Head of Emergency Planning and Operational Resilience

Job responsibilities

The post holder will be expected to:

• To provide leadership in the area of resilience and to ensure the identification and management of all of the organisations emergency planning resilience under the Civil Contingencies Act and Department for Health guidance.
• To act as the first point of contact for all matters concerning emergency planning and resilience for George Eliot Hospital NHS Trust.
• To act as subject matter expert for the organisation and to provide professional leadership in matters relating to emergency planning and resilience.
• To ensure the Trust remains compliant with and be responsible for development and implementation of all EPRR related policies across the Trust at strategic, tactical and operational levels e.g., flu pandemic, fuel restrictions, flooding, inclement weather, heatwave, etc.
• Ensure that managers at all levels understand the importance of effective planning for resilience, that they are supported to develop and update these and that they are robustly tested and have plans that meet EPRR compliance standards.
• To coordinate and provide advice and / or regular performance reports and updates to the Board and relevant sub-committees relating to routine and urgent matters around EPRR.
• To develop consultative and collaborative partnership arrangements with local Acute Trusts, CCGs, Local Authorities, Emergency Services and other partner organisations to ensure coordination of respective Major Incident, Business Continuity Plans and any other Emergency Planning arrangements as necessary across the system
• To coordinate the NHS England Core Standards for EPRR annual self-assessment assurance audit.
• Develop and deliver local training workshops and exercises relating to EPRR and business continuity within the Trust to relevant staff groups ensuring exercises occur (within national specified frequency)
• To practice, test and validate the robustness of existing plans. The analysis of outcomes and audit of performance will inform any alterations to the plans as a consequence.
• To develop, support and ensure the Trust has a fit for purpose on-call structure at Strategic, Tactical and Operational levels (Gold, Silver & Bronze)
• Represent the Trust on various multi-agency forums, working with partners across the health economy and the region to ensure plans and responses to incidents are integrated, contributing to the development of local, and regional strategy and policy development to formulate a resilient EPRR framework
• Ensure the organisation is prepared and has adequate resources in the Incident Control Room to respond to an internal / external incident.
• Ensure regular testing of all Incident Control Room equipment is conducted, with findings recorded and remedial action coordinated to rectification.
• Identify resources necessary for dealing effectively with major incidents and have in place arrangements to secure specialist expertise when required.
• Update business continuity (annually) where there is a change is structure / function, or if there has been an incident.
• The post holder is the lead specialist and works autonomously with his/her own workload prioritising actions and tasks as necessary and reporting to the Director of Operations
• To manage significant projects simultaneously within the Trust, following a clear project management methodology, ensuring that project deliverables are in line with Trust, regional and national strategy.
• Undertake any other duties, which might reasonably be required commensurate with the post.
• To represent and promote the Trusts interests through participation at appropriate emergency planning and business continuity exercise, seminars, workshops forums and conferences and at meeting with senior officers of other NHS, public authorities, agencies and organisations required.
• Be available to support senior management, including providing a tactical response, during significant incidents and emergencies during working hours and work flexibly in the event of an out of hours incident.

Please refer to the person specification and job description for further information.

Qualification(s) and Professional Training

Essential

• Educated to degree level in relevant professional qualification
• Continuing professional development in the field of emergency planning
• Diploma in Healthcare Emergency Planning and Business Continuity Management (or working towards this specific qualification)
• Evidence of recent and on-going professional development in relation to EPRR
• Training qualification or equivalent vocational experience
• Knowledge and experience to master's equivalent level

Other

Essential

• Ability to travel to different sites and meetings
• Ability to work flexibly if required
• Driver with business use
• Working with the media
• Commitment to continuing professional development

Experience and Knowledge

Essential

• Significant experience of emergency preparedness, resilience and response in a large and complex statutory organisation such as the NHS or local authority
• Experience of Emergency Planning in a multi-agency environment
• Experience to plan and organise training for different personnel and teams
• Experience of development and delivery of training programmes to staff at all levels/range of disciplines
• Experience of participating in multi-agency response to major incidents
• Experience and understanding of evaluating and measuring the performance of health services
• Experience in budgetary and resource management
• Experience of working collaboratively with partner organisations, developing effective working relationships at a senior level
• Ability to organise workshops and events
• Ability in designing and delivering training sessions
• Experience of risk management, investigation and mitigation
• Experience of designing, developing and delivering appropriate training and briefing materials for all levels of an organisations, including the Executive Directors

Desirable

• Experience of developing and delivering fit for purpose emergency and or business continuity plans
• Experience of change management
• Evidence of significant and measurable outcomes and achievements at both strategic and operational level that impact positively on organisational objectives

Skills and Abilities

Essential

• Specialist knowledge of legislation and NHS England Emergency Preparedness, Resilience and Response Framework 2015 and its associated emergency planning guidance.
• Understanding risk management in order to ensure that emergency planning functions within organisations are undertaken within this wider context
• Specialist knowledge and understanding of national, regional and local emergency planning policy and structures
• Specialist knowledge and understanding of Civil Contingencies Act 2004 and related regulations and requirements of NHS Trusts in relation to the NHS England Core Standards for EPRR
• Specialist knowledge of ISO 22301 international standard for business continuity
• Specialist knowledge of the principles of the national arrangements for command, control and coordination during emergencies - the operational, tactical and strategic tiered command structure used by the Emergency Services and other responding organisations and its application to NHS organisations and how this will be delivered within the LHRP areas
• Critical and strategic thinker, able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of strategic management issues, particularly in a situation where expectations and requirements are continually evolving and there is uncertainty around risk
• To understand the principles of a risk-based approach towards resilience and preparedness and the application of dynamic risk assessment and the use of Decision-Making Models in supporting these processes.
• Skills for nurturing key relationships and maintaining networks
• Ability to analyse and interpret information, pre-empt and evaluate issues, and recommend and appropriate course of action to address the issues in the event of an emergency
• Problem solving skills and ability to respond to sudden unexpected demands in particular managing competing priorities
• Knowledge, understanding and experience in Risk Management and Governance issues.
• Ability to work under pressure, in stressful situations and to deadlines.
• Ability to design and implement systems and procedures across complex organisational systems
• Ability to collate and analyse complex and sensitive information and produce concise reports, plans and presentations for a wide variety of audiences including Executive Directors and Trust Board
• Ability to develop and to interpret policies, guidance, plans and procedures
• Ability to work on own initiative and organise own workload without supervision working to tight and often changing timescales

Desirable

• Knowledge of various related Communications and Data management systems that enhance organisational resilience such as Resilience Direct and increasing utilisation of mobile data platforms

Personal Qualities

Essential

• Ability to design and implement systems and procedures across complex organisational systems
• High level of communication and interpersonal influencing & negotiation skills for delivering highly complex information to a wide range of audiences including executive management, with the ability to build relationships at all levels
• Highly self-motivated with confidence to work on own initiative, able to plan and prioritise own workload, manage competing priorities, work quickly and accurately, to multiple deadlines and under pressure
• Able to engage with and lead wide-ranging stakeholders
• Adaptability, flexibility and ability to cope with uncertainty and change particularly during an incident
• Commitment to and focused on quality, promotes high standards in all they do
• Values diversity and difference, operates with integrity and openness
• Ability to work independently and demonstrate a high degree of autonomy

Desirable

• Computer literate in a wide range of applications and ability to manipulate information to produce analyses appropriate to the audience
• Ability to develop complex strategic plans to extract key messages from complex analysis

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.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).