience against the following criteria:

• Educated to PhD level in relevant subject, or equivalent level of expertise.

• Either a registrant or able to demonstrate the skills required to join the register for nutritionists over seen by the Association Nutrition or other creditable professional bodies such as the British Dietetic Association.

• Strong scientific knowledge base and extensive knowledge of the diet and obesity landscape at a local, regional and national level.

• Significant experience in the application and undertaking of research, in addition to a proven track record writing peer reviewed publications.

• Demonstrable understanding of the public health system and ability to ensure that professional expertise, evidence and analysis is deployed effectively to drive better results.

• Strong external communications skills and experience in handling media.

• Proven ability to earn the confidence of stakeholders at the highest level.

• An ability to create an inclusive culture that supports teams to deliver their best work.

Qualifications

Educated to PhD level in relevant subject, or equivalent level of expertise.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Changing and Improving
• Leadership
• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Role specific technical elements will be assessed at interview