Job summary
- Main area
- Corporate Operations
- Grade
- Band 8c
- Contract
- Secondment: 12 months
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 153-CO05076
- Employer
- University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust
- Town
- Castle Lane East
- Salary
- £76,965 - £88,682 pa
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 09/10/2025 23:59
- Interview date
- 17/10/2025
Employer heading
Programme Head, Community Diagnostic Centres, Dorset
Band 8c
As University Hospitals Dorset we are a three site acute trust with ‘university hospital’ status through our partnership with Bournemouth University, working with an annual budget of £730m.
We offer highly regarded health services, employing some 10,000 staff. Our ambitious £250m estates programme is well on the way to delivering state-of-the-art facilities over the next two years to meet the current and future healthcare needs of the populations we serve.
In an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty with over seven miles of sandy beaches you’ll find inspirational opportunities to achieve your perfect work/life balance. With the New Forest and the Purbecks on our doorstep, we’re also less than three hours from London by road or train. The thriving towns of Poole, Bournemouth and Christchurch give way to idyllic villages and unspoilt landscapes just minutes from our hospitals.
We believe that having a diverse workforce, and allowing people to be themselves, is essential in ensuring we offer an inclusive, welcoming and productive place to work.
We especially welcome applications from minority groups in the community who may be underrepresented in our workforce.
At UHD our active staff network groups are the Women's Network, Black Asian Minority Ethnic Group (BAME), Pride Network, European (EU), Pro Ability Staff Network, and the Armed Forces Support Group.
As a Trust we are proudly signed up to the Disability Confident and Armed Forces Covenant guaranteed interview schemes.
We are aware that some candidates may choose to use AI tools to support the preparation of their application. While this is not discouraged, we kindly remind applicants that submissions should remain an honest and accurate representation of your own experience and suitability. Personal integrity is an important part of the recruitment process.
Job overview
Are you looking for a new challenge?
An exciting opportunity has arisen for an experienced and dynamic person to be a pivotal part of developing and expanding diagnostic services across Dorset. We are looking for someone to take on the Programme Head role for the Dorset wide Community Diagnostic Centres (CDC) Programme.
The post holder will lead the continuation and future development of the CDC programme, working closely with executive teams, clinicians, operational managers and other stakeholders across the Dorset system and partner organisations to develop and deliver complex service change reflecting national CDC guidance, and national and local strategies.
This is a high-impact role requiring exceptional communication, operational, and improvement skills, with the ability to influence, coordinate and implement change at pace. The post also recognises the increasing need to enable new models of care and support cross-site service realignment in a dynamic, agile environment.
Base Location: Poole Hospital, working across Dorset as required and working from home.
Interview Date: 17th October 2025
Main duties of the job
As the Head for the Dorset Community Diagnostic Centres programme you will provide expertise and dynamic leadership in developing and delivering the transformation of services within the identified CDC portfolio across Dorset as agreed through relevant board(s).
You will lead the development of local strategies relevant to the CDC portfolio reflecting the system-wide Long-Term Plan, accessing and using relevant local and national material to inform an understanding of local needs and engaging with stakeholders.
In this role you will work with collaboratively with System, Trusts, independent sector colleagues and other stakeholders across the Dorset system and partner organisations to develop and deliver service change that reflects an agreed target operating model and national and local strategies, supports efficiency, demand management and / or improved outcomes and is fit for the future.
You will provide leadership to support teams to maximise the development of services for the Dorset system on the context of national programmes and local plans ensuring all stakeholders are engaged in the programme.
A key part of this role will be acting as a visible and influential change champion for Dorset, delivering the CDC programme as it develops going forwards. You will work across Dorset driving innovation, improvement and consistency, ensuring increased access to diagnostics across the county.
Working for our organisation
Our values define who we are as #TeamUHD. They underpin everything we do now and in the future. They define how we treat our patients, visitors, and each other, our valued teammates and colleagues.
UHD are investing in services across the Trust, with many being transformed and developed following merger and the New Hospital Programme.
This is an exciting time to join our hospitals in Dorset. We are in line to receive a significant national investment of £147 million to help transform our services and redevelop Poole Hospital and the Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals, now merged as University Hospitals Dorset. We have been able to access these national funds because we have such a good plan in Dorset.
Our vision is to join up our services so they can be delivered in a more integrated way. We have a great opportunity together to improve outcomes for patients, make better use of all our resources, and ensure our services can be provided on a sustainable basis. For developing our workforce, the aim is to establish modern, well-equipped centres of excellence with sustainable roles for staff, standardisation of education and training so that we can attract and retain skilled clinical and non-clinical staff to Dorset. This is a great opportunity for you to be part of the transformation as our two hospital trusts also merge.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
To understand the role in more detail please read the full job description and person specification documents which are attached to this advert.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Relevant advanced theoretical (equivalent to Masters level and/or specialist training) knowledge.
- Evidence of continuing professional development that enhances theoretical and practical knowledge.
Experience
Essential criteria
- Relevant experience working at a strategic level.
- Direct management of a relevant team.
- Relevant experience in the successful management of large scale change programmes with demonstrable outcomes.
Technical Skills Competencies
Essential criteria
- Leadership Skills: demonstrable evidence of leadership competencies in the following areas: • vision, delivery, control and decision making • understanding and managing context, • emotional intelligence, • relationship building, • team and people development, • tackling difficult issues.
Knowledge
Essential criteria
- Highly developed negotiating and influencing skills.
Other requirements specific to the role
Essential criteria
- Ability to work with a high degree of autonomy and professional accountability.
- Able to analyse performance, competing perspectives and priorities in the delivery of health and support service improvement.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Judith May
- Job title
- Director of Operational Performance and Oversight
- Email address
- [email protected]
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