Workforce Innovation Senior Manager inCambridge inCambridge PUBLISHED WED 27 NOV 2024

The Workforce Innovation Senior Manager will support the team by providing leadership and management across innovation functions for the directorate and by working as part of a dynamic team in delivering an effective service. The post holder will support managers and staff across the east of England to meet regional priorities, by effective delivery of their system workforce plans, through the education innovation and transformation functions. The post holder will be required to work in a matrix way with other teams and key stakeholders across the system to ensure innovative solutions are applied to workforce issues arising.

The post holder will lead on the management of innovation activities and programmes, managing associated budgets and staffing, and working with key partners and systems.

The post holder will support the development of effective strategy and operational policies for promoting innovation across Cluster and Sector.

Working closely with colleagues across the sector, ensuring coherent strategy and will:

• Drive the strategy for, supporting and ensuring alignment across the system
• Drive reform and support organisational change and uptake of initiatives that support excellence
• Develop and communicate the vision for the role of innovation, and the development of strategy and operational policies to support this vision
• Engage with key strategic regional and national policy makers to inform development of strategy and policies
• Identify examples of national and international best practice and to ensure that NHS England benefits from relevant innovations in healthcare
• Support development by developing the innovation infrastructure and capacity in organisations
• Develop and champion new initiatives or projects as necessary
• Working with providers and clinical experts to design new training products

About us

The mission of the Workforce, Training and Education (WT&E) Directorate is to ensure the NHS in England has a sufficient and inclusive workforce with the knowledge, skills, values, and behaviours to deliver compassionate high-quality health and care to the people it serves. We commit to operate collaboratively both within NHSE and with stakeholders externally. The directorate delivers multi-professional education and training, and proactively engages with systems and partners to influence innovation and change, constructively challenge and seek assurance to lead improvements in culture, leadership and workplace experience for all, at all stages of peoples careers within the NHS. Working closely with colleagues across the sector, ensuring coherent strategy and will:

• Drive the strategy for, supporting and ensuring alignment across the system
• Drive reform and support organisational change and uptake of initiatives that support excellence
• Develop and communicate the vision for the role of innovation, and the development of strategy and operational policies to support this vision
• Engage with key strategic regional and national policy makers to inform development of strategy and policies
• Identify examples of national and international best practice and to ensure that NHS England benefits from relevant innovations in healthcare
• Support development by developing the innovation infrastructure and capacity in organisations
• Develop and champion new initiatives or projects as necessary
• Working with providers and clinical experts to design new training products

Improving quality and outcomes

The post holder will be responsible for:

• Supporting the development and delivery of the infrastructure to achieve the regions objectives in relation to innovation
• Managing the facilitation of the development of recommended workforce models and guides to support the reduction of unwarranted variation
• Work with key stakeholder to ensure innovative strategies and solutions are underpinned by actions and activities that will deliver systems and provider workforce plans.
• Identify examples of national and international best practice and supporting systems to realise the benefits of innovation in delivering their integrated plans.
• Support systems with ensuring innovations are effectively utilised to drive productivity and ensure achievement o financial targets.
• Maximize opportunities for cross sector innovation specifically with social care.
• Developing approaches for complex pathways which require depth of experience to support design
• Using existing approaches to solve workforce challenges
• Working with key colleagues to ensure quality, value and impact of innovative and transformational activity aligned to education and training.
• Ensuring that knowledge expertise is fed into commissioning decisions and supply workstreams, recognizing need for innovation in order to reduce workforce gaps.
• Working collaboratively across NHS EnglandEnabling patient and public involvement.
• To act as a champion for patients and their interests and involve the public and patients in the policy development and decision-making of NHS England.

Promoting equality and reducing inequalities

• To uphold organisational policies and principles on the promotion of equality.
• To create an inclusive working environment where diversity is valued, everyone can contribute, and everyday action ensure we meet our duty to uphold and promote equality.

Partnership and cross boundary working

• To work with teams across the directorate, region and nationally to deliver education commissioning
• To manage effective matrix working with others, including Quality, Clinical, Supply, Intelligence and Retention functions, as well as national teams, in order to deliver the core objectives of this role.
• To facilitate partners across the system in recognising workforce as a priority in driving service transformation and new models of care, using knowledge and skills to support deliverable and innovative solutions.
• To support the health and care system, through upskilling and knowledge sharing, to ensure they have a workforce that can work across acute, community and primary care boundaries, beyond traditional professional demarcations and with the ability to adapt and innovate to meet current and future workforce needs.
• To act as a conduit between national and regional teams, system partners and education providers to ensure regional and local priorities are applied to decision making and that national priorities and targets are fed into this process.
• In partnership with systems and subject matter experts, provide innovative solutions to workforce gaps, including maximising role utilisation and implementation of new roles.

Leadership for transformational change

• To model a collaborative and influencing style of working, negotiating with others to achieve the best outcomes. Embedding this approach across the Directorate.
• To provide an appropriate level of critical challenge to system partners, regional and national colleagues, using knowledge and skills to guide decision making in relation to workforce solutions and commissioned activity.
• To provide support to the Deputy Head of Innovation, taking accountability for specific functions and programmes of work as delegated and ensuring effective delivery.

Using insight and evidence for improvement

• To support development and delivery of regional education, transformation and innovation strategy, ensuring mechanisms are in place for monitoring impact and outcomes as well as progress against deliverables.

Operational Requirements

• As a senior lead working internally and externally to deliver projects, initiatives and services to time and in a cost effective way.
• To support the identification and sharing of best practice to support service improvement.
• To operate in a highly political and sensitive environment.
• Support the portfolio of programmes/projects in demonstrating value for money tracking, managing and delivering agreed benefits.
• Provide specialist advice and prepare strategic reports and briefings for directors and stakeholders.
• In depth analysis, interpretation and production of complex and multiple reports.

Financial and Physical Resources

• Responsible for budgets/ matching the available budget to the appropriate staff resources and projects and for ensuring that the budget breaks even, co-ordinating and monitoring expenditure.
• Responsible for supporting the commissioning of projects and procurement of services to support project delivery, acting in accordance with Standing Orders and Standing Financial Instruction.
• Provide financial reports to Directors and the Board as required.

People Management

• Responsible for the day to day range of staff management matters, which will include responsibility for supporting appraisals, development of staff, recruitment and where necessary employee relations matters.
• Responsible for an individuals development on the job and team performance.

Information Management

• Develop and deliver information sharing systems.
• Develop the acquisition, organisation, provision and use of knowledge and information.
• Highlight exceptions and risks ensuring mitigating action is taken.
• Drafting reports summarising status on issues, appraising outcomes, and providing progress reports for the Head of the Department.
• Collate as required, qualitative and quantitative information and lead appropriate analysis to develop robust business cases and contribute to delivery of products and service improvement.
• Analyse, interpret and present data to highlight issues, risks and support decision making.

Research and Development

• Plan, develop and evaluate methods and processes for gathering, analysing, interpreting and presenting data and information.
• Deliver projects to comply with key performance indicators, and best practice guidance.
• Co-ordinate Research & Development initiatives, delegating as appropriate.

Planning and Organisation

• Ensure projects, services and initiatives are delivered on time, to quality standards and in a cost effective manner, adjusting plans as required.
• Determine the strategic planning of Department or Directorate projects, identifying interdependencies across projects/functions, potential impacts on wider organisation, resource requirements and building in contingency and adjustments as necessary.
• Determine the development of performance and governance strategies and the development and implementation of improvement programmes, in accordance with Service Sector priorities.
• Determine short, medium and long term business plans, achieving quality outcomes.

Policy and Service Development

• Carry responsibility for developing policy and procedure within own discipline/field, including briefings, commissioning, business or resources.
• Responsible for proposing and drafting changes, implementation and interpretation to policies, guidelines and service level agreements (SLAs) which may impact within Department or Directorate.
• Proposes changes to own project/service and make recommendations for other projects/service delivery.
• Maintain a good knowledge of emerging policies from government departments, the organisation in defining the strategy, in order to support delivery of the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan.

Key Working Relationships

• Communicates and provides highly complex information to a wide range of internal and external stakeholders (verbal, written and numerical).
• Present highly complex information about projects, initiatives and services to a wide range of stakeholders in a formal setting.
• Commit to working and engaging constructively with internal and external stakeholders on a range of contentious issues.
• Support matrix working internally and collaborative working across organisations.