Job overview
The Head of Occupational Health and Wellbeing Services (OHWB) will provide a strategic workforce Occupational Health and Wellbeing focus and direction for the partner Trusts by working closely with the Senior Management teams and other senior stakeholders and providing leadership to the OHWB team to support the forward planning, engagement and performance of the service.
They will influence and drive business objectives and support the delivery of the Trusts People Strategies and Growing Occupational and Wellbeing Together national strategy. The Head of OH will also lead on designated Trust-wide projects and is a member of the Senior Occupational Health and Wellbeing Leadership Team who will work in partnership to deliver the People & Culture contribution to the quality improvement agenda.
They will provide senior leadership to the OHWB teams and be responsible for developing the OH service to ensure that members of the team have the capacity and confidence to provide SEQOHS accredited OHWB Services.
Main duties of the job
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Occupational health and wellbeing services clinical & administrative team
• To lead the Occupational Health and wellbeing clinicians to deliver professional, holistic evidenced based OHWB services to the partner Trusts, ensuring the highest standards of care along with optimal workforce performance and effectiveness
• To provide strategic and Trust-wide delivery of the Occupational Health and wellbeing strategic action plan for ELHT and contribute to the Divisions and wider People & Culture teams
• To develop the Occupational health and wellbeing team as the local People & Culture Occupational Health and Wellbeing ‘relationship manager’ for all services provided to the Divisions, thereby informing the provision of those services, providing stakeholder feedback
and addressing issues for improvement
• To lead, develop and manage the operational teams, supported by the Senior clincians to provide an expert, professional and high-quality operational OHWB service providing advice on a full range of workforce occupational health and wellbeing matters.
Working for our organisation
EMPLOYMENT ACTS AND CODES OF PRACTICE
All employees are required to comply with employment legislation and codes of good practice.
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
We are an Equal Opportunities employer and will do all we can to make sure that job applicants and
employees do not receive less favourable treatment because of their age, sex, marital status, faith,
race, disability or sexual orientation, or for any other reason that is not justified.
Health and Safety
In accordance with the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, and other supplementary legislation, all
employees are required to follow Trust Health and Safety policies and safe working procedures, take
reasonable care to avoid injury during the course of their work, and co-operate with the Trust and
others in meeting statutory requirements.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
• Interpret highly complex legislation and case law in order to provide advice to managers,
which inform them of the choices and risks in managing staff. This will include building legal
cases, with legal support as appropriate, up to and including tribunal cases as well as
providing evidence
Occupational Health and Wellbeing Policy
• To lead the development of Trust OHWB policies to support delivery of the Trust’s People
Strategy, Health and Safety and Infection Prevention and Control requirements, acting as
Chair of the OHWB Policy Group and ensuring that all policies are up to date, effectively
implemented and monitored
• Support the delivery of the Trust Behaviour Framework, Culture and Leadership Programme
• Horizon scan for changes in legislation, as well as learning from other organisations (NHS
and non-NHS) in terms of best practice/innovative thinking
• To ensure regular and appropriate communication of all People & Culture Occupational
Health and Wellbeing Policies and procedures, ensuring legal compliance and best practice
• To oversee the on-going development and improvement of the Staff Wellbeing website and
other support/guidance for managers
Workforce Information & Analysis
• To lead the proactive development and provision of occupational health and wellbeing
workforce information reports in order to demonstrate delivery of the priorities of the People
Strategy and support the identification of organisational “hotspots” at a
departmental/Directorate level in order that the People & Culture Senior Management Team
can plan, adapt and react accordingly to support improvement
• Support the Workforce Information and G2 OPAS Systems in leading the workforce
Occupational Health and wellbeing systems agenda, including any transition to new solutions
3
• Engage fully in People Digital workstreams across Lancashire & South Cumbria, working
towards consistency of digital providers and systems/processes
• Develop consistent reporting of Workforce metrics within Divisions, feeding through to the
People and Culture Committee, Divisional Management Boards
• To lead the development of occupational health and wellbeing workforce analytical skills
within the team in order to more proactively inform the priorities of the People & Culture
Directorate as well as the Divisions and external contracts.
• To ensure all KPIs for internal and external contracts are monitored and achieved with
mitigating action when required.
Training and Development
• To oversee the development and delivery of an annual people management occupational
health and wellbeing development training programme which supports the priorities identified
in the People Strategy as well as Divisional workforce plans
• Proactively identify training needs, in terms of people management and support the team to
provide or signpost towards the right interventions, working closely with Education and OD
colleagues
• Help to develop line managers so that they have the competence and confidence to address
occupational health and wellbeing people management issues within their teams
Partnership Working
• To support in maintaining and building on excellent partnership working with trade union
colleagues across the organisation through effective Trust wide partnership arrangements
and the promotion of partnership working
• Regular attendance at JNCC and JLNC meetings, providing regular occupational health and
wellbeing workforce assurance updates within ELHT and to external contracts were required.
• Regular attendance at Health and Safety committee and Infection Prevention and Control
committee meetings, providing regular occupational health and wellbeing workforce
assurance updates
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
• Identify and support the delivery of measures in relation to embedding of Equality, Diversity
and Inclusion across the Trust in relation to employment practice, service delivery, policy and
staff experience
• Work with our Associate Director of Organisational Development and Equality, Diversity and
Inclusion Lead to ensure that policies, systems, processes are always reviewed with EDI in
mind
Team Management & Financial Responsibilities
• Provide management and leadership to support all teams in providing a high quality person
centred service at all times, achieving a positive and relationship building role with all
stakeholders
• Work closely with the Head of Human Resources, Resourcing and Medical Staffing to lead
and shape the identification of individual and team learning and development needs across
the Directorate and put plans in place to meet these
• Foster a culture of continuous improvement, positive attitude, behaviour and compassion
within the team, encouraging all staff to contribute to providing a high quality service focused
on outcomes
• Manage the pay and non-pay for the teams and deliver these within budget and work with the
People & Culture Senior Management Team to meet the Waste Reduction Programme
4
Other
• Attend Trust sub-committees as required, to ensure sound governance
• To deputise for the Associate Director of Staff Wellbeing and Engagement as
required
Person specification
Qualifications and Training
Essential criteria
* Clinical Degree in relevant subject • NMC/HCPC Registered Professional • Evidence of Post Graduate Continuing Professional Development at Masters level
Desirable criteria
* Certificate in Occupational Health Management
Experience
Essential criteria
* Significant operational OHWB experience with exposure to working as an Occupational Health and Wellbeing Clinician; experience of devising and implementing OHWB plans and strategy • Highly developed understanding of Occupational Health and wellbeing/ Health & Safety and Infection Prevention and control guidance/legislation with ability to analyse, interpret and apply complex concepts • Demonstrable experience in large scale change management and experience of advising managers on complex change processes including reasonable adjustments, ill health retirement, sickness absence recommendations • Experience and demonstrable delivery of developing strategic plans and focussed solutions to support organisational priorities • Experience of managing high performing teams (s) whose focus has been on delivering customer focussed OHWB services with clear performance outcomes • Experience of preparing and presenting for SEQOHS accreditation
Desirable criteria
* Experience of working in other system partner organisations, such as local authority, education or voluntary sector • Experience of writing detailed, fully costed business cases • Experience of working with partner organisations, sharing good practice
Knowledge, Skills and Aptitude
Essential criteria
* Sound understanding of OHWB best practice, SEQOHS standards, NHS Staff Health and Wellbeing Framework & the National Growing Occupational Health and Wellbeing Strategy • Ability to communicate verbally and in writing in a manner which is clear, fluent, persuasive and nonjudgemental • Presentation and facilitation skills with the ability to communicate complex concepts simply and effectively • Able to analyse problems and develop practical solutions that enable effective decision making • Evidence of ability to act as a role model for staff and advocate best practice across the organisation which promotes equality, fairness, dignity and respect and embraces diversity • IT skills i.e. word, excel and PowerPoint and the ability to manipulate complex information • Highly developed understanding of equality and diversity and the ability to analyse workforce information to identify evidence of poor / discriminatory practice • Highly developed report writing and written skills and ability to prepare Board and Committee reports • Ability to take part in the Occupational Health and Wellbeing On-call rota to provide supervision and oversight based on clinical need.
Desirable criteria
* Experience of developing online learning content • Highly developed knowledge of MSK/MH & common conditions and understanding of the processes and practice to successfully achieve return to work and prevention strategies