Drug & Alcohol Analyst

Job Introduction Job Title: Drug & Alcohol Analyst Starting Salary: £42,839 progressing to £47181 per annum (pro rata for part time) Hours: 37 Location: Stevenage - Hybrid Contract Type: Fixed Term Contract until 31st March 2028 Directorate: Public Health About The Team This is a unique and exciting opportunity to work between our teams in Public Health and the County Community Safety Unit (CCSU) to use evidence and intelligence to develop the local picture of drug and alcohol-related harm in Hertfordshire, improve local intelligence, reduce health inequalities and ensure that residents are able to live safe and healthy lives. About The Role Working under the guidance of the Senior Community Safety and Public Health Analyst, you will play a key role in strengthening our understanding of drug and alcohol-related harm across the county and supporting evidence‑based decision‑making. Your work will directly influence commissioning, resource allocation, and wider strategic priorities. Key Responsibilities • Drive Insight for Decision-Making: Support drug and alcohol workstreams by delivering high‑quality data analysis to inform commissioning decisions and ensure grant resources are targeted effectively. • Build a Countywide Picture of Need: Develop a comprehensive understanding of drug and alcohol-related harm using geographic and demographic analysis, risk factor assessment, trend monitoring, projections, and cost‑benefit work such as demonstrating the value of early intervention. • Lead on National Reporting: Take responsibility for reporting requirements linked to the National Drugs Strategy, covering areas such as drug‑related deaths, treatment outcomes, and drug and alcohol‑related crime. • Collaborate Across Partnerships: Work closely with the Strategic Partnerships Team to provide robust data and intelligence, identifying opportunities for collaborative working on key drug and alcohol priorities. • Tell the Story Behind the Data: Gather and analyse information from a wide range of partners—including Police, Health, Children’s Services, Adult Care Services, Treatment Providers, Housing, and Employment services—to produce clear, compelling intelligence products using effective data‑visualisation techniques. • Present Findings with Impact: Present complex insights to the Drug and Alcohol Management Group, the Drug and Alcohol Grants Oversight Group, and other relevant forums as required. • Co‑ordinate Local Drug Information System (the LDIS): Lead the monitoring of emerging substance‑related trends and ensure timely, accurate local drug alerts are shared with partners. • Improve Data Quality and Intelligence: Identify knowledge gaps across local drug and alcohol datasets and work with partners to strengthen data recording and overall intelligence quality. About You Essential • The successful candidate should be educated to Degree level and/or have equivalent work experience. • Demonstrable recent experience of working with a broad range of public health and community safety datasets and good working knowledge of various statistical software packages (e.g. Excel or R) to undertake complex data manipulation. • Demonstrable recent experience of presenting both quantitative and qualitative public health information in high quality written reports. • Knowledge of literature searching techniques, critical appraisal frameworks and public health evidence databases. • Demonstrable recent experience of undertaking the creation of bespoke JSNA or similar content, including data visualisation and written reports. • Excellent communications skills, both oral and written, to analyse highly complex statistical information, sometimes in a consulting role, resulting in the need to have high level persuasive, motivational and negotiating skills. • Demonstrates excellent ability to present highly complex and sensitive information to a range of audiences, including senior colleagues and non-specialist audiences, in a confident and engaging manner. • Experience of working with limited supervision to achieve agreed objectives and make decisions on how they may be best achieved, while adhering to broad professional or organisational policies. Desirable • A minimum of one year’s experience working in an analyst/researcher/evaluation officer or equivalent role. • Knowledge of public health principles, including a general understanding of health inequalities related to drug and alcohol related harm and a broad understanding of the National Drugs Strategy. • Specialist knowledge, across epidemiology and statistics that enables the creation of high quality data content on the JSNA, drawing from a wide range of data sources. • Experience of working across different teams taking into account different strategic priorities. We welcome applications from candidates who currently reside in the UK with established proof of right to work documentation. We are not able to offer sponsorship at this time for this role. This job role is within the Corporate Services, level 11 job profile. Please locate this via: Job profiles - Corporate services To hear more about this opportunity please contact Vicki.Doyle@hertfordshire.gov.uk for an informal discussion about the role. Interview Date: week commencing 20th April 2026 Benefits of working for us How to apply As part of your application, please upload your most recent CV. Ensure your CV is up to date with your employment history (including any employment gaps), and including any training/qualifications. We encourage you to include examples of where you have demonstrated the requirements/criteria in the advert / job profile to allow the panel to fully recognise your skills and abilities. You will have the opportunity to include a short covering paragraph within your application to give us a little more information about your skills, knowledge, and experiences. Secondment This position is open to secondments. If you work for HCC or any other Local Authority and would like to be considered as a Secondment contract, please ensure you complete the Secondment Form as part of your application. If you do not, your application will be considered as a Fixed Term Contract only. Additional information Disability Confident We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer and guarantee an interview to anyone disclosing a disability whose application meets the minimum criteria for the post. English Fluency The ability to converse at ease with members of the public and provide advice in accurate spoken English is essential for the post (for those whose language is a signed language the provision of a sign language interpreter who speaks English to the necessary standard of fluency will be required). Further information about the legal requirement can be found here.