Programme Director - Efficiency at Scale

NHS; Runcorn; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is hosting the Programme Director - Efficiency at Scale within the Cheshire and Merseyside Provider Collaborative (CMPC). You will lead a system-wide portfolio of efficiency and transformation initiatives across trusts, delivering measurable productivity gains and long-term sustainability for NHS services.

You will report to the Managing Director and work with Chief Executives, CFOs and executive leaders to shape strategy, realise benefits,

Qualifications

• Significant track record of leading large-scale transformation and financial improvement in NHS settings.
• Experience working with Chief Executives and Executive Directors across multiple organisations.
• Ability to operate at Board level and drive strategic change with delivery focus.

Responsibilities

• Lead a complex portfolio of efficiency and transformation initiatives across CMPC.
• Direct programmes spanning productivity improvement, procurement, commercial strategy and contract optimisation.
• Identify opportunities, translate them into measurable benefits and ensure sustainability.
• Collaborate with senior leaders to optimise value for money and patient care.

Skills

Strategic leadership

Stakeholder management

Financial management

Change management

Education

Management degree or equivalent experience

Masters level in relevant subject

MCIPS/CIMA/ACCA or equivalent

Job description

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

Programme Director - Efficiency at Scale

The closing date is 29 September 2026

We are seeking an experienced and accomplished NHS leader with a strong track record of delivering large-scale transformation, productivity improvement and financial sustainability across complex healthcare systems.

As Programme Director for the Efficiency at Scale Programme within CMPC, you will play a leading role in shaping and delivering one of the most significant collaborative improvement programmes across the region.

Reporting directly to the Managing Director, you will work with Chief Executives, Chief Finance Officers and Executive leaders from across CMPC to identify and deliver opportunities that improve productivity, maximise value for money and support the long-term sustainability of high-quality patient services.

This is a unique opportunity to join CMPC at a pivotal stage in its development. Bringing together provider organisations from across the region, CMPC is committed to harnessing the benefits of working at scale to improve outcomes, reduce unwarranted variation and ensure the best possible use of NHS resources.

The successful candidate will provide strategic leadership for the development and delivery of a complex portfolio of efficiency and transformation initiatives. You will lead programmes spanning productivity improvement, procurement, commercial strategy, contract optimisation and benefits realisation, ensuring that opportunities are translated into measurable and sustainable outcomes across multiple organisations.

Main duties of the job

We are looking for an individual with significant expertise in financial management, procurement, commercial strategy or related disciplines, supported by a relevant professional qualification such as CIMA, ACCA, MCIPS or equivalent. You will bring credibility, resilience and a collaborative leadership style, with a clear commitment to partnership working and continuous improvement.

A strong track record of leading large-scale transformation and delivering significant financial improvement within the NHS will be essential. You will need to demonstrate the ability to operate confidently at Board level, influencing senior leaders across organisational boundaries and building consensus around ambitious programmes of change. Experience of working within complex and politically sensitive environments, together with the ability to balance strategic thinking with delivery focus, will be critical to success in the role.

You will provide visible and inclusive leadership, fostering a culture of innovation, accountability and shared learning across the system. Strong communication and stakeholder management skills will be essential, alongside a genuine passion for improving value and productivity in ways that support high-quality patient care and better outcomes for the populations we serve.

About us

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves a population of over 600,000 with a workforce of over 10,500 dedicated and skilled staff across 21 sites.

Our services:

Acute Care

Providing emergency and maternity services at Whiston, Southport and Ormskirk hospitals, and medical and surgical specialties across all our sites.

Primary Care

Providing primary care services at Marshalls Cross Medical Centre situated in St Helens Hospital.

Community Services

Providing adult community services for St Helens and a wheelchair service in Chorley, South Ribble, and West Lancashire. Our inpatient unit at Newton Community Hospital is where patients needing acute hospital beds can continue rehabilitation. We also provide urgent care at our Urgent Treatment Centre located in St Helens town centre.

Specialist Regional Services

We provide the Mersey Regional Burns & Plastic Surgery Unit at Whiston Hospital and the Spinal Injuries Unit at Southport Hospital to more than 4 million people across the whole of Merseyside, West Lancashire, Cheshire, Isle of Man and North Wales.

Achievements:

• Rated Outstanding by CQC Inspection August 2018


• Top 100 places to work in the NHS (NHS Employers & Health Service Journal)


• National Preceptorship Accreditation (2023) for Nursing & AHP Preceptorship Programme.

Job responsibilities

Cheshire and Merseyside Provider Collaborative (CMPC)

Please note that this role is hosted by Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust on behalf of Cheshire and Merseyside Provider Collaborative.

About CMPC

Cheshire and Merseyside Provider Collaborative (CMPC) formed on 1 May 2025, when Cheshire and Merseyside Acute and Specialist Trust Provider Collaborative and the Mental Health, Learning Disability and Community Provider Collaborative merged.

Working alongside Cheshire and Merseysides Integrated Care Board, together, CMPC's provider trusts address the challenges facing them, which cannot be solved by any one organisation alone.

CMPC consists of all NHS provider trusts across Cheshire and Merseyside, working together for better patient care. Key to this is ensuring that our services are sustainable and able to respond to the healthcare needs of our communities, now and into the future.

Our member organisations provide a range of health and care services, encompassing acute, community and mental health, with several specialist areas including paediatrics, neurology, cancer, cardio-thoracic and womens.

Supported by a highly experienced CMPC programme team, our work aligns with the Governments Medium-Term and 10 Year Health Plans:

Creating a stronger connection between in-hospital and out-of-hospital services

Moving healthcare closer to home and into the community

Reducing waiting lists and strengthening services

Ensuring equal, high-quality healthcare for all

Easing NHS workforce pressures and using NHS resources better

Using new technologies to work more efficiently

Fair and equal collaboration is integral to our success. Our vision is to work collectively for a single healthcare system, to provide high quality, timely, efficient, productive and sustainable services to everyone in Cheshire and Merseyside.

About CMPCs Efficiency at Scale Programme

The Efficiency at Scale Programme is a system-wide initiative, with CMPC trusts coming together to address their shared challenges and deliver improvements that cannot be achieved in isolation.

• Through it, we use scale, standardisation and collaboration to:


• Reduce unwarranted variation across the NHS in Cheshire and Merseyside


• Deliver measurable efficiencies, improving use of resource


• Improve resilience and productivity, making services stronger


• Strengthen quality across corporate services, procurement, digital optimisation and medicines optimisation

Improving patient care is at the heart of what we do. Collectively, improvements brought by the programme reduce health inequalities and support the levellingup of services across Cheshire and Merseyside, as well as strengthening the systems longterm financial sustainability.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Qualifications Degree in Management held or qualified by equivalent experience


• Educated to Masters level in relevant subject or equivalent level of experience


• Relevant professional financial or procurement qualification (e.g. MCIPS, CIMA, ACCA or equivalent)


• Significant evidence of continued professional development towards Board level in a specialist area

Knowledge

• Extensive experience of delivering quality services within a complex acute setting.


• Demonstrable track record of successful change management achievements, including evidence of successful programme leadership of wide scale acute healthcare programmes


• Significant experience in procurement, commercial strategy and contract optimisation


• Subject matter expertise across a number of key areas relating financial and commercial optimisation.


• Demonstrable senior governance experience involving system working or across multiple organisations and multiple programmes


• Proven experience of identifying and building successful and positive relationships.


• Experience of complex negotiations with senior stakeholders Evidence of successfully leading highly skilled senior multi-disciplinary professionals.


• Experience of developing effective performance through people.


• Evidence of understanding of health and care management, governance, risk, operational and legal structures, and their application.


• Significant experience of working collaboratively within a health and care setting including with commissioner and primary care partners


• Experience of working with Chief Executives and Executive Directors across multiple organisations, effectively influencing the direction of strategy across a regional footprint


• Knowledge and a clear understanding of the background to, and aims of the current healthcare policy, particularly related to finance, governance and procurement regulations


• Experience of interpreting and applying national healthcare guidance

Skills

• Ability to analyse, disseminate and present complex information, using both verbal and written disciplines. Extensive experience of delivering presentations to large groups of stakeholders in often pressured and politically sensitive environments.


• Ability to prioritise conflicting programme priorities and maintain momentum.


• Ability to analyse highly numerical and written data, assess options and draw appropriate initiatives


• Outcome focussed demonstrating a passion for 5 Star patient centred care.


• Knowledge and understanding of the context of healthcare nationally and globally. NHS strategy and policy in particular related to integrated care systems


• IT literate to high standard.


• Understanding of the principles within the NHS sector.

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.

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust