The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Could you be our Chief People Officer?

Newcastle Hospitals is one of the busiest, largest and most successful NHS Foundation Trusts in the UK and due to the planned retirement of the current post holder, we now have a unique opportunity for a highly motivated, experienced and skilled HR professional to join our Board as Chief People Officer.

With a team of around 18,000 staff and volunteers, we provide over 1.8 million patient contacts each year and have an annual income of £1.3 billion.   We provide a full range of healthcare to people across the North East and are proud to be the second largest provider of specialised services in the country.

We’re dedicated to providing the best possible care and to creating new knowledge and innovation through our extensive research portfolio and pioneering treatments. We are continuously pursuing quality improvement and are proud to have been twice rated as ‘Outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission.

Supporting our staff is vital to our success and our #Flourish at Newcastle Hospitals programme provides the framework through which we aspire to enable all staff to liberate their potential.  We continue to focus on engagement, enhancing our staff experience, prioritising the health and wellbeing of colleagues, improving our approach to inclusion and diversity, and providing opportunities which support quality improvement, personal development, and innovation. We know that providing an exceptional experience for our staff and volunteers is inextricably linked with delivery of high quality patient care and the people function is key to enabling the Trust deliver its strategy. 

As one of the biggest employers in the North East we recognise our contribution to addressing health inequalities and providing good quality employment and training opportunities for the community we serve. There is also substantial opportunity to influence the national people agenda, particularly through our membership of the Shelford Group, a collaboration of ten of the largest teaching hospitals in England.

We are looking for a Chief People Officer who shares our values and is committed to helping us deliver sustainable high-quality services for the community we serve.  We are focused on creating a diverse, inclusive and compassionate environment in which to work and learn, hence we welcome job applications from people of all backgrounds and particularly encourage applications from Black, Asian and minority ethnic candidates, as well as other under-represented groups such as disabled candidates.  These are currently under-represented in our workforce.   We are interested in your experience of senior leadership in HR and people development roles within large, complex organisations, most likely within the public sector.  We hope you will be interested in our ambition to support our staff and to liberate their potential at work so that we can deliver the best care possible.

The scope of the role is wide – including employee relations, organisational development, learning, education and training, EDI, leadership development, staff engagement, recruitment, our own staff bank and on-site nursery.  We are investing in our people function and we are creating state of the art expanding our education facilities which will open in early 2023.

Further information including the job description, person specification and information about our Trust is available by clicking Apply, where you can also see the Chief Executive, Dame Jackie Daniel, discussing this role. 

If you would like to discuss the role, please in the first instance contact Robin Staveley or Helen Barkham of GatenbySanderson via robin.staveley@gatenbysanderson.com.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer, a Stonewall Diversity Champion, a Gold award from the Defence Recognition Scheme, are delighted to support Apprenticeships and we are a mindful employer. Applicants who have a disability and meet the essential criteria will be interviewed if they indicate they wish to be considered under the Disability Confident Scheme.

Requests to work flexibly will be given serious consideration ensuring both individual and service needs will be met.

Candidates who are shortlisted for interview will be asked  to complete online psychometric tools as part of the selection process.

Closing date for applications: Monday 1^st August