Head of Children’s and Young People’s Services

Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust; Greater London; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A prominent NHS Trust in London is seeking an experienced individual to fill the role of Head of children & young people - Community. This position demands strong operational leadership with a focus on transforming service delivery for children and young people. The ideal candidate will oversee the management of services, ensuring statutory responsibilities are met while fostering collaboration with local authorities. This is an opportunity to shape clinical priorities and deliver high-quality healthcare in a pivotal leadership role.

Qualifications

• Proven track record in service development and operational leadership.
• Experience in managing Children and Young People's Services.
• Strong clinical expertise in children and young people.

Responsibilities

• Oversee the management of Children and Young People Services portfolio.
• Ensure day-to-day operational delivery of services.
• Drive transformational programs in collaboration with local authorities.

Skills

Operational leadership

Clinical expertise in children and young people

Service development

Quality innovation

Collaboration with local authorities

Job description

We are seeking an exceptional, inspiring, and experienced operational leader with strong children /young people clinical expertise to join Royal Free London Group as Head of children & young people - Community. This pivotal role sits within our Divisional Leadership Teams, shaping high-quality services and create environments where staff can truly thrive.

This is an exciting time to join the Trust as we implement a new clinical operational model that strengthens accountability, flow, and professional leadership across pathways of care.

At Royal Free London we have set out an ambitious plan to enable our staff to deliver world-leading healthcare for all our patients, meet growing demand and create a healthier future for local people. This is an excellent opportunity for an individual with a proven track record in service development, quality innovation and operational leadership to continue to grow and strengthen the delivery of high-quality services.

Our clinical vision is transforming how we deliver world-class care, and the way people access our services. Our hospitals and community services have different opportunities and challenges based on the population they care for. We have developed local clinical priorities that reflect the needs and expectations of those different communities.We put our Children, Young People and Families (CYPF), staff and community at the heart of everything we do.

The Head of CYP services will have a key leadership role to ensure the Trust meets its statutory responsibilities for Children & Young people services across all children services with greater emphasis for Children and Young People with special educational needs and disabilities, and agreeing the relevant health services within an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan.

The postholder will be responsible for overseeing the management of the Children and Young People’s Services (CYP) portfolio, and the planning, organisation, and delivery of services. This will include the overall responsibility for the workforce within the portfolio and adjoining budgets; ensuring that the operational leadership team are in control of operational day-to day delivery of services; line managing and collaborating with counterpart clinical management to achieve the objectives of their respective roles.

They will also provide leadership and direction on a transformational programme and key initiatives to help shape the development of a Children’s Hub in Enfield. The post holder will also forge greater collaboration with the local authority alongside partners in education, youth offending and children’s social care.

North Mid is part of North Central London integrated care system – consisting of the NHS and Local authority organisations in Camden, Islington, Barnet, Enfield and Haringey. As with other ICS’s, we are working increasingly closely with partners and indeed many of our financial and performance objectives are measured at this system level. Whilst all organisations remain as standalone, statutory bodies we have an ICS infrastructure for making shared decisions and agreeing shared approaches.

We are proud of our staff and want to ensure their training allows them to provide excellent clinical care. We are also a training unit for medical students from UCL and St George’s University Grenada, and for nursing and midwifery students from Middlesex and City Universities.

Take a tour of our hospital here

A full list of duties and responsibilities will be found within the job description and requirements for the role can be found within the person specification.

This advert closes on Monday 2 Feb 2026