Job overview
Barts Health NHS Trust manages one of the largest and most complex operational estates in the NHS, supporting some of the busiest hospitals in the country. We are committed to delivering safe, effective and high-quality services that enable outstanding care across East London.
We are seeking an exceptional Senior Business Support Manager (Band 8B) to lead our newly centralised Soft FM Business Support team. This is a senior leadership role with significant scope, responsible for delivering consistent, professional administrative, financial and reporting support across all Soft FM services. Your leadership will ensure managers can focus on frontline delivery, service improvement and patient experience.
Standardising processes and embedding digital tools will be central to the role. By reducing duplication, strengthening governance and improving transparency, you will create a robust foundation for better decision-making across the Directorate.
This role is rooted in transformation. In a challenging NHS environment, you will drive efficiency, streamline bureaucracy and champion digital-first ways of working. You will work closely with senior leaders, site teams and Trust-wide transformation partners to reshape how business support operates.
You will bring substantial experience in business support leadership, service coordination and process improvement, with the confidence to navigate complexity and lead change. This is an opportunity to make a lasting impact, strengthening the infrastructure that enables high-quality care for patients, staff and visitors.
Main duties of the job
Lead the centralised Soft FM Business Support team, ensuring consistent and professional administrative, HR and financial processes across all sites. Design and embed standardised workflows covering recruitment administration, onboarding, staff records, financial transactions and reporting, with a clear focus on digitisation through platforms such as SharePoint and Power BI.
Oversee the development of robust dashboards and reporting for senior leaders, strengthening transparency, performance oversight and informed decision-making. Coordinate strategic projects and transformation initiatives, providing high-quality project management and business support.
Plan and manage annual workforce cycles, financial reviews and key reporting deadlines, ensuring accurate and timely intelligence for corporate and site leadership teams. Support operational leads to meet statutory, regulatory and Trust standards, and oversee the production of business cases, tenders and formal reports.
Provide effective secretariat support to senior committees and forums, managing agendas, actions and communications with clarity and professionalism, including where information is sensitive or complex.
Set clear objectives for the Business Support team, leading performance management, appraisal and development. Provide expert guidance on business systems and reporting tools, and ensure external best practice and digital innovation are embedded across Soft FM.
Working for our organisation
Barts Health is one of the largest NHS trusts in the country, and one of Britain’s leading healthcare providers.
The Barts Health group of NHS hospitals is entering an exciting new era on our improvement journey to becoming an outstanding organisation with a world-class clinical reputation. Having lifted ourselves out of special measures, we now have the impetus and breathing space to chart a fresh course in which we are continually striving to improve all our services for patients.
Our vision is to be a high-performing group of NHS hospitals, renowned for excellence and innovation, and providing safe and compassionate care to our patients in east London and beyond. That means being a provider of excellent patient safety, known for delivering consistently high standards of harm-free care and always caring for patients in the right place at the right time. It also means being an outstanding place to work, in which our WeCare values and behaviours are visible to all and guide us in how we work together.
We strive to live by our WeCare values and are committed to promoting inclusion, where every staff member has a sense of belonging. We value our differences and fully advocate, cultivate and support an inclusive working environment..
We particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and minority ethnic candidates as they are underrepresented within Barts Health at this band.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
We are dedicated to being an outstanding place to work and will work with you to get the best experience. We know flexible working is not a one size fits all and will mean something different to everyone. We are inclusive, so if you are interested in flexible working, please speak to the recruiting manager.
The full job description provides an overview of the key tasks and responsibilities of the role, and the person specification outlines the qualifications, skills, experience, and knowledge required. For both documents, please view the attachment/s below.
Person specification
Experience
Essential criteria
1. Significant experience of managing administrative or business support services, preferably in an NHS or large public sector environment
2. Proven experience of leading multi-disciplinary teams and developing staff
3. Experience of managing HR, finance, and reporting processes at scale
4. Experience of supporting strategic projects and transformation initiatives
5. Presenting at board-level or senior leadership forums
Desirable criteria
6. Experience of implementing digital systems for business support
Skills
Essential criteria
7. Proven staff management skills and ability to motivate, mentor, support and develop staff across varied roles
8. Ability to analyse complex information, review options, and make recommendations to senior managers
9. Excellent IT skills including advanced MS Office, SharePoint, and business intelligence tools (e.g. Power BI)
10. Ability to explain highly complex information clearly and concisely
11. Excellent numerical, written and verbal communication skills
12. Able to build rapport with clinical, operational, and corporate teams
13. Strong interpersonal skills and ability to work as part of a team
14. Excellent planning and organisational skills, with ability to manage a broad range of complex activities
15. Ability to think strategically, plan and implement change effectively
16. Ability to develop and implement systems and policies that impact across services
Knowledge
Essential criteria
17. Up-to-date knowledge of NHS organisational challenges and developments
18. Knowledge of HR, finance, and reporting processes in complex organisations
19. Knowledge of digital transformation improvement programmes and
Qualifications
Essential criteria
20. Educated to degree level or equivalent
Desirable criteria
21. Project management qualification (e.g. PRINCE2, MSP) or equivalent Masters level or equivalent
**Visa Sponsorship Information**
Recent changes to UK immigration policy on the Health and Care Visa and Skilled Worker Visa could mean that this role is not eligible for sponsorship or that you may not meet the eligibility criteria.
Sponsorship can only be offered if this post and any individual offered employment meet all the Home Office’s requirements under the UK Skilled Worker visa scheme.
If you are applying from outside the UK or will require sponsorship, please mention this clearly in your application.
To be eligible for sponsorship, the following conditions must be met:
22. Eligible role: The position must be on the UK Skilled Worker visa list. You can check your eligibility here: -.
23. Salary threshold: The role must meet the minimum salary set by the Home Office. Please note that for roles employed under Agenda for Change Terms and Conditions, the High-Cost Area Supplement (HCAS) is not included when calculating the basic salary for the purposes of sponsorship.
24. Skill level: The role must meet the minimum skill requirement of RQF Level 6 or above (graduate level).
25. English language: Applicants must demonstrate English proficiency at CEFR level B1 or higher.
26. Other criteria: Applicants must meet all other criteria as set out by the UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI)