St Helens - Deputy Operations Manager - Lead Employer

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Job overview

As a Lead Employer Service our key priorities are to ensure the efficient, professional and integrated ‘one stop’ service for all our stakeholders including Host Trusts and our Educational Stakeholders.

The Deputy Operations Manager position will provide support to the different Team Managers across the Operations teams within Lead Employer and work with the Operations Manager to support the oversight of operations for all clients and trainees, ensuring each stage of the process is properly actioned, that trainees are onboarded correctly, correct information is processed for payments to be made, and appropriate information is communicated to all relevant stakeholders including NHS E, host trusts and trainees.

Interview Date - 11th March 2025

Main duties of the job

Rotations and Contracts.

Monitoring and managing these teams in line with standard operating procedures and LE operations key performance indicators to ensure adherence to legislation, relevant terms and conditions of service, NHS guidance, CQC requirements and HR best practice.

Working for our organisation

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves a population of over 600,000 with a workforce of over 9000 dedicated and skilled staff across 21 sites.

We strongly believe that the communities we serve should all have access to Five Star Patient Care.

Our services:

Acute Care

Providing emergency and maternity services at Whiston, Southport and Ormskirk hospitals, and medical and surgical specialties across all our sites.

Primary Care

Providing primary care services at Marshalls Cross Medical Centre situated in St Helens Hospital.

Community Services

We also provide urgent care at our Urgent Treatment Centre located in St Helens town centre.

Specialist Regional Services

We provide the Mersey Regional Burns & Plastic Surgery Unit at Whiston Hospital and the Spinal Injuries Unit at Southport Hospital to more than 4 million people across the whole of Merseyside, West Lancashire, Cheshire, Isle of Man and North Wales.

Achievements:

• Rated Outstanding by CQC Inspection August 2018
• Top 100 places to work in the NHS (NHS Employers & Health Service Journal)
• National Preceptorship Accreditation (2023) for Nursing & AHP Preceptorship Programme

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

KEY DUTIES

• To ensure the LE Operations administration teams provide support generally and flexibly within the Lead Employer.
• Department covering for other staff members as required and any duties required as appropriate to the grade and experience of the job holder.
• Work in partnership with colleagues to optimise opportunities for working collaboratively towards the provision of an integrated end to end Operations Service
• Develop and implement processes to effectively manage activity.
• Manage the Operations team managers and other direct reports by holding regular communication and planning meetings and support their continuous development through appraisal and PDP’s.
• Manage the day- t o - day service of the Operations teams including the monitoring of timekeeping and attendance.

• Ensure that all enquiries to the department from both internal and external parties are handled effectively and efficiently, e.g. staff and managers.
• Support staff in the interpretation of r e l e v a n t o p e r a t i o n s policies and procedures. Refer complex or highly sensitive matters to the Operations Manager.
• Ensure resources are effectively managed within each team.
• Contribute to the continuous improvement in the efficiency and effectiveness of LE Operations.
• Seek customer service feedback from the service users and make recommendations for further improvements to the Operations services.
• Assist users/managers in considering how they can optimise the workforce information available.
• Maintain monitoring systems including responsiveness, customer service standards, tracking time to fill, and produce performance metrics.
• Investigate complaints about the operations services, providing feedback to complainants and implementing any necessary changes to aid service improvement.
• Support Team Managers to produce and provide regular updates on management information – presenting these to the Operations Manager and LE SLT along with presenting to external stakeholders as required at performance management meetings to enable identification of
• issues and development of action plans.

• Assist the Operations Manager in the development of service specifications, tenders, contracts and Service Level Agreements for Operations Services.
• Monitor the provision of services under Service Level Agreements/Contracts and highlight performance/quality issues to the senior team.
• Oversee over- and under-payments re trainees, producing data for reporting purposes (both internally and externally).
• Retain records of contract activity and performance against KPIs in collaboration with internal departments eg finance, HWWB, etc

• Ensure paper based and electronic record and filing systems are maintained in accordance with the Trust Information Governance and Record Management policies
• Implement and monitor compliance with Data protection, Freedom of Information, Equality & Diversity, Equal Opportunities and other HR related legislation as appropriate.
• Ensure all evidence is being stored appropriately for NHSLA, UKBA and CQC assessments.
• Provide managers with Equality and Diversity information to ensure equity of access to recruitment and training opportunities.
• Ensure data protection and confidentiality is maintained.
• Ensure all staff are recruited in line with Lead Employer’s recruitment policies and procedures and ensure pre and post checks are processed. Escalate to the Operations Manager/LE SLT when appropriate.

• Establish service standards within the Operational Team procedures and review on an ongoing basis.
• Ensure compliance with NHS Pre-employment standards and relevant legislation within the LE onboarding processes.
• Ensure the design and implementation of administrative policies and procedures to ensure the smooth running of the service.
• Highlight and report service requirements, workforce resource and workload impact.
• Liaise with the Operations Manager on a regular basis to identify and plan the service to ensure the Hosts/trainee’s needs are met.
• Ensure timeliness, accuracy and relevance around communications, web information and templates issued from the Operations team.
• Ensure that Impact Assessments are completed on policies and procedure
• Ensure the integrity of all Operations data by accurate and timely inputting of information.
• Develop and maintain HR systems; e.g. databases/trackers and ESR
• Work in collaboration with the LE Case Management and Absence Support teams where required.
• Co-ordinate the planning and implementation of host/trainee engagement/awareness session including inductions.
• Monitor accuracy of data entry and take action to ensure standards are maintained.
• Take the lead on the host and regional performance update meetings representing the Operations teams in terms of performance

• Provide professional development and coaching to administration teams to enable them to provide good quality advice and service provision to trainees/hosts
• Ensure that processing and monitoring of any changes e.g. fixed term contracts, secondments, and changes to terms and conditions of employment are appropriately actioned, referring any issues to the HR Case Management team/Operations Manager as appropriate
• Audit the quality of advice and support provided by the Operations teams
• Develop and deliver Operations specific training to team managers/leaders
• Work with the Operations teams to ensure that all standard operations processes (for example, preemployment checks, right to live and work checks) are applied consistently and in line with regulations/legislation

Person specification

Qualifications

• Educated to degree level/ or equivalent relevant work experience
• Working towards/ willingness to work towards CIPD qualification
• Evidence of continuing professional development.

• CIPD qualified
• Employment Law Qualification

Experience

• Operational HR experience gained within unionised environment including recruitment experience
• Employee Relations experience

• Experience of working in a HR role in the NHS or public sector organisation
• Experience of HR across more than one area of expertise e.g. employee relations, recruitment, organisational development

Knowledge and Skills

• Excellent communication skills
• Well organised and ability to work under pressure
• Knowledge of employment law and HR best practice
• Employment relations – staff side partnership working
• Ability to analyse and interpret HR statistics
• Competent user of Information Technology
• Knowledge of NHS terms and conditions of employment
• Understanding of terms and conditions of contracts of employment
• Good understanding of the challenges affecting the NHS
• Able to identify areas of improvement in current systems and develop and implement plans to improve processes
• Ability to plan effectively and work to tight deadlines
• Ability to effectively manage team performance

• Knowledge of TUPE legislation
• Knowledge of capacity/ resource planning
• Re-organisation/ redundancy handling
• Ability to challenge ways or working

Thank you for considering an application to work for Mersey West Lancashire NHS Trust. MWL is an exciting and forward-thinking NHS Trust who are one of the best places to work for in England.

Given sometimes we receive a high volume of applications to work for us, please be aware, that we may close a vacancy earlier than stated should a sufficient number of applications be received from which a shortlist can be confirmed. Therefore, you are advised to apply at your earliest convenience.

The Trust may contact you during the recruitment process for your feedback on your experience. We always aim for continuous improvement in our practice.

Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion

We welcome all applications irrespective of people’s race, disability, gender, sexual orientation, religion/belief, age, gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy/maternity and in particular those from under- represented groups.

As a Disability Confident Leader, we commit to offering an interview to all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the job (the essential criteria) listed in the personal specification. If you wish to apply under this Guaranteed Interview Scheme, please indicate this on the online application form.

If you are having difficulty completing an online application, or require any disability reasonable adjustments, to the application process, please contact [email protected]

We also commit to offering an interview to all armed forces veterans who meet the minimum criteria for the job (the essential criteria) listed in the personal specification. If you wish to apply under this Guaranteed Interview Scheme, please indicate this on the online application form.

The Trust operates anonymous shortlisting where no personal information about you, including your name or personal details are shared with the recruiting manager. No equality information is shared at any time during the recruitment process with the recruiting manager or other people involved in the decision-making process.

The equality monitoring information you provide is used in the following situations: to review our recruitment practices; where a job is limited to a specific person to verify their eligibility to apply; and to offer disability reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process.

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).

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).

Following the recent update on UK immigration policy for those on a Health and Care Visa or Skilled Worker Visa, please click here to check your eligibility before applying for this post as we may be unable to provide sponsorship.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

If this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 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.

Please note if applicable, applicants will be required to pay for their DBS check. Costs are deducted from salary following appointment.

If you have not already done so, you are therefore encouraged to enrol for the DBS Update Service to which a small annual fee of £13 per year applies.

Flexible Working

We actively support flexible working patterns throughout MWL. Changes made to the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook mean that:

• All employees have the right to request flexible working from day one of employment.
• There is no limit on the number of requests they can make.
• Employees have the right to make requests, have them considered, regardless of the reason.

At Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, we will consider requests for flexible working. We would also encourage you to also discuss flexible working options at interview stage.

Working for Team MWL

Our Staff Health and Wellbeing programme offer a variety of services.

The Trust is a non-smoking across all our sites. Failure to follow this rule could lead to disciplinary action. For more information, see the Smoke Free NHS website

You must ensure that your application, including personal statements and behaviour examples, are truthful and factually accurate. Please note plagiarism can include presenting the ideas and experience of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own.

The Trust will not accept applications which are found to be AI generated.

Additional Information

Before applying, we encourage you to review the Trusts Values and Behaviours which are We are KIND, We are OPEN, We are INCLUSIVE, which can be found here.

An applicant guide to help and support you with your application and what to expect during your recruitment journey can be accessed in the supporting documents.

Good luck with your application. We hope to welcome you to Team MWL very soon.