Environmental and Public Health

 Protection and promotion

Under the Director of Environmental Health and Pollution Regulation, a five-strong team handles everything from food safety and hygiene, waste and infectious disease, to public health matters such as noise, air quality nuisance neighbours and even the control of tattooing and skin-piercing. Pollution control and regulation of waste are key parts of our remit.

This Office fulfils many of the regulatory functions performed in the UK by the Food Standards and Environment Agencies. It helps draft legislation, implements international conventions and sets local best practice standards.

Part of the Public Health Directorate, the Office is staffed by a Chief Environmental Health Officer (who also holds the Director title), his deputy, four environmental health officers and a waste regulation officer. The Office can only consider candidates with relevant formal qualifications: members of the CIEH, REHIS or CIWM.

The Public Health function is all about gathering information on factors that affect the population’s health, then translating that knowledge into effective action - within the three ‘core domains’ of public health.

Health protection incorporates environmental health, food safety and hygiene, infectious disease control and the States Analyst’s laboratory, as well as emergency planning and major incident response.

Health promotion covers general health education and the work of our Health Promotion Unit, in addition to managed services such as the Guernsey Adolescent Smoke-free Project (GASP), Guernsey Quitline and the Cardiac Action Group.

Healthcare scope and quality looks at health-record management, clinical coding and audit, risk management and clinical governance, as well as general strategy and the review of specific service developments.

If you’re interested in helping improve public health in Guernsey, there are many opportunities within this Directorate where your skills, qualifications and enthusiasm could help produce really positive results.