South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SECAmb) has a vision to ‘support our staff to provide a caring, high quality and efficient urgent and emergency care service to our communities’. We are rated ‘Good’ for care by the Care Quality Commission and while the other areas under their most recent report require improvement, our aim is to continually improve and to reach outstanding across all areas of the Trust. Our 4,000 workforce provide services to 4.9m people across Kent, Surrey, Sussex and North East Hampshire. We handle over 1 million calls to 999 and 1 million calls to NHS 111 every year. More information regarding our services and locations can be found on our website. Job overview Are you an inclusive, forward‑thinking People Services leader committed to creating outstanding experiences for colleagues and the communities they serve? We are seeking a Deputy Chief People Officer to play a central role in shaping the future of People Services at South East Coast Ambulance NHS Foundation Trust. This is a pivotal leadership post, supporting the Chief People Officer in delivering a modern, high‑performing function that enables our people to thrive and supports the Trust’s ambitious transformation journey. Band 9: £109,179 – £125,637 (2025/2026 AFC Pay) 37.5 hours per week • Hybrid working • Travel across the South East In this influential role, you will help drive strategic workforce initiatives, strengthen leadership capability, embed compassionate and values‑driven culture, and ensure our People Services teams are equipped to enable excellent care across the South East. With a workforce of over 4,500 colleagues delivering urgent and emergency care across the region, every individual plays a critical role in our success. We also recognise that not all of our people currently feel valued, empowered, or heard. We are committed to changing this. We want to create an organisation where every member of staff feels they make a difference; where colleagues are involved in shaping outcomes; and where people are supported, developed, and trusted to reach their full potential. The Deputy Chief People Officer will be instrumental in helping us get there. Advert The Deputy Chief People Officer will ensure the delivery of a highly effective, forward‑looking People Services function that enables leaders to build a people‑centred, high‑performance culture where engagement, continuous improvement, and quality thrive. They will help shape a business‑focused, innovative organisation that supports the delivery of outstanding care to patients and communities across the South East. Operating in a period of significant transformation across the NHS and the wider health and care sector, the postholder will bring high personal resilience, adaptive leadership, and the ability to navigate complexity, uncertainty, and pace. They will play a crucial role in stabilising teams, supporting change‑readiness, and ensuring People Services remains a trusted strategic partner through ongoing system‑wide reform across the region. A compassionate, inclusive, and values‑led leadership style will be essential, with the Deputy Chief People Officer acting as a visible role model for the Trust’s values and behaviours. The Deputy Chief People Officer will also hold senior leadership responsibility for the core People Services portfolio, providing strategic oversight and operational leadership across Employee Relations, People Business Partnering, Workforce, and other key People functions that underpin a high‑quality, responsive service. Working for our organisation Option to join NHS pension scheme A minimum 27 days' holiday each year, increasing after 5 years’ service. Personal and professional development and training opportunities. Salary Sacrifice schemes for cars or push bikes. Access to occupational health and counselling services. Award winning wellbeing hub Access to NHS discounts, offering NHS employees a range of money-saving deals. Other than in exceptional circumstances, the starting salary for staff new to the NHS will be the bottom point of the band to which they have been appointed. Detailed job description and main responsibilities As a senior leader within People Services, the postholder will take strategic ownership for the development, modernisation, and continuous improvement of key People Services functions, systems, and policies ensuring they enable the Trust’s corporate aims and objectives and reflect national priorities such as the NHS People Plan. Support the Chief People Officer in shaping and delivering progressive remuneration, reward, and benefits strategies aligned with national NHS policy and designed to support the Trust’s operational and financial priorities. Work closely with the senior People Services Team to drive forward the Trust’s equality, diversity, and inclusion agenda ensuring best practice is embedded across all People Services activity and the wider workforce strategy. Hold strategic responsibility for effective change management, ensuring frameworks, processes, and advisory support are in place to enable seamless, people‑centred workforce transitions aligned to clinical, operational, and organisational transformation programmes. Provide strategic People Services leadership into organisational planning and business development, ensuring the Trust remains compliant with national and local NHS policy, workforce initiatives, and changes to terms and conditions, while anticipating and responding to future workforce risks and opportunities. Support the division in delivering a compelling, values‑led Recruitment & Retention Strategy that enables the Trust to attract, develop, and retain the best people ensuring the workforce is equipped to deliver high‑quality patient care now and in the future. Please note that the salary range noted on the vacancy is in line with agenda for change (AFC) pay scales. All successful applicants would be placed automatically at the bottom of the banding, unless proven, relevant NHS or equivalent experience can be demonstrated. Following the revision of current national legislation (Vaccine as a Condition of Deployment), the Trust has reviewed our requirements relating to staff uptake of the SARS-COV-2 (COVID-19) vaccination. Going forward, for patient facing positions, we strongly recommend that new starters will be appropriately vaccinated unless medically exempt in order to offer greater protection against exposure to the virus for front line staff. In line with this recommendation, if you are successful in your application for a front line post, we will seek information from you in relation to your vaccine status, including exemption status, as applicable. Please note, all positions come with a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check relevant to the post. This will either be a basic, standard, or enhanced check depending on the role. The level of check will be outlined in the conditional offer letter sent to successful applicants. As part of the application process, you will be asked to declare any unspent/unfiltered convictions. If you are shortlisted you will then be sent a self declaration form, which must be completed prior to attending interview. for any queries relating to declarations, please contact the Recruitment Advisor listed on the vacancy. The Trust is passionately committed to being an inclusive employer - a place where we can all be ourselves and succeed. As an employer we offer a range of family friendly, inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements, staff engagement networks, facilities and services to support staff from different backgrounds. We actively support equality of opportunity for all our staff and welcome applications from individuals regardless of age, any disability, sex, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief. The Trust is making progress towards its aim of becoming more reflective of the diversity of our community in our workforce and guarantees an interview to candidates with disability who meet the essential criteria specified. We particularly encourage applications from Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic and disabled applicants and those from other under-represented groups. The Equality Act 2010 protects disabled people - including those with long term health conditions, learning disabilities and hidden disabilities such as dyslexia. If you tell us that you have a disability we can make reasonable adjustments to ensure that any selection processes - including the interview - are fair and equitable. We are a committed to offering opportunities to individuals with disabilities and offer on-going support, should you be successful, with any adjustments you may need when performing your role. When completing the application please use your name as it appears on your passport and please ensure you include email addresses and contact numbers for your referees to avoid delay in the recruitment process. Please note that under our Trust policies, we're unable to employ anyone under the age of 18 years old. The majority of our roles will include some travel between sites for business purposes. If the vacancy you’re applying for includes work related travel, you will be required to ensure that you hold and have covered the cost of suitable car insurance to support this. Should you require an application form in an alternative format including large print or braille, please contact [email protected] stating the vacancy reference number and we will be happy to provide this. When completing the reference section, please include details to cover the last three years’ history. Due to the high volume of applications at SECAmb, we regret that we will only be able to contact those applicants who are shortlisted for interview. If you have not heard from us within 10 working days of the closing date, then please assume you have not been shortlisted for interview on this particular occasion. Please note that we contact all applicants via Trac Jobs and would advise you check your Trac Jobs account regularly. Please be aware that the Trust reserves the right to close this vacancy early if sufficient applications are received. For this reason we recommend completing your application as early as possible. Follow our recruitment on Twitter @SECAmbRecruit and check out our Facebook page - SECAmb NHS Recruitment. You can also find us on Linkedin under South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust. We understand that AI tools can be useful for generating ideas or structuring your application. However, any content submitted must reflect your own experiences, skills, and understanding. Applications that are generated wholly or in large part by AI, without personalisation or accuracy, may be excluded from consideration. We value honesty, authenticity, and integrity in the recruitment process and expect all applicants to uphold these principles. If you are a current SECAmb employee, by applying for this position, if successful you will move to the terms and conditions associated with the post. Any unsocial hours payments will be paid under the Section 2 agreement of agenda for change. Section 2 unsocial hours will need to be claimed via your monthly timesheet. More information regarding section 2 can be found in the Agenda for Change handbook and on the our dedicated Section 2 page on The Zon e .