Partnerships Project Lead

Job overview

The Partnerships Project Lead leads the development, delivery and ongoing improvement of a portfolio of partnership programmes to improve the health and wellbeing of people in South London, with a particular focus on tackling health inequalities and addressing the wider social and economic determinants of health.

Working across a complex system, the postholder builds and stewards relationships with community leaders, VCSE organisations, healthcare providers, funders and commissioners, translating shared priorities into deliverable programmes and ensuring effective implementation and impact. They hold responsibility for effective delivery of key partnerships with non-NHS funders and organisations, providing oversight, pace and grip across programme design and governance, delivery and evaluation.

The postholder is the NHS lead for our Trust Partnership with Impact on Urban Health, which includes work to address inequalities in Black Maternal Health and Black Mental Health, accountable for ensuring delivery is coordinated, outcomes-focused and sustainable over time.

The role plays an important part in shaping and supporting how the NHS works with partners, contributing to the development of more participatory approaches to funding, helping to embed learning across the system, and contributing to the evolution of strategic commissioning practice to better address health inequalities.

Main duties of the job

• Lead delivery of the Impact on Urban Health (IoUH) and wider partnership portfolio, ensuring programmes are designed, mobilised and delivered in line with agreed priorities, timelines and outcomes.
• Maintain oversight of the full partnership portfolio, with a clear line of sight on delivery, risks, interdependencies and performance, and take action to address issues and maintain pace.
• Develop and manage effective governance arrangements that support delivery, including convening programme boards, coordinating inputs across partners, enabling timely decision-making and maintaining robust records and audit trails.
• Build and steward effective working relationships across community leaders, VCSE organisations, healthcare providers, borough and system partners, ensuring engagement is meaningful and informs programme design and delivery.
• Build and maintain relationships with local and national funders who share our values and priorities, adopting a business development approach to identify opportunities to bring funding into the local healthcare system
• Translate system insight, community priorities and partner feedback into programme development, ensuring work is responsive, credible and aligned with local and system priorities.
• Work with contracted partners to design and implement sustainable approaches to delivery.

See Job Description for full list.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Partnerships and stakeholder leadership

• Build and steward strong working relationships with key partners across the system, including ICB and borough teams, VCSE organisations, healthcare providers, and non-NHS funders.
• Work with partners to align priorities and translate them into deliverable programmes.
• Navigate complex and sometimes contested environments, using influence and judgement to enable collaboration and progress where there may be differing perspectives.
• Ensure that local people and communities are meaningfully involved in shaping and delivering the work.

Programme Delivery and Governance

• Lead the coordination and delivery of the partnership portfolio, ensuring programmes are progressed in line with agreed priorities, milestones and outcomes.
• Maintain a clear line of sight across delivery, including risks, issues, dependencies and performance, and take action to address barriers and maintain pace.
• Design, implement and continuously improve governance arrangements that support effective delivery, including convening programme boards and enabling timely decision-making.
• Ensure that decisions, actions and programme activity are clearly documented, tracked and communicated.

Insight, Design and System Influence

• Use qualitative and quantitative insight, including community and partner feedback, to inform programme design and delivery.
• Translate system priorities, policy and evidence into practical approaches that are credible and deliverable within the south east London context.
• Identify opportunities to align or connect related work across the system to improve impact and reduce duplication.
• Contribute to the development of new approaches, including participatory funding models and evolving commissioning practice, and approaches to re-building trust in healthcare.

Communication and Engagement

• Communicate complex and sometimes sensitive information clearly to a wide range of stakeholders, supporting shared understanding and enabling decisions.
• Work with Communications and Engagement teams to plan and deliver communications that build visibility, trust and understanding of the partnership’s work.
• Support the sharing of learning across communities, partners and the wider system.

Financial and Resource Management

• Support management of partnership budgets, working with IoUH and ICB colleagues to ensure appropriate use of funding and robust governance.
• Ensure financial processes are followed, including procurement, approvals and timely payment of invoices.
• Identify resource requirements and contribute to business case development where needed.

Leadership and Ways of Working

• Work collaboratively across organisational boundaries, contributing to an effective matrix approach to delivery.
• Champion work to address health inequalities and wider determinants of health within the south London system.
• Lead and facilitate meetings and forums as required, ensuring clear outcomes, decision-making and follow-up.
• Take ownership of areas of work within the Socioeconomic Development portfolio, contributing to wider team priorities.
• Work independently, managing competing priorities and responding to a fast-moving and evolving environment.
• Support the development of the wider team, including management of administrative resource where required.
• Represent the IoUH partnership and wider programme of work in senior forums as required, and deputise as appropriate.