Director of Urgent and Emergency Care

Department of Health and Social Care

£97,000

Leeds or London, with regular visits to the London office

Do something exceptional with your career – take the lead in delivering our ambitious plans to improve services for patients, and in shaping future health policy.

The Department of Health and Social Care is a fascinating and rewarding organisation in which to pursue your career ambitions. As the government department tasked with helping people live as well as possible, for as long as possible, we provide a vital service to England’s residents. Our vision is to create healthy environments, improve the health and care system, and support the adoption of healthy behaviours – and all of these elements underpin everything that our senior leadership team do. Join us, and you could play an integral role in this work.  

Both roles are within the Secondary Care and Integration Group (SCI) which is currently focused on recovery and improvement. While each role will have a unique set of responsibilities and expectations, a common theme between the two roles is that both Directors will need to be inspirational leaders who can build and maintain strong relationships across organisational boundaries.  You will be confident both in taking a data-led approach to driving delivery, and in taking a creative and open approach to making future policy. Above all, you will be committed to building and leading a diverse and inclusive team, committed to continuous improvement.

If you join as the Director of Urgent and Emergency Care, you will be focused on implementation of the Urgent and Emergency Care Recovery Plan – sustaining improvements secured so far, learning lessons from 2023/24, ensuring that planning for 2024/25 is robust and making progress with the reform and modernisation of UEC services more broadly. You will provide cross-departmental leadership on all aspects of winter planning and resilience.

Alternatively, you could join us as Director of Elective Care and Cancer, focused on improving performance in the delivery of planned care, especially for long waiters and cancer patients, through a range of interventions including the of the Community Diagnostic Centre programme, promoting patient choice, and the use of the independent sector. You will provide cross-departmental leadership on all aspects of cancer policy, with a view to delivering on earlier diagnosis and improving survival rates.

To fill these two roles, I am particularly interested in hearing from candidates with an excellent understanding of how the health and care system operates, and who have experience of NHS management or of data-led operational delivery in another context.

You will need to be an inspirational leader with a track record of building and developing high performing teams. Comfortable working in a fast-paced environment, you will be resilient and able to adapt quickly to emerging Ministerial priorities, and will have outstanding communication, influencing and analytical skills.

Aside from the chance to do something truly unique with your career, you will also receive a competitive benefits package that includes a contributory pension scheme. With the chance to embrace a hybrid working model (with at least 60% of your working week in the office), you will receive 33 days of annual leave (inclusive of public holidays) and a genuinely supportive and inclusive workplace in which you will be supported to increase the diversity of your teams.