Job summary
- Main area
- Emergency Preparedness and Resilience
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 8b
- Contract
- 12 months (Fixed Term)
- Hours
- Full time
- Flexible working
- Job ref
- 278-OUMSO-0725-LH
- Employer
- South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Crawley HQ
- Town
- Crawley
- Salary
- £64,455 - £74,896 per annum
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 24/08/2025 23:59
- Interview date
- 02/09/2025
Employer heading

OUM for Specialist Operations
NHS AfC: Band 8b
South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust (SECAmb) has a vision to ‘support our staff to provide a caring, high quality and efficient urgent and emergency care service to our communities’. We are rated ‘Good’ for care by the Care Quality Commission and while the other areas under their most recent report require improvement, our aim is to continually improve and to reach outstanding across all areas of the Trust.
Our 4,000+ workforce provide services to 4.9m people across Kent, Surrey, Sussex and North East Hampshire. We handle over 1 million calls to 999 and 1 million calls to NHS 111 every year. More information regarding our services and locations can be found on our website.
Job overview
Our Specialist Operations teams are an essential part of our service and provide important capabilities both across the South-East region and Nationally. Our teams work in a range of extremely challenging environments and in close collaboration with a range of partner agencies. We are looking for a talented and experienced senior leader to support our specialist teams through a period of change, improvement, and growth with a focus on patients, governance and quality improvement, and clinical excellence. This this an excellent opportunity to work across regional and national programs, and to support our talented clinicians and leaders to grow and develop our services.
Main duties of the job
Ensure the provision of HART / SORT capabilities in compliance with the NHS core standards for emergency preparedness, resilience and response.
The post holder must ensure as an NHS-funded organisation must meet the requirements of the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, the NHS Act 2006, the Health and Care Act 2022, the NHS standard contract, the NHS Core Standards for EPRR and NHS England business continuity management framework.
To ensure the appropriate specialist guidance, action cards, rotas and communication are in place for an effective response by SECAMB and all our staff in the event of a major incident.
Provide monthly updates to Operational Management team (OMT) and quarterly updates to Executive Management Board (EMB) regarding EPRR matters via a report.
Maintain a national security clearance level of Secret (SC) enabling the post holder to receive and retain highly sensitive and complex information up to and including ‘secret’ as defined by the Government Protective Marking Scheme.
Working for our organisation
- Option to join NHS pension scheme
- A minimum 27 days' holiday each year, increasing after 5 years’ service.
- Personal and professional development and training opportunities.
- Salary Sacrifice schemes for cars or push bikes.
- Access to occupational health and counselling services.
- Award winning wellbeing hub
- Back up buddy App
- Access to NHS discounts, offering NHS employees a range of money-saving deals.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Ensure that the effective governance of service delivery and operations reflect both the Trust’s policy and procedures and changes in practice taking place in the wider HART / SORT community. Ensure also that risk is managed safely and effectively in this context.
To ensure that the Specialist Operations Department is prepared and equipped to respond and deal with all significant short-term emergency pressures adversely affecting service delivery in line with the strategies and plans in place, such as adverse severe weather, etc.
Produce and complete the annual national EPRR assurance framework for the Trust (core standards) and complete the same process for the annual national Key Line of Enquiry for national interoperability (Via NARU). Complete a report for each process to assure the organisation of compliancy.
To ensure the SECAmb incident support assets such as CBRN PPE and auxiliary equipment, Mass Casualty equipment etc are maintained in a state of operational readiness, are fit for purpose and consistent across the region. Arrange for repair, routine maintenance, and replacement as required.
To ensure all SECAmb incident support assets are strategically placed across the Region to provide rapid deployment / arrival to scene when required.
To ensure an annual audit of all the Ambulance Trusts incident support assets and document them accordingly.
To develop and maintain a register of Risks for the Trust, relating to emergency planning and response in line with the specific duty under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004.
Person specification
Qualifications/Training
Essential criteria
- Educated to MSc/MA level in a leadership or business related discipline or equivalent professional experience.
Desirable criteria
- Management and Leadership qualification
- CBRN Command Qualified
- HCPC registered paramedic or NMC Clinician
Knowledge
Essential criteria
- In depth knowledge of NHS commissioning and assurance frameworks
- Knowledge and understanding of NHS commissioning and assurance compliance standards
Desirable criteria
- Knowledge and Understanding of Civil Contingencies Act and its implications.
- In depth knowledge of national and regional CBRN and MTA capabilities and response.
Experience
Essential criteria
- Significant NHS Management Experience of which two years undertaking operational management within a clinical setting as well as management of a resilience / specialist operations unit.
- Understanding of Health EPRR, risk management and business continuity.
Desirable criteria
- Previous experience of management of specialist operations units or activities.
Applicant requirements
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
- Lucas Hawkes-Frost
- Job title
- Associate Director of Resilience
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Additional information
Information evening with Lucas to take place on Tuesday 12th August, Please contact [email protected] for the link.
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