Public Health Specialist

Public Health Specialist (Mental Health)

Closing date: 6th of September 2026

Salary: £55,101

Role summary

Somerset Council is looking to appoint an enthusiastic and skilled Public Health Specialist to provide strategic leadership for improving mental health and wellbeing across Somerset. This is an exciting new role where you will apply a broad range of Public Health knowledge and skills, such as critical appraisal, analysis and evaluation of data and needs, strategic leadership and partnership working to address and improve all age public mental.

Somerset is a large geographical county with urban centres, market towns and vast rural areas, and it faces a number of important mental health challenges, including the impact of rurality, social isolation, and workforce and economic pressures, and the access to and delivery of services across the county.

The postholder will provide strategic leadership to embed mental health and wellbeing priorities across the county. Additionally, you will work collaboratively with our established Suicide Prevention Partnership, working across local government, health and care providers, third sector and the community to deliver the Somerset Suicide Prevention Strategy 2025-2030, to improve population wellbeing, reduce and prevent suicide, strengthen crisis and bereavement support and embed suicide prevention as everybody’s business. As a specialist, you will also play a key role in leading the development, commissioning and delivery of programmes and interventions to improve and raise awareness of public mental health.

You will be educated to master’s level or have comparable professional experience with a proven track record of delivering programmes that have had demonstrable impact on health and well-being outcomes. You will be an enthusiastic team player who is able to influence and advocate across the public health team and with a wide range of stakeholders to optimise the public health gain for our local population.

The shared vision for health and wellbeing in Somerset is for people to live healthy and independent lives, supported by thriving and connected communities with timely and easy access to high-quality and efficient public services when they need them. 

What you’ll do - key responsibilities

You will be:

• Able to operationalise public health strategies and priorities
• Confident working collaboratively on complex, system issues, with experience of building and maintaining relationships across a range of services and sectors
• Confident in using data to determine needs and critically appraising evidence to deliver or commission interventions
• Positive, committed, adaptable and organised
• An advocate for the impact of health inequalities and social determinants of health on the mental health needs of Somerset’s population and the need for change 

What we’re looking for – knowledge, experience & skills

Essential

• Master’s degree or equivalent.
• Demonstrable knowledge and understanding of the statutory, policy and strategic commissioning framework within which specialist services operate.
• Evidence of work related continuing professional development in public health.
• 5 years’ experience of implementing public health programmes and working in partnership across multiple agencies.
• Demonstrable experience of partnership working, including the ability to influence and, where required, lead multi-agency projects and initiatives, with reference to standard setting and whole service commissioning.
• Collaborative in their approach to working with partners, both internal and external.
• Has a positive attitude towards improving outcomes for health and wellbeing.
• Promotes the need for change and acts as a role model for change.
• Positive, committed, adaptable, thorough and confident approach.

Additional Information  

• Permanent, Full time (37 hours per week)
• Flexible and hybrid working (1-2 days per week in the office)
• 33 days of annual leave (pro-rata, additional to bank holidays)
• Regretfully, we are unable to offer sponsorship for this role. We are only able to proceed with candidates who already have the right to work in the UK without the need for visa sponsorship

For an informal chat about the role, you can contact Dhanya Gardner, Public Health Consultant, via email publichealth@somerset.gov.uk

A full job description will be provided to shortlisted candidates or on request.

Job ref: 1187/DT