Are you passionate about transforming mental health and learning disability services? We are seeking a dynamic and strategic leader to join our South West Provider Collaborative as a Deputy Programme Director.

Our South West Provider Collaborative is an award-winning partnership comprising NHS organisations, independent sector providers, and a community interest company, with Devon Partnership NHS Trust as the lead provider. Together, we harness our collective expertise to enhance mental health support and ensure that patients receive specialised care closer to home.

This senior leadership role is pivotal in driving innovation, improving care pathways, and ensuring high-quality, patient-centred care across the region. Based at Langdon Hospital with flexible working options available this position offers a unique opportunity to make a significant impact on the health and well-being of our communities.

If you are a strategic thinker with a passion for improving mental health and learning disability services, we strongly invite you to apply for this exciting opportunity.

Main duties of the job

• Deputise for the Programme Director, providing strategic leadership and expert advice across multiple service lines.
• Oversee service line commissioning, including case management, contracting, quality monitoring, and safeguarding.
• Lead and deliver transformational change programmes, ensuring alignment with NHS Long Term Plan and NHSE requirements.
• Engage and build robust relationships with key stakeholders, including NHS organisations, community interest companies, and independent sector providers.
• Ensure effective day-to-day management of service lines, optimising patient flow and ensuring operational excellence.
• Act as an ambassador for the Provider Collaborative, advocating for the needs of the population and ensuring the delivery of high-quality care within financial parameters.

About us

About Devon Partnership Trust

We provide mental health, learning disability and neurodiversity services, as well as a range of specialist & secure services for the wider south west region & nationally. We are passionate about promoting good mental health & wellbeing. We strive to use the expertise & resources within our organisation, and through our partnerships, to deliver high quality services that are safe & focused on people's recovery.

We are committed to developing a culture of coproduction, involving patients, families & carers in everything we do

Our values

We not only recruit based on qualifications & experience - we recruit individuals who possess & demonstrate the behaviours which underpin our Trusts core values. These include such attributes as showing a commitment to quality of care, improving lives of others, giving respect, dignity & compassion. We can bring those values to life in our everyday tasks by giving a smile making time for people challenging ourselves & others, & being open to new ideas.

We are committed to being an inclusive employer & applications are encouraged & welcomed from all sections of the community, regardless of any protected characteristics as governed by the Equality Act 2010. Part time & flexible working applications will be considered & supported, where possible. We particularly encourage applicants with lived experience of mental health conditions, neurodiversity or learning disabilities. We are a Disability Confident Leader.

Job description

Job responsibilities

NHS England has formally transferred its commissioning responsibilities for a number of specialised mental health and learning disability / autism services (including managing inpatient Care (Education) and Treatment reviews), to the South West Provider Collaborative, along with an opportunity to extend into broader areas of collaborative working and/or commissioning at- scale as the health and care landscape continues to evolve.

Devon Partnership NHS Trust is the Lead Provider for the South West Provider Collaborative. Provider Collaboratives represent a critical part of the NHSs commitment to building stronger and effective integrated care systems across England. This marks a new era for specialised mental health, learning disability and autism services, focusing on the health of local populations, and the commissioning and delivery of innovative and improved pathways of care for the people we serve.

Our overarching vision is to transform outcomes for people with mental health conditions by working collaboratively, at scale, by commissioning high quality in-region care in the least restrictive setting, as close to home as feasible, for the shortest possible stay. We aim to remove variation, and use fewer beds, by developing viable alternatives to inpatient care. We are also committed to expanding our collaborative approach to other partners so that the people that need our help and support benefit from a more coordinated approach

Our South West Provider Collaborative spans multiple systems, working at-scale and at-pace. We currently commission services for people requiring specialised mental health services across the south west covering a total population of over five million, across approximately 24,000 square kilometers. We do this in partnership with eight providers six of which are NHS organisations, one community interest company, and one independent sector provider.

We are in the vanguard of the national drive to develop stronger and more effective integrated care and have a broad portfolio, including secure adult mental health services, patients who are diagnosed with a learning disability and/or autism and require adult secure care, CAMHS Tier 4, Adult Eating Disorders and Inpatient Perinatal services. We also have ambitious plans for the future in further extending our collaborative working arrangements, and in doing so we seek to establish a gold standard of collaborative governance arrangements for the benefit of the population we serve.

By supporting commissioning across whole pathways of care and strengthening the link between services and the populations they serve we aim to:

Improve outcomes in population health and healthcare.

Tackle inequalities in outcomes, experience, and access

Enhance productivity and value for money.

Help the NHS support broader social and economic development.

Job Purpose

This is a senior leadership role within the South West Provider Collaborative, reporting directly to the Programme Director. The post holder will deputise for the Programme Director and maintain their own portfolio of key responsibilities, working with the Programme Director to provide expert strategic advice and leadership.

Alongside the Programme Director, the postholder will be accountable for:

a. The wider indirect responsibilities of deputising for the Programme Director, ensuring that there is a sound and robust approach to the Collaboratives functions and that they align to strategic aims and objectives of the collaborative and that complexities and uncertainties are understood and mitigated.

b. A specific portfolio of work which includes, but is not limited to:

• service line commissioning including case management function
• contracting, quality monitoring and safeguarding
• workforce planning
• communication and engagement
• experts by experience
• care and treatment reviews and care education and treatment reviews
• any other delegated commissioning services and / or functions

c. Working alongside the Programme Director to ensure that Devon Partnership NHS Trust complies with its Lead Provider requirements.

d. Overseeing and holding to account specific programmes of work where we have external contract holders, (this includes contractors for professional services and on occasion bank staff), ensuring high visibility within plans for the collaborative.

e. Acting as ambassador for the Provider Collaborative, ensuring that the needs of the population are fairly assessed in order to objectively commission the optimum level of care within defined financial envelope.

f. Working with a high degree of autonomy, at-scale and at-pace, including identifying and ameliorating key risks to the delivery of the Provider Collaboratives strategic aims.

g. Shaping and leading individual pieces of work agreed by the collaborative to assist all partners in achieving a safe and financially sustainable environment in which to support our population, within an agreed timescale and financial envelope

h. Delivery of day to day objectives of the collaborative, ensuring key linkages between activity, performance, transformation, and finance are in place and closely aligned to the NHS Long Term Plan and NHSE requirements

i. Development and delivery of key transformational change programmes in partnership with partners to deliver system solutions and future sustainability of services

j. Development of strong working relationships with wider system partners to develop and support the integration of our collaborative services

k. Providing visible leadership, support and direction to the collaborative team and also across the wider collaborative to deliver our vision, strategic aims and objectives, supporting a culture that promotes collaboration, inclusion and equality of opportunity at all levels.

l. This postholder will also support the wider leadership team in respect of financial budgetary oversight and also provide advice, guidance and support in relation to the organisations governance arrangements

Person Specification

Experience

Essential

• Experience of working in a senior role within a commissioning and/or collaborative environment
• Experience of working in a senior managerial or leadership capacity in a relevant health care setting
• Recruitment, line management, supervision, appraisal, coaching and performance management of multiple staff and teams
• Involvement in the management of disciplinary procedures, undertaking staff consultations and consideration of welfare and safety matters
• The post holder may be required to report on finance and the effective use of resources relevant to their business unit and/or to other management and assurance forums
• Management of budgets and physical resources and compliance with financial regulations and standing orders

Planning and Organisational Skills

Essential

• Leadership, vision, strategic thinking and planning with highly developed political skills

Qualifications

Essential

• Professional knowledge acquired through degree, supplemented by specialist training to masters or equivalent level, management qualification or equivalent experience. In-depth professional knowledge in a number of disciplines e.g. financial management, performance management, information systems, staff management acquired through training and experience
• Evidence of continuing professional development Relevant management training and/or qualifications

Desirable

• Professional qualification in a relevant area

Knowledge

Essential

• Knowledge of emerging national NHS strategies, policies and guidance in respect of mental health services and new models of care including Provider Collaboratives and Integrated Care Systems
• Understanding of health and care, and experience of commissioning or providing
• Able to understand and analyse complex issues and balance competing priorities in order to make difficult decisions

Communication and Working Relationship Skills

Essential

• Demonstrates gravitas, and a high degree of emotional intelligence
• Able to hold a vision for the business unit on behalf of the partnership and inform debate on strategy and its implementation
• Able to communicate complex issues using simple and accessible language
• in various forums such as public meetings and through media interviews
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, able to influence and persuade others articulating a balanced view and able to constructively question information from others
• Good understanding of the role of effective communications and engagement with patients, public, workforce and stakeholders in achieving/delivering the commissioning divisions objectives and maintaining and enhancing its reputation
• Ability to foster and maintain positive working relationships at every level

Analytical and Judgemental Skills

Essential

• Collecting, analysing and evaluating highly complex data to support the management of clinical commissioning for a wide range of applications
• including resource, planning and target setting
• High level analytical skills and the ability to draw qualitative and quantitative data from a wide range of sources and present in a clear concise manner
• Excellent ability to analyse numerical and written data, assess options and draw appropriate conclusions
• High level critical thinking skills and ability to develop, maintain and monitor information systems to support innovation initiatives
• Demonstrates sound judgement in the absence of clear guidelines or precedent, seeking advice as necessary

Employer details

Employer name

Devon Partnership NHS Trust

Address

Langdon Hospital

Exeter Road

Dawlish

Devon

EX7 0NR

Any attachments will be accessible after you click to apply.

C9369-24-0473