Associate Service Manager - Emergency Medicine

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Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, (LGT), is a community-focused provider of local and acute care, delivering high-quality services to over one million people living across the London boroughs of Lewisham, Greenwich, and Bexley. We provide whole-life care and are here to support our communities to live healthier lives as well as taking care of them when they need us the most.

Employing almost 7,500 colleagues, affectionately known as Team LGT, we provide services at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich, University Hospital Lewisham, and at over a dozen community settings in Lewisham. We also provide some services at Queen Mary's Hospital in Sidcup.

We have recently launched our new vision and values to mark the LGT10 - the tenth anniversary of our Trust forming in 2013. Our trust vision is to be exceptional. In the quality of our patient care; our support for colleagues; and in the difference we make through our partnerships and in our communities.

To achieve this we value Respect, Compassion, and Inclusion; Being accountable over staying comfortable; Listening over always knowing best; and Succeeding together over achieving alone. You can read more about our visions and values here

Our hospitals and community sites provide a wide range of inpatient and outpatient services, as well as emergency and planned care. The Trust is rated as "good" or "outstanding" in over three-quarters of the services inspected by the Care Quality Commission.

Every year our work includes performing 10,000 procedures in our theatres; bringing seven and a half thousand new lives into the world; carrying out 570,000 visits to patients in their homes or communities and providing emergency care for more than 300,000 patients arriving in our busy Urgent and Emergency Departments.

LGT is a centre for the education and training of medical students enrolled with King's College London's GKT School of Medical Education. We are a training centre for nurses, midwives and allied health professionals. We are pioneering new roles that will support the changing needs of our patients and are one of the largest employers of physician associates in the country.

We are committed to working with our partners to deliver the best outcomes for our local communities. This means playing an active role in the South East London Integrated Care System (ICS), and in formal partnerships including the South East London Acute Provider Collaborative, provider partnerships with our local mental health trusts and borough-based boards of the ICS in Bexley, Greenwich and Lewisham.

Job overview

Are you an experienced, dynamic, and motivated operational manager ready to take the next step in your NHS career? University Hospital Lewisham is seeking an Associate Service Manager (ASM) to join our fast-paced and high-performing Emergency Medicine team.

As ASM, you will work closely with the Deputy General Manager, General Manager, Clinical Leads, and Nursing Leadership to support the day-to-day operational management of our busy Emergency Department (ED), ensuring the highest standards of patient care and performance delivery.

This is an exciting opportunity for someone with strong leadership and problem-solving skills who thrives in a challenging environment where no two days are the same.

The post holders will contribute to the overall divisional strategy in providing and developing a working environment and open culture which fosters high morale and commitment among all staff and promotes their wellbeing, professional and personal development.

Main duties of the job

• Ensure the safe, effective, and efficient delivery of services across the Emergency Department.
• Support clinical teams in meeting national performance standards, including the 4-hour ED target and flow targets.
• Lead and coordinate operational responses to pressures within the department.
• Analyse service data and contribute to performance reports, identifying areas for improvement.
• Work collaboratively with multidisciplinary teams to improve patient experience, staff engagement, and service quality.
• Contribute to strategic planning and service redesign initiatives in line with Trust objectives.

Working for our organisation

Our people are our greatest asset. When we feel supported and happy at work, this positivity reaches those very people we are here for, the patients. Engaged employees perform at their best and our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) initiatives contribute to cultivate a culture of engagement. We have four staff networks, a corporate EDI Team and a suite of programmes and events which aim to insert the 5 aspirations:

1. Improving representation at senior levels of staff with disabilities, from black, Asian, and ethnic minorities background, identify as LGBTQ+ and women, through improved recruitment and leadership development
2. Widening access (anchor institution) and employability
3. Improving the experience of staff with disability
4. Improving the EDI literacy and confidence of trust staff through training and development
5. Making equalities mainstream

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The postholder must be able to:

• Demonstrable experience in operational service management within an acute healthcare setting (Emergency Medicine experience desirable).
• A proven track record in managing people, services, and resources effectively.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to influence at all levels.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to remain calm under pressure and make decisions in a fast-moving environment.
• Passion for high-quality patient care and continuous service improvement.

Person specification

Qualifications and Training

Essential criteria

• Educated to first level degree or equivalent experience
• Management/leadership qualification or equivalent experience at post graduate level
• Further relevant training

Desirable criteria

• Masters degree
• Clinical background

Experience

Essential criteria

• Proven experience of working in a management/leadership role in an acute healthcare environment
• Experience of leading and motivating a team
• Identifying and interpreting national policy and implementing required changes
• Experience of managing waiting lists

Desirable criteria

• Responsible for a budget and budget setting
• Business case development and annual planning, longer term planning

Knowledge and Skills

Essential criteria

• Awareness of current legislation and developments and agenda within the NHS, particularly in relation to 18 weeks RTT.
• Financial procedures including budget setting and working knowledge of financial processes
• Business planning /annual planning/long term planning
• In depth understanding of change management
• Able to use IT systems including Microsoft Office
• Knowledge of service improvements/transformation and project management
• Good analytical and problem solving skills - ability to analyse highly complex data/information and make judgements/draw conclusions - including ability to respond to unexpected demands
• Risk management and governance
• Able to oversee medical workforce rotas.
• Able to efficiently deploy staff to cover the rota on a daily basis to reduce the need for locum expenditure balanced with meeting the needs of the service

Desirable criteria

• NHS IT Systems

Knowledge and Skills Personal Qualities

Essential criteria

• Ability to work independently and make autonomous decisions
• Strong communication skills both written and verbal - able to provide and receive highly complex, sensitive information and use persuasion, influencing and negotiation with individuals and groups including stakeholders
• Ability to embrace, lead and drive change
• Ability to organise and prioritise own workload and direct the work of others and adjust plans as required both in the short and long term
• Able to work flexibly to meet the demands of the role
• Demonstrates a strong desire to improve performance and services

We reserve the right to close the post before the stated closing date, please apply early. We do not contact applicants with the outcome of the shortlisting. If you have been shortlisted, you will receive an invite to an assessment day or interview.

As a local employer and anchor institution we work closely with our community to recruit locally and we welcome applications from the widest variety of people to ensure our workforce are reflective of the local communities which we serve. We encourage all suitable candidates to apply including if you are Black, Asian or other ethnic minorities, live with a disability (visible or not) or are LGBT+. We have a number of active staff networks including Disability, LGBT+, Multicultural Inclusion and Women's staff networks to bring staff together and celebrate diversity across our whole workforce.

Please note, not all roles will meet the criteria for a skilled worker visa.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Application numbers

To ensure fairness and manageable shortlisting processes, some vacancies may have an application cap. This means the vacancy will close once a set number of applications have been received even if this happens before the advertised closing date.

We recommend applying as early as possible to avoid missing out. All applications received before the cap is reached will be considered equally and assessed against the person specification.
Documents to download

• Job Description (PDF, 776.6KB)
• Working at LGT (PDF, 4.2MB)
• Visa and Certificate of Sponsorship Information for Applicants (PDF, 3.8MB)
• Candidate Guidance on the use of AI (PDF, 3.8MB)