Dep Head of Comm Engagement&Comms (3 Boroughs&SWL)

Job summary

Are you an experienced patient, public and communities engagement professional and strategic thinker with strong leadership skills? Are you passionate about the NHS, and full of energy and enthusiasm and looking for your next challenge within a creative, supportive, and high-achieving team?

NHS South West London is an excellent place for someone who wants to use their skills to help shape services for local people, with a focus on reducing health inequalities. You'll have a key role to influence health policy that affects 1.5 million residents across South West London. This is a great opportunity to work with a team of professionals in the NHS and in our Local Authorities and the Voluntary Sector, as well as our clinicians and senior leaders to advise on, and oversee, the delivery of programmes to involve local people and communities and shape the services that they receive.

Interview date: W/C 24th March 2025

Main duties of the job

• Develop and enhance local community engagement programmes and communication, to represent the views of our diverse communities, with a particular focus on those experiencing health inequalities. Ensuring mechanisms for robust engagement can enable service planning and transformation to put resident voice at the heart of decision making.
• Develop and deliver the communication strategies for projects, campaigns and ongoing activities across the three boroughs.
• Provide confident and well-informed counsel for local health and care leaders on communications issues including media, politics, crisis management and the overall communication approach.
• Act as a key communications link between the South West London ICB and all main stakeholders, including patients and public, NHS staff, NHSE and other stakeholders. Build and maintain positive relationships with these stakeholders.
• Handle complex and, at times, highly confidential and sensitive information requiring analysis and sophisticated judgement in relation to the PR and reputational implications of decisions and actions.
• Lead and support a high-performing team by overseeing team and individual performance and conducting regular performance appraisals. Manage disciplinary matters, health, and sickness issues as they arise. Promote continuous professional development to maximise staff performance and growth.

About us

NHS South West London Integrated Care Board (ICB), as part of South West London Integrated Care System (ICS), is a partnership of organisations that come together to plan and deliver joined up health and care services to improve the lives of people in our six boroughs: Croydon, Merton, Kingston, Richmond, Sutton and Wandsworth.

Each ICS consists of two statutory elements:

• an Integrated Care Board, bringing the NHS together with its partners locally to improve health and care services
• an Integrated Care Partnership (ICP): the broad alliance of organisations and representatives concerned with improving the care, health and wellbeing of the population, jointly convened by the ICB and local authorities in the area.

ICBs are statutory NHS bodies responsible for planning and allocating resources to meet the four core purposes of integrated care systems (ICSs):

• to improve outcomes in population health and healthcare;
• tackle inequalities in outcomes, experience and access;
• enhance productivity and value for money and;
• help the NHS support broader social and economic development.

NHS South West London Integrated Care Board decides how the South West London NHS budget is spent and develops plans to improve people's health, deliver higher quality care, and better value for money.

Date posted: 19 February 2025

Pay scheme: Agenda for change

Band: Band 8b

Salary: £67,950 to £78,028 a year Inc Outer London HCAS per annum

Contract: Fixed term

Duration: 15 months

Working pattern: Full-time

Reference number: 491-SWLCE07

Job locations: Stakeholder & Partnership Engagement and Communications Team (930572) L4, 120 The Broadway, London, SW19 1RH

Job description Job responsibilities

Please refer to the Job Description for full details

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Support the ICB to achieve our four core aims by developing and enhancing resident engagement programmes and communication.
• Ensure mechanisms and assurance for robust resident engagement to enable service planning and transformation to put resident voice at the heart of decision making and that there is compliance with the Health and Care Act 2022.
• Develop mechanisms to represent the views of our diverse communities, with a particular focus on those experiencing health inequalities.
• Work strategically, collaboratively and effectively with colleagues across South West London ICS, including primary care networks, local voluntary, community and social enterprises, Healthwatch as well as NHS England and other relevant organisations.
• Develop and manage strategies for resident engagement, supporting transformation intentions, ICB business planning, staff development and partnership working.
• Support the creation and management of tailored campaigns and materials for key audiences, including patient and public representatives, third sector bodies and local and national NHS partners.
• Create and ensure the smooth running and delivery of the infrastructure that supports engagement in each place to support the routine and easy delivery of priority engagement requests, for example community voice forums or equivalent.
• Design and deliver engagement for the three Places to inform the annual refresh.

Person Specification

Education and qualifications Essential

• Extensive knowledge of engagement and communications acquired through post graduate diploma or equivalent experience or training.

Knowledge and experience Essential

• Excellent understanding of statutory requirements for engagement, current NHS policy and guidance, legal duties and the implications for engagement with all stakeholders.
• Extensive knowledge of the causes of health inequalities and experience in innovative techniques to engage with core20plus communities.
• Experience of developing and implementing communications strategies including multimedia, advertising and digital.
• Demonstrated experience in healthcare environment.
• Developed communication skills, including presentational, for delivering key messages to a range of stakeholders both internal and external (including outside the NHS) to the organisation, some at very senior level.

Leadership Essential

• Experience of managing and motivating a team and reviewing the performance of the individuals.
• Experience of working strategically, collaboratively and effectively with colleagues across sectors including primary care networks, local voluntary, community and social enterprises, Healthwatch as well as NHS England and other relevant organisations.

Skills and abilities Essential

• Demonstrated capability to plan over short, medium and long-term timeframes and adjust plans and resource requirements accordingly.

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.

Employer details

Employer name: South West London Integrated Care Board

Address: Stakeholder & Partnership Engagement and Communications Team (930572) L4, 120 The Broadway, London, SW19 1RH

Employer's website: https://www.southwestlondon.icb.nhs.uk