General Manager - Urology, Breast & Vascular, Band 8b

Gloucestershire Hospitals is one of the largest hospital trusts in England serving a diverse population of almost 620,000 people. We provide acute hospital services from two large district general hospitals, Cheltenham General Hospital and Gloucestershire Royal Hospital. Maternity Services are also provided at Stroud Maternity Hospital.

We are looking to recruit a talented and experienced operational manager to join the Surgical Division.

This role requires an ambitious individual to lead and support the running of high profile services. Working in conjunction with the Specialty Director and Matron, the post holder is an integral part of the team who will resolve daily operational challenges faced at the front door of our hospital. We also have an ambitious improvement plan with a range of projects established to support patient care and the delivery of national operational standards, which the General Manager will support. We are looking for a candidate who has experience in NHS management, ideally previous experience of working in an operational role.

Main duties of the job

The General Manager is responsible for the effective strategic and operational management of a defined set of areas, ensuring the delivery of high quality patient services within the resources available. The post-holder is responsible for the management of all non-clinical staff in these areas ensuring staff are managed in line with the Trust's employment policies.

The General Manager will provide leadership and direction to the services utilising Urology, Breast and Vascular taking the lead with the Surgical Divisional Tri for developing strategy in line with the Trust's overall strategy and transformation programme. This will include playing a key role in identifying opportunities for clinical innovation and modernisation, the delivery of all operational performance targets, managed services and financial management and day surgery bed utilisation and management. The General Manager is responsible through managerial and clinical teams for continually improving the quality of services to patients, and redesigning services to meet best practice standards, improving efficiency and effectiveness within available resources.

The post-holder will be a leading change agent in the Trust's transformation programme and will be responsible for securing the commitment of all staff in areas managed to organisational change and continuous improvement.

About us

Our people are at the heart of what we do. Our workforce is over 9,000 strong and our caring and dedicated staff are recognised as providing good and outstanding patient-centred care across a range of clinical areas. We also have exceptional teams of professional services staff underpinning our vision every step of the way.

We are committed to recruiting the best people to work with us to achieve our vision of providing Best Care for Everyone and our success depends on the commitment and dedication of our staff.

We are committed to diversity, inclusion and equality of opportunity for everyone, valuing and celebrating differences and encouraging a workplace and culture where all can thrive. We endeavour to ensure each and every person working in our organisation feel respected and valued. Respecting and valuing differences will help to ensure that our policies and services reflect the needs and experiences of the people and community we serve.

In return, we offer the opportunity to work at a trust that is on a truly exciting Journey to Outstanding and to make a real difference to the lives of our patients, their families and the wider community. We are also committed to training and developing you to be the best you can be and offer you a rewarding career, whatever your role.

Job responsibilities

Strategic Responsibility

1. Lead the development of the strategic elective direction for the specialities in line with the Division and Trusts overall strategy and transformation programme, ensuring that all strategic plans are incorporated into service plans and objectives for all staff.
2. Provide leadership to areas managed, working with surgical general managers and clinical colleagues to manage the design and delivery of clinical/non-clinical elective services within the specialities.
3. Develop a culture within areas managed in which all staff are delivering high quality patient-centred clinical and support services.
4. Develop short, medium and long-term objectives, which are turned into effective, affordable and achievable annual service plans for the specialities, and deliver these plans within the financial resources available.
5. Responsible and accountable for the formulation of new service developments and initiatives, preparing bids and ensuring business cases are produced for services developments, taking into account activity and income projections and resource allocations.
6. Work with colleagues to review and redesign services in order to meet the needs of patients and enable the specialities to achieve key performance indicators and reduce costs.
7. Lead the planning of future capital developments for the specialities to deliver improved facilities for patients in line with the Trusts Strategic Plan, ensuring that capital developments are designed around the services.
8. Develop robust mechanisms to ensure clear communication of service plans, objectives and service changes within the specialities ensuring that staff are engaged directly in any review and the development of services.

Performance Management

1. Develop effective processes for monitoring and managing elective and emergency activity, identifying when performance falls below set standards and taking corrective action, ensuring that all national and Trust performance targets are achieved.
2. Analyse and interpret a range of options in highly complex situations, making judgements and deciding upon corrective action to ensure performance targets are achieved.
3. Determine the information needs of the specialities and ensure appropriate timely data collection mechanisms are established to support capacity and demand analysis.

Financial Management

1. Accountable with the Clinical Director for the delivery of a balanced budget for the specialities managed and developing a financial strategy which ensures financial viability, and that systems are in place to maximise income, control expenditure and deliver cost improvements, achieving synergies between the component elements of the specialities and, where appropriate, the Division. This includes budget setting, monitoring and determining corrective action for multiple departments/services.
2. Lead on the planning and implementation of cost reduction elective programmes for the specialties in line with corporate objectives.
3. Ensure that the specialties adhere to the Trust Standing Orders, Standing Financial Instructions, and works within the Trusts policy framework.
4. Ensure all budget holders in the specialties have the skills to manage budgets effectively and provided support to budget holders by regularly reviewing budget statements.
5. Lead on business planning and participate in corporate approach, and agree proposed commissioned activity with relevant clinical leads.

Staff Management

1. Deliver safe, efficient and effective delivery of care through the non-clinical management team, empowering the clinical leadership teams to implement change and make improvements to care as appropriate.
2. Manage all non-clinical staff within the specialties in line with the Trusts employment policies.
3. Monitor key workforce indicators (sickness absence, turnover etc.) that affect productivity and work with line managers and the Divisional HR Manager to address issues of concern.
4. Develop mechanisms for ensuring performance appraisals and continuous professional development of all staff, and take responsibility for ensuring the specialties achieves compliance with mandatory and statutory training and appraisal rates.
5. Ensure that appropriate mechanisms are in place to identify and meet education and training needs of all staff.
6. Promote a high performance culture by holding people to account within the specialties.
7. Analyse current and future service activity and establish the workforce required to ensure the appropriate staffing skill-mix for the delivery of service plans, producing an annual workforce plan. Utilising any opportunities for benefits realisation from Agenda for Change i.e. role redesign.
8. In conjunction with the Medical Staffing team, to ensure that all rotas are sent to new consultants and junior doctors rotas are sent to them 6 weeks prior to starting.
9. In conjunction with the Leadership team, to ensure that consultant job plans are aligned to the service requirements.
10. In conjunction with the Leadership team to ensure that job plans are completed within the timeframes set by the Medical Director on an annual basis, escalating any individual non-engagement as appropriate.
11. Ensure that all managers within the specialties have clearly defined responsibilities and are working within agreed objectives and service plans.
12. Develop plans in conjunction with the Human Resources team, which enable the specialties to successfully implement the Trusts Human Resources Strategy, ensuring innovative and patient focused working practices and continuous development of staff.
13. Design and implement change within the specialties, acting as a change agent and role model to gain commitment from colleagues and motivating the workforce so that barriers to improve the effectiveness of the departments are overcome.

Clinical Governance

1. Responsible along with the Clinical Lead for developing and implementing the clinical and corporate governance strategy for the specialties within the Trusts framework.
2. Improve the effectiveness of clinical services by working with the Clinical Lead to ensure that clinical standards, education, audit and research and development are pursued in line with Trust strategy, and that ongoing clinical practice is evidence based. Ensure that relevant national policy guidance/targets in relation to clinical governance are implemented, and adhered to.
3. Develop and co-ordinate within the specialties effective methods for determining user views on services provided, encouraging the service users to participate in user strategy.
4. Take overall responsibility for the specialties responses to complaints, in line with Trust policy, ensuring a thorough investigation is undertaken, replies are produced to required standards, within specified timeframes and ensure that they are sensitive to the needs of the patients and their families. Ensure lessons are learnt and corrective action is taken.
5. Develop and monitor effective risk management strategies thus improving patient and staff safety, and reducing unnecessary costs and financial liabilities to the Trust.
6. Undertake research and benchmarking work to identify areas of best practice in order to ensure continuous improvement and innovation.
7. Represent the specialties when required by actively participating on Trust-wide strategic and operational working groups.
8. Participate in the Trust on-call arrangements for senior managers including Major Incident Trust wide response co-ordination.
9. To have responsibility for the Health, Safety and Welfare of self and others and to comply at all times with the requirement of the Health and Safety Regulations.
10. To ensure confidentiality at all times, only releasing confidential information obtained during the course of employment to those acting in an official capacity in accordance with the provisions of the Data Protection Act and its amendments.
11. To work in accordance with the Trusts Equality and Diversity policy to eliminate unlawful discrimination in relation to employment and service delivery.
12. To promote at all times equal opportunities for staff and patients in accordance with the Trusts policies to ensure that no person receives less favourable treatment than another on the grounds of: age disability marriage and civil partnership pregnancy and maternity race (ethnicity) religion or belief sex (gender) gender reassignment or sexual orientation.
13. To ensure skills are up-to-date and relevant to the role, to follow relevant Trust policies and professional codes and to maintain registration where this is a requirement of the role.
14. To be trained in and demonstrate fair employment practices, in line with Trust policies.
15. To comply with the Trusts No Smoking Policies.
16. To undertake such duties as may be required from time to time as are consistent with the responsibilities of the grade and the needs of the service.

Person Specification

Experience

Essential

1. Senior Management experience in the NHS or related employer/sector which must include experience of directly managing staff and non-pay budgets.
2. Experience of providing services to a high quality with