Job overview
Pathology is central to the delivery of safe, effective and timely patient care, underpinning the majority of clinical decision making across acute, community and specialist services. LSC Pathology delivers a single, integrated pathology service on behalf of four NHS Trusts across Lancashire and South Cumbria, operating at scale across multiple sites and disciplines.
The Network Lead Biomedical Scientist will play a central role in establishing, embedding and operationally leading this new pathology single service. Working closely with the Associate and Assistant Directors of Operations, the post holder will ensure robust operational management, effective performance delivery and seamless cross site coordination during transition and once the new model is fully operational. The role will be responsible for driving operational excellence in Biochemistry, ensuring the service is efficient, resilient, compliant and able to meet agreed access, quality and performance standards.
Main duties of the job
Working closely with clinical, scientific and operational leaders, the post holder will ensure the Biochemistry services across LSC PS are safe, effective, efficient and resilient, supporting delivery of agreed performance, workforce, quality and financial objectives.
Working for our organisation
At LTH, we have 10,000 fantastic people working hard to deliver quality services to our patients. Whatever your role, you help look after 370,000 people in our local area & give specialist care to 1.8 million people across Lancashire & Cumbria.
LSC Pathology has more than 800 clinicians and scientists operating across eight sites in Lancashire and Cumbria.
Working with us gives you the knowledge and sense of pride that every activity you do genuinely does make a difference to support our patients & staff, ensuring we keep thriving & delivering outstanding healthcare right across our local towns.
You'll make an impact, be challenged to think differently, be bold & help innovate to keep improving things. Everything we do centres around patient care and enhancing their experience which means your role is pivotal and something really to be proud of.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Provide visible operational leadership across the single service, promoting a culture of high performance, ownership and continuous improvement. Working as part of the Senior Network Management team.
Be accountable for day to day operational delivery across Laboratory Biochemistry, ensuring safe, effective, efficient and timely services.
Lead the development and implementation of standardised operating procedures and aligned ways of working across Biochemistry sites.
Drive operational transformation programmes to modernise services, embed the new operating model and support future phases of change for Biochemistry.
Provide strong performance management, ensuring data driven decisions, robust reporting, clear escalation and timely resolution of issues.
Work closely with Management and Clinical leaders to ensure operational delivery supports clinical quality, patient safety and service standards.
Ensure effective workforce planning, deployment and utilisation across the network, supporting a stable, engaged and flexible workforce.
Maintain strong relationships with system partners, service users and supporting departments to deliver joined up and responsive services.
Oversee operational compliance, ensuring services meet regulatory, safety, quality and information governance requirements.
Support financial delivery through robust budget management, cost control, efficiency delivery and value based decision making.
Operate across all sites within the single service with a consistent, network wide operational approach, free from organisational or site based bias.
Ensure effective business continuity and resilience planning across all Biochemistry sites.
Person specification
Qualifications & Education
Essential criteria
1. Registered Biomedical Scientist
2. Educated to MSc degree level
3. Management qualification or equivalent experience
4. Ability to demonstrate significant senior level operational management competence through experience
Desirable criteria
5. Formal leadership development qualification (NHS or equivalent)
6. Qualification in service improvement, project management or change management (eg Lean, Six Sigma, PRINCE2)
Knowledge & Experience
Essential criteria
7. Significant senior operational management experience in Biochemistry operating in a complex healthcare environment
8. Demonstrable experience of delivering performance, quality and operational targets
9. Experience supporting major service change or transformation
10. Strong understanding of governance, assurance and regulatory compliance in healthcare
11. Experience of workforce planning, safe staffing and rota management
12. Experience of managing budgets or contributing to financial delivery
13. Experience of working with clinicians, scientific staff and managers to support service delivery
14. Experience of developing operational processes, SOPs and cross site ways of working
Desirable criteria
15. Experience of partnership working and integrating services across organisations
16. Experience contributing to regional or national programmes
17. Experience leading operational resilience, business continuity and incident response