Management Trainee

Job overview

Our scheme gives you practical experience of general management and other leadership roles in the NHS. General management roles vary across organisations, however the majority will include people management, resource and budget management, working closely with clinical colleagues and consulting patients and the public on improving services.

We aim to equip you with the skills and the confidence to be able to make a real difference to our healthcare services – with the fundamental aim of improving patient care. The scheme is designed to give you a range of experience so that you can learn, develop and move into more senior posts following completion.

There will be an information session on Monday 30 March from 14:00-15:00 where you can speak to current and past trainees, as well as Senior Operational colleagues who help support the scheme. The link to this information session is here: Join:

https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/35029441231665?p=7pbmYPxYet3SPsVUSy

We are also reviewing the formal and informal education offers, which will be shared with applicants as soon as this is confirmed.

Please note, all information is included in the candidate pack.

If you are successful following application, you will be invited to a face to face Assessment Centre on 27 April or 1 May. Face to face interviews will occur week commencing 18 and 25 May. The start date of the scheme is September 2026.

Main duties of the job

As a management trainee, you will undertake two distinct placements over two years – one will be an operational role ensuring services are managed and delivered in the best possible way for our patients, and the other will be a placement focusing on quality and service improvements, or longer-term plans and projects. This means you will gain exposure across the Trust equipping you with the knowledge and experience to progress your career post-scheme.

As well as stretch projects and unlimited senior management engagement, you will be exposed to a wide range of work, touching on all elements of general management. This will encompass practical experience in:

• Organisational strategy
• Change management
• Project management
• Financial management
• HR management

Each placement will provide different challenges and varied stakeholders. Everything you do will have a focus on delivering the best, high quality care for our patients.

This is a two-year training programme, which is aimed to grow and develop the NHS managers and leaders of the future. As well as developing your work-based skills, an essential component of the programme includes an opportunity for informal and formal educational offers. With hard work and commitment at the end of the scheme you will have gained the knowledge and skills and a professional qualification which will enable you to be able to apply for more senior level roles with greater complexity, with an earning potential of around £51,000.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Here is a sample of duties that our Management Trainees perform. Please note this is not an exhaustive list as every day – and department – is different:

• Ensuring best-in-class patient care by overseeing smooth operations within the department, by liaising closely with clinical and administrative staff, as well as the Works and IT department
• Delegated budget responsibility
• Drafting communication plans
• Contributing to Improvement projects to facilitate better patient care or more effective use of resource
• Line managing and motivating admin & clerical staff for the department and performing personal development reviews so everyone can realise their potential at the Trust
• Board/committee meetings management (drafting papers, creating agendas and updating actions)
• Conducting/facilitating daily situation report meetings regarding the previous day’s performance
• Leading on the complaints handling procedure of the department. This includes dealing with the Patient Advice and Liaison Service, formal written complaints, and clinical negligence claims
• Daily reporting of performance figures, weekly reporting of admissions figures and monthly reporting of the department’s prescribing history of particularly expensive medications
• Monthly analysis of complaints, compliments and Friends & Family test trends in the form of a Quality, safety and Risk analysis report, to be presented at monthly Clinical Governance meetings
• Facilitating the weekly departmental performance meeting, when the service manager is on leave
• Escalating operational issues to different areas of the hospital. This can include liaising with the service managers of other wards, the site nurse practitioners and clinicians alike
• Undertaking various HR processes, such as terminating, extending or making changing to doctors’ contracts, and organising placements for clinical attachments
• Service improvement projects e.g.  improvements to clinic space, patient information and patient experience feedback, GSTT website pages
• Collating data on a monthly basis and liaising with Finance, clinical lead and other medical staff to identify trends and patterns in clinical behaviour and ways to target these for potential cost savings
• Cross cover Deputy Service Manager