Job summary The Trust has had a challenging few years and is currently in National Oversight Framework 4 (NOF4) and Tier 1 for Urgent & Emergency Care, Cancer and Elective care. Coupled with those oversight arrangements, we ended 23/24 with a significant financial deficit and our Staff Survey results are amongst the most challenged in the NHS. That all said, there is a tremendous opportunity here at EKHUFT for the right people. Under the direction of the CEO, Tracey Fletcher, we have a new Executive team in place and the Care Group structure was implemented during the latter part 2023, providing clearer clinical and operational lines of accountability and responsibility. Significant strides are being made to address the underlying financial challenges with an ambitious, yet deliverable, £49m CIP for 24/25. Tangible Quality & Safety improvements have been made across the Trust, including within our Maternity & Neonatal services. Across our elective and non-elective pathways, we are now seeing good signs of progress and our backlogs are reducing and we are aiming for compliance with all National Access standards during 24/25. If you have the operational leadership experience, vision, energy and resilience to join us on our Improvement journey then please do consider applying. Main duties of the job We provide services through six Care Groups; each led by a Managing Director and are looking for an outstanding individual to join us and lead the William Harvey (WHH) Care Group. The WHH Managing Director will provide operational leadership for our site in Ashford which provides Urgent & Emergency and Acute Medicine, General Medicine, General Surgery & Gastroenterology, Therapies, Outpatients and Hospital at Home. We are looking for candidate with operational leadership from the NHS who is experienced at leading services within a busy and complex site that provides urgent and emergency care. About us We are a large and complex multi-site, hospital Trust providing a range of acute and community services to a local population of 743,000 people and specialist services for a far wider population. We are well known for our research and innovation, with some of our services having an international reputation, and we are proud of our teaching hospitals status and partnership with the Kent and Medway Medical School. Development of new facilities including the hyper acute stroke unit at William Harvey and Medical Thrombectomy at Kent & Canterbury, and recent expansions and renovations to add capacity to our emergency department will further our ability to respond to the needs of our growing local population, whilst ensuring we are well placed to contribute across the wider transformation of health and social care provision at a system level. Date posted 08 January 2025 Pay scheme Very senior manager (VSM) Salary Depending on experience Contract Permanent Working pattern Full-time Reference number 344-7468MD-WHH Job locations Trustwide Ashford TN24 0LZ Job description Job responsibilities Please scroll down to access the full Job Description and Person Specification located in Documents to download. Interviews shall be held w/c 3rd February 2025 Job description Job responsibilities Please scroll down to access the full Job Description and Person Specification located in Documents to download. Interviews shall be held w/c 3rd February 2025 Person Specification Knowledge Training and Experience Essential Educated to masters level in relevant subject or equivalent level of experience of working at a similar level in specialist area Significant management experience at senior level in the NHS or other public healthcare related industry Proven Board level experience of leading and delivering complex change and strategy development programmes in a politically sensitive and complex environment Member of a relevant professional Body Desirable Qualification in management coaching or improvement Communication Skills Essential Dynamic personality and the ability to build trusted stakeholder relationships and wide support networks in a political context Strong external communications skills in a politically sensitive environment and experience in handling media Ability to prepare and produce concise yet insightful communications for dissemination to senior stakeholders and a broad range of stakeholders as required Extensive experience of delivering presentations to large groups of stakeholders in often pressured and politically sensitive environments Desirable Experience of being a member of a Board Analytical Essential Ability to analyse highly complex issues where material is conflicting and drawn from multiple sources Demonstrated capability to act upon incomplete information, using experience to make inferences and decision making Ability to analyse numerical and written data, assess options and draw appropriate initiatives Planning Skills Essential Leadership, vision, strategic thinking and planning with highly developed political skills Demonstrated capability to plan over short, medium and long-term timeframes and adjust plans and resource requirements accordingly Experience of managing and prioritising a large budget Ability to provide informative reporting on finances and impact to Board management Autonomy Essential Demonstrated capabilities to manage own workload and make informed decisions in the absence of required information, working to tight deadlines Ability to make decisions autonomously, when required, on difficult issues Person Specification Knowledge Training and Experience Essential Educated to masters level in relevant subject or equivalent level of experience of working at a similar level in specialist area Significant management experience at senior level in the NHS or other public healthcare related industry Proven Board level experience of leading and delivering complex change and strategy development programmes in a politically sensitive and complex environment Member of a relevant professional Body Desirable Qualification in management coaching or improvement Communication Skills Essential Dynamic personality and the ability to build trusted stakeholder relationships and wide support networks in a political context Strong external communications skills in a politically sensitive environment and experience in handling media Ability to prepare and produce concise yet insightful communications for dissemination to senior stakeholders and a broad range of stakeholders as required Extensive experience of delivering presentations to large groups of stakeholders in often pressured and politically sensitive environments Desirable Experience of being a member of a Board Analytical Essential Ability to analyse highly complex issues where material is conflicting and drawn from multiple sources Demonstrated capability to act upon incomplete information, using experience to make inferences and decision making Ability to analyse numerical and written data, assess options and draw appropriate initiatives Planning Skills Essential Leadership, vision, strategic thinking and planning with highly developed political skills Demonstrated capability to plan over short, medium and long-term timeframes and adjust plans and resource requirements accordingly Experience of managing and prioritising a large budget Ability to provide informative reporting on finances and impact to Board management Autonomy Essential Demonstrated capabilities to manage own workload and make informed decisions in the absence of required information, working to tight deadlines Ability to make decisions autonomously, when required, on difficult issues 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. Certificate of Sponsorship Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab). From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab). Additional information 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. Certificate of Sponsorship Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab). From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab). Employer details Employer name East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust Address Trustwide Ashford TN24 0LZ Employer's website https://www.ekhuft.nhs.uk/patients-and-visitors/ (Opens in a new tab)