Director of Public Health
Middlesbrough Council
Total years of experience :19 years, 4 Months
The main purpose of my role is to lead the efforts to improve the health and wellbeing of the Middlesbrough population. I have financial responsibility for a budget of £16 million for commissioning public health and health improvement programmes. As the Director of Public Health I am:
• Lead director for the early interventions programme for the sub-region. This role involves providing programme strategic leadership and coordination for the Finding the missing thousands programme which is aimed at finding the patients with undiagnosed long term conditions (cardio-vascular, diabetes, COPD and other long term conditions) and ensuring they receive early interventions.
• Commission and ensure effective delivery of lifestyle management services (smoking, tobacco control, nutrition, physical activity, obesity, drugs, alcohol, emotional health and mental well-being)
• The principal policy advisor on health to the local health and wellbeing board, the mayor, the council’s senior management team
• chief source of public health leadership expert advice to the health board and local authority equivalents on all aspects of public health (health improvement, health intelligence, health promotion and health protection)
• responsible for public protection, infectious disease prevention and control, major incident planning through ensuring robust arrangements and policies are in place for major incidents, emergency planning, communicable disease control and any hazards that may have an impact on population health
• Work collectively with the Director of Adult Care & Support and Director of Children Schools & Families to lead and drive programmes to improve health and well being and reducing inequalities
• Ensure evidence based commissioning of health and social care, and to help establish strong practice based commissioning
• play a powerful role in forging partnerships with, and influencing all local agencies to ensure the widest possible participation in the health and well being agenda
• work closely with local politicians i.e. elected Mayor, elected Cabinet members, councilors and local leaders to drive improvements in population health
• a highly effective leader for the Directorate of Public Health, and ensure its appropriate contribution to wider public health networks and to bringing public health practice, teaching and research together as appropriate
1. Director of Public Health - NHS Middlesbrough and Middlesbrough Borough Council (Nov 2010 to date)
The main purpose of my role is to lead the efforts to improve the health and wellbeing of the Middlesbrough population. I have financial responsibility for a budget of £16 million for commissioning public health and health improvement programmes. As the Director of Public Health I am: • Lead director for the early interventions programme for the sub-region. This role involves providing programme strategic leadership and coordination for the Finding the missing thousands programme which is aimed at finding the patients with undiagnosed long term conditions (cardio-vascular, diabetes, COPD and other long term conditions) and ensuring they receive early interventions.
• Commission and ensure effective delivery of lifestyle management services (smoking, tobacco control, nutrition, physical activity, obesity, drugs, alcohol, emotional health and mental well-being)
• The principal policy advisor on health to the local health and wellbeing board, the mayor, the council's senior management team
• chief source of public health leadership expert advice to the health board and local authority equivalents on all aspects of public health (health improvement, health intelligence, health promotion and health protection)
• responsible for public protection, infectious disease prevention and control, major incident planning through ensuring robust arrangements and policies are in place for major incidents, emergency planning, communicable disease control and any hazards that may have an impact on population health
• Work collectively with the Director of Adult Care & Support and Director of Children Schools & Families to lead and drive programmes to improve health and well being and reducing inequalities
• Ensure evidence based commissioning of health and social care, and to help establish strong practice based commissioning
• play a powerful role in forging partnerships with, and influencing all local agencies to ensure the widest possible participation in the health and well being agenda
• work closely with local politicians i.e. elected Mayor, elected Cabinet members, councilors and local leaders to drive improvements in population health
• a highly effective leader for the Directorate of Public Health, and ensure its appropriate contribution to wider public health networks and to bringing public health practice, teaching and research together as appropriate
1. Coordinator of Programmes - CHESTRAD International (June 2010 - February 2011)
The Centre for Health Sciences Training, Research and Development (CHESTRAD) is a global non-state, not-for-profit developmental agency registered in the United Kingdom, USA and Nigeria. CHESTRAD work seeks to employ evidence based approaches to strengthening health systems in developing countries and is a global advocate for equitable, outcome focused and sustainable solutions in human resources for health. During my term with CHESTRAD I:
• Successfully planned and facilitated a 10 day global health conference in Nairobi, Kenya - African Civil Society Dialogue on Health and Accountability - The 2010 Nairobi Meetings. The dialogue included a two day conference on the role of the civil society in the Joint A National Strategies, a three day
2. Locum Consultant in Public Health, NHS Tees (December 2009 - October 2010)
The main purpose of my role was to provide senior public health strategic direction to the prevention, management and rehabilitation of patients with long term respiratory and associated conditions. During my term I: • Led a respiratory service review and contributed to the development of a respiratory strategy and network. I chaired the asthma service group and was vice chair for the COPD service group.
• Led the development and implementation of a Tuberculosis prevention and control strategy for a 650 000 population.
• Worked with colleagues in primary and secondary care to pilot an active case finding approach in detecting lung cancer patients in Hartlepool
• Worked with colleagues in the stop smoking service to pilot an active case finding approach for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) patients.
• Led on health protection issues for the Tees population (approx 600 000 people) dealing with food borne illness outbreaks, TB incidents, Legionnaire outbreaks, Measles outbreaks and emergency planning major incident exercises.
3. Senior Public Health Registrar and Acting Portfolio manager for North East Quality Observatory System (NEQOS), September - December 2009
The main purpose of my role was to assist the deputy regional medical director/acting director of NEQOS to establish the healthcare quality observatory for the north east region of England. During my term I: • Established a programme management office based on the PRINCE 2 principles
• Developed an annual plan and prepared business cases, board reports and papers for the deputy regional medical director
• Led on the development of tender documents, service specifications, engaged and supervised consultants and suppliers carrying out healthcare analytics for the observatory
• Led the tender processes for NEQOS projects from developing bids, writing tender documents to project management of contractors
• Led the development of a regional basket of indicators and performance management framework for tracking progress with implementing two key regional healthcare quality strategies (Our Vision Our Future and Safer care North East)
• Worked with an independent informatics provider to support PCTs and the NE SHA to develop the 10/11 PCT CQUIN schemes
• Supervised and monitored a number of regional quality measurement projects
• Budget manager for £500K NEQOS budget
• Led the development of NEQOS website (www.neqos.nhs.uk)
5. Senior Specialty Registrar to Regional Director of Public Health and Deputy Regional Medical Directors, NHS North East, Strategic Health Authority (NE SHA), November 2008 - August 2009
NHS North East is the regional strategic health authority for the North east of England. NHS North East serves a population of 2.6 million and covers an area of 8, 573 square kilometres from the Scottish border, down to North Yorkshire and across to the Cumbria in the west. The north east has eight hospital trusts, twelve primary care trusts, one ambulance trust and two specialist trusts providing mental health and learning disabilities services. It's the strategic health authority's job to make sure that health services in the north east are fit for purpose, high quality and meeting all targets. During my term at NESHA, I: • Led the development and implementation of a regional strategy deployment and performance management framework (OGIM) across NHS North East region
• Led the development and performance management of the NE SHA 09/10 business plan
• Facilitated the use of OGIM framework in the development and performance management of medium term plans for the key regional strategies
• Reviewed the 12 primary care trust World Class Commissioning strategies and annual operating plans
• Led an improvement project using Lean methodology and Toyota production systems to design a system for booking meeting rooms, travel and external conferences and events. Contributed £200K to efficiency savings. Voted the best improvement initiative in September 2009.
6. Specialty Registrar to Director of Public Health, North Tees PCT, April 2006 to October 2008.
North Tees Primary Care Trust (PCT) is a statutory NHS organisation with the responsibility for the health and wellbeing of the local population (approx 190 000) . The organisation's aim is to improve the health and wellbeing of the local population by working with our partners and public to achieve good health for everyone. There are 19 general practice surgeries, 26 dental practices, 28 pharmacies, 14 ophthalmic practices and one district general hospital. During my time with the PCT, I: • Led the development of a healthy heart check programme beginning as a pilot through to full implementation
• Led and co-authored the 2006 Director of Public Health annual report
• Led and co-authored the North Tees PCT's public health strategy
• Led a full prison health needs assessment for HMP Holme House, Stockton-on-Tees producing a report and presenting to the prison board
• Led and chaired a Tees-wide service review for TB services
• Led the public health directorate's response to national fitness for purpose review
• Drafted a policy on exceptional cases for the Tees PCT cluster
• Conducted a community pharmacy epidemiological needs assessment
• Produced ward health and well-being profiles for 26 wards in Stockton-Tees
7. Specialty Registrar, North East Health Protection Team, Tyne and Wear team, May to September 2007
The Health Protection Agency (HPA) teams work alongside the NHS, local authorities and emergency services providing specialist support in communicable disease, infection control and emergency planning. The local health protection units (HPUs) continually monitor health issues in local areas and give advice and support to the local NHS, civil and emergency authorities if a medical or environmental incident happens. Each unit has specialist nurses, doctors and consultants in communicable disease control, regional health emergency planning advisors, environmental public health units and surveillance teams ready to respond to incidents around the clock. During my time with the HPU: I: • Led infectious disease incident management and producing outbreak control reports for TB, gastrointestinal illness outbreaks in different settings i.e. community hospital, nursing home and a school
• Conducted an audit of uptake and timeliness of Hepatitis B immunisation in at risk babies. The Audit used to develop a Hep B immunisation in babies at risk policy for North of Tyne and presented at a national conference.
• Provided health protection advice as part of a regional on-call rota for communicable disease control dealing with a range of issues from meningococcal meningitis treatment and contact tracing to providing advice on the impact of disruption in water supplies to a community.
Public health professional experience
4. Specialty Registrar to assistant director of programmes North East Public Health Observatory (NEPHO), August 2006 - December 2006 (Sessional)
The North East Public Health Observatory (NEPHO) is the regional health intelligence organisation, providing information and analysis to improve health and reduce inequalities in the North East. NEPHO is one of 12 Public Health Observatories (PHOs) working across the five nations of England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. During my time at NEPHO I: • Produced life expectancy reports for Middlesbrough, Stockton and Redcar and Cleveland PCTs with recommendations for reducing inequalities and meeting the Our Healthier Nation 2010 targets for Life expectancy, cancer and CVD mortality. This was based on epidemiological analysis and modelling mortality trends from the mortality files.
4. Physiotherapist. November 1999 to February 2001 UBH Hospitals, Zimbabwe
Masters in Business Administration, University of Leicester, May 2012
Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health, Royal College of Physicians UK, 2011
Certificate of Completion of Specialist Training (equivalent) - Public Health (UK) Faculty of Public Health of the Royal College of Physicians (UK), 2010
Member of the Faculty of Public Health (MFPH) by examination, Faculty of Public Health of the Royal College of Physicians (UK), 2009
Certified Lean leader, Virginia Mason Medical Centre, Seattle USA, 2009
Diploma in epidemiology and public health, Faculty of Public Health, Royal College of Physicians (UK), 2005
Diploma of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, 2005
MSc. Epidemiology - Principles and Practice, University of London 2004
BSc (Hons) Physiotherapy - 2.1 (degree class), University of Zimbabwe, 1999
