Head of Community Services Operations

National health service; Oxford; On-site; GBP 63,000 - 77,000; Full time

Job summary

Principal Medical Limited is seeking an experienced operations leader to oversee Community Services. The role focuses on delivering safe, contractually sound services with strong governance, performance management and cross-functional collaboration with Finance, People & Culture and clinical leads.

You will translate strategic priorities into actionable plans, ensure service continuity, and report progress to executive teams while managing workforce and cost considerations.

Qualifications

• Significant operational leadership experience in healthcare or equivalent.
• Proven ability to lead multiple services with governance scrutiny.
• Strong financial and commercial literacy including budgets, P&L, and contracts.
• Excellent people leadership and performance management experience.

Responsibilities

• Provide day-to-day operational leadership across Community Services.
• Line manage service leads and ensure clear objectives, escalation routes and ownership.
• Maintain service continuity and resilience; escalate risks.
• Own the Community Services performance rhythm for monthly reporting to Exec and Board.
• Collaborate with Finance, People & Culture to track funded establishment and budgets.
• Support capacity planning, workforce constraints, and cost of delivery.
• Ensure workforce changes have clear role purpose, affordability, governance and implementation plans.
• Work with Finance to understand and explain the Community Services cost base.
• Help service leads understand contract requirements, activity assumptions and risks.
• Monitor performance against financial and operational targets; drive corrective actions.
• Lead development of priorities like neighbourhood integration and service assurance.
• Translate strategic priorities into implementation plans with governance.
• Represent PML in delegated operational discussions with commissioners.
• Work with Medical Director to ensure safe practice, escalation, safeguarding and governance.

Skills

Calm authority

Excellent communication

NHS commissioning

Education

NMC/GMC registration

Job description

Job summary

At PML, you'll have the opportunity to make a tangible difference to the communities we serve while helping shape the future of locally delivered healthcare. We are a values-driven organisation with a strong reputation for innovation, partnership working and high-quality patient care. In return, we offer the chance to work alongside passionate and supportive colleagues, influence service development at scale, and play a key role in delivering sustainable healthcare solutions that improve outcomes for patients and communities.

Main duties of the job

This position exists to provide operational leadership, performance grip and integration discipline across Community Services, ensuring services are safe, contractually controlled, financially understood, and aligned to PML's neighbourhood / community development priorities. The postholder will provide the management layer between the Executive Team and Community Services leads, translating strategic and assurance priorities into stable service delivery, clear accountability, disciplined follow-through and proportionate governance.

About us

PML is a successful not-for-profit, GP-led organisation providing various NHS community and primary care clinical services to patients across Oxfordshire and Northamptonshire. We have evolved as a NHS healthcare provider since 2004 and in the last few years have grown significantly, now employing around 300 staff with a turnover of circa 16m. PML holds GMS contracts, as well as being a GP Federation representing circa 50 GP practices covering approximately 650,000 patients.

We welcome applicants from a diverse range of backgrounds and circumstances and people with protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010.

Pay scheme

Pay schemeOtherSalaryDepending on experience70,000

ContractPermanent

Working patternFull-time, Flexible working

Reference number

E0176-26-0084

Job locations

Principal Medical Ltd 3 Barberry Place Bicester Oxfordshire OX26 3HA United Kingdom

Job description

Job responsibilities

• Provide day-to-day operational leadership across Community Services.
• Line manage and support service leads / operational leads, ensuring services have clear objectives, escalation routes, action ownership and timely follow-through.
• Maintain service continuity and resilience, escalating material operational, workforce, quality, finance or contract risks through the agreed route.
• Own the Community Services performance rhythm, ensuring monthly service outputs are completed, reviewed and converted into useful assurance for Exec, Corporate Governance and Board reporting.
• Work with Finance, People & Culture, BI and service leads to maintain a clear view of funded, approved, filled and usable establishment across Community Services.
• Support the development of service-level capacity and demand baselines, including workforce constraints, flexible-working implications, mileage / travel impact and cost of delivery.
• Ensure workforce changes, new posts and service developments are supported by clear role purpose, affordability, governance and implementation plans.
• Work with Finance to understand and explain the Community Services cost base.
• Support service leads to understand contract requirements, activity assumptions, deliverables, risks and the operational implications of changes in commissioner expectations.
• Monitor performance against financial and operational targets, identifying variances and supporting corrective actions.
• Lead the operational development of Community Services priorities agreed through the Exec route, including CCT frailty / Ageing Well opportunities, neighbourhood integration, Community Gynae sustainability, UTC contract matters and OCNS service assurance.
• Translate strategic priorities into service development ideas and controlled implementation plans with clear risks, milestones, owners, benefits and governance route.
• Represent PML in delegated operational / commissioner discussions where appropriate.
• Work closely with the Medical Director, Quality Director and clinical leads to ensure operational arrangements support safe scope of practice, clinical escalation, supervision, safeguarding, incident learning and CQC readiness.

There will be a chemistry call for successful applicants, and interviews will be held on site in Bicester on the 19th November.

Person Specification

Skills and Knowledge

• Essential Able to operate with calm authority in ambiguous or pressured situations, with the ability to keep delivery moving in difficult environments;Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to produce concise reports, governance updates, business cases and stakeholder briefings;Understanding of NHS commissioning, ICB relationships, primary care networks, neighbourhood health policy and multi-neighbourhood provider development.
• Desirable NMC or GMC registered professional;Formal management, leadership, quality improvement, project / programme management or healthcare operations qualification.

Experience

• Essential Significant operational leadership experience in healthcare, community services, primary care, urgent care, neighbourhood / integrated care, or a comparable regulated service environment; Proven ability to lead multiple services or operational teams through service stabilisation, performance improvement, workforce change and governance scrutiny;Strong people leadership skills, including line management of managers / leads, setting objectives, holding accountability, supporting development and managing performance issues fairly;Strong financial and commercial literacy, including experience interpreting budgets, P&Ls, contract income, workforce establishment, forecast variances and service cost drivers.
• Desirable Experience of working on service redesign, same day access, complex care or integrated care models.

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.

Employer details

Employer name: Principal Medical Limited

Address: Principal Medical Ltd 3 Barberry Place Bicester Oxfordshire OX26 3HA United Kingdom

Employer's website