Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust

Deputy Divisional Director of Operations Critical Care, Theatres&Anaes

The closing date is 25 January 2026

Job summary

The Deputy Director will play a pivotal role in enhancing operational effectiveness and efficiency in surgical services. This position is responsible for supporting the Director in strategic planning, operational management, clinical governance, and the continuous improvement of theatres and anaesthetics, ensuring high standards of patient care and surgical productivity.Supporting the whole perioperative pathway, the directorate coordinates, collaborates, facilitates and standardises care across multiple directorates and disciplines.The Deputy Director will be responsible for the day to day running of operating theatres across Lewisham and Greenwich Hospital sites, a lead role in surgical productivity and supporting delivery of operational priorities including cancer waiting times. This will require close collaboration with other general managers, other divisions across the organisation, group executive teams, the Divisional Medical Director and external partners.Additionally, the Deputy Director will lead on the directorates financial performance including in year improvement plans and implementing sustainable change to the directorate financial position.We are looking for a highly experienced leader with the ability to exercise influence and work across multidisciplinary teams to monitor performance and transform service delivery.Will have experience in leading change management programmes.

Main duties of the job

The Deputy Director for Theatres, Anaesthetics, Pain and Critical Care Directorate will:Be accountable for the operational performance of a large, complex Directorate. This will include accountability for the delivery of high-quality patient care, clinical governance, patient safety, clinical quality, and delivery of financial targets.Have joint responsibility with the other Deputy Divisional Director of Operations, Directorate General Managers and members of the Divisional management team for driving forward division wide programmes of work and service developments.Work closely with the Divisional Director of Operations to shape and implement the corporate objectives for the Trust.Ensure that the necessary corporate governance arrangements are in place across the division in line with the requirements of the Trust.Have accountability for the delivery and governance of the Peri-Operative Productivity Programme.

About us

Our people are our greatest asset. When we feel supported and happy at work, this positivity reaches those very people we are here for, the patients. Engaged employees perform at their best and our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) initiatives contribute to cultivate a culture of engagement. We have four staff networks, a corporate EDI Team and a suite of programmes and events which aim to insert the 5 aspirations:

Improving representation at senior levels of staff with disabilities, from black, Asian, and ethnic minorities background, identify as LGBTQ+ and women, through improved recruitment and leadership development
Widening access (anchor institution) and employability
Improving the experience of staff with disability
Improving the EDI literacy and confidence of trust staff through training and development
Making equalities mainstream

Date posted

13 January 2026

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 8d

Salary

£91,342 to £105,337 a year per annum

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Full-time

Reference number

197-R-LC7745

Job locations

Lewisham Hosptial

Lewisham High Street

London

SE13 6LH

Job description

Job 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 settingsExercising 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 Operations, 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 staffLine manage several Deputy General Manager and Assistant General ManagersSupport 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 Trusts 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 theManage 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 Trusts 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.Ensure operational models and clinical models including design of new policies, processes, protocols, workforce implications are all managed as part of the programme.Employ excellent change management, facilitation and negotiation skills to encourage full participation of project team membersInfluence the roles of individuals in change management, service improvement and service delivery.Excellent planning and organisation skills will be required. The activities are often made up of several components and may require the formulation and adjustment of plans.Lead the development of business cases, including feasibility studies, outline business cases (OBC), detailed scheme designs and full business cases (FBC).Provide programme management leadership and expertise to the redevelopment programme, its committees, individuals in the team, and across the wider organisation.Design, facilitate and effectively lead programme management meetings with relevant stakeholders; with a focus on action, risk management and delivery.Develop and lead the planning approach for programmes including identifying the critical path and key milestone. Ensure progress of these is monitored effectively.Monitor work allocation and support as necessary to the Programme and Project Managers, in the overall planning, presentation and progression of the key operational, performance, quality and risk objectives.

Job description

Job responsibilities

Person Specification

Essential

Relevant Masters/MBA qualification or equivalent professional qualification.
Demonstrate a successful track record of delivering effective healthcare services as a senior manager or director in a large, multifaceted healthcare environment including staff management, financial management and change management.

Service Delivery

Essential

Extensive in-depth demonstrable success in delivering change and performance with and through management teams, by engaging them in the strategic direction and delivery plans, establishing clear work priorities with them, delegating effectively, ensuring a capability to deliver, monitoring performance and giving feedback.

Person Specification

Essential

Relevant Masters/MBA qualification or equivalent professional qualification.
Demonstrate a successful track record of delivering effective healthcare services as a senior manager or director in a large, multifaceted healthcare environment including staff management, financial management and change management.

Service Delivery

Essential

Extensive in-depth demonstrable success in delivering change and performance with and through management teams, by engaging them in the strategic direction and delivery plans, establishing clear work priorities with them, delegating effectively, ensuring a capability to deliver, monitoring performance and giving feedback.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.