Service Manager

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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

We have an exciting opportunity for an experienced and motivated Service Manager to join our Surgical Division and Directorate of Critical Care, Theatres & Anaesthetics, leading our Pre-Operative Assessment (POA) and Scheduling services across both hospital sites.

This is a pivotal operational leadership role within the elective care pathway. The successful candidate will play a key role in ensuring safe, efficient and high quality delivery of pre-operative assessment and surgical scheduling services, driving performance against national access standards and supporting the Trust's elective recovery programme.

Working closely with clinical and operational colleagues, you will lead service transformation initiatives aimed at improving pathway flow, reducing on the day cancellations, strengthening governance structures, and optimising scheduling practices including 6-4-2 planning processes.

We are seeking a candidate with strong operational insight into elective services, ideally within surgical or perioperative environments. You will be a visible and credible leader, capable of balancing day to day operational management with longer term service improvement.

You will bring significant experience in performance management, workforce leadership, financial oversight, and stakeholder engagement.

Main duties of the job

The Service Manager is a key management role and is responsible for the operational delivery of all aspects of a divisional service.

The post holder will ensure that effective and efficient structures are in place to ensure that all standards of patient care are met and associated risk and governance matters are managed. The Service Manager will provide support in developing efficient and effective patient centred services in conjunction with the Lead Nurse, meeting key financial and operational performance targets, and putting in place effective processes for delivering national and local targets, reviewing the efficiency and effectiveness of services in terms of cost effectiveness, service improvement and financial flows.

Key aims are:

• Provide timely, efficient and effective operational service management leadership for operational Services within Lewisham & Greenwich to ensure these are responsive, innovative and provided to the highest possible performance standards.

• Provide clear leadership ensuring that all staff are appropriately managed and developed, and that they are efficient, effective, engaged and motivated.

• Responsible for the delivery of identified quality and service improvement projects or development programmes that contribute to the modernisation of patient services

• Take forward agreed projects to improve service delivery and patient experience in key areas.
• Lead on ensuring that all performance/quality targets are met.

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 Service Manager is a key management role and is responsible for the operational delivery of all aspects of a divisional service.

The post holder will ensure that effective and efficient structures are in place to ensure that all standards of patient care are met and associated risk and governance matters are managed. The Service Manager will provide support in developing efficient and effective patient centred services in conjunction with the Lead Nurse, meeting key financial and operational performance targets, and putting in place effective processes for delivering national and local targets, reviewing the efficiency and effectiveness of services in terms of cost effectiveness, service improvement and financial flows.

Key aims are:

• Provide timely, efficient and effective operational service management leadership for operational Services within Lewisham & Greenwich to ensure these are responsive, innovative and provided to the highest possible performance standards.

• Provide clear leadership ensuring that all staff are appropriately managed and developed, and that they are efficient, effective, engaged and motivated.

• Responsible for the delivery of identified quality and service improvement projects or development programmes that contribute to the modernisation of patient services

• Take forward agreed projects to improve service delivery and patient experience in key areas.
• Lead on ensuring that all performance/quality targets are met.

Person specification

Experience

Essential criteria

• Significant operational management experience within NHS (minimum 3-5 years at Band 7 level
• Demonstrable experience of performance management against national access targets (RTT/elective pathways)
• Experience of leading multidisciplinary teams including HR processes (appraisals, absence management, disciplinary)
• Evidence of financial management including budget accountability and CIP delivery
• Experience of service redesign or transformation within a clinical environment

Desirable criteria

• Experience within perioperative, surgical or pre-operative assessment services
• Postgraduate management qualification (or equivalent)

Knowledge

Essential criteria

• Ability to analyse complex data sets and use information to drive operational improvement
• Strong stakeholder engagement and influencing skills across multidisciplinary teams
• Ability to manage competing priorities under pressure within a fast paced operational environment

Desirable criteria

• Experience of working within a triumvirate or matrix management structure

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 that sponsorship under the Skilled Worker route is subject to Trust allocation and UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) approval.

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

• JD (PDF, 395.9KB)
• Working at LGT (PDF, 4.2MB)
• Visa and Certificate of Sponsorship Information for Applicants (PDF, 3.8MB)
• Candidates Guidance on Applying (PDF, 175.2KB)
• Candidate Guidance on the use of AI (PDF, 3.8MB)