Deputy Chief People Officer - Workforce

Job overview

Are you an ambitious and experienced NHS people leader ready to shape the workforce of the future?

We are looking for an outstanding Deputy Chief People Officer (Workforce) to join our senior People leadership team. This is a highly strategic and transformational role, offering the opportunity to modernise workforce services, influence organisational priorities and help ensure we have the right people, with the right skills, in the right place to deliver excellent care now and in the future.

We are seeking a credible, values-led leader with significant senior-level NHS experience and a strong track record of delivering strategic workforce change in a complex environment. You will bring expertise across People Partnering, employee relations, workforce planning, resourcing, workforce systems and data, together with the energy and influence to turn ambition into delivery.

This is an exciting opportunity to make a lasting difference: to our colleagues, our services and the communities we serve. If you are collaborative, curious and passionate about creating modern, responsive and people-centred workforce services, we would be delighted to hear from you.

Main duties of the job

Working closely with the Chief People Officer, executive colleagues and leaders across the organisation, you will provide visible and inclusive leadership across a broad workforce portfolio. You will lead the development of an effective People Partnering model, strengthen employee relations and build constructive relationships with staff-side colleagues, while supporting leaders to resolve issues early, fairly and compassionately.

You will also lead the transformation of our workforce systems and People Services, using digital solutions and automation to simplify processes, improve experience and release capacity for higher-value work. High-quality management information, workforce analytics and insight will be central to your approach, enabling leaders to understand trends, make evidence-based decisions and drive meaningful change.

Attraction and resourcing will be another key priority. You will shape inclusive, innovative approaches to recruitment, retention and workforce supply, translating service and organisational ambitions into practical workforce plans that are sustainable and fit for the future.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

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.
• DBS
• Right to Work
• Professional Registration
• Fixed Terms Contracts
• 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.

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.