• Leads the development, implementation, and ongoing refinement of service policies, standards, governance frameworks, and performance measures.
• Ensures consistent organisational compliance with policies and standards, taking ownership of corrective actions and driving continuous adherence.
• Provides assurance to senior leaders on service integrity, governance maturity, and organisational readiness.

Innovation & Continuous Improvement

• Leads innovative ways of working, identifying and implementing new approaches, tools, technologies, and methodologies to improve service quality and efficiency.
• Leads service transformation programmes, ensuring successful delivery, stakeholder adoption, and long-term embedding of change.
• Foster a culture of learning, excellence, and continuous improvement across teams.

Stakeholder Management & Communication

• Develops influential relationships with directors, executives, senior stakeholders, customers, and cross-functional teams to support effective decision-making and collaboration.
• Communicates complex operational or technical concepts in a clear, strategic, and meaningful way tailored to senior audiences.
• Represents the service area at internal and external boards, committees, and strategic forums, promoting organisational priorities and service excellence.

Leadership of People & Teams

• Provides inspirational leadership to managers, team leads, and specialist professionals, setting high expectations and enabling delivery of quality outcomes.
• Leads workforce planning, talent development, and succession planning to build future capability and organisational resilience.
• Models and embeds a positive, inclusive, high-performance culture aligned with organisational values and behaviours.
• Oversees change management and supports teams through transformation.

Risk Management & Assurance

• Leads the identification, assessment, and strategic management of complex, high-level risks across the service area.
• Ensures robust risk mitigation, incident response, and escalation frameworks are in place and consistently applied.
• Provides assurance on regulatory compliance, service resilience, business continuity, and audit readiness.
• Proactively identifies systemic risks and implements preventative measures.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Degree or equivalent professional experience

Desirable

• Formal project management qualification
• Relevant professional qualification (e.g., ITIL, CIPD, APM, service management or sector-specific qualification)
• Evidence of ongoing professional development

Experience

Essential

• Significant experience working in Primary Care / General Practice settings.
• Strong practical programme or project management experience, ideally in live service change, implementation or transformation work.
• Experience working across multiple stakeholders, including practices, operational leaders and support functions.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to produce clear reports, updates and action-focused documentation.
• Previous Practice Manager experience, or equivalent operational management experience in Primary Care.
• Significant experience managing senior-level service operations or complex service portfolios.
• Demonstrated track record of solving complex, high-risk problems using expert judgement.
• Demonstrated ability to develop and execute service strategies aligned with organisational priorities.
• Strong track record of delivering high-quality services, driving performance improvement, and embedding best practice.
• Experience managing senior stakeholders, building strategic relationships, and influencing executive-level decisions.
• Proven experience in leading teams through change, transformation, and continuous improvement.
• Deep understanding of governance, compliance, risk management, and assurance frameworks.
• Experience managing budgets, resources, and financial planning at a senior level.

Desirable

• Experience of working on service redesign, same day access, complex care or integrated care models.

Skills & Knowledge

Essential

• Comfortable working at pace in ambiguous or fast-moving environments.
• Able to build credibility quickly with operational teams and senior stakeholders.
• Confident in holding actions, constructive challenge and following issues through to resolution.
• Calm, resilient and outcomes-focused, with the ability to keep delivery moving in difficult environments.
• Exceptional leadership skills with the ability to motivate, inspire, and develop diverse teams.
• Excellent communication and influencing skills, able to distill complex information for senior audiences and drive decision-making.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and judgement capabilities, particularly in high-pressure or high-impact scenarios.
• Skilled in process optimisation, continuous improvement methodologies, and driving organisational change.
• Ability to manage competing priorities and operate effectively in ambiguity.

Desirable

• Strategic thinker with the ability to interpret complex information, forecast future demand, and shape long-term service direction.

Behaviours & Attributes

Essential

• Strategic thinker able to influence at executive level.
• Acts with integrity, professionalism, and sound judgement.
• Proactive, resilient, and adaptable to change.
• Customer-focused mindset with a commitment to service excellence.
• Collaborative and inclusive, building trust and engagement across teams.