Are you a highly skilled and motivated physiotherapist ready to take the next step in your leadership journey?
We are seeking an experienced, dynamic, and forward-thinking Physiotherapy Operational Lead to provide strategic and operational leadership for our highly skilled physiotherapy team at Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. This is a fantastic opportunity for a motivated leader with strong clinical expertise, proven management skills, and a passion for innovation to help shape the future of our physiotherapy services.
As Physiotherapy Operational Lead, you will play a pivotal role in ensuring the delivery of high-quality, patient-centred care, while driving service transformation, workforce development, and operational efficiency. Working within the Professional Support Services Directorate, you will collaborate closely with the Chief Allied Health Professional (AHP), senior management, and multidisciplinary teams, influencing decision-making and enhancing physiotherapy pathways across the organisation.
This is an exciting leadership role in one of the UK's leading cardiothoracic hospitals, rated 'Outstanding' by the Care Quality Commission. If you are a strategic thinker, a strong communicator, and a passionate advocate for physiotherapy, we invite you to bring your expertise to a Trust that values compassion, collaboration, and excellence.
Main duties of the job
As Physiotherapy Operational Lead, you will oversee the operational leadership of the physiotherapy service, ensuring high-quality, patient-centred care. This includes managing service performance, clinical governance, workforce planning, and aligning the service with the Trust's strategic priorities.
You will provide visible leadership, engage with staff and patients, and manage staffing, budgets, and resources effectively. Key responsibilities include overseeing recruitment, retention, and professional development to create an environment that fosters learning and excellence.
A critical aspect of your role will be driving service transformation and quality improvement, working with multidisciplinary teams to develop pathways, implement innovative care models, and ensure compliance with national standards. You will also lead business cases and audits to ensure sustainability and innovation.
You will champion education and professional development, integrating evidence-based approaches to enhance outcomes. Representing physiotherapy at Trust-wide meetings, you will collaborate with AHP service leads, divisional leads and executives to ensure services are responsive and aligned with the healthcare landscape.
About us
Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is the UK's leading heart and lung hospital, delivering care to more than 50,000 patients a year in its new state-of-the-art hospital in Cambridge. We perform the most heart and/or lung transplants in the UK and carried out the UK's first successful heart transplant in 1979. It also offers emergency heart attack treatment, sleep centre care and is one of just five centres nationally for those in severe respiratory failure.
Based on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, the largest centre of medical research and health science in Europe, the Trust is at the heart of treatments of the future. Royal Papworth became the first hospital trust in the country to be rated outstanding in all five areas assessed by the Care Quality Commission - a rating it still holds today. The Trust holds its values of compassion, excellence & collaboration at its core, and all colleagues joining the team are expected to uphold these in their day-to-day roles & interactions. Royal Papworth is proud of its diverse workforce and encourages people to embrace their individuality.
The Trust values difference and welcomes all applications irrespective of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy & maternity, race, religion & belief, sex and sexual orientation. Providing they meet the minimum post criteria, applicants with disabilities will be offered an interview.
Job description
Job responsibilities
On this page you will find a Role Profile which provides information about the hospital and full details about the role. We recommend that you review this and refer to it as you complete your application. Please include how you will meet the Trust Values Compassion, Excellence and Collaboration. If you would like more information about the role or working at Royal Papworth Hospital, please get in touch with the contact for this role.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
* BSc/ Pre- Reg MSc/ Grad. Dip. in Physiotherapy
* MSc or equivalent
* HCPC registration
Desirable
* Registered for doctoral studies or willingness to do so
* CSP member
* Committee role within specialist interest group
Experience
Essential
* Clinical pillar
* Demonstrable experience at Band 7 or above with advanced knowledge and expertise in providing Physiotherapy care across clinical specialties.
* Proven ability to maintain up-to-date clinical knowledge and evidence-based practice in Physiotherapy.
* Leadership pillar
* Experience in leading and supporting others in complex situations with strong management, leadership, and communication skills.
* Experience in workforce and financial management and planning.
* Proven ability to drive service improvements and policy development through analysis and communication of complex data.
* Skilled in handling sensitive and contentious issues professionally.
* Experience in managing performance, capability, and sickness issues.
* Education pillar
* Engagement in post-graduate education.
* Experience leading and facilitating team learning activities, such as in-service training and clinical supervision.
* Research pillar
* Experience leading departmental and/or Trust audit, service improvement and research projects.
* Evidence of dissemination of best practice/ quality improvement, e.g. abstract submission, presentation, published work.
* Utilisation of current evidence base to influence own and others practice.
* Demonstrable experience of developing others across the four pillars of Physiotherapy practice.
Desirable
* Clinical pillar
* Working at advanced clinical or extended scope practitioner level.
* Leadership pillar
* Post-graduate level Management / Leadership qualification or module.
* Previous experience in developing business cases and supporting growth initiatives.
* Working knowledge and involvement in NHS and AHP priorities and initiatives at regional level.
* Education pillar
* Involvement in writing national guidelines and other publications.
* Research pillar
* Research experience as lead investigator.
Additional Criteria
Essential
* Evidence ability to uphold the Trust's values Compassion, Excellence, Collaboration.
* Role model and support others in department and across PSS with professionalism, resilience, and reflexivity.
* Ability to undertake manual handling tasks.
* Ability to work flexibly including on-call.
Employer details
Employer name
Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Address
Royal Papworth Hospital
Papworth Road
Cambridge Bio Medical Campus
Cambridge
CB2 0AY
Any attachments will be accessible after you click to apply.
175-2425-2-PS1100 #J-18808-Ljbffr