Main area Operations Grade Band 8C Contract Permanent Hours
* Full time
* Flexible working
37.5 hours per week (Participation in the out of hours Tactical On Call rota will be required.) Job ref 344-7296WCY
Employer East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site William Harvey Hospital Town Ashford Salary £76,965 - £88,682 Per annum Salary period Yearly Closing 22/10/2025 23:59
Head of Operations - Child Health
Band 8C
Job overview
The Head of Operations is responsible for Operational management of the service, ensuring Trust resources are used to maximum efficiency, while ensuring safety, quality, and performance are delivered.
Main duties of the job
To be responsible for the operational management of Child Health Services including:
Providing visible proactive leadership to the service, acting as the key senior lead for issues, challenges, and escalation.
Work collaboratively with the Care Groups to provide assurance that robust systems for elective and non elective patient flow are in place and that quality patient led services are delivered consistently.
Collaborate with Care Group teams, to ensure Trust wide operational priorities are identified and delivered on a daily basis with robust plans from the Care Group for out of hours.
Provide leadership to the key functions of:
Delivery of Business Plan
Delivery of RTT and non RTT pathways
Main duties of the job
The general duties of the post of Head of Operations is covered in the Job description. Listed below are areas which give context to the demands of the role and the requirement to recruit.
The post holder has overall responsibility for the day to day management of Child Health Services with responsibility for 13 sub- specialties with the support of a general manager.
Some of the sub-specialties have elective inpatients and day cases
The operational delivery of the services as a whole covers the whole Trust.
Working for our organisation
We are one of the largest hospital trusts in England, with five
hospitals and community clinics serving a local population of around 800,000 people. Our vision is 'great healthcare from great people'. Everything we do is guided by our values: 'People feel cared for, safe, respected and confident that we are making a difference’. We have a new way of working at East Kent Hospitals, called 'We care'. It's about empowering frontline staff to lead improvements day-to-day. We're looking for compassionate people to be part of our improvement journey for the patients, families and carers we care for every day.
Applications for this role should be written by the applicant. If artificial intelligence (AI) programmes are used then the application may be rejected due to this document being an important part of the assessment process. This does not prevent applicants seeking appropriate support with applications should they need to for the purposes of any declared disability.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Please scroll down to access the full Job Description and Person Specification located in ‘Documents to download’.
If you have further queries please don’t hesitate to get in touch using the contact details below.
Person specification
Qualifications and training
* Masters or demonstration of equivalent substantial continuing professional development.
* Qualification in management coaching or improvement
Skills and experience
* Substantial experience of senior management in a relevant healthcare provider, in a multi- disciplinary environment
* Experience of developing and/or sustaining a culture consistent with Trust values
* Proven track record of management of budgets, including development of cost efficiencies, income generation, capital planning and value for money service developments
* Track record of achievement of objectives, including delivery of performance objectives
* Experience of influencing at senior level within and across organisations to develop services and improve performance
Clinical governance
* Commitment to implementation and strengthening of clinical governance
Personal/professional attributes
* Environmental and political awareness.
* Excellent written and verbal communications, Interpersonal and influence skills
* High analytical and numeracy skills.
* High level of self-awareness and openness to self-improvement.
Other requirements
* Able to function in a multi-professional environment
* Ability to cope under pressure and work to ambitious deadlines
* Self-motivated, energetic and flexible, with well- developed interpersonal skills
* Personal resilience, self- awareness, determination to succeed
Filmed in William Harvey and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother hospitals, the ‘We are the NHS’ campaign highlights the extraordinary work that staff across EKHUFT do every single day. As one of the largest hospital trusts in England, with five hospitals and community clinics serving a population of over one million people, EKHUFT was perfectly placed to demonstrate the care, cutting-edge treatments, research, innovations and life-saving operations that the campaign needed.
There are lots of great opportunities at East Kent Hospitals, where staff are caring and put patients first, innovation flourishes and you can develop your career. We’re on an exciting journey of transformation. With a new Medical School at the centre of our community, a focus on research, clinical leadership and making our trust a rewarding and friendly place to work,
there’s never been a better time to join us.To find out more about east Kent visit our website at. The Trust fully supports the SAS Doctors Charter and is committed to their development through its CPD Framework.
We’ll close this job advert once we’ve received sufficient applications which may be before the closing date so please apply as soon as possible. We only accept online applications. If you have any difficulty with this please contact our Resourcing Team on 01227 866450 who are happy to help.
We have a relocation policy for eligible candidates, parking available at Trust sites but we encourage other options, like car sharing or public transport.
The Trust is committed to supporting flexible working to fulfil our pledge as part of The Trust’s People Strategy to help staff to achieve a healthy work/life balance. Please speak with your Recruiting Manager for further information on how this can be managed alongside department expectations and requirements.
The ability to converse easily and provide advice in accurate spoken English is essential for all customer facing roles.
Most positions require a Disclosure and Barring check and will be exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. Posts working regularly or unsupervised with children or vulnerable adults require an enhanced check.
Applicants for eligible roles requiring Tier 2 sponsorship must meet UK Visas and Immigration eligibility criteria.
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You can search for and apply for roles directly on our website.
If you are applying via NHS Jobs your application will be sent to our recruitment system TRAC. All subsequent information will be generated from TRAC so you won’t be able to see the progress of your application or receive messages through NHS Jobs and we won’t be able to respond to e-mails sent to us via the NHS Jobs website. By applying for this post you are agreeing to us transferring your application and details to our system. If you are offered a job information will also be transferred into the NHS Electronic Staff Records. Good luck with your application, we’ll contact you via email so please check your junk/spam folders.
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