People and Communities Engagement Manager

People and Communities Engagement Manager

NHS Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire ICB

Are you passionate about engaging with people and communities? Do you have leadership experience in this critical element of delivering health and care services? If so we'd love to hear from you!

We're looking for an engagement leader who has the determination and drive to ensure people and communities across Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire have their voices heard as part of the future developments of local health and care services.

This senior role is part of the wider ICB communications and engagement team and works collaboratively with partner organisations in our integrated care system, BSW Together.

You will be able to demonstrate a capacity for strong leadership and the strategic people skills needed to guide a develop a small sub team to deliver a first-class, inclusive approach to an ongoing dialogue with people and communities in BSW.

You will have in-depth knowledge and understanding of NHS statutory responsibilities relating to engagement and involvement and act as a subject matter expert and advisor to the organisation. You will also have expertise in digital accessibility and creating solutions beyond the norm to ensure that we can build effective and sustainable relationships with key stakeholders and people in our Core20Plus5 focus areas.

Main duties of the job

The NHS is embarking on its biggest reform to date and provides a once in a generational opportunity for people to get involved. In BSW we want to reform our approach to engagement with our people and communities, providing more opportunities for helping to shape their future health and care services now and for generations to come.

If you believe this is the role for you, we look forward to hearing from you

Lead development and delivery of our engagement strategy to increase public and patient involvement with our work and widen representation from seldom-heard groups in line with ICB, system-wide and SW regional priorities.

The post holder will lead the provision of an efficient, effective and high quality professional and well-co-ordinated service capable of meeting all statutory, regulatory and NHS requirements ensuring alignment with the activity of the ICB.

The post holder will take a lead role in promoting equality and reducing inequalities by ensuring that all communications and engagement work is inclusive, values difference and promotes diversity. Ensure that specific arrangements are put in place to engage with those groups and/or individuals that are seldom-heard.

About us

If you are offered employment with us, you will have the opportunity to join a friendly, quality focused and dynamic team that is supportive and cares about your working experience and your wellbeing.

BSW ICB have adopted agile working so this means that you would predominately be working from home but may be requested to work in any one of the ICB's office bases across BaNES, Swindon and Wiltshire. You will also have a contractual base within the BSW ICB office where your team is based.

Benefits BSW ICB offer include:

• Generous NHS annual leave entitlements commencing at 27 days per year rising to 33 days per year, pro rata, plus bank holidays.
• Modern IT equipment and an in-house IT help facility.
• Colleague wellbeing support through a Staff Support Service and a wealth of wellbeing guidance and offers.
• Colleague engagement forums and events.
• Financial wellbeing guidance and benefits (including NHS staff offers, health service discounts, cycle scheme, car lease scheme, money helper service).
• Opportunities for learning through training and continuous development.
• Opportunity to buy additional annual leave.

Job responsibilities

• Provide strategic and operational input into the development and delivery of the people and communities engagement strategy and work with the commissioning team to embed effective involvement practices so that the voices of the patients and public are included in service and pathway redesign and reconfiguration projects.
• Lead the strategic planning, implementation and evaluation of strategic locality and BSW-wide engagement projects and help establish metrics that we can use to measure people and communities engagement.
• Lead the implementation of central/corporate initiatives to support the delivery of public engagement.
• Ensure public and patient views are taken into account in decisions about service provision, service change, processes and policies and create opportunities for the public and patients to be involved in ICB events.
• Advise the senior team, colleagues and partners on all aspects of patient and public engagement and work with engagement leads across B&NES, Swindon and Wiltshire to make sure our approach to public and patient involvement is aligned and there is a coordinated approach to engagement and consultation activity.
• Oversee our engagement strategy with GP practices across BSW to involve the public in proposed changes to primary care, and support practices to build and strengthen their patient participation groups (PPGs).
• Provide evidence of benefits and insights of the public engagement and insights function including production of the annual public involvement report and oversight of the annual assessment for NHSE.
• Lead on a programme of training and development of the engagement toolkit to equip commissioners to engage with stakeholders on the design and development of services and to meet their statutory duty to engage.
• Lead development and monitoring of appropriate and effective engagement panels and platforms to facilitate consultation and engagement activities relating to ICB, system and region-wide priorities. Support the ICB in the delivery of programmes providing communications and engagement expertise around specific developments which may require formal consultation.
• Support and develop the ICBs public and patient engagement infrastructure including, but not exclusively, PPE Forum in Swindon, Your Health, Your Voice, Community Champions, attending and presenting as appropriate.
• Lead the engagement sub-team to develop and implement project data collection systems that will provide accurate and timely data.

Person Specification

Knowledge, Training and Experience

• Educated to masters level or equivalent level of experience of working at a senior level in specialist area.
• Extensive knowledge of specialist areas, acquired through post graduate diploma or equivalent experience or training plus further specialist knowledge or experience to master's level equivalent
• Evidence of post qualifying and continuing professional development
• Must have an understanding of the background to and aims of current healthcare policy and appreciate the implications of this on engagement
• Should have an appreciation of the relationship between the Department of Health, the Strategic Health Authority and individual provider and commissioning organisations
• Member of relevant professional body

Communication Skills & Analytical

• Must be able to provide and receive highly complex, sensitive or contentious information, negotiate with senior stakeholders on difficult and controversial issues, and present complex and sensitive information to large and influential groups
• Negotiate on difficult and controversial issues including performance and change.
• Problem solving skills and ability to respond to sudden unexpected demands
• Ability to analyse complex facts and situations and develop a range of options
• Takes decisions on difficult and contentious issues where there may be a number of courses of action.
• Strategic thinking - ability to anticipate and resolve problems before they arise

Planning Skills

• Demonstrated capability to plan over short, medium and long-term timeframes and adjust plans and resource requirements accordingly
• Must be able to prioritise own work effectively and be able to direct activities of others. Experience of managing and motivating a team and reviewing performance of the individuals.
• Must be able to use initiative to decide relevant actions and make recommendations to Sponsor/ Manager, with the aim of improving deliverables and compliance to policies.
• Ability to make decisions autonomously, when required, on difficult issues, working to tight and often changing timescales
• Experience of identifying and interpreting National policy. Experience of researching best practice (globally, private and public sector), interpreting its relevance and processes/ practices which could be implemented successfully to achieve system reform (advising on policy implementation)

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.

Employer name

NHS Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire ICB

Associate Director of Communications & Engagement