Job summary
Are you an ambitious and effective senior leader who can inspire and motivate teams to deliver results?
Do you have experience implementing a QMS within a provider Trust?
The Royal Wolverhampton and Walsall Healthcare NHS Trusts operate as a Group, working together to strengthen services, improve outcomes, and deliver consistent, high-quality care for our communities.
We are seeking a Director of Improvement to make a genuine difference and drive meaningful change. You will have significant demonstrable experience and a proven track record of successful implementation of a QMS, preferable with a provider Trust. You will lead the development and delivery of organisation-wide continuous improvement culture and fundamental change.
As a key member of the senior leadership team, the postholder will work in close partnership with Executive, senior leadership colleagues across the HR function and operational leaders to weave improvement capability into the fabric of the organisation's culture, values and daily practices.
The postholder will ensure the Group's comprehensive improvement system aligns strategic priorities with daily operational practices, ensuring measurable improvements in patient care, staff experience, and organisational performance.
Main duties of the job
- Strategic Leadership:Develop and execute strategies that ensure leadership models and development reflect a continuous improvement approach enabling staff-led problem solving and innovation.
- Collaborating to embed improvement:Partner with Organisational Development and Workforce teams to integrate improvement capability into leadership development, talent management, and succession planning.
- Improvement System Development:Work with operational leadership to establish and evolve the Trust's Management system, connecting corporate strategy to frontline delivery through robust governance and balanced metrics
- Cultural transformation:Working with leadership teams to ensure the promotion and role modelling of improvement behaviours and implementation of processes and artefacts that consistently signal the desired culture.
- Staff engagement:Design and implement engagement strategies that set expectations about staff responsibilities to improve, inspire staff participation, address resistance constructively, and build networks of improvement champions. Ensure learning from improvement is widely celebrated and communicated.
- System Leadership:Represent the Trust in regional and national improvement networks, fostering partnerships that advance shared improvement goals across the healthcare system.
- Operational Leadership:Lead and develop a high-performing Improvement Team ensuring organisational improvement capability building through education, coaching, and facilitation.
About us
Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust is an integrated Trust and the only provider of NHS acute care in Walsall, serving a population of 284,300, providing inpatient and outpatient services at the Manor Hospital as well as a wide range of services in the community. Walsall Manor houses the full range of district general hospital services under one roof. The £170 million development was completed in 2010 and the continued upgrading of existing areas ensures the Trust now has a state-of-the-art Critical Care Unit, Neonatal Unit, Obstetric Theatre, and Integrated Assessment Unit facilities.
A new Urgent Emergency Care Centre was opened in March 2023. The two-storey development has significantly improved emergency care facilities and capacity and has provided almost 5,000 square metres of additional clinical space.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Please see the attached job description and person specification for full list of duties and responsibilities.
Improvement System Development:Work with operational leadership to establish and evolve the Trusts Management system, connecting corporate strategy to frontline delivery through robust governance and balanced metrics.
- Lead the continuous evolution of the Trust's methodology (currently Quality Service Improvement and Redesign QSIR) ensuring it becomes embedded as the organisation's operating model for strategy deployment and continuous improvement.
- Create and maintain the infrastructure that connects strategic priorities to operational delivery through a balanced metrics approach encompassing quality, delivery, staff experience and cost
- Champion the improvement system across the organisation and externally, representing the Trust in system-wide improvement networks at local, regional and national levels
- Promote and facilitate an improvement approach that puts patients, carers and our staff at the heart of service design through co-production, making certain that what matters to them drives how services are delivered
Job description
Job responsibilities
Please see the attached job description and person specification for full list of duties and responsibilities.
Improvement System Development:Work with operational leadership to establish and evolve the Trusts Management system, connecting corporate strategy to frontline delivery through robust governance and balanced metrics.
- Lead the continuous evolution of the Trust's methodology (currently Quality Service Improvement and Redesign QSIR) ensuring it becomes embedded as the organisation's operating model for strategy deployment and continuous improvement.
- Create and maintain the infrastructure that connects strategic priorities to operational delivery through a balanced metrics approach encompassing quality, delivery, staff experience and cost
- Champion the improvement system across the organisation and externally, representing the Trust in system-wide improvement networks at local, regional and national levels
- Promote and facilitate an improvement approach that puts patients, carers and our staff at the heart of service design through co-production, making certain that what matters to them drives how services are delivered
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Educated beyond undergraduate degree level or equivalent
- Management qualification, MBA or equivalent
- Improvement science or OD qualification
- Lean Six Sigma / QSIR / IHI certification
Experience / Skills
Essential
- Significant experience at senior level in NHS with responsibility for services, budgets, and performance targets
- Experience leading large-scale cultural change and improvement programmes
- Experience of developing and implementing Improvement systems
Communication SKills
Essential
- Exceptional leadership and influencing skills
- Advanced coaching and facilitation skills
- Ability to communicate complex information in a consistent and understandable way
Desirable
- Analytical and problem -solving skills
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Educated beyond undergraduate degree level or equivalent
- Management qualification, MBA or equivalent
- Improvement science or OD qualification
- Lean Six Sigma / QSIR / IHI certification
Experience / Skills
Essential
- Significant experience at senior level in NHS with responsibility for services, budgets, and performance targets
- Experience leading large-scale cultural change and improvement programmes
- Experience of developing and implementing Improvement systems
Communication SKills
Essential
- Exceptional leadership and influencing skills
- Advanced coaching and facilitation skills
- Ability to communicate complex information in a consistent and understandable way
Desirable
- Analytical and problem -solving skills
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.
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).
Additional information
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.
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).
