Job vacancy: Head of School Post-Registration Pharmacists, NHS England, Leeds

Job summary

Main area: Pharmacy
Grade: NHS AfC: Band 8c
Contract: Fixed term: 16 months (Secondment only for current NHS employees. FTC until 31 October 2026)
Hours: Part time - 12.5 hours per week
Job ref: 990-NEY-13456-E

Employer: NHS England
Employer type: NHS
Site: Blenheim House
Town: Leeds
Salary: £74,290 pro rata
Salary period: Yearly
Closing: 23/06/2025 23:59

Head of School Post-Registration Pharmacists

NHS AfC: Band 8c

Our Organisation

The NHS is building a culture that is positive, compassionate and inclusive – and we all have our part to play.

As employers we are committed to protecting and promoting the physical and mental health and wellbeing of all our colleagues. This underpins our values as set out in the NHS Constitution and supports us to be an Employer of Choice, while helping our colleagues to deliver high quality services for our patients and communities.

As a flexible employer, we want to support you to work in a way that is best for the NHS, our patients and you. Talk to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that’s a job share, part time, hybrid working or another flexible pattern. In addition, although the role advertised may have a ‘home’ office base indicated, we remain committed to supporting flexibility around workplace locations. If it works for the service, we will do our best to make it work for you.

We are an accredited Living Wage Employer which means that every colleague working for our organisation and third-party contractors will earn a real Living Wage. We are one of over 15,000 organisations, who voluntarily chose to pay the real Living Wage.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The postholder will be working as part of the North East and Yorkshire Regional Pharmacy team but will be expected to work with NHSE’s National Pharmacy team and other relevant stakeholders across the system.

Achieving this will include:

Engaging with senior stakeholders, developing and maintaining relationships with a range of key stakeholders (internal and external) across all programme areas, identifying areas of interdependency and forging links as appropriate e.g. employers and professional organisations.

Working in partnership for multi-organisation ownership and accountability

Managing projects at a regional level

Deputising in senior stakeholder meetings, briefings, conferences, workshops and other forums as appropriate

Running consultations and task and finish groups to understand system requirements

Budget management

You can find further details about the role, including key responsibilities and accountabilities, alongside the organisational structure and person specification in the attached Job Description and other supporting documents.

Secondments

Applicants from within the NHS will be offered on a secondment basis only, agreement should be obtained from their employer prior to submitting the application.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

Master’s Level or equivalent level of experience.
Extensive knowledge of specialist area acquired through postgraduate education or equivalent experience.

Knowledge and experience

Essential criteria

Knowledge and expertise at a senior level to credibly communicate and influence system direction.
Expert knowledge of pharmacy and healthcare education, training policy and systems.
A developed understanding of current health and care policy and systems and its relationship to medical and healthcare education.
Experience of managing and significant and complex business process.

Desirable criteria

Re-engineering, with a particular focus on education and workforce redesign and developing new ways of working.
Experience of managing and delivering a number of complex initiatives simultaneously in rapidly evolving, political and high-pressure environments including effective management of risk.
Experience of complex stakeholder management.

Skills Capabilities & Attributes

Essential criteria

Skilled communicator able to select from, and utilise, a range of high-level negotiating and influencing strategies appropriate to different audiences and environments.
Able to build consensus amongst varied and challenging stakeholder groups, building trust and commitment and promoting a positive and pro-active partnership approach.

Our commitments to you

We are passionate about creating an inclusive workplace that promotes and values diversity. We know that different ideas, perspectives and backgrounds create a stronger and more creative work environment that delivers better patient outcomes. We strive to ensure our people feel trusted, valued and empowered. We’re passionate about nurturing and developing people. When you join us, we want you to grow and excel, and we offer many opportunities for you to do that. We welcome your talent and enthusiasm irrespective of age, disability, neuro-divergence, sex, gender identity and gender expression, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, sexual orientation, or other personal circumstances. We have policies and procedures to ensure that all applicants are treated fairly and consistently at every stage of the recruitment process, including the consideration of reasonable adjustments for people who have a disability and/or who are neuro-divergent.

We welcome applications from disabled candidates. If you meet all the essential criteria, you will be guaranteed an interview.

Applications from job seekers who require sponsorship to work in the UK under the Skilled Worker route are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website.

If applying for this role on a secondment basis, please make sure you have obtained prior agreement from your current line manager to apply for this position.

Please note that we currently do not accept applications via recruitment agencies.

In order to comply with the HM Government Functional Standard GovS 007, and specifically the Personnel Security Standards 2024, all individuals employed or contracted by NHS England are now required to undergo a Baseline Personnel Security Standards check.
All existing post-holders within NHS England will be required to complete the check as part of the wider roll out plan.

The NHS Business Services Authority is responsible for the processing of your application; a privacy notice is attached to advise you on how we will process your personal data.

If you have applied via NHS Jobs, your submitted application will be imported into our preferred third-party recruitment system. All subsequent information regarding your application will be generated from apps.trac.jobs. If you are appointed to a post, information will also be transferred into the NHS Electronic Staff Records system.

You will not be able to track the progress of your application or receive messages through NHS Jobs, and furthermore, as an employer, we will not be able to respond to any emails sent to us via NHS Jobs. If you have a query relating to your application, please contact the recruitment team on [email protected] or 0300 330 1369. You can view our Privacy Notice here.

NHS England