Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, (LGT), is a community-focused provider of local and acute care, delivering high-quality services to over one million people living across the London boroughs of Lewisham, Greenwich, and Bexley. We provide whole-life care and are here to support our communities to live healthier lives as well as taking care of them when they need us the most.
Employing almost 7,500 colleagues, affectionately known as Team LGT, we provide services at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich, University Hospital Lewisham, and at over a dozen community settings in Lewisham. We also provide some services at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup.
We have recently launched our new vision and values to mark the LGT10 – the tenth anniversary of our Trust forming in 2013. Our trust vision is to be exceptional. In the quality of our patient care; our support for colleagues; and in the difference we make through our partnerships and in our communities.
To achieve this we value Respect, Compassion, and Inclusion; Being accountable over staying comfortable; Listening over always knowing best; and Succeeding together over achieving alone.
Our hospitals and community sites provide a wide range of inpatient and outpatient services, as well as emergency and planned care. The Trust is rated as “good” or “outstanding” in over three-quarters of the services inspected by the Care Quality Commission.
Every year our work includes performing 10,000 procedures in our theatres; bringing seven and a half thousand new lives into the world; carrying out 570,000 visits to patients in their homes or communities and providing emergency care for more than 300,000 patients arriving in our busy Urgent and Emergency Departments.
LGT is a centre for the education and training of medical students enrolled with King’s College London’s GKT School of Medical Education. We are a training centre for nurses, midwives and allied health professionals. We are pioneering new roles that will support the changing needs of our patients and are one of the largest employers of physician associates in the country.
We are committed to working with our partners to deliver the best outcomes for our local communities. This means playing an active role in the South East London Integrated Care System (ICS), and in formal partnerships including the South East London Acute Provider Collaborative, provider partnerships with our local mental health trusts and borough-based boards of the ICS in Bexley, Greenwich and Lewisham.
The Deputy Director will play a pivotal role in enhancing operational effectiveness and efficiency in surgical services. This position is responsible for supporting the Director in strategic planning, operational management, clinical governance, and the continuous improvement of theatres and anaesthetics, ensuring high standards of patient care and surgical productivity.
Supporting the whole perioperative pathway, the directorate coordinates, collaborates, facilitates and standardises care across multiple directorates and disciplines.
The Deputy Director will be responsible for the day to day running of operating theatres across Lewisham and Greenwich Hospital sites, a lead role in surgical productivity and supporting delivery of operational priorities including cancer waiting times. This will require close collaboration with other general managers, other divisions across the organisation, group executive teams, the Divisional Medical Director and external partners. Additionally, the Deputy Director will lead on the directorates financial performance including in year improvement plans and implementing sustainable change to the directorate financial position.
We are looking for a highly experienced leader with the ability to exercise influence and work across multidisciplinary teams to monitor performance and transform service delivery. Will have experience in leading change management programmes.
Main duties of the job
The Deputy Director for Theatres, Anaesthetics, Pain and Critical Care Directorate will:
Be accountable for the operational performance of a large, complex Directorate. This will include accountability for the delivery of high-quality patient care, clinical governance, patient safety, clinical quality, and delivery of financial targets.
Have joint responsibility with the other Deputy Divisional Director of Operations, Directorate General Managers and members of the Divisional management team for driving forward division wide programmes of work and service developments.
Work closely with the Divisional Director of Operations to shape and implement the corporate objectives for the Trust.
Ensure that the necessary corporate governance arrangements are in place across the division in line with the requirements of the Trust.
Have accountability for the delivery and governance of the Peri-Operative Productivity Programme.
Working for our organisation
Our people are our greatest asset. When we feel supported and happy at work, this positivity reaches those very people we are here for, the patients. Engaged employees perform at their best and our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) initiatives contribute to cultivate a culture of engagement. We have four staff networks, a corporate EDI Team and a suite of programmes and events which aim to insert the 5 aspirations:
1. Improving representation at senior levels of staff with disabilities, from black, Asian, and ethnic minorities background, identify as LGBTQ+ and women, through improved recruitment and leadership development
2. Widening access (anchor institution) and employability
3. Improving the experience of staff with disability
4. Improving the EDI literacy and confidence of trust staff through training and development
5. Making equalities mainstream
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Leadership and Performance Management:
Together with the Clinical Director and Head of Nursing provide leadership to the Directorate staff, ensuring clear communication of Trust and Directorate values, vision, priorities and expectations to ensure the engagement of teams to deliver services of the highest quality;
Responsible for managing the highly complex nature of the business area and ensuring that the appropriate strategic plans are delivered within the complex operating framework.
In conjunction with the Clinical Director develop and deliver the strategy and performance management of clinical services.
Responsible for the development and delivery of complex capacity plans to ensure that the Trust achieves 18 weeks and other waiting time reduction targets;
Take a leading role working with a range of complex clinical specialties and other support departments to improve throughput in outpatient, inpatient and day care settings
Exercising delegated authority on behalf of the Clinical Director, the post holder will provide leadership to resolve day-to-day management issues within the Directorate;
Holding Lead Clinicians, and Service Managers to account for delivery of their objectives through regular performance review meetings;
Ensuring sufficient data availability within the Directorate to monitor and track performance and to satisfy reporting requirements;
Providing appropriate input and challenge to clinical and business plans where necessary.
To formally deputise for the Clinical Director as required.
Participate in Silver Commander on-call rota.
Risk & Governance:
Develop and manage the implementation of systems, control processes and risk management arrangements to support monitoring of compliance with clinical governance standards, decontamination requirements, other Trust-wide policies and processes and best practice requirements;
Manage the resolution of complaints and issues from patients, staff, suppliers, other internal and external service providers and partner organisations in a timely and appropriate manner in line with Trust policy, procedures and service delivery values and priorities;
Support, alongside the HoN and other clinical staff, root cause analyses and trend analyses of all complaints and adverse incidents.
Prepare briefing reports for the Director of Operations, Chief Operating Officer, Trust Management Executive and the Trust Board in relation to the performance of services within the directorate.
Staff Management:
Provide senior leadership within the Directorate and influence service design and delivery across the organisation;
Responsible for ensuring that the workforce is appropriately utilised and long-term service needs are appropriately planned for in terms of staffing levels and skill mix.
Monitor compliance within the Directorate with Trust-wide staff management policies and procedures and take remedial action with accountable managers where shortfalls occur;
Line manage, coach and develop Lead Clinicians and other senior staff
Line manage several Deputy General Manager and Assistant General Managers
Support Lead Clinicians in the coaching, mentoring and development of Service Managers.Financial Management:
Responsible for ensuring that financial obligations are met and that all Directorate staff work within defined budget parameters and that they comply with the Trust’s Standing Financial Instructions;
Act as an authorising signatory for capital and revenue budgets within limits agreed with the Directorate;
Manage reporting on budget positions across the Directorate to support the
Manage large, complex and multi-stranded budgets in an environment that constantly fluctuates. Also, to ensure effective resource utilisation and expenditure against control totals.
Strategy, Change Management and Service Improvement:
Support the Clinical Director in identifying both new opportunities for the individual services within the Directorate arising from changes in the external environment or internal innovation and potential threats and ways to respond to them;
Contribute to the development and delivery of the Trust’s strategy and policies and ensure that the Directorate supports the delivery of national NHS requirements.
Lead change management programmes within the Directorate and across the Trust, ensuring completion of the most complex and challenging projects to time, budget and quality targets, ensuring successful implementation of programmes and initiatives which may impact Trust- wide.
Provide leadership to facilitate the development and implementation of a comprehensive estates strategy for transforming the environments for the delivery of elective and emergency surgery and associated critical care facilities across the hospital sites, in collaboration with Capital and Engineering teams and external contractors.
Manage service improvement projects within the Directorate and Directorate contribution to Trust-wide service improvement projects within agreed timeframes and financial targets.
Ensure operational models and clinical models including design of new policies, processes, protocols, workforce implications are all managed as part of the programme.
Employ excellent change management, facilitation and negotiation skills to encourage full participation of project team members
Influence the roles of individuals in change management, service improvement and service delivery.
Excellent planning and organisation skills will be required. The activities are often made up of several components and may require the formulation and adjustment of plans.
Lead the development of business cases, including feasibility studies, outline business cases (OBC), detailed scheme designs and full business cases (FBC).
Provide programme management leadership and expertise to the redevelopment programme, it’s committees, individuals in the team, and across the wider organisation.Design, facilitate and effectively lead programme management meetings with relevant stakeholders; with a focus on action, risk management and delivery.
Develop and lead the planning approach for programmes including identifying the critical path and key milestone. Ensure progress of these is monitored effectively.
Monitor work allocation and support as necessary to the Programme and Project Managers, in the overall planning, presentation and progression of the key operational, performance, quality and risk objectives.
Person specification
Essential criteria
6. Relevant Masters/MBA qualification or equivalent professional qualification.
7. Demonstrate a successful track record of delivering effective healthcare services as a senior manager or director in a large, multifaceted healthcare environment including staff management, financial management and change management.
Service Delivery
Essential criteria
8. Extensive in-depth demonstrable success in delivering change and performance with and through management teams, by engaging them in the strategic direction and delivery plans, establishing clear work priorities with them, delegating effectively, ensuring a capability to deliver, monitoring performance and giving feedback.
We reserve the right to close the post before the stated closing date, please apply early. We do not contact applicants with the outcome of the shortlisting. If you have been shortlisted, you will receive an invite to an assessment day or interview.
As a local employer and anchor institution we work closely with our community to recruit locally and we welcome applications from the widest variety of people to ensure our workforce are reflective of the local communities which we serve. We encourage all suitable candidates to apply including if you are Black, Asian or other ethnic minorities, live with a disability (visible or not) or are LGBT+. We have a number of active staff networks including Disability, LGBT+, Multicultural Inclusion and Women’s staff networks to bring staff together and celebrate diversity across our whole workforce.
Please note that sponsorship under the Skilled Worker route is subject to Trust allocation and UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) approval.
Applicant requirements
The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.