• Educated to Master’s level in a health or social care discipline (or equivalent senior-level experience), with a relevant professional qualification.
• Significant clinical, operational, and management experience in mental health services, ideally within CAMHS or a similar setting.
• A registered healthcare professional (desirable).
• Proven track record of successful leadership, service development, and change management.
• Strong understanding of the policy and regulatory landscape for mental health and social care.
• Excellent communication, negotiation, and partnership-building skills.
• Demonstrable commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion.
• Analytical, resilient, and able to inspire and motivate multidisciplinary teams.

Person Specification

Technical Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Educated to Masters level in a health or social care discipline or equivalent senior-level work experience.
• A recognised senior management qualification in leadership, policy, strategy, business management or other relevant field.
• Evidence of ongoing personal and professional development.

Desirable criteria

• A relevant professional qualification.

Experience

Essential criteria

• Current and extensive operational (including budget/financial) and management experience of mental health services, at a middle management level, in a health or social care organisation.
• Proven experience of managing a sector or borough multidisciplinary team (including senior managers and clinicians) on various sites within a multi-disciplinary setting.
• Record of successful leadership in an operational capacity.
• Experience of policy development and strategic planning resulting in change management projects/programmes.
• Experience of successful interagency partnership working.
• Ability to negotiate complex contracts with the approval of senior management.
• Experience of working within statutory and other regulatory frameworks within which mental health and social care services operate and translating these at an operational level.
• Experience in leading/coaching successful Quality Improvement projects.
• Experience of developing programmes designed to improve user and carer involvement.
• Experience of managing a diverse workforce.
• Excellent presentation skills.
• Experience of organising and chairing of small and large steering groups.
• Experience of running services which address population health inequalities.

Personal Characteristics

Essential criteria

• Self-awareness: knows own strengths and weaknesses and empowers others to ensure goals are achieved; adopts a ‘can do’ approach.
• Self-management: demonstrates resilience; recognises the anxieties of others and helps them to manage appropriately; absorbs criticism constructively; recognises and delivers to the ‘greater good’.
• Personal integrity: has a strong commitment to openness, honesty, inclusiveness, and high standards.

Leadership Competencies

Essential criteria

• Analytical rigour: encourages rigour and provides critical challenge in determining outcomes; Presents data and conclusions in a logical and defensible way; undertakes robust risk and impact management; seeks others’ views to test own thinking.
• Decision making: Sensitive to complex political and organisational issues; weighs up available information and applies sound and timely judgement; considers consequences, impacts, and implications; decisive in times of change, challenge.
• Communication: builds rapport through consistent, confident, and open communication style; routinely checks for understanding to test receipt of messages; energises, convinces, and persuades; encourages honesty of message.
• Relationships: awareness of, and works collaboratively with key decision makers in the area of operation; promotes partnership and collaborative working within teams; demonstrates the ability to seek out and harness the views and contributions of others.