Locations: London and Leeds
Homepage: doh.gov.uk

Departments

• Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
• Department for Education
• Department for Transport
• Department for Work and Pensions
• Department of Health
• Export Credits Guarantee Department
• Food Standards Agency
• HM Revenue & Customs
• Home Office
• Ministry of Justice
• Office for National Statistics

Department of Health

Richmond House, the Department of Health's headquarters in Whitehall.

Improving the Health and Social Well Being of the Nation

How many jobs are you considering where you will be part of an organisation:

• Responsible for the stewardship of a yearly public expenditure fast approaching £100billion?
• Running a service with a million employees?
• Affecting the quality of life of every individual in England?

This is the opportunity the Department of Health (DH) can offer you, at a time when the provision of health care and social services is being improved, reorganised and modernised through the implementation of new polices and practices.

Operational Research in the Department of Health

The goal of OR specialists in the DH is to help managers and policy makers make better decisions, take surer actions and improve health system performance. We use quantitative and qualitative business modelling, system simulation, scenario analysis and other approaches to support problem solving. We are active in a wide range of high-profile projects, for example on work to:

• Deliver primary health care in new ways (for instance, walk-in centres, NHS Direct helpline)
• Forecast mentally ill peoples' need for health and social care
• Reduce waiting times for hospital treatment
• Make a case for increased funding for health and social care, and how money should be distributed between different areas
• Deal with risk (for instance, sexually transmitted diseases)
• Assess the population's need for social care
• Use screening (for instance, for cervical cancer) to improve public health

Quarry House, the Department of Health's offices in Leeds.

What to Expect

The DH Operational Research service comprises some 35 specialists who provide an in-house management and analytical consultancy service to the Department of Health We work in multidisciplinary analytical teams with economists and statisticians. Half of us are based in London working more on health promotion and social care issues and the other half are in Leeds where the emphasis is more on NHS matters. We work in collaboration with Departmental managers, university researchers and external consultants. Staff are encouraged and assisted to develop their professional and other skills throughout their career.