Deputy Chief People Officer - WorkforceNHS

Job summary

The Deputy Chief People Officer is a key member of the senior People team and plays a key role in leading the delivery of the UHN People Strategy.

The Deputy Chief People Officer will act as a role model in terms of organisational values and behaviours and support the Chief People Officer in their responsibilities covering all aspects of leadership and people management across UHN. The post holder will support the Chief People Officer in providing a comprehensive workforce service, providing leadership for the People Plan, annual business plan, Care Quality Commission standards and other workforce related governance and compliance requirements.

The post holder will lead initiatives to develop high levels of workforce engagement and performance to support delivery of the organisation's strategic and performance goals and improvement priorities.

Main duties of the job

The Deputy Chief People Officer has a wide-ranging and extensive portfolio including strategy and policy and major change programmes within their area of responsibility. With the Chief People Officer, the post holder will ensure that the people directorate's structure and functions - and the capacity and capability of people that work in the directorate - are fit for purpose and designed to support business needs, whilst maintaining the highest professional standards.

Job description

Leadership and Management

In partnership with the Chief People Officer, have corporate responsibility to lead the development and delivery of the Trust People Plan and any associated strategies and service developments and contribute to its ongoing development and monitoring, developing and monitoring key people related metrics and performance measures.

Lead People Plan pledge service functions relevant to the post, measuring the service impact with quantitative and qualitative information.

Proactively contribute to the development and delivery of workforce plans ensuring they are consistent with corporate workforce priorities and that there is alignment between workforce, finance, and service strategies.

Actively engage in the annual planning process, advising on workforce strategies and the impact of any planned service developments and cost improvements.

Oversee improvements within the function(s) which promote operational excellence through standardising, simplifying and streamlining processes, whilst keeping customer need and experience at the heart of the enhancements and ensuring maximising operational and cost efficiency.

Support the use of technology in developing a modern workforce service.

Develop KPIs and performance dashboards to measure and report on the effectiveness and impact of the services. Take a lead, with the Chief People Officer, in the implementation of the UHN People Plan to support the organisation's operational and strategic business plans.

Set up and maintain effective governance at System, Trust, programme and project level to enable successful delivery of people related programmes, including clear risk management and benefits realisation. Hold leads to account for delivery of action plans, ensuring that meaningful key performance indicators (KPIs) are identified and routinely reported.

Ensure the development and delivery of national priorities and targets and demonstrate achievement of these as part of national and regional reporting for the hospitals, e.g. National NHS Staff Survey.

Working in partnership with the Communications and Engagement team, develop and maintain workforce communication processes which actively inform and engage colleagues in the delivery of our UHN vision.

Manage budgets to meet strategic and operational business plans.

Act as a change agent, providing leadership and support particularly at senior management levels.

Promote a positive image of UHN with appropriate external professional / NHS / Government and other organisations.

Represent the Chief People Officer at internal and external meetings, attending executive and board meetings as needed.

Participate in the on-call rota.

Governance

Lead on all employment governance ensuring that all people related risks and systems to manage them are managed and mitigated i.e.

o DBS

o Right to Work

o Professional Registration

o Fixed Terms Contracts

o Safeguarding

Regularly report on the status of workforce related risks to ensure the status of all is known and where remedial action is required.

Ensure risk reporting mechanisms are regularly updated and where incidents occur these are investigated in a comprehensive and timely manner.

Work with the Governance teams to ensure that Care Quality Commission (CQC) requirements are met and in the event of inspections - data requests are responded to in a timely and comprehensive manner.

Ensure all services within the post holder's remit meet the requirements of legislation, Internal Audit, Care Quality Commission and the NHSLA standards for Trusts.

People Plan implementation

Implement and deliver the People Plan pledges relevant to the post across UHN.

Engage in the range of performance management activities with direct reports in support of performance appraisal, development and training planning, coaching etc., acting as exemplar / role model to the Group and its managers.

Pro-actively promote a high-performance culture and positive customer service ethos across services, acting as a role model for collaborative working between services.

Lead the service lines within the directorate in a matrix management system to ensure a culture of continuous improvement and professional excellence is achieved.

Advise, guide and report to the Chief People Officer on strategies and planning relevant to the post.

About us

Please submit your application as soon as possible, as we reserve the right to close adverts once sufficient applications have been received.

We recognise that AI tools can support application writing; however, candidates are asked to keep their use to a minimum. Responses should reflect your own experience, skills and knowledge, as over-reliance on AI-generated content may result in generic answers that do not accurately represent your abilities.

University Hospitals of Northamptonshire (UHN) brings together Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust. As a group, we are committed to improving services for our communities through collaboration, modernising care delivery and striving for excellence. Working together enables us to share expertise, strengthen services and create greater opportunities, and there may be a requirement to work across sites depending on service needs.

Our Excellence Values are Compassion, Accountability, Respect, Integrity and Courage. UHN welcomes applications from all backgrounds and is committed to an inclusive working environment. We are proud signatories of the Armed Forces Covenant and hold the Gold Award under the Employer Recognition Scheme. Candidates who identify as members of the Armed Forces community and meet the essential criteria will be guaranteed an interview.