General Manager

Job summary

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an experienced, innovative, and highly motivated General Manager to provide strategic and operational leadership across the Neonatal Centre and COMET Transport Services.

This pivotal role requires an exceptional leader who can drive service excellence, foster a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement, and ensure the delivery of safe, effective, and compassionate care for some of the most vulnerable patients and their families.

Working closely with clinical and operational teams, the successful candidate will play a key role in shaping the future direction of both services, leading transformational change, improving patient experience, and ensuring the highest standards of governance, performance, and operational efficiency are consistently achieved.

Main duties of the job

• Provide strategic and operational leadership across the Neonatal Centre and COMET Transport Services.
• Ensure safe, effective, and efficient service delivery in line with organisational objectives and healthcare standards.
• Lead and support multidisciplinary teams to achieve excellent patient outcomes.
• Manage budgets, workforce planning, performance targets, and service development initiatives.
• Drive continuous improvement, governance, and quality assurance processes.
• Build strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders.

About us

Our new strategy, developed with the support and feedback of colleagues, patients, and partners, is our compass for the next seven years (2023-2030).

We have four primary goals:

• high-quality care for all,
• being a great place to work,
• partnerships for impact, and
• research and education excellence

And we will embed health equality in all we do - taking active steps to reduce the avoidable differences in healthcare that some people face, working in partnership with communities.

Our strategy is underpinned by new values and we will work to ensure they are an everyday reality for all:

• we are compassionate,
• we are proud,
• we are inclusive, and
• we are one team

This is an exciting moment as we look to the future with clarity on what we already do well and where we need to focus our energies to make an even bigger difference for the people we serve.

About the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust:

https://www.uhleicester.nhs.uk

Job description

Job responsibilities

The General Manager will provide visible, proactive, and effective leadership across the Neonatal Centre and COMET Transport Services, ensuring the delivery of high-quality, safe, and responsive services that meet the needs of patients, families, and staff. The post holder will be responsible for the overall operational management, performance, and strategic development of both services, working collaboratively with clinical, nursing, and corporate teams to achieve organisational objectives.

Key duties will include leading service planning and transformation programmes, identifying opportunities for innovation and improvement, and ensuring services remain efficient, sustainable, and aligned with national standards and best practice guidance. The successful candidate will oversee day-to-day operational performance, ensuring that quality, patient safety, workforce, financial, and activity targets are consistently achieved.

The role will require the development and maintenance of strong relationships with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders, including clinicians, senior leaders, partner organisations, and regional networks. The General Manager will act as a key point of coordination between operational and clinical teams, promoting effective communication, collaborative working, and a positive organisational culture.

The post holder will also be responsible for financial and resource management, including budget oversight, workforce planning, recruitment, and ensuring resources are utilised effectively to support high-performing services. They will lead on governance and risk management processes, ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements, investigating incidents where necessary, and implementing learning and improvement initiatives.

In addition, the General Manager will support and empower multidisciplinary teams by promoting staff wellbeing, professional development, and continuous learning, creating an environment that encourages accountability, innovation, and excellence in patient care.

Person Specification

Commitment to Trust Values and Behaviours

Essential

• oMust be able to demonstrate behaviours consistent with the Trust's Values and Behaviours

Training & Qualifications

Essential

• oFirst degree or equivalent experience
• oExtensive knowledge of healthcare provision
• oEvidence of CPD

Experience

Essential

• oSignificant operational management experience within the healthcare sector, with clear accountability for day-to- day delivery and service performance
• oExperience working in an acute NHS hospital or equivalent urgent/acute healthcare environment
• oDemonstrable track record of meeting challenging operational targets and KPIs (e.g., timeliness, quality, capacity/flow, patient experience), using data to drive improvement.
• oExperience leading and delivering programmes of change and service improvement, with evidence of benefits realised for patients and families
• oExperience managing workforce and performance matters (e.g., objective setting, appraisal, capability/conduct processes), in line with HR policy and a just, supportive approach

Desirable

• oExperience working within neonatal and/or paediatric services, including transport, critical care, or networked services

Communication and relationship skills

Essential

• oDemonstrable ability to communicate clearly and confidently with a wide range of stakeholders, including senior leaders, clinical teams and external partners
• oAbility to adapt communication style to suit the audience and situation (e.g., operational escalation, incident response, sensitive conversations), ensuring messages are understood and actions are agreed.
• oStrong influencing, negotiating and conflict-resolution skills, with evidence of building effective relationships and collaboration across organisational boundaries
• oDemonstrates political awareness and sensitivity to clinical, operational and organisational priorities, maintaining professionalism and confidentiality.

Desirable

• oExperience of communicating complex operational performance quality or financial information through formal reporting and governance routes

Analytical and Judgement Skills

Essential

• oDemonstrable ability to interpret complex operational and performance information (e.g., activity, timeliness, quality, capacity/flow) and translate it into clear options and recommendations.
• oEvidence of structured problem-solving, including root cause analysis and implementing practical solutions with measurable impact
• oAbility to analyse and understand financial information (e.g., budgets, forecasting, variance analysis) to support sound decision-making and value for money
• oAbility to use data and intelligence to identify risks, prioritise actions, and support effective escalation and governance decision-making
• oDemonstrable ability to remove barriers to change through influencing, stakeholder engagement and delivery planning

Desirable

• oExperience using recognised improvement and analytical approaches/tools (e.g., PDSA, Lean, process mapping, statistical process control, business case appraisal).

Skills

Essential

• oAbility to manage, analyse and present complex performance information (e.g., activity, timeliness, quality and finance), maintaining data quality and version control
• oAbility to use digital systems to support operational delivery (e.g., rostering, incident/risk systems, reporting dashboards) and to support others to use systems appropriately.

Desirable

• oExperience of developing or improving reporting tools, dashboards or data collection processes

Planning and organisation skills

Essential

• oExcellent organisational skills, with the ability to plan, prioritise and manage multiple competing demands in a fast-paced operational environment
• oAbility to develop and deliver operational plans (including rota/leave planning, resilience and contingency arrangements) to maintain safe and timely service delivery.
• oProven track record of establishing and maintaining robust performance management arrangements, including monitoring KPIs, reporting variances, and coordinating improvement actions

Desirable

• oExperience of planning and delivering large-scale change (e.g., service redesign, mobilisation of new pathways, implementation of new systems/processes).

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

Essential

• oDemonstrable commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, with the ability to create and maintain an inclusive, respectful and psychologically safe working environment
• oAbility to apply Trust policies and best practice to ensure fair, consistent and person-centred approaches, including reasonable adjustments where required

Other requirements specific to the role

Essential

• oAble to participate in the on-call rota / out-of-hours operational leadership arrangements, including timely response to escalation and support to incident management as required
• oWilling and able to travel across sites and partner organisations as required for service delivery, meetings and system working

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

Employer details

Employer name

University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust

Address

St Johns Ambulance

10 Willow Road

Castle Donnington, Derby

DE74 2NP

United Kingdom

Employer's website

https://www.jobsatleicestershospitals.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)

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