Head of Improvement Programme *Internal Only*

Ncic; Carlisle; Hybrid; GBP 58,000 - 65,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

27-day holiday scheme rising to 33

NHS Discounts

Salary Sacrifice schemes including car

Job summary

NCIC in Carlisle is seeking an internal candidate for a 12-month secondment as Head of Improvement Programme. You will support the development and implementation of NCIC's overarching improvement framework and work across teams to drive culture of continuous improvement.

Reporting to the Associate Director of Improvement, you will coach staff, lead service improvement projects using Lean and Quality Improvement methodologies, and help embed evidence-based change across North Cumbria.

Qualifications

• Masters level qualification or equivalent in health care leadership, management or OD.
• Evidence of continual professional development.
• Coaching and mentoring training and/or qualification.
• Experience delivering service improvement initiatives in NHS or similar.

Responsibilities

• Lead and facilitate service improvement projects using Lean, QI and coaching.
• Support and embed NCIC's improvement framework across teams.
• Provide coaching to clinical and operational staff on continuous improvement.
• Interpret and present programme data to leadership teams.
• Engage stakeholders to promote a culture of learning and change.

Skills

Team Leadership

Communication

Coaching & Mentoring

Project Management

Education

Masters level qualification in health care / organisational development

Tools

Office 365

Psychometric tools & techniques

Job description

Would you like to join a centre of excellence in rural and remote healthcare?

Head of Improvement Programme *Internal Only*

NHS AfC: Band 8a

Main area 202000 Grade NHS AfC: Band 8a Contract Fixed term: 12 months (Secondment) Hours Full time - 37.5 hours per week Job ref 262-A-26-8391275

Site Corporate Headquarters, Pillars Building, Cumberland Infirmary Town Carlisle Salary £57,528 - £64,750 Per annum Salary period Yearly Closing 06/11/2026 23:59

Job overview

INTERNAL ONLY TO NORTH CUMBRIA INTEGRATED CARE NHS FOUNDATION TRUST (NCIC) EMPLOYEES ONLY

Head of Improvement Programme (12-Month Secondment)

Are you passionate about supporting positive change and helping to develop a culture of continuous improvement across our Trust? Following the launch of our overarching improvement framework, NCIC is seeking an internal candidate for a 12-month secondment as Improvement Lead.

Reporting directly to the newly appointed Associate Director of Improvement, you will play an important role in supporting the development and implementation of this new programme. This is an exciting opportunity to use your knowledge and experience within the Trust to support service improvement, work alongside colleagues across a range of teams, and help create an environment that encourages learning, innovation and continuous improvement across North Cumbria.

Main duties of the job

Main Duties & Responsibilities

• Program Mobilisation: Support the Associate Director in developing, implementing and embedding the foundational elements of the Trust-wide improvement programme.
• Cultural Engagement: Deliver workshops, engagement sessions and improvement activities that encourage staff involvement, collaboration and innovation.
• Project Delivery: Lead and facilitate service improvement projects using recognised methodologies such as Lean, Quality Improvement and Coaching.
• Capability Building: Provide coaching and support to clinical and operational staff, helping to build confidence and skills in continuous improvement and problem-solving.
• Insight & Reporting: Support the interpretation and presentation of programme data, providing meaningful updates and insights to the Associate Director and wider leadership teams.

What We Are Looking For

• Status: Current substantive employee of NCIC with a good understanding of the organisation and its services.
• Qualifications: Relevant qualifications, training or experience in quality improvement, change management or organisational development.
• Experience: Experience of supporting or leading service improvement initiatives within NCIC or a similar NHS environment.
• Skills: Strong interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to build positive relationships, encourage engagement and support teams through change.

Working for our organisation

At NCIC, we have an ambition to deliver outstanding healthcare services to the population of North Cumbria. The Trust is committed to creating a centre of excellence in providing rural and remote healthcare and provides a wide range of community and acute services throughout our county.

Our 5 key principles demonstrate our belief in the delivery of ‘safe, high quality care every time’:

• Being a clinically led organisation
• Quality and safety at the heart of our Trust
• A positive patient experience every time
• A great place to work
• Managing our money well

As an organisation we are serious about supporting a diverse workforce that reflects our local community and are very much focused on being an inclusive and compassionate place to work.

Across the North East and North Cumbria we are working together to deliver our ambition to be the greenest region in England by 2030. All staff are expected to support sustainability.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

At NCIC, we have an ambition to deliver outstanding healthcare services to the population of North Cumbria. The Trust is committed to creating a centre of excellence in providing rural and remote healthcare and provides a wide range of community and acute services throughout our county.

Our 5 key principles demonstrate our belief in the delivery of ‘safe, high quality care every time’:

Being a clinically led organisation

Quality and safety at the heart of our Trust

A positive patient experience every time

A great place to work

Managing our money well

As an organisation we are serious about supporting a diverse workforce that reflects our local community and are very much focused on being an inclusive and compassionate place to work.

Across the North East and North Cumbria we are working together to deliver our ambition to be the greenest region in England by 2030. All staff are expected to support sustainability.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Please see attached job description and person specification for further information regarding the role and the essential and desirable criteria required to be met by applicants.

CERTIFICATE OF SPONSORSHIP

Please note, due to changes implemented by the Government to the UK immigration policy, individuals who require a Health and Care Visa or a Skilled Worker Visa may no longer be eligible for sponsorship where the UKVI salary threshold is not met or if the occupation is not included in the updated Immigration Salary List (ISL). Applicants must check their eligibility to be employed in any role they are interested in applying for, prior to completing an application for employment. Any applicants who do not meet the eligibility criteria will not be progressed. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

If you are applying under the Disability Confident Scheme or Armed Forces Covenant and you meet all the essential criteria for a post, you will be guaranteed an interview.

Relocation assistance may be available for successful applicants moving to the region for certain posts. Please see our Policy for eligible vacancies.

Disclosure and Barring Service:

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.

The cost of the DBS must be met by the successful candidate(s) through salary deduction. DBS charges are as follows if applicable to the post:

Standard Check: £21.50 + Administration cost of £6.50 = £28.00 Deducted from salary over a 4 month period or a one-off payment.

Enhanced Check: £49.50 + administration cost of £6.50 = £56.00 Deducted from salary over a 4 month period or a one-off payment.

NCIC can offer successful future employees the following benefits:

27-day holiday scheme rising to 33 after 10 years

NHS Discounts*

Salary Sacrifice schemes including lease cars and Cycle to Work*

Vivup is a free, confidential counselling and information service to assist with personal or work-related problems

*Subject to eligibility

Please ensure that you document evidence of meeting all the essential criteria in the supporting information.

If sufficient response is received this post could be closed earlier than the specified closing date, please apply as soon as possible to ensure that your application is considered.

Candidates who have been successfully shortlisted for interview will be asked via an email notification to log on to their Trac account to select an interview time. This will usually be within 2 weeks of the closing date

Person specification

Qualifications

• Masters level qualification, or equivalent experience, in a subject related to the delivery of health care, health care leadership and management or organisational development.
• Evidence of continual professional development
• Recognised teaching/training qualification.
• Trained and qualified in Coaching and Mentoring to Level 7
• Training and qualification in the use of psychometric profiling tools and techniques
• Minimum L5 Coaching and Mentoring accreditation.

Knowledge and Experience

• Extensive knowledge of Service Improvement methodologies and training delivery / facilitation
• Delivery of education and training within Service Improvement education
• Advanced operational organisational skills within training delivery, planning and evaluation
• Demonstrable ability to engage and influence senior stakeholders and maintain a customer-cenric mind-set (keeping the patient at the centre)
• Highly competent IT skills, particularly particularly across Office 365 applications
• Is a competent communicator and effective relationship builder
• Demonstrable ability to deliver high-quality work within a high-pressured and ambiguous environment
• Can effectively translate strategic goals/concepts into practical learning experiences
• Excellent and proven communication and organisational skills with a range of stakeholders
• Extensive experience of designing and delivering training packages and service change interventions, spanning multiple subject disciplines
• Experience in leading and managing teams
• Experience of developing, delivering and evaluating in-house development programmes
• Ability to meet strict deadlines
• Able to work under pressure and with ambiguity at peak periods against deadlines
• Ability to work effectively as a member of a team and across teams
• Able to work autonomously and prioritise workloads accordingly
• Experience of assessing and accrediting training and designing training feedback
• Knowledge of NHS Service Improvement approaches and development programmes
• Knowledge of NCIC recruitment processes
• Trained and experienced in Coaching and Mentoring
• Trained (or highly experienced) in Psychometric tools and techniques in support of personal and team development approaches
• An ability to analyse and act on both written and verbal information using a proactive approach
• Evidence of delivery of training programmes and workshops, both virtually and face to face.
• Evidence of multi-professional working
• Evidence of impact of service improvement / organisational development work
• Experience of management of information, data and contract performance measures

Skills and Aptitudes

• An enthusiastic approach within a target-orientated environment
• Team Leadership – Is comfortable working in a matrix environment and as part of ‘virtual’ teams, fostering an environment where groups and individuals can achieve high-performance.
• Customer Focused - Builds and manages internal and external stakeholder relationships to meet and exceed patient and commissioner expectations by accurately assessing service needs and ensuring delivery of a suite of development and support interventions that meet these requirements.
• Business Aware – Demonstrates a clear understanding of the current market environment including awareness of all opportunities and threats to new and existing business / income. Seeks, evaluates and uses information from a wide variety of internal and external sources in order to proactively develop the business and improve performance, whlist making best use of available resources.
• Results Orientated – Evaluates situations, identifies existing challenges and future opportunities for growth, sets goals, plans, delivers and measures outcomes. The individual has the will, ambition and tenacity to make things happen and therefore deliver outstanding service performance within their area of responsibility and beyond.
• Team worker – Builds personal networks, recognises the value of other team members in enhancing overall performance and encourages and enables contributions from all other team members through a compassionate, psychologically safe and inclusive climate.
• Good Communicator – Communicates in a clear and concise manner in the language of the audience and checks that communicated messages have been received and understood.
• Knowledge Sharing – Seeks, applies and shares knowledge both internally and externally by making use of the knowledge and experience of other team members and colleagues in order to improve business performance.
• Personal Development – Manages personal and professional development, seeks opportunities for further development and skill enhancement and solicits constructive feedback in order to improve performance.

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.