Director of Informatics

Job description

Job responsibilities

KEY DUTIES

The post holder will promote the value and importance of effective IM&T by working with all the senior managers and clinicals to champion the development of an informatics culture that drives continuous clinical and business improvement across the NHS as an enabler for safe and effective care.

• Shaping overall strategy
• Leadership and clinical governance.
• Budget management
• Negotiating and delivering service level agreements
• Negotiating and delivering contracts with suppliers
• Deliver change management and project implementation services.
• Providing IT support to the operational and business processes of the partner organisations of the Shared Service
• Relationship and key stakeholder management
• Health Records management
• Information Governance
• Cyber Security
• Knowledge & Library Services management
• Trust telecommunications management
• Wider health economy telephony service
• Wider digital GP patient record (eLG) Service Management

Influence the strategic direction of the organisation by highlighting the opportunities offered by digital, data and emerging new technologies to transform service delivery.

Lead and motivate the clinicians and other key stakeholders to implement digital solutions which improve the clinical environment and patient outcomes.

Perform the role of the Senior Information Risk Owner (SIRO) role on behalf of the Trust, by ensuring that there is a proactive and comprehensive assessment process for information risk, including prioritisation of risks and review of the annual information risk assessment to support and inform the Statement of Internal Control. This includes ensuring that all information systems are regularly assessed for risk to mitigate threats and vulnerabilities to Trust information assets and provide a focus for Information Risk Management within the Trust.

The post holder will ensure that resources, skills, processes, policies, and procedures are in place to deliver a first-class service that meets the needs of the Trust and local partner organisations.

The post holder is responsible for:

• Shaping the MMDA community wide strategy.
• Holding corporate responsibility for the effective management of the MMDA and hospital Informatics budgets.
• Negotiating and managing service level agreements (or equivalent) with Trust departments and other NHS organisations.
• Negotiating and managing contracts with suppliers in line with the Trusts Standing Financial Instructions and Best Practice Procurement procedures.
• Providing IT support to the operational and business processes of the partner/client organisations.

Provide professional leadership ensuring that the Informatics department develops to meet the rapidly evolving needs of the organisation and the wider health economy, and is seen as a proactive, value-adding, key enabler for change.

Ensure that the Informatics function develops and retains a reputation for outstanding customer service, reliability, and resilience.

PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES

The post holder will promote the value and importance of effective IM&T by working with all the senior managers and clinicals to champion the development of an informatics culture that drives continuous clinical and business improvement across the NHS as an enabler for safe and effective care.

The post holder will be expected to provide advice about informatics issues and to agree and establish the relevant standards that affect the information and technology used. This includes:

• Informatics staff professional development
• IT security and Information Governance
• Data quality and compliance with NHS-wide standards
• Technological standards that ensure compatibility of systems at the hardware level
• Interfacing and integration standards that ensure that systems can share data.
• Setting skills standards within the Informatics team
• Standards in service management (ITIL)
• Project and change management (PRINCE2) and (MSP)
• Service Improvement (Service Desk Institute)
• Lean Six Sigma approach to service improvement.

Ensuring robust disaster recovery / business continuity plans are in place to ensure services can still be delivered even when the unexpected occurs.

People and Culture

Provide outstanding leadership to a distributed team of informatic staff, many who are working from home, ensuring that individuals are highly motivated and reach their potential through development.

Promoting a caring organisational culture that is centred on the wellbeing of the population and person-centred care, and which is characterised by compassion, respect, openness, transparency, and candour and ensuring that this culture is reflected and modelled in their own behaviour and decision-making, and that of their senior team members.

Creating a positive, safe, and engaging work environment which supports and enables all staff to flourish and delivers good outcomes for patients, service users and their carers.

Creating a supportive environment which ensures that all staff have an effective voice and feel confident, encouraged, and empowered to appropriately raise issues of concern and, when they do, those concerns are swiftly and appropriately acted upon.

Valuing and promoting diversity and inclusion in the workforce and demonstrating equality of opportunity in the treatment of staff, patients, service users and carers in all aspects of the Trusts business.

Ensuring that the health, wellbeing, and development of all staff, both within their immediate team(s) and across the organisation as a whole, is an important consideration in all aspects of the Trusts activities; and

Ensuring the interests of all patients, service users and the wider population are at the heart of all strategic and operational decision making.

Work with the ICB to help develop a future proofed professional workforce across the system.

MANAGEMENT RESPONSIBILITIES

Develop and deliver a strategic roadmap of digital, data and technology changes to underpin MWLs future vision, strategy, and plans.

A joint MMDA strategy which is to be refreshed on a regular basis by the post holder on behalf of stakeholders within the local community to meet national and local targets.

These strategies must be sensitive to and take into consideration specific requirements, clinical and business drivers that are specific to individual stakeholders. These will include:

• Ensuring that there is effective clinical input into and support for the local implementation of the strategies.
• On going development of performance management systems that make it easier for managers and clinicians to analyse data, for planning, monitoring and reporting and to support clinical governance.
• The development of portals/internet (and other media) information sources for staff, the public and patients/clients.
• The development of community systems and primary care systems, including agile working and mobile computing.
• The further development of electronic data exchanges between the hospital and Primary/Community health care, Acute and tertiary hospitals, mental health and other specialist services.
• Creation of links with other organisations such as Local Authority agencies, e.g., Social Services, Housing and Education, Private Health Care and Voluntary Agencies.
• Developing and agreeing policies/protocols and technologies to ensure information is secure and only provided to those with a need to know (supporting the Caldicott process and implementing any national requirements for encryption and other security technologies).
• Ensuring the infrastructure that supports all these services is robust, highly available, modern, secure, performant, flexible and offers best value for money.

Use professional judgement and apply commercial disciplines and techniques when making decisions and recommendations for new business opportunities.

Enable the Director to operate strategically, management of the Directorate will be carried out by line managers responsible for functional areas, under their direction.

Participate in the Director on call rota.

KEY WORKING RELATIONSHIPS

• Members of the Board of Directors
• Executive colleagues
• North West Region
• ICB
• Frontline Digitisation Programme Team (NHSE)
• MMDA Board Chair
• MMDA Board members
• Places
• Divisional Leads
• Clinical Directors
• Lead Clinicians and Heads of Department
• Corporate Service Heads
• Informatics Staff
• Professional networks
• Key suppliers

Create and build constructive and positive partnerships actively seek to build collaborative working arrangements.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Masters or Postgraduate degree or equivalent experience in a large acute environment
• Programme/Project Management (MSP/PRINCE2) or equivalent
• Significant evidence of continued professional development towards Board level in a specialist area

Desirable

• Professional qualification in IT and/or membership of a professional IT body

Knowledge & Experience

Essential

• Significant and wide ranging experience at (or near) Director level in a large, complex customer facing organisation, whether in healthcare or other sector with comparable complexities and service delivery pressures
• Proven experience in developing and implementing IM&T strategies to achieve transformational levels of change and efficiency
• Experience of supplier and contract management in a multi-vendor environment
• Significant negotiation and contract management experience
• Experience of developing and managing a sizeable, value adding IM&T function within a large organisation, with the motivational skills to encourage collaborative working across the technical departments within the IM&T department
• Significant management experience of implementing complex programmes, encompassing technology and clinical services
• Experience of and ability to manage complex operational situations that involve staff from all levels within the organisation and across a range of professional and organisational boundaries

Desirable

• Managing priorities, multi organisational/stakeholder requirements and having a wider understanding of a shared service
• NHS Experience
• An awareness of a range of job roles within the NHS and an understanding of how all professions work and interact to enable seamless patient care
• Experience of business development and commercial acumen

Skills

Essential

• Exceptional leadership and communication skills

Other

Essential

• Conscientious with good attention to detail
• Ability to make decisions autonomously on difficult issues, working to tight and often changing timescales
• Ability to introduce new methods of working, despite potential resistance
• Ability to plan strategically in the medium and longer term
• Ability to demonstrate a strong desire to improve performance and make a difference
• Self-motivated and able to enthuse others at all levels, including senior management

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).

Employer details

Employer name

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

Address

Whiston Hospial

Warrington Road

Prescot

L35 5DR

Employer's website

https://www.merseywestlancs.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)