The Divisional Director of Operations is part of the divisional triumvirate team working with the Divisional Medical Director and Divisional Director of Nursing, Midwifery and Governance to ensure delivery of their performance agreement in line with the trust’s annual and strategic plans. As a Director the post holder will directly line manage and be responsible for clinical staff who care for vulnerable adults and children.

The Divisions:

Lewisham Medicine and Community Division includes the emergency department; acute medicine, stroke, elderly care and escalation wards; and Lewisham adult community nursing. Key interfaces are with adult social care in the boroughs of Lewisham, Greenwich and Bexley, and community services in Greenwich and Bexley. The Trust wide system resilience posts are hosted in the division.

The Women’s, Children and Sexual Health Division comprises of four clinical directorates; Maternity and Neonates, Acute Paediatrics, Community Children and Young People and Gynaecology and Sexual Health. Services are provided across University Hospital Lewisham, Queen Elizabeth Hospital and community settings.

Key Result Areas & Performance:

To support the Divisional Director of Nursing and Governance, Clinical Directors and Heads of Nursing in setting the division’s clinical strategy in conjunction with the Executive Team members responsible for strategy and business development, with external stakeholders, with local and national networks and with other divisions in areas of joint interest.

To take accountability for the safety, service quality and experience of patients and clients cared for by the division, meeting key performance indicators in the emergency pathway, length of stay and discharge arrangements.

To represent the Trust at the System Resilience Group and ensure planning emergency pathways across acute and community interfaces, and to meet ‘surge’ demands, is robust.

To represent the trust on relevant multiagency committees and work collaboratively with local CCGs and Boroughs to ensure delivery of schemes such as those underpinning the Better Care Fund.

To ensure communication with referrers, especially Primary Care is robust, in particular ensuring timely, high quality electronic discharge summaries are provided.

To put in place arrangements to manage complaints and serious incident investigations in a timely way with the active involvement of the relevant clinical staff.

To use all appropriate means to ensure that patients are actively consulted on current service delivery and future plans.

To make sure that safety, quality and patient experience are properly reflected in the division’s governance arrangements, in the performance scorecard, performance management processes and in the review of the performance of individual members of staff.

Work independently to assess clinical and non-clinical situations requiring immediate action and make decisions/take appropriate action when required to ensure smooth running of the site and/or to reduce emergent risks.

Work supportively and collaboratively with colleagues to ensure safe and effective service delivery is maintained in all clinical divisions and on all sites.

To arrange for the investigation of serious incidents and implementation of action points emerging from the reports.

To plan service changes, motivate staff and where appropriate personally lead implementation of agreed plans, and ensure that service planning delivers the requirements of the London Quality Standards.

To embrace the principles of service line management, placing them at the heart of the division’s approach to planning, operational delivery and performance review.

To take accountability for the development and delivery of plans agreed through the annual planning round and strategic reviews, including financial and operational plans and service developments.