Head of Health Economics

Are you a strategic leader, with a strong technical grounding in healthcare economics, looking for an exciting and dynamic opportunity to shape the direction of travel of a £6 billion integrated care system?

If so, we would love the opportunity to meet you and discuss the role in the performance and planning team at NHS North West London.

It is a great time to be joining NW London as we look to develop and embed a genuine population health strategy approach in the design, planning and implementation of services. Critical to this be developing a culture where world class analysis informs evidence-based decision making and evaluation across the system.

Your technical expertise in economic modelling, analysis and evaluation will place you at the heart of the team looking to drive forward this approach alongside the Associate Director of Performance and Planning and the Chief Finance Officer.

Main duties of the job

Youwill have exposure to a range of key strategic initiatives and be expected toconduct early value assessments, formal real world evaluations assessing pathwayand service improvements, population health analysis to inform strategy and assessmentsof the productivity and economic value impact of implementation.

NHS North West London is also embarking on an extensive organisationaldevelopment programme to ensure the organisation has an inclusive, respectful,innovative and empowering culture that allows people to flourish and develop.Health and wellbeing and ensuring an excellent work-life balance are at thecore of this.

If this sounds interesting, we would welcome the chance to review yourapplication.

Informal discussions are welcome by contacting SteveBloomer Chief Finance Officer (Stephen.bloomer@nhs.net)/ James Mackenzie - Assistant Director of Performance and Planning (james.mackenzie3@nhs.net)

Closing Dates

Closing date for applications is 9thOctober 2024.

The interview date will be confirmed but likely to be around the 6thNovember 2024.

About us

NHS North West London Integrated Care Board (NHS NWL ICB) is a statutory body responsible for planning and allocating health and care resources to improve the lives of people in eight boroughs across North West London: Brent, Ealing, Hammersmith and Fulham, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster.

The local population is large and diverse, with a wide range of health and care needs that are evolving all the time. Working with our partners including Councils, NHS provider Trusts, GPs and voluntary and community organisations we plan and allocate NHS resource to deliver a wide range of services including urgent and emergency care, mental health, primary care, elective hospital services and community care.

All ICB roles work collectively to ensure our residents and patients have access to the right services when they need them as well as focusing on prevention and health promotion, supporting residents to take greater care of their own health and live longer, healthier lives.

To do this we will:

improve outcomes in population health and healthcare

reduce inequalities in health outcomes, experience, and access

enhance productivity and better value for money

support broader social and economic development within our area.

Job responsibilities

Operational requirements

Working within the overall strategic objectives, devise, implement and monitor the strategy. Evaluate, interpret and locally implement best practice.

Provide overall management to the function.

Develop and implement qualitative and quantitative measures to determine performance against the organisational strategy. Report progress against the strategy through personal representation at senior management forums and by written reports to appropriate boards and groups of staff.

Present complex information on all aspects of function practice in a clear, understandable and audience-appropriate manner to senior management and board level groups.

Ensure that best practice is developed and delivered at organisational and departmental levels. Challenge ways of working and persuade, motivate and influence other senior managers to realign their practice where necessary.

Ensure a smooth transition through decision making process to the management of contracts.

Ensure that an appropriate strategy is in line with business objective and are fully cascaded.

Personally lead, support and contribute to formal negotiations with senior level staff from external stakeholders, providing a high level of negotiating expertise to secure the most advantageous arrangements.

Advise on innovative opportunities and support all departments in their strategies and programmes to maximise service benefits.

Oversee the tracking of progress against plans and transition milestones, ensuring appropriate processes are in place to flag issues, risks and concerns with the relevant stakeholders.

Work closely with the Heads of other Department or Directorate to ensure that units understand and adhere to rules and standards, intervening as appropriate.

Ensure the securing of value for money, giving due consideration to all relevant factors including risk, quality and other factors.

Devise, manage and update policies and procedures, ensuring the adoption of best practice methodology, rules, standards and thresholds. Disseminating these methodologies etc. to staff within the department and throughout the organisation.

Collect and report on information of expenditure within the organisation and other relevant governing bodies.

Communication Skills

Provide and receive highly complex, sensitive and contentious information, negotiate with senior stakeholders on difficult and controversial issues, and present complex and sensitive information to large and influential groups.

Persuade board and senior managers of the respective merits of different options, innovation and new market opportunities.

Negotiate on difficult and very complex and detailed issues.

Financial and Physical Resources

The post holder will have budgetary responsibility for a function and the services provided within that function. This will include evaluating the value for money of new contracts, monitoring the performance of existing providers and ensuring that provider performance aligns, and complies, with contractual terms and conditions;

The post holder will be directly responsible for all budgets associated with the management of the function.

Act in a way that is compliant with Standing Orders and Standing Financial Instructions in the discharge of this responsibility.

Constantly strive for value for money and greater efficiency in the use of these budgets and to ensure that they operate in recurrent financial balance year on year.

Information Management

Responsible for devising, developing and implementing appropriate information sharing systems to:

ofacilitate effective working practices for the end to end processes

oensure accurate analysis of management information.

Lead the creation and implementation of information systems for collecting, evaluating and interpreting large volumes of intricate data on expenditure to inform the short, medium and long term strategies.

Responsible for the operation and maintenance of information systems, adapting systems where necessary to suit changing information needs.

Responsible for the collection and reporting on information of expenditure both within and outside the organisation, including compliance reporting.

Ensure processes and staff behaviours are in place for appropriate information sharing.

Research and Development

Ensures that relevant groups are able to access best practice and current information from supply markets

Commissions Research and Development initiatives to secure cost and service improvements from alternative methods of operation, through new goods and services or re-engineering existing processes.

Ensures that benefits from research and development and from innovation are realised by stakeholder organisations

Planning and Organisation

Creates and implements Strategic Operations business plan, clearly identifying links to national, regional and local priorities and policy objectives.

Contributes to the development and implementation of general policy and service development.

Develops and implements strategies for improving performance.

Drives and leads development and improvement of processes.

Ensures stakeholder representation is engaged throughout the cycle.

Drives process efficiency in the continuous development of the end-to-end cycle and its associated performance metrics.

Accountable for short, medium and long term business plans, achieving quality outcomes.

Responsible for linking people, resource and strategy to organisational strategy.

Policy and Service Development

To identify and assess opportunities for new services and threats to existing services and market develops.

Develop plans and seize opportunities, mitigate threats and deliver NHSs strategic objectives.

Responsible for proposing and drafting changes, implementation and interpretation to policies, guidelines and service level agreements (SLAs) which may impact services and Sector.

Proposes changes to own function making recommendations for other service delivery.

Contribute to the review and development of existing information management systems and contribute to the development of an integrated approach to project management.

The post holder will need to maintain a good knowledge of emerging policies from government departments for example pensions, change management, constitution. This will assist in the thinking and definition of the strategy discussions for the organisation and stakeholders.

Person Specification

Management Skills

• Skills for direct line management and job management.
• Skills for delivering results through managing through others and using a range of levers in the absence of direct line management responsibility.
• Skills for managing relationships with a range of different stakeholders.

Experience

• Ability to develop budget impact models from scratch and understanding of economic evaluation methods.
• Expert knowledge of NHS data sets e.g. Model Hospital, GIRFT
• Significant experience in qualitative and quantitative research, including interviewing, and knowledge of appropriate research techniques.
• Exceptional ability to navigate the NHS to reach the relevant network of health professionals and procurement bodies and functions.
• Significant experience of using statistical packages.

Qualifications

• Educated to MSc level or equivalent in Economics, Health Economics or a closely related discipline, or equivalent research, industrial or commercial experience.

Autonomy

• Manages team within the constraints of NHS strategic plan.
• Ability to work on own initiative and organise workload, allocating work as necessary.
• Ability to make decisions autonomously, when required, on difficult issues.

Communication Skills

• Provide and receive highly complex, sensitive and contentious information, negotiate with senior stakeholders on difficult and controversial issues, and present complex and sensitive information to large and influential groups.
• Persuade board and senior managers of the respective merits of different options, innovation and new market opportunities.
• Negotiate on difficult and very complex and detailed issues.

Planning Skills

• Plans and organises a broad range of complex activities, formulating and adjusting plans to reflect changing circumstances.
• Inputs to strategic plans across NHS and within the specific teams.
• Works with Stakeholders to develop performance improvement plans and to develop plans for innovation and opening up the market.
• Good use of available information sources to enable efficient and effective planning
• Ability to work under pressure and to tight and often changing deadlines

Analytical

• 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.
• Ability to carry out procurements for highly detailed, high value contracts that require analysis, comparison and assessment.

Assistant Director of Performance and Planning

£78,163 to £88,884 a yearincludes high cost area supplements (HCAS), Inner London