Policy ManagerNHS

Job summary

The NHS Transforming People Services (TPS) programme sits at the heart of delivering the NHS 10 Year Health Plan -- creating a workforce that is empowered, flexible and digitally enabled to meet the evolving needs of patients and communities.

This is more than a transformation role, it is an opportunity to redefine how people services are delivered across the NHS and directly influence the experience of one of the largest workforces in the world.

As a Policy Manager, you will join one of the NHS's most ambitious and high-profile transformation programmes, working at the centre of a nationally significant agenda to modernise people services for the future. You will play a critical role in shaping the future of NHS People Services by ensuring that service design is grounded in national workforce policy, strategic priorities and operational best practice.

Working within the TPS Service Design Team, the postholder will support the development and implementation of workforce policy, helping to translate national policy requirements into practical, consistent and user-focused people services. Working closely with policy leads, service designers and operational colleagues, they will contribute to the design of scalable solutions that improve the experience of NHS staff and managers while supporting national workforce priorities.

Main duties of the job

The NHS Transforming People Services (TPS) programme sits at the heart of delivering the NHS 10 Year Health Plan -- creating a workforce that is empowered, flexible and digitally enabled to meet the evolving needs of patients and communities.

This is more than a transformation role, it is an opportunity to redefine how people services are delivered across the NHS and directly influence the experience of one of the largest workforces in the world.

As a Policy Manager, you will join one of the NHS's most ambitious and high-profile transformation programmes, working at the centre of a nationally significant agenda to modernise people services for the future. You will play a critical role in shaping the future of NHS People Services by ensuring that service design is grounded in national workforce policy, strategic priorities and operational best practice.

Working within the TPS Service Design Team, the postholder will support the development and implementation of workforce policy, helping to translate national policy requirements into practical, consistent and user-focused people services. Working closely with policy leads, service designers and operational colleagues, they will contribute to the design of scalable solutions that improve the experience of NHS staff and managers while supporting national workforce priorities.

Job description

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Educated to masters level or equivalent level of experience of working at a senior level in specialist area.
• CIPD Level 5 or equivalent qualification in HR & OD

Knowledge

Essential criteria

• Significant experience of HR and OD and People Services within the NHS.
• Extensive knowledge and experience of working on workforce transformational programmes.
• Subject matter expertise across a number of key areas relating to:
• Workforce Policy Development
• People Services Service Design

Experience

Essential criteria

• Significant experience of leading transformational change to generate successful outcomes.
• Experience supporting people policy development, review and implementation within NHS, healthcare or public sector organisations, including researching evidence, analysing impacts and contributing to policy recommendations.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to interpret complex information, identify risks and opportunities, and support the development of practical people policy solutions.
• Experience of stakeholder engagement via large working groups, including with staff-side partners and Subject matter experts

Experience of developing evidence based policies that meet legal, regulatory, and organisational requirements whilst identifying gaps, risks, or inconsistencies across policy suites while remaining practical and accessible.

You can find further details about the role, including key responsibilities and accountabilities, alongside the organisational structure and person specification in the attached Job Description and other supporting documents.

Secondments Applicants from within the NHS will be offered on a secondment basis only, agreement should be obtained from their employer prior to submitting the application.

About us

NHS England has a wide range of statutory functions, responsibilities and regulatory powers. These are focused on supporting the wider NHS to deliver high quality care, as well as doing those things that are best done once for the whole NHS.

Our staff bring expertise across clinical, operational, commissioning, technology, data science, cyber security, software engineering, education, and commercial specialisms -- enabling us to design and deliver high-quality NHS services.

In March 2025, the Government announced that NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care will increasingly merge functions, ultimately leading to NHS England being fully integrated into the department.

If you currently work within the NHS and if successful at interview, we will initiate an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR).This retrieves key data from your current or previous NHS employer to support onboarding, including competency status, Continuous Service Dates (CSD), and annual leave entitlement. You may opt out at any stage of the process.

Colleagues with a contractual office base are expected to spend, on average, at least 40% of their time working in our offices.

Staff recruited from outside the NHS will usually be appointed at the bottom of the pay band.

We cannot offer visa sponsorship for any vacancies.