Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Strategic Responsibility

·         Lead the development of the strategic elective direction for the specialities in line with the Division and Trust’s overall strategy and transformation programme, ensuring that all strategic plans are incorporated into service plans and objectives for all staff. 

·         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.

·         Develop a culture within areas managed in which all staff are delivering high quality patient-centred clinical and support services.

·         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. 

·         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.

·         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.

·         Lead the planning of future capital developments for the specialities to deliver improved facilities for patients in line with the Trust’s Strategic Plan, ensuring that capital developments are designed around the services.

·         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

·       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.

·        Analyse and interpret a range of options in highly complex situations, making judgements and deciding upon corrective action to ensure performance targets are achieved.

·        Determine the information needs of the specialities and ensure appropriate timely data collection mechanisms are established to support capacity and demand analysis.

Financial Management

·         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.

·   Lead on the planning and implementation of cost reduction elective programmes for the specialties in line with corporate objectives.

·      Ensure that the specialties adhere to the Trust Standing Orders, Standing Financial Instructions, and works within the Trust’s policy framework.

·   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. 

·         Lead on business planning and participate in corporate approach, and agree proposed commissioned activity with relevant clinical leads. 

Staff Management

·         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.

·         Manage all non-clinical staff within the specialties in line with the Trust’s employment policies.

·         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.

·         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.

·         Ensure that appropriate mechanisms are in place to identify and meet education and training needs of all staff.

·         Promote a high performance culture by holding people to account within the specialties.

·  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.

·     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

·     In conjunction with the Leadership team, to ensure that consultant job plans are aligned to the service requirements.

·     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.

·         Ensure that all managers within the specialties have clearly defined responsibilities and are working within agreed objectives and service plans.

·        Develop plans in conjunction with the Human Resources team, which enable the specialties to successfully implement the Trust’s Human Resources Strategy, ensuring innovative and patient focused working practices and continuous development of staff.

·         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 

·  Responsible along with the Clinical Lead for developing and implementing the clinical and corporate governance strategy for the specialties within the Trust’s framework.

·        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.

·     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. 

· 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.

·         Develop and monitor effective risk management strategies thus improving patient and staff safety, and reducing unnecessary costs and financial liabilities to the Trust.

·         Undertake research and benchmarking work to identify areas of best practice in order to ensure continuous improvement and innovation.

·         Represent the specialties when required by actively participating on Trust-wide strategic and operational working groups.

·         Participate in the Trust on-call arrangements for senior managers including Major Incident Trust wide response co-ordination.

·         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.

·         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.

·         To work in accordance with the Trust’s Equality and Diversity policy to eliminate unlawful discrimination in relation to employment and service delivery.

·         To promote at all times equal opportunities for staff and patients in accordance with the Trust’s 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.

·         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.

·   To be trained in and demonstrate fair employment practices, in line with Trust policies

·     To comply with the Trust’s No Smoking Policies.

·       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.