Public Health Analyst (Substance Misuse)

About Us

West Sussex County Council is a diverse organisation that provides services to more than 850,000 residents every day.

The Public Health Directorate is a progressive multi-disciplinary department committed to improving health and tackling inequalities in West Sussex. The Directorate of Public Health is the chief source of specialist public health advice and leadership within West Sussex. The Directorate's key role is to "protect and improve lifelong health and wellbeing of everyone in West Sussex, by commissioning evidence-based services and empowering people to make healthier choices." The Directorate also works closely with local agencies and partnerships to ensure the widest possible participation in the health and health care agenda.

For more information about West Sussex County Council, please visit our WSCC About Us page.

About The Job

Salary: £35,411 - £38,296 per annum
Working Pattern: Full time, 37 hours per week
Contract Length: Fixed Term (to April 2025)
Location: Chichester or Horsham

This is an exciting new post and is key to supporting the delivery of a project across West Sussex. This post will build on existing work undertaken and is to provide substance misuse profiles for multiple geographic areas across the county.

The postholder will work with a range of local partnerships to plan and conduct a series of parallel research activities, including the development of online engagement portals, qualitative surveys and/or focus groups with professionals and service users, and quantitative analysis of service data and population health outcomes. The postholder will use these findings to create local area profiles of resilience and risk factors in the context of substance misuse.

The postholder will support local partnership leads to develop frameworks for action in line with the identified resilience and risk factors, guiding senior managers to establish appropriate performance measures and monitoring these on a quarterly basis.

Experience and Skills

The post-holder will need to be flexible, adaptable and comfortable working in partnership with a range of services, partners and experts by experience, and will need good communication skills to develop good relationships with staff in organisations across the health and social care system.

Key Skills

• Highly computer literate with sound and accurate IT skills in order to carry out research, analyse highly complex data, information and other documentation, produce reports and create electronic presentations. For example, excellent statistical, numerical, analytical and interpretation skills including advanced level use of software such as MS Excel, Power BI and/or R.
• Professional approach with the aptitude and confidence to provide clear advice, with highly developed skills of negotiation and persuasion to influence and successfully convince others of the need to take a specific course of action.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills in order to provide complex and contentious advice and guidance to a range of audiences.
• Excellent literacy and numeracy skills in order to understand and interpret research findings and review policies and guidance and present results of analysis in the most appropriate and useable format.
• The ability to organise, prioritise and plan own workload and to supervise others to meet deadlines and targets.
• Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to anticipate problems and resolve issues independently, planning solutions and making sound pragmatic decisions.

Qualifications and/or experience

• Degree, or equivalent qualification or experience, demonstrating that level of applied knowledge in researching, analysing and evaluating arguments and information.
• Relevant postgraduate qualification - Desirable
• A working knowledge of public health science and population health outcomes - Desirable
• Relevant advanced theoretical or organisational knowledge of systems, procedures and policies, relating to research and data management techniques.
• Demonstrable practical experience in undertaking high level research which contributes to the development of strategic plans and policies.
• Experience of providing professional and accurate advice to a range of senior staff and partner organisations which impacts on the business.
• Experience of persuading others to implement research conclusions and proposals.
• Experience and confidence in dealing with people and the ability to establish credibility at all levels of the organisation.

Rewards and Benefits

As an employer we recognise that it is our employees that are central to everything we do. We aim to create a supportive and dynamic working environment where employees can achieve their full potential, achieve a healthy work-life balance and are rewarded for the work they do.

For a full list of the benefits offered to you as a West Sussex County Council employee you can find them on our Rewards and Benefits page.