Job overview
The ‘Doing Well Together’ Programme is the biggest improvement journey that KMMH has embarked upon. Working alongside our system colleagues, we are shaping the agenda of care for mental health, learning disability and autism across the county.
This Senior Improvement Lead role is an exciting opportunity to work with an amazing team to design and deliver that agenda and really make a difference to our patients, services users, carers and our people.
We are serious about diversity and inclusion, and we are working hard to build this into our DNA. We warmly welcome applications for any of our roles from people from diverse backgrounds, and we are proactively encouraging applications from under-represented communities for our more senior roles, like this one.
Main duties of the job
The Senior Improvement Lead will be responsible for the co-ordination and delivery of the Trust’s improvement capability and Improvement Management System (IMS). This includes leading the planning and roll out of IMS, ensuring effective delivery across teams and directorates, and leading readiness assessments and engagement activity to enable successful adoption.
You will have responsibility for the improvement practitioners within the pillar they are assigned to, including line management and ensuring delivery against agreed priorities. This includes leading key capability programmes such as White Belt, Yellow Belt and A3 awareness, as well as supporting corporate induction and development of improvement capability across the organisation.
You will lead on the delivery of key elements of our Doing Well Together (DWT) infrastructure, including driver meetings, status sheet delivery, and sustainability planning to support frontline embedding of improvement practice.
You will work collaboratively with colleagues to co-ordinate initiatives such as the Improvement Collaborative and Innovation Den, and contribute to wider organisational priorities, including medical education.
This is a vital role in the delivery of the wider improvement programme and is an important part of supporting the organisation to develop a continuous improvement culture.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Please refer to the attached job description for the full details on the responsibilities and person specification.
Person specification
Education
Essential
- Educated to degree level or equivalent of training and development
- Lean improvement qualification or equivalent experience (5 years working within a management system)
- Formal qualification in leadership/management or equivalent experience
Desirable
- Coaching qualification
- Training qualification or equivalent experience
Experience
Essential
- Experience of working with operational excellence/improvement management systems in healthcare or other industries
- Experience of delivering frontline improvement programmes using tools such as A3 thinking, data analysis, SPC, process standard work/confirmation
- Experience of delivering continuous improvement training
- Experience of leading a high performing team and providing direct line management
- Experience of establishing credibility, forming effective working relationships and methods of working with colleagues and partners in order to achieve common goals
Desirable
- Evidence of demonstrated sustained improvements with benefits realised
Communication
Essential
- Excellent verbal, written and presentation skills including ability to present to large audiences with varying levels of knowledge.
- Excellent facilitation skills to enable staff to work in different ways.
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Applying for this NHS job
This advert is for Senior Improvement Lead with Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust in Maidstone, South East, England. It is listed as a Band 8 Manager and corporate role. The advertised salary is £57,528 - £64,750 per annum. The contract type is Permanent. The application deadline is 23 Jul 2026.
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