Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The General Manager (GM) role is a full time position, accountable to the Clinical Director.  The key purpose of this position is to support the Clinical Director by managing the delivery of a range of complex clinical services within the Directorate and for implementing and managing systems and processes to ensure that all services are delivered in accordance with Trust-wide policies.  

The post holder will be accountable for the delivery of high quality, cost effective non-nursing patient care within budget constraints. They will provide strong leadership to enable the services to respond effectively to the challenges it will face whilst providing efficient clinical services and sustained improvements.

The role will be responsible for the legal and governance agenda across the clinical areas which will be a significant and challenging agenda to take forward.

The core of the job description is generic and will apply to all general manager posts.  However, there will be additional specific responsibilities to reflect the needs of individual services.

As 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 our patients, our staff and for you.  Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that’s job share, part time or another flexible pattern. If it works for the service, we’ll make it work for you.

Key Relationships

The General Manager (GM) post holder will have regular contact with a diverse range of multidisciplinary team members including, Director of Clinical Services, Associate Director of Clinical services,  Consultants and Junior Medical Staff, Nursing Staff, General Managers, Service Managers, Allied Health Professionals, Professional and Technical Staff, and Administrative and Clerical Support Staff within the Directorate and across the organisation.

Duties and Responsibilities

Leadership and Performance Management:

• Together with the Clinical Director and Head of Nursing provide leadership to the Directorate staff, ensuring clear communication of Trust and Directorate values, vision, priorities and expectations to ensure the engagement of teams to deliver services of the highest quality;
• Responsible for managing the highly complex nature of the business area and ensuring that the appropriate strategic plans are delivered within the complex operating framework.
• In conjunction with the Clinical Director develop and deliver the strategy and performance management of clinical services. 
• Responsible for the development and delivery of complex capacity plans to ensure that the Trust achieves 18 weeks and other waiting time reduction targets;
• Take a leading role working with a range of complex clinical specialties and other support departments to  improve throughput in outpatient, inpatient and day care settings
• Exercising delegated authority on behalf of the Clinical Director, the post holder will provide leadership to resolve day-to-day management issues within the Directorate;
• Holding Lead Clinicians, and Service Managers to account for delivery of their objectives through regular performance review meetings;
• Ensuring sufficient data availability within the Directorate to monitor and track performance and to satisfy reporting requirements;
• Providing appropriate input and challenge to clinical and business plans where necessary.
• To formally deputise for the Clinical Director as required.
• Participate in Silver Commander on-call rota.

Risk & Governance:

• Develop and manage the implementation of systems, control processes and risk management arrangements to support monitoring of compliance with clinical governance standards, decontamination requirements, other Trust-wide policies and processes and best practice requirements;
• Manage the resolution of complaints and issues from patients, staff, suppliers, other internal and external service providers and partner organisations in a timely and appropriate manner in line with Trust policy, procedures and service delivery values and priorities;
•  Support, alongside the HoN and other clinical staff, root cause analyses and trend analyses of all complaints and adverse incidents.
• Prepare briefing reports for the Director of Clinical Services, Chief Operating Officer, Trust Management Executive and the Trust Board in relation to the performance of services within the directorate.

Staff Management:

• Provide senior leadership within the Directorate and influence service design and delivery across the organisation;
• Responsible for ensuring that the workforce is appropriately utilised and long term service needs are appropriately planned for in terms of staffing levels and skill mix.
• Monitor compliance within the Directorate with Trust-wide staff management policies and procedures and take remedial action with accountable managers where shortfalls occur;
• Line manage, coach and develop Lead Clinicians and other senior staff and conduct their annual performance appraisal in conjunction with the Clinical Director.
• Support Lead Clinicians in the coaching, mentoring and development of Service Managers.

Financial Management:

• Responsible for ensuring that financial obligations are met and that  all Directorate staff  work within defined budget parameters and that they comply with the Trust’s Standing Financial Instructions;
• Act as an authorising signatory for capital and revenue budgets within limits agreed with the Directorate;
• Manage reporting on budget positions across the Directorate to support the Clinical Director to discharge his or her accountability for ensuring internal and external financial targets are achieved, including the maximisation of income opportunities and the delivery of efficiency savings;
• Manage large, complex and multi-stranded budgets in an environment that constantly fluctuates.  Also to ensure effective resource utilisation and expenditure against control totals.

Strategy, Change Management and Service Improvement: 

•  Support the Clinical Director in identifying both new opportunities for the individual services within the Directorate arising from changes in the external environment or internal innovation and potential threats and ways to respond to them;
• Contribute to the development and delivery of the Trust’s strategy and policies, and ensure that the Directorate supports the delivery of national NHS requirements.
• Lead change management programmes within the Directorate and across the Trust, ensuring completion of the most complex and challenging projects to time, budget and quality targets, ensuring successful implementation of programmes and initiatives which may impact Trust-wide.
• Provide leadership to facilitate the development and implementation of a comprehensive estates strategy for transforming the environments for the delivery of elective and emergency surgery and associated critical care facilities across the hospital sites, in collaboration with Capital and Engineering teams and external contractors.
• Manage service improvement projects within the Directorate and Directorate contribution to Trust-wide service improvement projects within agreed timeframes and financial targets.

R&D, Teaching & Training: 

• Manage the development and implementation of R&D, teaching and training programmes within the Directorate.