Public Health Careers Weekly | Edition 014
Missed this week’s email? Welcome to the online edition of Public Health Careers Weekly. Every Friday, we publish carefully selected public health opportunities, sector updates and practical career advice to help you build your career in UK public health. If you’d like future editions delivered straight to your inbox every Friday, subscribe to Public Health Careers Weekly.
🌟 Opportunity of the Week
Assistant Public Health Officer
North Northamptonshire Council
£32,578 to £33,673 | Closing 11 October 2026
Work within the council’s Public Health team while completing a Level 6 Public Health Practitioner Apprenticeship with Coventry University.
The role covers programme support, monitoring and evaluation, data, stakeholder engagement and project coordination.
Why it matters: Another genuinely structured opportunity to develop practitioner-level skills while gaining practical public health experience.
💼 Featured Opportunities
Public Health Officer
Cambridgeshire County Council
£38,510 to £40,444 | Closing 12 October 2026
Support prevention programmes across health behaviours, substance misuse, healthy ageing, cardiovascular disease and mental health.
Why it matters: A broad generalist role offering exposure to several areas of local-authority public health.
Public Health Practitioner, Epidemiology
Derbyshire County Council
£45,899 to £49,507 | Permanent | Closing 18 October 2026
Apply epidemiological and statistical methods to understand population-health needs, trends and inequalities.
Why it matters: A strong practitioner-level route for candidates developing specialist epidemiology and intelligence skills.
Behaviour Change & Healthy Weight Lead
London Borough of Harrow
£43,815 to £46,854 | Closing 18 October 2026
Lead work around Making Every Contact Count and support Harrow’s Child Healthy Weight Programme.
Why it matters: Combines behaviour change, workforce development, prevention and programme leadership.
Research Assistant in Food & Health, Quantitative
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
£39,984 to £45,728 | Closing 8 October 2026
Investigate relationships between food insecurity, food-aid use and mental health using quantitative research methods.
Why it matters: A strong wider-determinants research opportunity connecting poverty, policy and health.
📰 This Week in Public Health
Healthy Babies support expands across England
The Healthy Babies programme will be expanded to Best Start Family Hubs across all local authorities in England, with integrated infant feeding, mental health, parent-infant relationship, health-visiting and maternity support.
Why it matters: Delivering early-years prevention at this scale requires substantial cross-sector and multidisciplinary working.
Scotland starts its winter flu vaccination push
Public Health Scotland says almost 5,000 adults were admitted to hospital because of flu last winter as this season’s vaccination programme gets under way.
Why it matters: Vaccination programmes create work across surveillance, programme delivery, communications, evaluation and inequalities.
Read more
Bluetongue cases continue across Great Britain
The latest government update reported new cases across England, Wales and Scotland.
Why it matters: A timely example of One Health surveillance and the need for laboratory, epidemiological and cross-agency coordination.
Follow the latest situation
🎓 Learning Opportunity
Healthy Transport: Cars as Commercial Determinants of Health
22 October | 3:30pm to 5pm | Online
The Faculty of Public Health will explore how car dependency affects health, inequalities and the environment and what public-health policy can do in response.
Why it matters: Transport connects physical activity, air quality, injury prevention, inequalities and climate.
💡 Career Insight
Look at progression through responsibility, not only titles
This week’s vacancies range from an Assistant Public Health Officer apprenticeship through generalist officer and specialist practitioner roles.
As careers progress, employers increasingly expect evidence of responsibility for programmes, analysis, decision-making, partnerships and specialist expertise.
When comparing your current role with your next target, look at what you would be responsible for, not simply what the job is called.
✍️ Application Tip
Show the scale of your experience
Do not make the panel guess how substantial your example was.
Add relevant context such as the size of the project, number or range of stakeholders, complexity of the data, geographical coverage or level at which your work influenced decisions.
You do not need to exaggerate.
You need to make the level of your experience clear.
📄 PHCH Resource of the Week
Application Review
Found a role that feels like the right next step?
PHCH Application Review focuses on whether your supporting statement clearly demonstrates the requirements of the role and where the evidence could be strengthened.
That’s all for this week.
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