This post is only open to internal applicants.
Operational Planning Analyst
NHS AfC: Band 7
Main area Analytics Grade NHS AfC: Band 7 Contract Permanent Hours Full time - 37.5 hours per week Job ref 213-CORP-7296496
Employer King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Town London Salary £54,320 - £60,981 per annum, including Inner London HCAS rate Salary period Yearly Closing 08/07/2025 23:59
King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is one of the UK’s largest and busiest teaching Trusts with a turnover of c£1.8 billion, 1.5 million patient contacts a year and more than 15,000 staff based across 5 main sites in South East London. The Trust provides a full range of local hospital services across its different sites, and specialist services from King’s College Hospital (KCH) sites at Denmark Hill in Camberwell and at the Princess Royal University Hospital (PRUH) site in the London Borough of Bromley.
We encourage all our staff to have a healthy work/life balance. In doing so, you can apply for flexible working from the beginning of your employment. We offer a range of options which are designed to suit different circumstances and priorities in line with service requirements.
The King’s Operational Planning Team sits within the Trust’s Business Intelligence Unit (BIU) and has responsibility for activity planning, performance forecasting and demand and capacity modelling. The team provides the forward-looking part of the Trust’s data function and works closely with clinical teams and other corporate functions within King’s, as well as local and national commissioners to deliver this.
We are currently looking for a talented analyst to join the team to support the ongoing delivery of our existing portfolio and develop new modelling and analytical tools to help King’s respond effectively to emerging challenges and the evolving NHS operational landscape.
We are looking for an analyst with strong excel and SQL skills and experience of using Power BI. Experience working in an analytical role and an understanding of how to process data, identify patterns in the data and use relevant contextual data to explain these patterns are the key skills required for the role. The team is looking to expand its use of more advanced statistical methods within the next iteration of planning, forecasting and modelling tools, so experience with open-source software such as R and Python will be of value.
King’s BIU provides a flexible working environment with a mix of home and office-based working, with offices in Orpington and King’s Denmark Hill site. This post will be primarily based at Denmark Hill.
Main duties of the job
The team has three primary responsibilities:
1)Developing the Trust’s annual activity plan
2)Leading on demand vs capacity modelling across the Trust
3) Leading on all forms of performance forecasting across the Trust
The post holder will be expected to contribute to all three of the above departmental responsibilities.
The post-holder’s primary role will be to use their analytical and SQL skills to provide detailed analytical support to the Operational Planning Managers in the development and maintenance of:
* The Trust’s annual activity planning model and the associated outputs. This is site / specialty / patient type / HRG level weekly activity forecasting model for the whole of King’s College Hospital.
* The Trust’s demand vs capacity models. These are dynamic capacity planning tools which enable key decision makers to understand capacity requirements for different site / specialty combinations.
* The Trust's performance forecasting and benchmarking tools.
The team receives regular requests for quick-turnaround pieces of ad-hoc modelling in relation to demand vs capacity modelling and performance forecasting, which the post-holder will be expected to support.
The ideal post-holder would have detailed knowledge of demand, capacity and performance modelling in the NHS. They will use this knowledge to support the development of sophisticated data models that demonstrate the short- and long-term Trust capacity and performance requirements.
Working for our organisation
King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is one of the UK’s largest and busiest teaching Trusts with a turnover of c£1.8 billion, 1.5 million patient contacts a year and more than 15,000 staff based across South East London. The Trust provides a full range of local and specialist services across its five sites. The trust-wide strategy of Strong Roots, Global Reach is our Vision to be BOLD, Brilliant people, Outstanding care, Leaders in Research, Innovation and Education, Diversity, Equality and Inclusion at the heart of everything we do. By being person-centred, digitally-enabled, and focused on sustainability, we aim to take Team King’s to another level.
We are at a pivotal point in our history and we require individuals who are ready to join a highly professional team and make a real, lasting difference to our patients and our people.
King’s is committed to delivering Sustainable Healthcare for All via our Green Plan. In line with national Greener NHS ambitions, we have set net zero carbon targets of 2040 for our NHS Carbon Footprint and 2045 for our NHS Carbon Footprint Plus. Everyone’s contribution is required in order to meet the goals set out in our Green Plan and we encourage all staff to work responsibly, minimising their contributions to the Trust’s carbon emissions, waste and pollution wherever possible.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Analytical & Judgemental Skills
Expert analytical and SQL skills
Analyse, investigate and resolve complex issues and problems which arise during the development of the Trust’s annual activity plan.
Identify any unusual data trends in the model which may be used to highlight errors in analysis / reporting.
Ensure that there are insightful outputs from the analysis which can be presented to operational leads in a structured and meaningful way
Support Operational Planning Managers with input analysis required for the Trust’s suite of performance forecasting tools. For example, this may involve conducting trend analysis on referrals to understand likely trajectories for non-admitted RTT pathway additions.
Support the Operational Planning Managers with input analytics required for internal / external performance benchmarking
Contribute to the development of a growing and imaginative portfolio of business intelligence and service development tools.
Planning & Organisational Skills
Required to work on a range of different analytical / modelling areas, including: activity planning, performance forecasting and demand vs capacity modelling. Accordingly, the post-holder will be adept at planning their time and resources and will need to formulate and adjust their plans to meet business need.
Mental Effort
The role is very mentally challenging. The post-holder will be expected to concentrate for long periods when analysing data and developing models. Developing accurate outputs is critical to this role and the post-holder will need to check and verify their analysis thoroughly.
The post-holder should expect a rapidly changing work plan and expect to be responsive to answer regular queries from colleagues.
Communication & Relationship Skills
Work closely with operational colleagues to develop a detailed understanding of the expected activity impact of upcoming service changes and then use complex analytics to translate this operational understanding into an activity plan.
Provide and receive highly complex information. Present complex analytical outputs colleagues within and beyond the operational planning team / business intelligence unit.
With the support of the Operational Planning Managers, interpret the outputs from demand vs capacity models and communicate planning model outputs which can be complex and multi-stranded. This will involve providing clear direction to operational colleagues on what outputs mean in terms of operational reality.
Support with regular exec level / Care Group management requests for bespoke pieces of demand vs capacity analysis. For example, this may be a request from a Care Group lead to understand if there is sufficient bed capacity available to support a new service or a request to understand the capacity requirements of a new unit.
Signpost operational colleagues to existing sources of business intelligence and provide feedback to the Business Intelligence Unit on any potential improvements to dashboards / reporting suite.
Person specification
Education and Qualifications
* Masters/MBA or equivalent experience
Knowledge and Experience
* Exceptionally high level of numeracy and numerical reasoning
* Ability to receive complex information and use advanced analytical skills and modelling ability to develop insightful conclusions
* Able to take responsibility for setting the direction of pieces of work without having over-reliance on task-setting by managers
* A strategic thinker with highly developed communication skills
* In depth specialist knowledge of data and using data to develop analysis used to support critical decisions in healthcare or another sector
* Significant relevant experience within an informatics or performance / planning setting
Skills and Competencies
* A proven ability to obtain and consistently achieve results and targets
* Proven ability to process wide ranging data and information and take appropriate decisions from it
* A proven ability to come up with flexible and creative solutions to difficult problems
* Excellent collaborative working skills and able to build strong relationships with clinical leaders and professional staff groups
* Ability to provide and receive highly complex and sensitive information and data
IMPORTANT
* Check your email account regularly as this is how we will communicate with you
* If you delete the job from any of your accounts, you may be prevented from accessing further communications
* To enquire about your application or inform us of any changes in your circumstances, please contact the named person on this advert
* Please provide email addresses for referees where possible
* Please review the documentation on our recruitment microsite, particularly the Trust’s criminal records checking policy
* All staff have a responsibility for safeguarding children and vulnerable adults and for ensuring they are aware of the specific duties relating to their role.
* Please note that the closing date is given as a guide. On occasion, we might close a vacancy early due to a high number of applications being received. You are advised to submit your application as early as possible to avoid disappointment.
King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust Annual Reports and Other Corporate Publications
King's Health Partners Academic Health Science Centre Website
King's College Hospital is part of King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC), a pioneering collaboration between King's College London, and Guy's and St Thomas', King's College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts.
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