Healthy Food Officer
The Role
Do you want to lead a high-impact programme tackling child food insecurity and health inequalities?
Can you use your public health and commissioning experience to shape services that truly reach those most in need?
If yes, we have the perfect role for you!
Southwark’s Public Health team is looking for a passionate and driven Healthy Food Officer to lead our Food and Fun Programme, delivering healthy meals and enriching activities to disadvantaged children and young people during school holidays.
About the Role:
You will lead Southwark’s Food and Fun Programme, funded by the Department for Education through the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) grant, with funding confirmed for 2026–2028. The programme runs during Easter, summer and winter school holidays and supports thousands of children each year.
Key responsibilities include:
- Managing a £1.5m annual DfE grant and delivering robust impact reporting
- Commissioning and overseeing delivery from 30+ holiday club providers
- Leading risk management, quality assurance, and safeguarding oversight
- Overseeing development and improvement of the electronic booking system
- Managing mandatory training requirements for providers
- Ensuring the programme is equitable, data-led and evidence-based, using public health insight to target need and improve outcomes
- Providing line management to the Public Health Project Officer (Healthy Food) and ensuring smooth delivery of QA, payments, records and administrative processes
- Producing quarterly DfE reports and monthly performance and finance updates
This is a fixed-term position until 31 March 2029.
About You:
We’re looking for a motivated and enthusiastic professional who is passionate about improving health outcomes for children and families.
You will bring:
- Experience in public health, children’s services, or community programmes
- Strong project and programme management skills
- Experience managing budgets and grant funding
- Knowledge of commissioning and contract management
- Ability to use data and evidence to inform service design and improvement
- Experience working with multiple stakeholders and providers
- Strong organisation and time management skills
- Confidence in report writing and performance monitoring
- Line management or supervisory experience (desirable)
About the Team:
You’ll join Southwark’s ambitious and supportive Public Health team, committed to reducing health inequalities and improving the wellbeing of residents.
We are a collaborative team that values innovation, learning and evidence-based practice. You’ll have opportunities to develop your leadership skills, work across council departments and with community partners, and help shape a flagship programme making a real difference to children’s lives across the borough.
For detailed qualifications and requirements, please review the job description and person specification located at the bottom of the advert.
Contact Information:
For an informal discussion about the role, please contact Rachel Isted at rachel.isted@southwark.gov.uk
Additional Information:
- This is a fixed-term position until 31 March 2029
- Enhanced DBS required
Benefits and more information:
https://jobs.southwark.gov.uk/why-us/
Recruitment timetable
Advert close date: 11:59pm on 10th March 2026
Shortlisting date/s: 12th March 2026
Interview & Assessment date/s: 17th March 2026
The closing date is given as a guide. We reserve the right to close this vacancy once a sufficient number of applications has been received. We strongly advise you to complete your application as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.
Guaranteed Interview Scheme:
As part of our commitment to inclusion, we offer guaranteed interviews for specific groups of people. To qualify, you'll need to meet the minimum requirements for the role, and identify with one of the below criteria:
- Members of the Armed Forces and veterans
- Are currently in care, or have previously been in care
- If you consider yourself to be disabled or if you have a long-term health condition
We are an organisation who is passionate about our people and understands that richness of diversity is a requirement to provide the best possible services to our communities. This is demonstrated through our council-wide ambitious commitment to tackle racial inequality in our communities and workforce through our Southwark Stands Together programme. We particularly welcome applications from members of the Black, Asian and ethnic minority communities to increase representation at senior management level in the Council.
Attachments
Salary range
- £45,852 - £53,319 per year