About this role
Job summary
Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust is undergoing an exciting and ambitious transformation programme to improve services for patients and staff. The Planned Care and Community Divisions are seeking experienced improvement and transformation leads to convert the strategic objectives into operational plans and models of delivery. The Operational Transformation Implementation Managers will lead the operational implementation of the strategic improvement and transformation projects across the Divisions, driving the strategic programme for Planned Care or Community Care to enhance service delivery, improve efficiency and outcomes, and support delivery of strategic objectives.
Reporting through an agreed governance structure, the postholder will work with cross-functional teams and stakeholders withing and across Divisions to deliver programmes to time, cost and quality, and to demonstrate benefits realisation.
Interview date: 8th July 2026.
Main duties of the job
Programme Management: Lead the implementation, delivery, and oversight of transformation programmes across Divisions, ensuring alignment to agreed goals, timelines, budgets, and accountabilities.
Change Management: Apply best practice change management to support consistent adoption of new ways of working through effective communication, engagement, training, and operational readiness.
Risk and Issue Management: Identify, assess, and manage risks and issues, ensuring mitigation plans, clear ownership, and appropriate escalation through agreed governance.
Governance and Reporting:Establish robust governance structures and provide clear, regular reporting on progress, risks, dependencies, and benefits to senior stakeholders.
Continuous Improvement: Promote a culture of continuous improvement, ensuring lessons learned are captured and applied.
Benefits Realisation: Track and report programme benefits with clear ownership, consistent measures, and validated data.
Delivery: Lead delivery of programmes and projects, driving improvement and supporting organisational objectives.
About us
We are the main provider of NHS community services across East and West Sussex, with 6,000 staff serving 1.3 million people. We deliver essential care to adults and children, helping them manage their health, avoid hospital admissions, and reduce hospital stays.
Our Trust vision is to provide excellent care at the heart of the community. We offer opportunities across medical, clinical, support, and corporate services.
Why work for us?o Positive 2024 NHS Staff Survey results, highlighting compassionate leadership and wellbeingo Varied environments: community hospitals, patients' homes, and bases across Sussexo Flexible working options: part-time, flexi-time, annualised hours, and flexi-retiremento Excellent training, development, and research opportunitieso Accredited Living Wage Employer, we ensure fair pay for all our staffo Cost-effective workplace nurseries in Crawley, Hove, and Brightono Active EMBRACE, Disability & Wellbeing, LGBTQIA+, and Religion & Belief networkso Level 3 Disability Confident Leader and Veteran Aware Trust
Our values--Compassionate Care, Working Together, Achieving Ambitions, Delivering Excellence--guide everything we do.
We embrace diversity and encourage applications from all backgrounds, particularly from ethnically diverse, disabled, and LGBTQIA+ individuals. We aim to create an inclusive environment and support reasonable adjustments during recruitment.
This post may close early if sufficient applications are received.
Job description Job responsibilities
Provide effective leadership in change to staff which promotes high performance standards both individually and as a team, in the achievement of the Trusts objectives and priorities, whilst supporting staff through change. The Programmes success will be dependent on the post holder playing an active role to make sure the existing areas of good employment practice are universally embedded.
The post holder will be expected to:
Understand the Divisions key priorities for these programmes and translate these into key operational priorities for the projects within it.
Ensure clarity and effectiveness in developing and designing roles and responsibilities
Ensure management of staff is consistent with Trusts HR Policies to the achievement of equality, equity and optimum performance.
Communicate regularly through meetings with teams and individuals and provide opportunity for two-way feedback.
Promote an effective team ethos.
Promote equality, diversity and rights, and treat others with dignity and respect ensuring services are developed, managed and delivered to meet the specific needs of those belonging to protected characteristics.
Promote equality, diversity and Human Rights in working practices by developing and maintaining positive working relationships, ensuring that colleagues are treated fairly and contributing to developing equality of opportunity and outcomes in working practices.
Contribute to developing and maintaining equality of opportunity in working practices by complying with legislation and organisational policies. Advise colleagues about equality, diversity and human rights policies and procedures and ensure they are followed.
Ensure that colleagues are treated fairly. Behave in a non-discriminatory way and challenge the discriminatory behaviour of others. Be supportive of colleagues or service users who wish to raise issues about discriminatory practice or experience.
Human Resources
Ensure all policies and procedures related to staff are adhered to
Lead delivery of projects through a matrix leadership model, building relationships with key decision makers in each organisation.
Financial & Physical Resources
Manage programme resources, including people and budgets, ensuring that all aspects of the programme are delivered within the agreed parameters.
Responsible for monitoring and analysing delivery of cost improvement agenda as part of financial control measures and maximising the use of resources to ensure project budgets are managed effectively. This will include developing models for delivering and presenting the benefit of improvement programmes e.g. cost benefit analysis, return on investment analysis and return on expectation analysis.
Policy/Service Development
Support the development and implementation of a comprehensive set of programme/project management procedures/documentation and rolling these out across the team and the organisations via the respective governance routes
Develops appropriate procedures for service delivery in line with the respective organisational policies, ensuring appropriate subject matter experts are consulted and approval is given at the required organisational/ Programme forums.
Information Resources
Updates information system/ uses software to develop performance management reports; responsible for performance management or similar system
Research & Development
Undertakes surveys/complex surveys related to performance management if required
Test assumptions and where necessary alternative options to the recommendations of the external Talking Therapies review
Physical effort
Light physical effort
Office conditions, combination of sitting, standing, walking and travelling between sites.
Required to use VDU for most of the day.
Mental Effort
Frequent concentration e.g. checking documents and analysing statistics, managing conflicting priorities
Emotional Effort
Projects can often involve making unwelcome changes to staff working practices and this can be in any area within the Trust in both clinical and non-clinical areas.
The programme will be high profile, garnering interest from multiple stakeholders.
Person Specification
Qualifications Essential
Educated to degree level or equivalent experience
Desirable
Formal qualifications in programme or project management (e.g., PRINCE2, MSP, Agile).
Knowledge/ Experience Essential
Project/ops management experience Demonstrated ability to manage multiple stakeholders, including senior management, external partners, and cross-functional teams Strong understanding of programme management methodologies, such as PRINCE2, Agile, or MSP Strong track record in delivering change initiatives on time and within budget Experience of working in, or closely with, operational teams
Desirable
Experience of financial recovery and turnaround, or improving financial sustainability within an organisation Previous NHS experience in a senior leadership role
Communication and Relationships Management Essential
Provide and receive highly complex, sensitive or contentious information; agreement or co-operation required; Present highly complex, sensitive or contentious information to groups Motivational skills to encourage collaborative working to improve services/performance where there may be resistance to change; Presents workshops to large groups of staff Good leadership skills - with the ability to direct, challenge and facilitate in order to deliver results Analysis of performance data and capacity and demand data, assessment of projects, identification of areas for collaborative working /expert analysis of performance/service redesign in cutting-edge situations
Desirable
Evidence of developing clear communication plans
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 Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust
Address Variable within Sussex
Brighton & Hove/ West Sussex/ East Sussex
BN2 3EW
United Kingdom
Employer's website https://www.sussexcommunity.nhs.uk/work-with-us/ (Opens in a new tab)