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Job summary

Main area
Improvement Practice
Grade
NHS AfC: Band 5
Contract
Permanent
Hours
  • Full time
  • Part time
37.5 hours per week
Job ref
435-C080-26
Employer
East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust
Employer type
NHS
Site
Multi-site working with office base at Royal Blackburn Hospital site.
Town
Blackburn
Salary
£32,073 - £39,043 pro rata
Salary period
Yearly
Closing
28/07/2026 12:00
Interview date
05/08/2026

Employer heading

East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust logo

Improvement Practice Support Officer - Division

NHS AfC: Band 5

At East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust our vision is to be widely recognised for providing safe, personal and effective care.  We currently provide high quality services and treat over 600,000 people across East Lancashire and the surrounding area. We employ over 9,500 staff, many of whom are internationally renowned and have won awards for their work.

Job overview

The service development, improvement and delivery function supports the Trust to realise its vision to deliver Safe, Personal and Effective care as outlined in the Trust’s Strategy and medium-term plan. The team support the development of clear plans and their delivery through its improvement practice and programme delivery approach.

The main purpose of this role is to work as an Improvement Practice Support Officer in the delivery and application of the Improvement Practice at ELHT (Improving Safe, Personal and Effective Care (SPE+)). Working within allocated improvement projects and delivering SPE+ education and training, the post holder will support the divisions to implement the agreed work programmes and achieve results.

Main duties of the job

Plan and organise specific improvement projects in line with agreed

Improvement priorities and programmes. This will entail planning the

delivery and scheduling of new and ongoing improvement projectswithin

Division which may impact across or within Departments, Directorates

and other Divisions.

 

Monitor overall progress of specified improvement projects, supporting

performance improvement or adjustment to plans where required and

reporting progress.

 

Utilise Improvement A3s and other relevant project management

methods/tools to provide assurance on progress and/or to escalate

concerns, working with senior team members to ensure this is collated

and presented appropriately on the Executive Improvement Wall and

through other Care Group cascade mechanisms. 

 

Analyse or compare a range of information appropriately (covering

areas related to delivery/performance, quality, cost and people) as

relevant to improvement work being undertaken to identify options in

agreeing a way forward.

Responsible for recording into and maintaining appropriate information

systems relevant to Improvement Programmes and specific

improvement projects.

Working for our organisation

East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust is a well-performing Trust and continues to make good progress in its financial recovery journey.

The Trust is in a fortunate position with a well-established improvement practice, led by the Improvement Hub Team and effective Service Development and Strategy development function overseen by the Service Development Team. The Programme Management Office was established in 2025 and we are now bringing these teams together into one function to support the delivery of the new Trust Strategy.

This is an exciting time to join the Trust as we progress our improvement journey.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The main duties are described above. Please refer to the detailed job description for further details.

Person specification

Education

Essential criteria
  • Educated to degree level (any degree) or equivalent level of experience of working at a similar level
  • Evidence of working towards Practice Coach as defined by NHSI&E Vital Signs Programme or equivalent gained either through a formal Improvement qualification or a combination of long/short courses (in-house of external) in improvement science and evidence of continuing professional development in the field of improvement science.
Desirable criteria
  • Project management qualification e.g. PRINCE2 Foundation or equivalent experience

Knowledge and Skills

Essential criteria
  • Knowledge/Understanding of Improvement methodology within a business environment
  • Effective interpersonal skills and the ability to build positive working relationships.
  • Good working knowledge of IT systems and software programmes such as Outlook, Word, Excel & Access and significant knowledge of email software and internet.
  • Ability to analyse, interpret and present complex issues to a range of professionals
  • Able to support the development of plans for the delivery of improvement projects, identifying risks and issues, developing mitigation strategies, establishing key milestones within an overall trajectory.

Personal Attributes

Essential criteria
  • Self-disciplined/motivated to function independently, but also able to motivate others, working as part of a team.
  • Must be able to work independently, manage own workload and use own initiative without close supervision.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

NHS Pastoral Care Quality AwardPositive about disabled peopleInvestors in PeopleCare quality commission - GoodDisability confident committedStep into healthHappy to Talk Flexible Working

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

Apply online now

Further details / informal visits contact

Name
Helen Rolle
Job title
Associate Director of Improvement
Email address
[email protected]
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