Public Health Principal (Childrens)

Reading Borough Council is looking for an experienced and influential Public Health Principal to lead our Children's Public Health portfolio. This is a key leadership role with the opportunity to shape strategic priorities, reduce health inequalities and ensure that every child in Reading has the best possible start in life.

Working as part of our Public Health Team, you will provide strategic leadership across programmes that support the health and wellbeing of children and young people. You will work collaboratively with colleagues across Children's Services, Education, Health, the voluntary sector and wider system partners to develop and deliver evidence-based interventions that improve outcomes from early years through to adulthood.

The portfolio includes areas such as maternity and early years, child health, healthy weight, emotional wellbeing, school-aged health improvement, prevention and reducing inequalities. You will lead commissioning activity, manage complex programmes and use public health intelligence to inform strategic decision-making.

We seek the best talent from the widest pool of people as diversity and inclusion is the key to our success. Reading Borough Council is a Disability Confident Employer and is committed to the recruitment and continued employment of people with disabilities.

We support hybrid working, it's important to us that working arrangements are designed to enable our employees to excel and within this role you'll have the opportunity to work in a way that suits your lifestyle.

About The Role:

As Public Health Principal - Children, you will provide strategic leadership across a portfolio of programmes and partnerships focused on improving outcomes for children and young people. You will champion evidence-based approaches to prevention and early intervention, supporting partners to identify needs early, improve services and make the best use of available resources.

Working closely with colleagues across the Council, the NHS, education, social care and voluntary and community organisations, you will help ensure that children's health and wellbeing are central to local decision-making and service planning.

Your key responsibilities will include:

Championing prevention and early intervention, supporting evidence-based approaches that improve outcomes for children and young people and help reduce demand on services.

Providing strategic public health leadership across children's services, influencing policy, priorities and programmes to address health inequalities and improve population health.

Strengthening partnership working, including contributing to the Families First Partnership Programme and working with the One Reading Partnership and Children and Young People's Partnership Board.

Leading and contributing to child health partnerships, including acting as a key lead for the Berkshire Child Death Overview Panel.

Using public health intelligence and evidence to assess population needs, identify inequalities, inform priorities and evaluate the impact of interventions.

Driving service improvement and effective commissioning, ensuring programmes are evidence-based, outcomes-focused and deliver value for money.

Building strong relationships across the local system, influencing stakeholders and bringing partners together around shared ambitions for children, young people and families.

Leading and developing people, supporting Public Health Practitioners and contributing to a skilled, collaborative and effective public health workforce.

This is an opportunity to shape how Reading works collectively to improve children's health and wellbeing, ensuring that prevention, early intervention and reducing inequalities remain central to our approach.

You will be an experienced public health professional with a strong understanding of the factors that influence children's health and development, alongside the leadership skills to influence change across complex systems.

You will also have:

A relevant degree and postgraduate qualification in Public Health or equivalent experience.

Significant experience of public health practice, particularly relating to children, young people and families.

Strong programme management, commissioning and partnership-working skills.

Experience of using public health intelligence and evidence to drive improvements.

Excellent communication and leadership skills with the ability to influence a wide range of stakeholders.

A passion for tackling health inequalities and improving life chances for children and young people.