Equalities and Health Inequalities Clinical Fellow | NHS England

NHS England; Greater London; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A major healthcare organization is seeking an Equality and Health Inequalities Clinical Fellow to lead and improve healthcare initiatives focused on equity in NHS services. The ideal candidate will have significant clinical experience and strong analytical skills, engaging with stakeholders to enhance health outcomes across England's healthcare system. This role is pivotal in shaping healthcare inequalities policy and practice, contributing to the Core20PLUS5 approach. Apply by December 10, 2025.

Qualifications

• Proven experience in clinical leadership and policy development.
• Strong understanding of healthcare inequalities and improvement initiatives.
• Ability to engage with a variety of stakeholders across the NHS.

Responsibilities

• Lead health inequalities delivery workstreams in Core20PLUS5 areas.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to improve healthcare inequalities.
• Provide clinical advice and expertise on national clinical policy.

Skills

Leadership

Analytical skills

Communication

Problem solving

Collaboration

Education

Clinical qualifications

Experience in healthcare policies

Job description

The National Healthcare Inequalities Improvement Team drives NHS efforts to deliver the vision of exceptional quality healthcare for all, ensuring equitable access, excellent experience, and optimal outcomes.

The role of the Healthcare Inequalities Improvement Team is principally threefold; setting direction to address healthcare inequalities across NHS England (NHSE) and the wider NHS; driving delivery by developing capability and capacity building, and ensuring accountability, fostering a positive improvement culture in our contribution to delivering on the government’s ten year health plan and mission to narrow the regional gap in healthy life expectancy.

Underpinning all our work is a strong focus on quality improvement with a real emphasis on data for improvement, strengths‑based approaches and co‑production with communities, patients, and service users.

About you

You will be a visible leader, showing the skills and confidence to shape, influence, develop and help embed healthcare inequalities improvement initiatives across NHS England.

You will be an innovative and experienced clinical thinker with the ability to analyse problems and devise pragmatic solutions, the skills to scope and lead complex, national programmes of work to tackle health inequalities through the NHS, and the confidence to provide influential views on a whole host of issues. This will include using data and evidence to shape policy and practice, and will have the skills and experience to proactively prioritise the team’s activity.

With strong relationship skills, you will communicate effectively and engage internal and external stakeholders to drive delivery and practical change across the NHS.

Our work supports the NHS to deliver high quality services for patients and best value for taxpayers.

Our staff bring expertise across hundreds of specialisms — including clinical, operational, commissioning, technology, data science, cyber security, software engineering, education, and commercial — enabling us to design and deliver high‑quality NHS services.

Key objectives and activities

We lead the NHS in England by:

• Enabling local systems and providers to improve the health of their people and patients and reduce health inequalities
• Making the NHS a great place to work, where our people can make a difference and achieve their potential
• Working collaboratively to ensure our healthcare workforce has the right knowledge, skills, values and behaviours to deliver accessible, compassionate care
• Optimising the use of digital technology, research, and innovation
• Delivering value for money

Earlier this year, the Government announced that NHS England will gradually merge with the Department of Health and Social Care, leading to full integration. The aim is to create a smaller, more strategic centre that reduces duplication and eliminates waste.

If successful at interview, we will initiate an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR). This retrieves key data from your current or previous NHS employer to support onboarding, including competency status, Continuous Service Dates (CSD), and annual leave entitlement. You may opt out at any stage of the recruitment process.

Part of the recently established Global, Public Health and Emergencies Group, the team has deep links across both NHSE and DHSC programmes, policy and clinical areas and strong connections with external partners and stakeholders.

Programme portfolio

With a national director driving the programme forward, and an established team to reflect the importance of this agenda, key projects within the portfolio include:

• Supporting the reduction in healthcare inequalities through the Core20PLUS5 approach and supporting the government’s three key shifts and the ambitions laid out in the 10 year health plan.
• Supporting equitable shift from sickness to prevention through targeted action on Core20PLUS5 populations and interventions.
• An organisation-wide strategic approach to anchor practice and drive action on health literacy and patient activation.
• Transforming accountability and performance through embedding health inequalities key lines of enquiry, metrics and indicators within the NHS oversight framework and other key measurement, quality and performance frameworks, including modern service frameworks.
• Ensuring a systematic approach to addressing digital inclusion through the NHS App and Single Patient Record.
• Supporting an enabling infrastructure for delivery including the Health Inequalities Improvement Forum (for regional and system health inequalities leads), a National Health Inequalities Improvement Network (for clinical leads) which both feed into a Health Inequalities Improvement Board. We work closely with regional SROs and programme leads for health inequalities to inform our work.
• Working with policy areas and programmes across NHSE to hardwire health inequalities improvement into the organisational structures and processes.

About the role

We have an exciting opportunity for someone to join the Healthcare Inequalities Improvement Team as an Equality and Health Inequalities Clinical Fellow to help play a pivotal role in shaping policy formulation and implementation on healthcare inequalities across the NHS.

As an Equality and Health Inequalities Clinical Fellow, the postholder will work as part of a dynamic team. As a clinical leader within the team the postholder will provide clinical advice, leadership, and expertise to ensure that healthcare inequalities are tackled across national clinical policy and programmes and through the wider health system.

Key responsibilities

In this role you will:

• Provide clinical leadership to our health inequalities delivery workstreams, including a dedicated focus on Core20PLUS5 clinical areas, and evidence base to support a revised ‘state of the nation’ overview of healthcare inequalities, utilising data and robust evidence.
• Work as a representative of the Health Inequalities Team on the Modern Service Frameworks lead jointly by DHSC and NHSE.
• Engage with programmes in the Core20PLUS5 ecosystem, connecting innovation and health inequalities.
• Support embedding a focus on healthcare inequalities in NHS work programmes contributing to enhancing Healthcare Inequalities content in clinical education and leadership programmes.
• Support the leadership, development, and delivery of the Core20PLUS5 delivery, ensuring a robust QI, Clinical and Patient safety approach is embedded in our work.
• Collaborate with clinical leaders across the healthcare system to drive forward implementation of Core20PLUS5 in everyday clinical work of the NHS, extracting the learning, implementing nationally developed tools and guidance, and evaluating the clinical impact of the work.
• Work with National Clinical Audits teams, NICE and HQIP to ensure clinically relevant data on healthcare inequalities improvement is collected, analysed and built into recommendations. Where necessary clinically review guidance and recommendations to ensure healthcare inequalities improvement is central to the guidance.
• Liaise with national clinical leaders, clinical senates and programme directors to support the improvement of healthcare inequalities across England.
• Engage and collaborate with stakeholders across NHS England to ensure that incentives to improve clinical outcomes in healthcare inequalities are evidence based, targeted and effective to improve healthcare inequalities.

Further details about the role, including key responsibilities and accountabilities, alongside the organisational structure and person specification can be found in attached documents.

Secondments

Applicants from within the NHS will be offered on a secondment basis only; agreement should be obtained from their employer prior to submitting the application.

This advert closes on Wednesday 10 Dec 2025.