Job summary
- Main area
- Nursing
- Grade
- Band 8a
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week (Part of the out of hours senior manager on-call rota)
- Job ref
- 380-NK272
- Employer
- Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Priority House
- Town
- Maidstone
- Salary
- £57,528 - £64,750 per annum
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 07/07/2026 23:59
Employer heading
Service Manager
Band 8a
We are the Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust. We offer a range of ongoing benefits to our valued workforce. From an active health and wellbeing programme to regular recognition events, we work hard to provide varied benefits that make a difference to your work-life balance.
Here are some clips of our Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust staff, speaking about their role and why they enjoy working for us
Would you like to work flexibly? In the NHS, we are reminded every day of how important life is. As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us, for our patients and for you.
Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement.
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Job overview
An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Service Manager to operationally lead the new Kent and Medway Assertive Outreach Service.
Initially leading the establishment of the Assertive Outreach Service, you will be responsible for the overall management of this county-wide service, working closely with colleagues in all other relevant teams, ensuring excellent clinical, operational and financial outcomes.
There is a need for you to work collaboratively with other providers enabling seamless patient pathways and service user engagement as the Assertive Outreach Service will interface closely with other services.
You will need to be proficient in the use of data and analysis to support better outcomes for patients and will actively coordinate initiatives to ensure improvement plans are developed and implemented.
You will be supported to know who the internal and external stakeholders are and when to use them effectively in promoting and securing the services’ reputation.
You will identify opportunities for service improvement and growth seeking support from the General Manager to maximise these. They will also deputise for the General Manager in all aspects of the service as required.
Main duties of the job
Working closely with the Professional Heads, Service Director and General Manager to provide demonstrable assurance that the quality of the clinical services including patient safety, patient satisfaction and clinical outcomes meet the required high standards.
This will include investigations into serious incidents, complaints and staffing issues, appraisal, supervision and training of staff and compliance with mandatory reporting.
Service Managers work closely with the Team Managers or equivalent (direct reports) and other professionals to ensure care pathways are effective with regular reviews to enable strategic and operational plans to be delivered.
The post holder must hold a full, valid, UK driving licence and have access to a car/vehicle to use for business purposes (unless you have a disability as defined by the Equality Act 2010).
Service Managers are responsible for ensuring good patient flow management utilising a combination of demand and capacity information, length of stay data caseload management and adherence to agreed clinical pathways. In addition, Service Mangers systematically make certain that clinical governance arrangements are imbedded within services and are working to full effect.
Working for our organisation
We are Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust. We care for the mental health and wellbeing of people across Kent and Medway and are rated ‘Good’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
Our teams support children, young people and adults with a wide range of mental health needs. We also provide specialist services, including all-age eating disorder services and neurodevelopmental assessments for children and young people, such as autism and ADHD.
Because we work across the whole county and across hospital and community settings, we can make care more joined up and easier to access for the people we serve.
Our vision is simple: we are here to help communities not just live with mental illness, but live well. It’s why we’re passionate about working with communities to make mental health care better for everyone. Everything we do is guided by our values: caring, inclusive, curious and confident.
Join us if you share our passion for better mental health care and want to be part of a team that’s working well together.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Working with the Clinical and Service Leadership to recruit, motivate and train the workforce. To be able to demonstrate that staff have the appropriate skills and training to deliver high quality care. To appoint staff with the appropriate competencies. To be visible and available and to manage the performance of services to ensure excellent clinical outcomes and good levels of engagement.
Please refer to the attached job description for the full details on the responsibilities and person specification.
We are serious about diversity and inclusion, and we are working hard to build this into our DNA. We warmly welcome applications for any of our roles from people from diverse backgrounds, and we are proactively encouraging applications from under-represented communities for our more senior roles, like this one.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Recognised Professional Qualification in Social Work (DipSW/CQSW), Mental Health Nursing (RMN), Psychology or any allied medical profession. First Degree.
- Evidence of continuing professional development to Master’s level or equivalent.
Desirable criteria
- MSc. Management course
Experience
Essential criteria
- Senior Management Experience in running large multidisciplinary teams with significant clinical and business delivery targets.
- Experience of managing budgets and resources effectively.
- Experience of leading and managing change to deliver organisational goals.
- Experience of individual and team Performance Management and Appraisals
Desirable criteria
- Project Management Qualification
Knowledge and Skills
Essential criteria
- Effective communications and interpersonal skills and proven ability to develop and manage key relationships at all levels.
- Leadership skills especially the ability to lead and manage change through influence without direct management
- Able to analyse complex issues/problems, gather relevant information and exercise sound judgement in reaching the most appropriate conclusions.
Applicant requirements
You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Sarah Hodge
- Job title
- General Manager
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 07919298115
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