Band 8a Senior People Partner
The closing date is 02 November 2025. Enquiries: to the Hiring Manager between 27 and 30 October. Interviews: in person on 13 November at Solihull Hospital.
Two years ago, we set out to transform Solihull into something exceptional—and the results speak for themselves. Our outpatients service earned an Outstanding CQC rating, we've launched cutting‑edge robotic theatres and made strong progress in financial recovery and absence management.
But what truly sets Solihull apart is its culture. Colleagues describe a genuine community spirit, where teams collaborate and people feel connected. There's a shared sense of purpose and pride in what we're building together.
We know the journey isn't over. Sustaining excellence means continually investing in our people, workforce development, and the culture that makes Solihull unique. This Senior People Partner role offers direct board‑level influence, reporting to the ADP and shaping decisions where people and culture are central.
We're looking for an experienced HR professional who combines strategic insight with practical delivery—someone who understands that lasting transformation happens through people. This is about building on real progress, not firefighting, with a team ready and capable to deliver for staff and patients.
Main duties of the job
You'll lead the people agenda for Solihull in partnership with the ADP, delivering solutions aligned with our values. Your remit spans workforce planning, cultural transformation, and complex employee relations, always with patient care and outcomes as the ultimate measure of success.
A key focus will be enhancing staff experience through the implementation of our People Plan—building on strong foundations while addressing the nuanced challenges of a healthcare environment. You'll develop recruitment and retention strategies for hard‑to‑fill roles, analyse workforce trends, and proactively identify issues before they escalate.
You'll oversee complex employee relations cases, supported by People Advisors. While Case Managers and Investigating Officers lead individual cases, you'll ensure process compliance, offer expert guidance, and support panel members and Chairs at hearings. Your analytical skills will be vital in recommending proportionate responses and identifying opportunities for organisational learning.
With a strong emphasis on change leadership, you'll guide managers through workforce transformation, balancing legal compliance with empathy and morale. You'll work collaboratively with trade unions, occupational health, and inclusion specialists to provide holistic support. Full backing from your ADP and a flexible hybrid working package will be available to support your success.
To maintain fairness in our recruitment process, please wait six months between applications.
About us
University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust strives to have an inclusive culture where everyone feels like they belong, can thrive, knows that they add value and feels valued. We do this by developing compassionate and culturally competent leaders, being values driven in all that we do and by creating a welcoming and inclusive workplace that thrives on the diversity of our people. For those staff with a disability, including physical disability, long term health condition, mental health or neurodiverse condition, this also means being committed to making reasonable adjustments needed for you to carry out your role.
Job responsibilities
Please Note: For a detailed job description for this vacancy, please see attached Job Description.
Person Specification
Qualifications
* Graduate CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and development) or equivalent post graduate Level 7 qualification/training/experience to Masters level or equivalent
* Evidence of continuous professional development
* Membership of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development or equivalent experience
* Leadership and Management
* Coaching and Mentoring
* Mediation
Experience
* Significant recent operational HR experience including leadership and management.
* Experience of leading the workforce elements of local change and transformation programmes, including advising managers on complex change processes such as restructuring, redundancy and TUPE.
* Experience in applying a business partner approach—working with managers to develop services and applying HR expertise to provide solutions to complex people issues, including absence management, organisational change, recruitment and retention, inclusion and diversity and workforce planning.
* Experience of undertaking complex investigations into MHPS, disciplinary, grievance and bullying and harassment, including supporting formal panel hearings.
* Experience of working in partnership with Trade Unions towards shared goals with evidence of achieving organisational outcomes.
* Experience of developing and implementing HR policies and procedures as well as people management training
* Experience in promoting the equality and diversity agenda - able to evidence achievements in relation to organisational equality and diversity objectives
* Experience of advising managers on complex change processes such as restructuring, redundancy and TUPE.
* Experience of preparing, analysing and presenting reports.
* Ability to interpret and apply Terms and Conditions of Employment
Additional Criteria
* Strongly developed communication skills including the ability to communicate complex information with fully developed persuasive, negotiating and influencing skills.
* Analytical and judgement skills with the ability to analyse and interpret complex situations.
* Ability to develop and maintaining good working relationships with stakeholders.
* Ability to work autonomously, without direct supervision and as part of a team.
* Good presentation and report writing skills.
* Good IT skills (to include as a minimum: Word Excel, PowerPoint, HR databases)
* Ability to set own priorities, meet tight deadlines, work independently and demonstrate good diary management.
* Ability to maintain confidentiality and deal with situations in a sensitive manner.
* Evidence of improving working practices.
* Up to date and thorough working knowledge of Employment Law and Human Resource Best Practice
* Evidence of recent CPD
* Able to concentrate with frequent interruptions and where work is unpredictable
* Able to deal with distressing or emotional circumstances, frequently when imparting information e.g., discipline, sickness
* The ability to work on own initiative, responding to immediate requests.
* Flexible approach to work, willing to adapt to regularly changing situations.
* Proactive and self-motivated.
* Ability to work across all Trust sites.
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust
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