Project Manager (Bank)

Job responsibilities

JOB DESCRIPTION

POST: Project Manager (Coaching Academy)

BANDING: AfC Band 7 (Bank)

RESPONSIBLE TO: Programme Manager

ACCOUNTABLE TO: Head of Programmes

Innovation Agency

The Innovation Agency (IA) is one of 15 Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs) established by the NHS in England to accelerate the spread of innovations. The Innovation Agency website contains more details about the organisation and its area of cover (www.innovationagencynwc.nhs.uk) which includes Merseyside, South Cumbria, Lancashire and most of Cheshire.

The work of the Innovation Agency progresses the ‘Innovation, Health and Wealth’ agenda and has been established to ensure that innovations benefit the health of individuals, communities, regions and the nation.

AHSNs are a critical structure for aligning the NHS, academia and industry, and work as ‘system integrators’ across these domains. The Innovation Agency has three strategic goals, these are:

1. Increase the spread and adoption of innovation through collaboration

1. Develop cultures that promote equity and allow innovation to thrive.

1. Stimulate economic growth and create jobs in the health and life sciences sector

Our people are central to the success of the organisation and are valued as such. This is demonstrated objectively in the achievement of the Investors in People (IIP) Gold award.

Our core values drive both how we work together and how we work with our stakeholders, these are:

• Brave

• Innovative

• Collaborative

• Caring

• Engaging all voices

The Innovation Agency supports staff in their ongoing development and achievement of personal goals that are aligned to the organisation’s objectives.

Job Summary

The role requires a Project Manager with an understanding of project management with experience in one or more of the following areas: healthcare, education, coaching, learning and development, innovation, to support the delivery of Coaching Academy programmes and local projects.

The post-holder will have excellent organisational skills in order to mobilise a range of projects and support programme managers. The post-holder will be responsible for the planning, co-ordination, monitoring and delivery of identified project(s) and workstream(s) across the Coaching Academy. In order to achieve this, they will work with the Programme Managers and in collaboration with the stakeholders / networks across the North West Coast and within the Innovation Agency.

Delivery in this area will include, but is not limited to; project management, managing project kick starts and ensuring robust information for stakeholders, managing commissioner expectations, develop relevant project material, supporting technical aspects of webinars, providing regular contact and support to key stakeholders, evaluating projects and taking the lead on specific internal and external projects relevant to the core business of the Innovation Agency.

The post-holder will be required to deliver projects at scale within agreed timescales, identifying and mitigating risks to delivery.

The role will also support the development of a culture for continuous improvement, restoration and recovery within health and care services during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

We support our internal and external partners to deliver a variety of programmes including Innovation Agency teams, the ICS’s, NHS England, NHS Leadership Academy, People Board and local provider and commissioning organisations.

Main Duties and Responsibilities (these may differ in accordance with different project needs)

The Project Manager will cover the following distinct areas of work and with support from the Programme Managers, Head of Programmes and Associate Directors be responsible for:

• Planning and managing specific projects in close collaboration with Programme Managers and Associate Directors.

• Communicating with commissioners and ongoing management of expectations for delivery.

• Development of onboarding, monitoring and evaluation approaches for projects and capturing project level metrics.

• Contributing to the development of a learning system, engaging with stakeholders to understand needs, co-design of workshops (online & face to face), bespoke workshops and preparing content for digital platforms and online delivery via Moodle.

• Supporting the co-ordination of Webinars and virtual learning events. Working closely with the Programme Manager and Associate Director to define topics, agree plans with partners and work with events manager to ensure smooth operational planning and delivery of events and training.

• Managing communities of practice as required to include forward workflow planning of events and learning opportunities either face to face or virtually and working with partners to develop offers.

• Providing reports for a variety of audiences

Coaching Programmes

• Work with the Programme Managers and Associate Directors to deliver a variety of coaching programmes to a wide range of stakeholders from health and care

• Support the Coaching Academy programmes in building learning and development projects.

• Seek opportunities to grow the learning and development support within the Coaching Academy.

Project Planning & Management

• Design and apply appropriate project management frameworks using relevant project management processes.

• Work with the Programme Managers, Heads of Programmes and Associate Directors to plan and monitor projects.

• Adopt any delegated assurance roles within agreed reporting structures.

• Manage stakeholders.

• Prepare and maintain the Project Plan, Stage and Highlight reports as required.

• Identify and manage project risks, including the development of contingency plans.

• Undertake the logging and resolution of issues which arise obtaining appropriate approvals, and seeking advice where necessary.

• Manage the overall progress and use of resources, initiating corrective action where necessary.

• Manage the change control and any required configuration management.

• Report, through agreed reporting lines, on project progress through Highlight Reports and stage assessments.

• Liaise with appointed project assurance roles to assure the overall direction and integrity of the project within the programme.

• Identify and obtain any support and advice required for the management, planning and control of the projects.

• Manage project specific administration.

• Conduct end of project evaluations to assess how well projects were managed and prepare end-project reports.

• Prepare Lessons Learned reports.

• Prepare any follow-on action recommendations as required.

Assessment and Evaluation

• Understand and apply approaches for evaluation of projects, using qualitative and quantitative methods

• Support our partners in capture of metrics for evaluation of programmes

• Analyze and present the findings of evaluations and record for wider sharing

• Capture benefits of programs and identify case studies of learning

• Manage information and data from assessment and evaluation of programmes

Work Related Requirements

Essential

• Ability to comply with the travel requirements of the post and undertake work-related journeys within the NWC area (regularly), nationally (occasionally) and internationally (occasionally if in the interests of the organisation).
• Must be able to work outside traditional office hours on occasions and work flexibly

Qualifications

Essential

• Working towards or educated to Masters degree level or equivalent experience
• Evidence of continuous personal professional development.
• Project Management qualification e.g. Prince2, Agile, MSP (Foundation level) or equivalent

Desirable

• Coaching and/or mentoring qualification

Knowledge

Essential

• How to design and deliver successful projects.
• Knowledge of how to engage with multiple stakeholders and achieve successful outcomes.
• Knowledge of networking approaches and how to implement them
• Knowledge of how to understand and interpret strategic aims and develop implementation plans
• Knowledge of data collection and analysis for evaluative purposes.

Desirable

• Continuous improvement of project management and evaluating effectiveness.

Skills and abilities

Essential

• Ability to develop and maintain effective working partnerships with professional groups and senior managers within the organisation and in our partner agencies.
• Ability to work effectively within a team environment including team-building and team management skills
• Ability to identify resources and delegate as needed
• Demonstrates the organisations values:
• Making a difference
• Honesty and integrity
• Collaborative and creative
• Caring
• Embracing diversity

Experience

Essential

• Successfully managing projects end to end.
• Experience of creating and managing ongoing productive relationships with a wide variety of stakeholders.
• Experience of managing commissioner expectations.
• Management and delivery of multi stakeholder events.
• Experience of writing concise and effective reports for organisations internal forums
• Experience in assessment and evaluation of projects
• Experience of working with a range of Microsoft applications, including Teams, Excel, Word etc.

Desirable

• Evidence of an understanding and interpretation of national and local NHS policy.