Healthy Places Officer (Spatial Planning)

Overview

Are you passionate about creating healthier, more equitable communities? Join us as a Healthy Places Officer with a focus on spatial planning! In this dynamic role, you will leverage your specialist planning knowledge to drive key initiatives and foster collaboration between our Planning and Public Health teams. You will play a pivotal role in embedding public health principles into transport and planning policies, building a strong evidence base, and ensuring that our built and natural environments promote well-being and reduce health inequalities.

This is your chance to make a meaningful impact on public health through innovative and strategic planning. If you’re ready to be part of a forward-thinking team dedicated to making a difference, we want to hear from you!

This is a 2 year secondment/ fixed-term contract opportunity. 

About us

Buckinghamshire Council is looking for a Healthy Places Officer to join its Public Health team.  The Council is an innovative and high performing organisation, and public health is embedded in the council’s core business.  

Buckinghamshire is generally more affluent and as a result has better health outcomes than the national average.  There are however significant inequalities across the County, and the population is ageing.  

The Healthy Places Officer (Spatial Planning) will provide specialist planning knowledge, progress workstreams and facilitate collaboration across Planning & Public Health, focusing on the wider determinants of health. The post will be managed by the Public Health Principal and be part of the Wider Determinants team within Public Health.

Buckinghamshire Council is a relatively new organisation that combines the strengths and expertise of the previous five councils in the county to create positive change for local people, communities, and businesses. We are firmly focused on the future and have made a clear commitment to serve residents better and to provide stronger representation for Buckinghamshire, both locally and nationally. 

About the role

• Expert Advice & Support: Provide expert advice, guidance, and support to colleagues, customers, and stakeholders on a wide range of issues within the specialist area, taking appropriate action to resolve them.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Proactively build strong working relationships and networks with a diverse range of internal and external stakeholders. Communicate effectively with all stakeholders and represent Buckinghamshire Council, both internally and externally, while maintaining or enhancing the reputation of the Public Health and Planning service areas.
• Healthy Planning Framework: Embed the Healthy Planning Framework principles across Planning, Transport, and Air Quality.
• Network Leadership: Lead the Council’s Healthy Planning network.
• Policy Development: Support the development of health-related policies for the Local Plan in collaboration with Planning Policy.
• Planning Applications: Provide the Public Health response to planning applications (and Health Impact Assessments once the policy is in place), facilitating Healthy Planning.
• Health Impact Assessments: Lead the preparation of the Health Impact Assessment (HIA) of the Local Plan with Planning Policy.
• Knowledge Enhancement: Increase the knowledge of the Public Health team on Planning and Development.
• Continuous Learning: Participate in learning and training opportunities that are aligned to the role, in order to maintain knowledge and skills to meet the needs of the Public Health and Planning service areas.

Any-Desk:

As an ‘any-desk’ worker, you’ll need to be connected to our network to access digital folders and resources, but this can either be from home or an office location when required. You will be required to work from the office a couple of times a week, depending on your role and team requirements.

About you

We are looking for a highly qualified professional with a degree or equivalent in planning, along with a relevant professional or vocational qualification. You should have a strong grasp of planning principles and practices, and a genuine interest in Public Health. Your expertise will encompass a thorough understanding of systems, policies, procedures, professional guidelines, legislation, best practices, and emerging trends within the field.

You will bring authority and credibility to the role, enabling you to build strong relationships, influence, and engage effectively with colleagues, partners, and customers at all levels. Your ability to navigate complex or politically sensitive situations with professionalism and tact will be key to your success.

Other information

Our values and culture

We have a set of values, which our employees have chosen, that represent what we are – Proud, Ambitious, Collaborative and Trustworthy.

By joining Buckinghamshire Council, you can expect:

• a fair and inclusive culture
• the chance to really make a difference to those around you
• health and well-being initiatives including an Employee Assistance Programme, Mental Health First Aiders and mindfulness workshops
• a unified voice through our Employee Representative Group
• ongoing support, and the opportunity to develop and progress in your career with us
• opportunities to take part in fun activities such as fundraising and social events

At Buckinghamshire Council, we know that our biggest strength comes from the people that work for us, and that’s why we’re working hard to ensure we continue to be an accessible and inclusive organisation.

From dedicated staff networks overseen by our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Steering Group, to proudly standing as a Disability Confident employer, it’s important to us that all our colleagues feel engaged, listened to, and valued. Our offer of flexible working empowers a productive and happy workforce and allows employees to combine work with other responsibilities and commitments.

We believe our workforce should reflect the diverse communities we service in Buckinghamshire, and are looking for like-minded individuals to join us in promoting equality, fairness, and inclusion for everyone.

About the Business Unit

Working in partnership with our health colleagues, housing and regulatory services, community boards and voluntary networks, our aim is to ensure that residents of Buckinghamshire are given the right support at the right time. We want adults at risk to be safe and in control, and to help them make choices about how they want to live. We also want to support the wellbeing of their families and carers. 

Our work enables residents to have choice and control over the services they receive and can maximise their wellbeing and independence within their local community. We have a range of diverse roles in our Adults and Health directorate and are looking for people who want to make positive changes to our communities. After all, our residents are at the heart of everything we do.

The majority of Buckinghamshire residents will have contact with our services at some point in their lives. Whether it’s for information and advice, access to a dedicated service or through the work of our trading standards or environmental health teams, we aim to deliver to the highest standard possible.

This is a very exciting time to join our Adult Services and Health directorate, as we join together adult social care, public health, housing and regulatory services for the first time in Council history. Our Better Lives Strategy sets out our ambition to enable people to live independently for longer and reduce dependency on services - something we are keen to focus on over the next year. This new directorate gives us the opportunity to develop an integrated approach to services that will better support our residents. After all, our residents are at the heart of everything we do.

Buckinghamshire Council is an ambitious unitary authority committed to establishing one of the best councils in the country. This is a very exciting time to join our new Adults and Health directorate as we build for the future, offering multi-agency support to our communities.

We recognise and reward you

Hard work and success deserves recognition. That’s why we pride ourselves on the benefits we give our people. We actively encourage a good work-life balance and promote flexible and agile working arrangements. We provide discounts on various Cafés, restaurants, shops and auto enrolment onto our generous Pension Scheme. In addition to the opportunity to gain membership to Costco, we have discounted gym memberships, travel discounts with Arriva and much more.

https://jobs.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/working-buckinghamshire-council/