Band 7 Service Manager

Royal Free Group; London Borough of Barnet; On-site; GBP 56,000 - 63,000; Full time

Job summary

Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust is seeking an experienced Therapy Services Service Manager to lead operational management across Therapy Services at Barnet and Chase Farm Hospital. You will oversee administrative teams, drive service performance, and support workforce planning to ensure high-quality patient care.

The role requires Band 7 experience, strong governance, and the ability to lead cross-disciplinary teams while delivering transformation projects and budgets.

Qualifications

• Qualified Physiotherapist with HCPC registration.
• Postgraduate continued professional development evidence.
• Membership in specialist interest group is desirable.

Responsibilities

• Provide operational management across Therapy Services.
• Lead administrative and clerical teams.
• Monitor and report on performance, activity and workforce metrics.
• Support recruitment, mandatory training and workforce processes.
• Assist governance activities: complaints, incidents, audits, risks and quality improvement.
• Support service transformation and business planning.
• Manage delegated budgets and monitor financial performance.
• Produce and analyse performance reports for decision-making.
• Represent Therapy Services at meetings and forums.
• Collaborate with clinical and admin teams to improve patient experience and service efficiency.

Skills

Specialist knowledge

Advanced clinical reasoning

Clinical governance

Best practice awareness

Professional development

Critical appraisal

Change management

Organisational skills

Communication (verbal)

Written communication

Caseload management

Team-based working

Time management

IT skills (Excel)

Presentation skills

Behavioural standards

Education

BSc Physiotherapy

HCPC registration

Postgraduate development

Master’s level study

Specialist interest group

Tools

Excel

Telehealth

Word processing

Job description

Our current vacancies

If you want to be part of the Royal Free London team, search our current vacancies below to find the job for you.

Main area Therapy Services Grade NHS AfC: Band 7 Contract Fixed term: 8 months (Potential start date: 25/01/2027 and Potential end date: 19/09/2027) Hours Full time - 37.5 hours per week (The service operates between 07:30 and 18:00. Postholders will be expected to work flexibly within these hours, with start and finish times adjusted where necessary to meet service demands, provide cover for staff absences and maintain service continuity.) Job ref 391-RFL-8369450

Site Barnet and Chase Farm Hospital Town Barnet, Hertfordshire Salary £55,524 - £62,652 per annum inclusive of HCAS Salary period Yearly Closing 23/11/2026 23:59

Our trust has over 17,000 staff serving 2 million patients every year. It comprises Barnet Hospital, Chase Farm Hospital, the Royal Free Hospital, North Middlesex University Hospital and more than 30 services in the community. This larger scale organisation provides an unprecedented opportunity for us to continue our pioneering work, particularly in finding ways to deliver even better care to our patients.

Our mission is to deliver world class care and expertise in our clinical services, underpinned by world class teaching and research and we will continue to measure our progress against our five governing objectives: excellent outcomes, excellent patient and staff experience, excellent value for taxpayers’ money, being safe and meeting our external duties, and building a strong organisation.

Everyone is welcome at Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust. We're proud of our diversity and we continue to undertake new initiatives to advance equality for LGBT+, BME, gender equality, staff carers and people with disabilities and lived experiences to promote good relations and understanding between our staff.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a set of technology that can perform various tasks that typically required human intelligence. Your application is your opportunity to demonstrate to us how you meet the requirements of the role. We recognise that AI tools can support accessibility, equity and confidence for applicants.However, it’s important that examples and responses genuinely reflect your own experience and abilities, as these will be explored further during the selection process. AI must not be used to provide misleading or false information during any stage of the application journey. Further guidance can be found in the NLPSS Applicant Toolkit https://royalfree.pagetiger.com/cuuomnr/1 .

Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust is committed to ensuring that its recruitment processes are carried out with integrity, transparency, and fairness for all applicants. To help maintain these standards, we ask candidates to provide accurate and truthful information throughout the recruitment process.

If incorrect or misleading information is identified, this may affect the progression of an application, any employment offer, or continued employment. As part of our due diligence, the company may verify the information provided by applicants and take appropriate act ion where necessary.

We do not charge applicants any fees at any stage of the recruitment process, including applications, interviews, sponsorship arrangements, pre-employment checks, or employment offers. All vacancies are advertised through TRAC/NHS Jobs and candidates are assessed solely on their skills, qualifications, experience, and suitability for the role. If you are asked to make a payment in connection with an NHS job opportunity, please treat this as suspicious and contact the organisation directly using the details published on our official career's website

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an enthusiastic and motivated Therapy Services Service Manager to join the Therapy Services Management Team at Barnet and Chase Farm Hospital on a fixed-term basis.

This role provides operational management support across Therapy Services, ensuring the effective delivery of administrative, performance, governance and workforce functions. Working closely with the Head of Therapy Services, clinical leads, Assistant General Manager and multidisciplinary teams the postholder will support service delivery, performance monitoring, business planning and service improvement initiatives.

The successful candidate will lead the administrative teams, ensuring high-quality administrative support to clinical services, effective workforce management, compliance with mandatory training requirements, and achievement of key performance targets.

The postholder will play a key role in analysing and interpreting operational, workforce and activity data to support decision-making, service development and performance improvement. They will also contribute to governance processes including complaints, incidents, risk management, audits and quality improvement projects.

This is an excellent opportunity for an experienced healthcare manager with strong organisational, analytical and leadership skills to contribute to the ongoing development and improvement of Therapy Services

Main duties of the job

• Provide operational management support across Therapy Services.
• Lead and manage administrative and clerical teams.
• Monitor and report on service performance, activity and workforce metrics.
• Support recruitment, appraisal, mandatory training compliance and workforce management processes.
• Assist with governance activities including complaints, incidents, audits, risks and quality improvement projects.
• Support business planning, service development and transformation projects.
• Manage delegated budgets and support financial performance monitoring.
• Produce and analyse performance reports to support operational and strategic decision-making.
• Represent Therapy Services at meetings and forums as required.
• Work collaboratively with clinical and administrative teams to improve patient experience, service efficiency and operational performance

Working for our organisation

The Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust is one of the UK’s biggest and most innovative trusts. Across three main hospitals, our dedicated army of staff care for over 1.6million patients, treat more than 200,000 in A&E, deliver over 8,000 babies and carry out more than 17million tests.

Our size, scale and influence offer you unrivalled career opportunities and a forward-thinking approach to working that works around your lifestyle. From flexible hours and generous benefits, to next level training, we make it easier to take your career to the top

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please see attached job description for more information about this role and working at Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust.

Royal Free shared commitments

• Demonstrable ability to meet the Trust shared commitments

Education and professional qualifications

• BSc Degree in Physiotherapy or Diploma or equivalent
• Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) registration for Physiotherapy
• Evidence or portfolio of post-graduate continued development in a specialist MSK area
• Evidence of postgraduate study at master’s level
• Membership of specialist interest group

Experience

• Specialist in-depth knowledge and experience in complex/persistent pain area
• Experience of working with patients of all age groups
• Knowledge and experience of a wide range of approaches for the management of patients within complex conditions
• Experience of multidisciplinary and interagency working
• Awareness of cognitive behavioural approaches to rehabilitation
• Experience of group work
• Previous experience of staff & student supervision/ clinical education
• Experience of leading a team
• Experience of quality improvement and/or clinical audit and/or research
• Experience of teaching to uni-disciplinary/ multidisciplinary groups
• Evidence of active involvement in service development & contribution to change within the workplace
• Working at Band 7 lev
• Evidence of successfully working within various mediums, including face to face and virtual

Skills and aptitudes

• Specialist knowledge within the complex patient area and ability to apply this in a clinical setting
• Evidence of advanced clinical reasoning and the management of complex patients
• Demonstrate a clear understanding of clinical governance and its application to the work setting
• Ability to demonstrate a commitment to best practice and awareness of relevant national standards/guidelines
• Knowledge of recent professional developments in the clinical area
• Ability to critically evaluate current research & apply to own practice
• Positive attitude to and ability to cope well with change
• Excellent organisational skills
• Excellent communication skills with a range of patients and healthcare professionals regarding complex and sensitive issues
• Highly effective written communication skills
• Able to manage own clinical caseload by prioritising effectively and to support others to do the same
• Ability to work effectively within multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary teams
• Ability to manage own time & meet deadlines and support others to do the same
• Competent IT skills including use of internet, email, EXCEL, word processing and Telehealth
• Good presentation skills within different mediums
• Ability to recognise unacceptable behaviour and act on this appropriately

Personal Qualities & attributes

• Highly effective interpersonal skills, including assertiveness in a range of situations
• Ability to negotiate at a variety of levels
• Ability to work both independently and as part of a team
• Self-motivated and able to motivate others
• A flexible approach

Others

• Able to comply with Trust manual handling guidelines
• AT* - Apprenticeship Training. Where AT* is entered next to the job title indicates that this vacancy is for an apprenticeship role.
• By applying for this role, you accept if successful, that your personal data may be transferred from the Trust to another NHS organisation where your employment transfers within the NHS.This is in accordance with the streamlining programme which aims at saving you time and improving efficiencies within the NHS when your employment transfers.Therefore we require you to complete your stat and Man e-learning modules prior to joining our organisation.
• If you are an EU/EEA citizen who does not have EU Settlement or Pre-Settled status, you will require a visa to work in the UK.
• You must already have the right to work in the United Kingdom or fully meet the eligibility criteria for sponsorship under the Skilled Worker visa route. We welcome applications from candidates who require visa sponsorship; however, we can only consider these where all UKVI requirements are met. Before applying, please ensure that both you and the role satisfy the relevant UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) points‑based system criteria, as applications that do not meet these requirements cannot be progressed. For more information about the criteria, please click here
• If you are offered a role with one of the NLPSS partner trusts, as part of pre-employment checks youridentity and right to work documentation will be verifiedremotely (in most circumstances), using a certified identity verification service provider TrustID. You will be asked to capture an image of the relevant documents as well as a “selfie” using your smartphone/tablet (if available) for facial matching. TrustID will also perform a digital address check using Trunarrative and Equifax, which is a soft check and does not leave a footprint on your credit rating. For more information, visit www.trustid.co.uk
• The Trust uses electronic new starter forms on Trac to collect personal details. Information collected is securely stored and used to set up the employee record on the ESR HR system.
• The Trust will request a DBS(CRB) if post involves regulated activities. The Trust is compliant with the Disclosure and Barring Service Codes of practice and the Rehabilitation of offenders act.
• By applying for this post you are agreeing to Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust transferring the information contained in this application to its preferred applicant management system. If you are offered a job, information will also be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system.

Applications are welcome from people wishing to job share or work flexible patterns. We are committed to equal opportunities.

Please note:

• Due to the high number of applications that are received for some posts we may close this vacancy before the advertised closing date. Therefore please apply for this post as soon as you can, if you are interested and you meet the requirements of the Person Specification
• Only those candidates who clearly demonstrate how they meet the person specification will be shortlisted for this job.
• Interview arrangements will be communicated via email so please check your email regularly following the closing date.

Please be advised that due to exceptionally high demand, all Royal Free accommodation is at full capacity and waiting lists are being held. Average waiting times are 12 months. Please do not rely on Trust accommodation when you commence your role and ensure you investigate alternative accommodation for your arrival.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Application numbers

This vacancy may close early if it receives a high number of applications. Please complete and submit your application in good time to avoid disappointment.