Assistant Service Manager - Women's & Neonates (cross site)

Job overview

We are looking for an exceptional individual with strong management skills to join our team as an Assistant Service Manager in Maternity and Neonatal services at the Chelsea and Westminster and West Middlesex hospital sites.

The successful candidate will be highly organised and adaptable, have proven NHS experience and service improvement skills and be able to manage changing and complex priorities effectively. They will have the ability to use their own initiative and communicate effectively at all levels.

The post holder will be a key member of the Divisional Management Team, and will work closely with wider operational and clinical teams to ensure the delivery of key performance indicators for the division as well as having direct operational responsibility for a portfolio of services within the Directorate.

• Responsible for the delivery of high quality and efficient patient services in defined clinical areas.
• Support the Deputy General Manager and the Service Directors with the operational management of the services.
• Work closely and in partnership with other services within the Trust, in particular the nursing teams; clinical teams; and clinical divisions to achieve agreed performance, productivity targets and clinical quality indicators.
• Assist the Deputy General Manager and the Service Directors in the delivery of objectives across the Directorate as well as directly managing mutually agreed projects and service improvement initiatives.
• Where appropriate, the Assistant Service Manager will work on mutually agreed projects as delegated by the Deputy General Manager.
• Ensure that line management of his or her staff is undertaken professionally and that each member of staff has an appraisal and development and training plan consistent with Directorate, Division and Trust objectives.

Working for our organisation

Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is one of England's top-performing and safest trusts. We operate two main acute hospital sites—Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and West Middlesex University Hospital—along with award-winning clinics across North West London.

Our nearly 7,500 staff care for a diverse population of 1.5 million, providing full clinical services, including maternity, A&E, and children’s services, plus specialist HIV and sexual health clinics. The Care Quality Commission rates us 'Good' in safety, effectiveness, care, and responsiveness, and 'Outstanding' in leadership and resource use.

We continually invest in our facilities, including a £30m expansion of critical care at Chelsea and Westminster and an £80m Ambulatory Diagnostic Centre at West Middlesex.

We value the unique perspectives and experiences that diverse teams bring and are committed to creating an environment where all voices are heard, respected, and empowered to succeed."

If you haven’t heard from us within three weeks of the closing date, your application was likely unsuccessful. Employment is subject to a six-month probationary period.

Some roles may require weekend shifts at multiple sites.

• Provide hands-on operational management to designated areas of the Directorate, ensuring the delivery of services in line with expected service standards.
• Support clinical teams to deliver high-class Maternity and Neonatal care at both hospital sites
• Be accountable through the Deputy General Manager for the monitoring and delivery of key quality, productivity and performance targets.
• Undertake appropriate projects identified by the Deputy General Manager
• Support your counterpart Assistant Service Manager as required with developing new administrative processes and procedures in their areas.
• Promote excellent customer service throughout all areas of responsibility, taking remedial action to correct poor and unresponsive service.
• Work closely with the clinical Divisional management teams to ensure the effective delivery of a responsive and efficient administration service that supports the patient’s pathway whilst delivering departmental and organisation KPIs.
• Lead on the investigation and co-ordination of complaints that are predominantly administrative related within the directorate working closely with nurses, medical staff and with the Patient Advisor Ensure corrective action is taken in response to patient feedback.
• Be responsible for effective communication systems within areas of administration responsibility including regular team and departmental briefing.
• With support of the Deputy General Manager participate in business planning and ensure that the administrative function supports and enables the delivery of clinical within the divisions and Outpatients.
• Assist the Service Manager in the production, implementation and revision of operational policies throughout the Directorate and Division, instigating the changes to or implementation of policies and procedures.
• Attend internal and external meetings and provide feedback to staff as relevant, particularly on new initiative.
• Work closely with the Information and clinical coding departments to ensure better capture of information and higher standards of data quality.
• Keep up to date with new IT initiatives and all PAS developments and other Trust systems as they affect clinical administration services.

• Support the Service Manager within the Directorate to co-ordinate annual leave and study leave in order that cover is always maintained and agency expenditure is minimised.
• Manage the on-call Rota for all junior staff.
• Line Manage and support staff allocated to you within the Directorate.
• Ensure close working relationships are maintained with the clinical professionals on all matter relating to patient care within the service.

• Play an active role in identifying areas within the service where expenditure can be reduced and/or income generated.
• Be involved under the General Managers instruction in the business planning process, producing capital and revenue business cases and proposals for service development.
• Support your counterpart Assistant Service Manager and Service Manager in monitoring and managing relevant devolved budget
• Undertake detailed information analysis of specific projects/reports requiring high levels of analysis.
• Contribute to management of performance information, taking a lead for specific projects and be responsible for the budget for the project.
• Provide information for the bank and agency expenditure for the team.

• Take an operational lead for existing technologies within the Division including transcription services and Electronic Document Management.
• Take a lead role in projects involving the introduction of new technologies.
• Work with the Trust IT department and external providers, ensure the above systems operationally function on a day to day basis to support hospital outpatient and inpatient activity.
• Plan staff training on new systems (clinical and administrative).
• Report to the Service Manager any deviation from agreed standards by the contracted provider.

Please see attached job description and person specification to this advert for further details.

Person specification

Education and Qualifications

• Educated to degree level or equivalent experience
• Qualification in Management such as First Line Managers Diploma or equivalent experience
• ECDL (or equivalent qualification/experience)

• Diploma in specialist subject such as management, information systems or Institute of Health Records and Information Management (IHRIM)/ or willingness to study for this

Experience

• Demonstrable management experience (people and processes)
• Significant NHS experience with sound knowledge of acute hospital processes
• Knowledge of Patient Administration System and other relevant Trust system
• Intermediate use of MS Excel or other spreadsheet packages
• Experience of working within customer-driven service
• Experience of working on and leading projects
• Experience of managing change
• Experience of NHS acute Outpatient processes, medical records, waiting list management, capacity planning.

• Experience of leading a project
• Experience of using Cerner, Lilie, Lastword or other relevant Trust systems

Skills and Knowledge

• Excellent oral and written communication skills
• Knowledge of business management policies, procedures, practices acquired through education, professional qualifications or experience
• Good organisational skills in order to plan and priorities workload
• Information analysis skills and knowledge of using data to improve services.
• Ability to manage own time and balance completing demands.
• Evidence of ability to identify ways of improving systems
• Willing to learn new systems
• Awareness of new developments in the NHS
• Project management skills
• Able to deal with conflict management and problem solving
• Able to defuse situations involving verbal abuse, bullying, harassment and crisis Management.