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Job summary

Main area
Operational Programme Manager
Grade
Band 8b
Contract
Permanent
Hours
Full time - 37.5 hours per week
Job ref
150-CP2723-PC
Employer
Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust
Employer type
NHS
Site
Variable within Sussex
Town
Brighton & Hove/ West Sussex/ East Sussex
Salary
£66,582 - £77,368 per annum
Salary period
Yearly
Closing
28/06/2026 23:59
Interview date
08/07/2026

Employer heading

Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust logo

Operational Transformation Implementation Manager

Band 8b

Job overview

Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust is undergoing an exciting and ambitious transformation programme to improve services for patients and staff. The Planned Care Division is seeking an experienced improvement and transformation lead to convert the strategic objectives into operational plans and models of delivery. The Operational Transformation Implementation Manager will lead the operational implementation of the strategic improvement and transformation projects across the Division, driving the strategic programme for Planned Care to enhance service delivery, improve efficiency and outcomes, and support delivery of strategic objectives. 

Reporting through an agreed governance structure, the postholder will work with cross-functional teams and stakeholders both within and across Divisions, to deliver programmes to time, cost, and quality and to demonstrate benefits realisation.

Interview date: 8th July 2026.

Main duties of the job

Programme Management: Lead the implementation, delivery, and oversight of  transformation programmes across the Division, ensuring alignment to agreed goals, timelines, budgets, and accountabilities.

Change Management: Apply best practice change management to support consistent adoption of new ways of working through effective communication, engagement, training, and operational readiness.

Risk and Issue Management: Identify, assess, and manage risks and issues, ensuring mitigation plans are in place, clear ownership, and appropriate escalation through agreed governance.

Governance and Reporting: Establish robust governance structures and provide clear, regular reporting on progress, risks, dependencies, and benefits to senior stakeholders.

Continuous Improvement: Promote a culture of continuous improvement, ensuring lessons learned are captured and applied.

Benefits Realisation: Track and report programme benefits with clear ownership, consistent measures, and validated data.

Delivery: Lead delivery of programmes and projects, driving improvement and supporting organisational objectives.

Working for our organisation

We are the main provider of NHS community services across East and West Sussex, with 6,000 staff serving 1.3 million people. We deliver essential care to adults and children, helping them manage their health, avoid hospital admissions, and reduce hospital stays.

Our Trust vision is to provide excellent care at the heart of the community. We offer opportunities across medical, clinical, support, and corporate services.

Why work for us?
•    Positive 2024 NHS Staff Survey results, highlighting compassionate leadership and wellbeing
•    Varied environments: community hospitals, patients’ homes, and bases across Sussex
•    Flexible working options: part-time, flexi-time, annualised hours, and flexi-retirement
•    Excellent training, development, and research opportunities
•    Accredited Living Wage Employer, we ensure fair pay for all our staff
•    Cost-effective workplace nurseries in Crawley, Hove, and Brighton
•    Active EMBRACE, Disability & Wellbeing, LGBTQIA+, and Religion & Belief networks
•    Level 3 Disability Confident Leader and Veteran Aware Trust

Our valuesCompassionate Care, Working Together, Achieving Ambitions, Delivering Excellence—guide everything we do.

We embrace diversity and encourage applications from all backgrounds, particularly from ethnically diverse, disabled, and LGBTQIA+ individuals. We aim to create an inclusive environment and support reasonable adjustments during recruitment.

This post may close early if sufficient applications are received. 

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Provide effective leadership in change to staff which promotes high performance standards both individually and as a team, in the achievement of the Trusts objectives and priorities, whilst supporting staff through change. The Programme’s success will be dependent on the post holder playing an active role to make sure the existing areas of good employment practice are universally embedded. 

The post holder will be expected to:

·       Understand the Division’s key priorities for these programmes and translate these into key operational priorities for the projects within it.

·       Ensure clarity and effectiveness in developing and designing roles and responsibilities

·       Ensure management of staff is consistent with Trusts HR Policies to the achievement of equality, equity and optimum performance.

·       Communicate regularly through meetings with teams and individuals and provide opportunity for two-way feedback.

·       Promote an effective team ethos.

·       Promote equality, diversity and rights, and treat others with dignity and respect ensuring services are developed, managed and delivered to meet the specific needs of those belonging to protected characteristics.

·       Promote equality, diversity and Human Rights in working practices by developing and maintaining positive working relationships, ensuring that colleagues are treated fairly and contributing to developing equality of opportunity and outcomes in working practices.

·       Contribute to developing and maintaining equality of opportunity in working practices by complying with legislation and organisational policies. Advise colleagues about equality, diversity and human rights policies and procedures and ensure they are followed.

·       Ensure that colleagues are treated fairly. Behave in a non-discriminatory way and challenge the discriminatory behaviour of others. Be supportive of colleagues or service users who wish to raise issues about discriminatory practice or experience.

 

Human Resources

·       Ensure all policies and procedures related to staff are adhered to as appropriate

·       Lead delivery of projects through a matrix leadership model, building relationships with key decision makers in each organisation.

 

Financial & Physical Resources

·       Manage programme resources, including people and if necessary budgets, ensuring that all aspects of the programme are delivered within the agreed parameters.

·       Responsible for monitoring and analysing delivery of cost improvement agenda as part of financial control measures and maximising the use of resources to ensure project budgets are managed effectively. This will include developing models for delivering and presenting the benefit of improvement programmes e.g. cost benefit analysis, return on investment analysis and return on expectation analysis.

 

Policy/Service Development

·       Support the development and implementation of a comprehensive set of programme/project management procedures/documentation and rolling these out across the team and the organisations via the respective governance routes

·       Develops appropriate procedures for service delivery in line with the respective organisational policies, ensuring appropriate subject matter experts are consulted and approval is given at the required organisational/ Programme forums.

 

Information Resources

·       Updates information system/ uses software to develop performance management reports; responsible for performance management or similar system. 

Research & Development

·       Undertakes surveys/complex surveys related to performance management if required

·       Test assumptions and where necessary alternative options to the recommendations of the external Talking Therapies review

 

Physical effort 

·       Light physical effort

·       Office conditions, combination of sitting, standing, walking and travelling between sites. 

·       Required to use VDU for most of the day. 

 

Mental Effort 

·       Frequent concentration e.g. checking documents and analysing statistics, managing conflicting priorities

 

Emotional Effort 

·       Projects can often involve making unwelcome changes to staff working practices and this can be in any area within the Trust in both clinical and non-clinical areas. 

·       The programme will be high profile, garnering interest from multiple stakeholders.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria
  • Educated to degree level or equivalent experience
Desirable criteria
  • Formal qualifications in programme or project management (e.g., PRINCE2, MSP, Agile).

Knowledge/ Experience

Essential criteria
  • Project/ops management experience
  • Demonstrated ability to manage multiple stakeholders, including senior management, external partners, and cross-functional teams
  • Strong understanding of programme management methodologies, such as PRINCE2, Agile, or MSP
  • Strong track record in delivering change initiatives on time and within budget
  • Experience of working in, or closely with, operational teams
Desirable criteria
  • Experience of financial recovery and turnaround, or improving financial sustainability within an organisation
  • Previous NHS experience in a senior leadership role

Communication and Relationships Management

Essential criteria
  • Provide and receive highly complex, sensitive or contentious information; agreement or co-operation required; Present highly complex, sensitive or contentious information to groups
  • Motivational skills to encourage collaborative working to improve services/performance where there may be resistance to change; Presents workshops to large groups of staff
  • Good leadership skills – with the ability to direct, challenge and facilitate in order to deliver results
  • Analysis of performance data and capacity and demand data, assessment of projects, identification of areas for collaborative working /expert analysis of performance/service redesign in cutting-edge situations
Desirable criteria
  • Evidence of developing clear communication plans

Employer certification / accreditation badges

We are a Living Wage EmployerCommitted to being an Inclusive EmployerVeteran AwareApprenticeships logoNo smoking policyDisability confident leaderMindful employer.  Being positive about mental health.Armed Forces Covenant - Silver 2025

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.

Application numbers

This post may close earlier than the published closing date if sufficient applications are received.

Documents to download

Apply online now

Further details / informal visits contact

Name
Lloyd Barker
Job title
Divisional Director Planned Care
Email address
[email protected]
Telephone number
07788219347
Additional information

Katherine Baker - Deputy AHP Divisional Director

[email protected]

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