Head of Data Quality & Establishment Control


Location
Salary
£75,328 - £86,114 per annum, including high cost allowance
Profession
Administrative and IT
Grade
Band 8
Deadline
14 Oct 2026
Contract Type
Permanent
Posted Date
07 Oct 2026
Medical Protection — the side of locally employed doctors from £83

Job requirements

Essential

11 listed

Requirements the employer expects applicants to meet.

  • Skills and Competencies

    Ability to understand, manipulate and analyse electronic HR data and present appropriately.

  • Skills and Competencies

    Proficient in the use of Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint and familiar with the concepts of relational databases.

  • Skills and Competencies

    Experience of communicating with a wide range of people on complex issues and/or in complex situations.

  • Knowledge and Experience

    Substantial senior experience of leading workforce, People or HR systems within a large and complex organisation

  • Knowledge and Experience

    Significant Project Management experience with a track record of bring innovations to operational reality

  • Knowledge and Experience

    Highly developed specialist knowledge of the Electronic Staff Record (ESR), including its role within core NHS workforce processes

  • Knowledge and Experience

    Experience of identifying and resolving significant ESR/workforce data-quality issues through structured improvement programmes

  • Knowledge and Experience

    Strong understanding of the relationship between ESR, Finance, Payroll, Recruitment, Rostering and other workforce systems

  • Education and Qualifications

    Educated to degree level or equivalent level of knowledge and experience relevant to workforce systems, workforce information, HR technology, informatics or a related field

  • Education and Qualifications

    Chartered Member of the CIPD (or willingness to gain this registration within 12 months of appointment)

  • Education and Qualifications

    Masters level qualification or equivalent knowledge and experience

Desirable

2 listed

Additional qualities the employer would prefer.

  • Knowledge and Experience

    PRINCE2 or equivalent project management qualification

  • Knowledge and Experience

    Experience of working with NHSBSA ESR teams, ESR regional networks or ESR Special Interest Groups

Job overview

The Head of Data Quality & Establishment Control is the Trust’s senior strategic lead for the Electronic Staff Record (ESR), People systems, workforce establishment control, ESR workstructures and workforce systems data quality.

The postholder will provide strategic leadership, governance and assurance for the Trust’s workforce systems architecture, ensuring that ESR and associated People systems provide a secure, reliable and authoritative source of workforce and establishment information. Working at corporate level across the People Directorate, Finance, Payroll, Recruitment, Digital, Business Intelligence and operational services, the postholder will lead the development and operation of an effective Trust-wide Establishment Control framework. This will ensure that funded workforce establishments held within financial systems are appropriately aligned to positions and whole-time equivalent establishment held within ESR, enabling reliable vacancy, workforce and financial reporting and supporting the Trust’s financial sustainability.

Main duties of the job

The postholder will have strategic responsibility for the design and governance of the Trust’s ESR organisational structures and hierarchies, ensuring that workstructures support effective workforce management, financial reporting, recruitment, payroll, workforce planning, management information, self-service and downstream workforce systems.

They will establish and lead a Trust-wide workforce systems data quality and assurance framework, setting standards, controls, measures and improvement priorities to maximise confidence in workforce information and ensure compliance with national workforce data standards.

A key requirement of the role will be preparing the Trust for national developments in workforce technology, including the transition from ESR to the NHS PeoplePortal / Future NHS Workforce Solution, ensuring that King’s is appropriately prepared in respect of data, processes, workstructures, integration, governance and organisational change.

The post holder will also deputise for the Head of People Systems, Data and Payroll

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

  • Be the senior Trust lead for ESR, ensuring effective governance, optimisation and strategic use of the system across the organisation.
  • Provide expert leadership on ESR functionality and its relationship with workforce, payroll, recruitment, learning, rostering, finance and other corporate systems.
  • Ensure appropriate arrangements are in place for the management of ESR releases, upgrades, elective changes, testing and implementation, with risks and dependencies clearly understood and managed.
  • Ensure that significant system configuration changes are subject to appropriate impact assessment, testing, approval, documentation and change control.
  • Provide strategic leadership and corporate ownership of the Trust’s Establishment Control framework, ensuring robust integration between workforce and financial controls.
  • Develop and maintain a clear Trust-wide Establishment Control policy and associated processes, setting out responsibilities, approval routes, controls, service standards and escalation arrangements.
  • Work in close partnership with senior Finance, Recruitment, Payroll, Workforce and operational colleagues to ensure that funded workforce establishments are accurately reflected within ESR.
  • Provide strategic oversight and governance of ESR workstructures and organisational hierarchies across the Trust.
  • Ensure organisational structures within ESR are designed and maintained in a way that supports accurate workforce and financial reporting and aligns, wherever appropriate, with the Trust’s organisational and financial structures.
  • Establish Trust-wide standards for the creation and maintenance of organisations, positions, jobs, grades, locations, cost centre mappings and associated structural information within ESR.

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Applying for this NHS job

This advert is for Head of Data Quality & Establishment Control with King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in London, England. It is listed as a Band 8 Administrative and IT role. The advertised salary is £75,328 - £86,114 per annum, including high cost allowance. The contract type is Permanent. The application deadline is 14 Oct 2026.

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