Quality Direct Service Manager

NHS; Filton; Hybrid; GBP 50,000 - 65,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading healthcare organization in the UK is seeking a Quality Direct team leader. This role involves overseeing the Quality Direct team's operations, ensuring compliance with regulations while managing change and improvements. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience in Quality Assurance or regulated environments, holding a Master's degree and leadership qualifications. Strong communication skills and a commitment to continuous improvement are essential. This position offers a blend of office and home working with travel requirements.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in a regulatory environment, preferably in healthcare.
• Proven leadership skills in managing staff and teams.
• Strong knowledge of Quality Systems and related legislation.

Responsibilities

• Oversee daily operations of Quality Direct and manage team performance.
• Deliver service improvements based on customer service excellence.
• Support internal audits against current regulations and standards.

Skills

Change management

Communication skills

Quality Assurance

Team management

Continuous improvement

Education

Master's Degree or equivalent

Management qualification

Tools

Microsoft Office Suite

ServiceNow IT system

Storm telephony system

Job description

This post offers an exciting opportunity to lead the Quality Direct team, a national team of quality experts, whose purpose is to provide advice, guidance and support on all Quality Management System matters, enabling NHSBT to achieve quality excellence and ensure donor and patient safety.

You will be joining the team at a time of change to ways of working and will need to manage the team through these changes. Therefore, experience in change management, especially organisational change would be advantageous. This role requires some travel to your base site (office); currently 3 days a week, as well as home working. With excellent communication and influencing skills you will be expected to build good working relationships with individuals working within the Quality and Governance Directorate as well as other directorates in the organisation, to ensure patient safety and compliance requirements are understood and adhered to.

You will have considerable previous experience working in Quality Assurance or a regulated life science / healthcare environment. MSc Degree qualified, or equivalent, you will also have a working knowledge of relevant standards such as ISO 9000 series and EC guide to GMP.

The Quality Direct team has a strong focus on service delivery; experience with customer service delivery and continuous improvement in a healthcare setting would be advantageous and help ensure the team is able to meet set service level agreements.

Main duties of the job

In this role you will be responsible for overseeing the management of the day-to-day operations of Quality Direct, ensuring that Direct Reports (DRs) achieve their primary responsibilities. Your responsibilities will include:

1. Delivering operational objectives through performance management of DRs and through carrying out process improvement projects.

2. Providing leadership, guidance and management to the Quality Direct team.

3. Managing and supporting wellbeing of Quality Direct DRs through the management of NHSBTs HR policies, including recruitment, attendance, time off work, flexible working etc.

4. Delivering service improvements based on customer service excellence as well as directorate and organisational strategies using continuous improvement.

5. Supporting internal audits of NHSBT functions against current regulations and standards such as BSQR, TQSR and ISO15189. Preparing, executing and peer-reviewing audits and audit reports.

6. Managing and be responsible for the operation of the ServiceNow IT system, Storm telephony system, QPulse, Customer Database, MyESR, EASY, Iprocurement, within Quality Direct.

You will be required to travel and spend time away from base, which will involve working irregular hours and overnight stays when required, with prior notice

About us

It takes all types of people to deliver the kind of service that saves and improves lives. At NHS Blood and Transplant, youll join a team of more than 6,000 people who are making a genuine difference to communities, families, friends, relatives and more across the UK. We play a unique and special role in the NHS by helping people do something extraordinary- donate blood, blood products, organs, tissues, or stem cells to save someone in need.Our three core values are what set us apart. They guide and inspire everything we do.By being caring, expertly meeting the needs of our patients and our people, and accepting nothing less than the best quality, we can do extraordinary work and help our people to do something extraordinary in their career, too. Three small words, one big difference - Caring, Expert and Quality. Together we'll save and improve more lives than ever.You will join us on our journey to create an inclusive workplace and aim to reflect the diverse communities we work with, and we positively encourage applications from all sectors of the community.

Job responsibilities

Please view the attached recruitment profile which is a summary of the detailed Job Description and Person Specification for the full personal attributes we require for the role. You will need to demonstrate these throughout the recruitment process.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Educated to Masters Degree or equivalent in a scientific or technical discipline, plus extensive specialist postgraduate level training (or equivalent level of knowledge acquired through experience and further training / development)
• Management qualification or evidence of management training and development
• Demonstrates commitment to own continued professional development (CPD)

Experience

• Experience of working in a regulatory environment for example pharmaceutical manufacturing or equivalent
• Knowledge of medicines legislation, EU blood, Tissues and Organ Directives and other mandated regulatory schemes
• Knowledge and experience in Quality Systems and their application within a regulated environment
• Knowledge of blood and tissues and their use in transfusion and transplantation; blood and tissue collection, processing, testing systems and procedures, as well as diagnostic testing; supply chains and medicine legislations and accreditation schemes
• Significant experience of managing staff, ideally in a service manager role
• Significant experience of working at a senior level where influencing skills are required when the subject may be highly contentious or highly sensitive
• Experience of writing clear and concise reports
• Previous experience in delivering training to small or large groups either in person or online
• Knowledge of administrative procedures, project management or information analysis
• Demonstrable Continuous Improvement (CI) experience
• Knowledge of wider healthcare community
• Experience of working with information technology using Microsoft Office packages (Outlook, Word, Excel, Teams and PowerPoint)