Job summary
If you would like to join an organisation that is passionate about helping the NHS make best use of new innovations and technologies to support patients and healthcare professionals, this is the role for you!
We are looking for a Programme Assistant to join our dynamic Innovation and Growth team, which plays an important role in identifying and nurturing promising new innovations that could help the NHS in the West of England.
This exciting new post will report into our Innovation and Growth Programme Manager and will be involved in developing and delivering approaches to support engagement with colleagues in local health and care organisations to understand their needs and challenges that could benefit from innovative solutions.
The postholder will also support a range of activities to articulate these needs and challenges to healthcare innovators.
This role will suit someone who is a creative problem solver, who is highly adaptable and organised, and has strong communications, information gathering and project management skills.
We plan to interview short listed candidates during w/c 24th October 2022.
Main duties of the job
The Innovation and Growth team of the West of England AHSN works to identify and nurture promising new innovations which could help address identified needs within the NHS, improving care and increasing efficiencies. The Innovation pipeline is a core mechanism used across the AHSN Network for this purpose.
Mainly working within the Innovation and Growth team, the post holder will report to the Innovation and Growth Programme Manager and will play a key role in supporting the West of England AHSN in delivering NHS England, Office of Life Sciences, and local priority programmes for the AHSN.
The Programme Assistant supports delivery of a wide-ranging programme of activities that enable us to work with local health and care systems to firstly identify and prioritise their needs and challenges that could benefit from innovative solutions, and then articulate these to the innovation community.
The role will support an emerging portfolio of activities, but predominantly will support the planning, development and information gathering processes in line with stakeholder requirements. The role would suit an individual who has experience of complex stakeholder engagement and facilitation through various methods to generate insights to make decisions. The role requires someone who is highly adaptable, undertaking activities in a range of health and care areas with potentially a limited brief.
About us
The West of England AHSN is one of 15 AHSNs across England, established by NHS England to spread proven health innovation at pace and scale. We connect and collaborate with NHS and care organisations, industry, the third sector, universities and researchers to support transformation across whole health and social care systems, with a clear focus on improving outcomes for citizens. We are an NHS organisation and employment with our AHSN is through the Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust.
We have two offices, one in central Bristol and another in nearby South Gloucestershire on the UWE Frenchay campus. We support agile working including the opportunity to work from home, and welcome applications from applicants seeking remote working opportunities. You will need to be able to travel to one of our office bases or occasionally to other locations within our geography for in-person meetings and events.
We value a workforce where people's varied backgrounds and experiences bring different perspectives and fresh ideas resulting in the development and spread of transformational innovations. We therefore welcome applications from diverse communities to ensure our team is dynamic, vibrant and reflects the populations we serve.
Find out more about the West of England AHSN at www.weahsn.net or follow @WEAHSN on Twitter.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Please find attached to the vacancy a detailed person specification and job description for further information about this role.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Please find attached to the vacancy a detailed person specification and job description for further information about this role.
Person Specification
Qualifications and Training
Essential
- Educated to degree level or able to demonstrate an equivalent level of knowledge, skills and experience in a relevant related or project management discipline
- Knowledge and experience of working in a similar or same role within a project/programme setting
- Evidence of continuing professional development
Desirable
- Project officer qualification e.g. PRINCE 2 or APM
- Project Management experience
- Professionally qualified or a relevant degree in a clinical/ healthcare subject
- Knowledge and experience of the NHS and local health and social care functions or of commercial work within the healthcare sector
Knowledge
Essential
- Demonstrable experience of working as part of a multi-disciplinary project team environment
- Experience of organising/ planning meetings and events
- Understanding of integrated working
Desirable
- Experience of working with customer relationship (CRM) software
- Experience of working with project management software (e.g. Verto)
Specific Skills
Essential
- Ability to gather and analyse data, compile information and prepare reports
- Ability to support multiple projects, prioritising in an ever changing environment
- Ability to interpret requirements, deployment schedules and expected benefits of projects
- Ability to communicate effectively at all levels and across organisational boundaries - both written and verbal
- Excellent organisational skills
- Ability to develop and maintain record keeping systems and procedures.
- Able to work at a high pace with changing priorities and urgent requests that impact upon the programme of work, effectively prioritising actions
- Proficient IT skills, with the ability to quickly adapt to new technologies, including demonstrating a first class knowledge of MS Office Suite
- Resourceful and capable of working on own initiative
- Capable of managing conflicting priorities and demands with a sense of urgency whilst maintaining standards of high quality service delivery
- Capable of delivering high-quality work with an astute attention to detail
- Completer finisher, approaching all work requests with a can-do attitude
- Able to appreciate current operational cultures and constraints, whilst remaining optimistic and focused on users at all levels and in all disciplines
- Able to work calmly under pressure
Desirable
- Data protection principles and NHS confidentiality requirements
- Understanding of Quality Improvement methodologies, i.e. process mapping experience
- Experience of supporting healthcare innovators and businesses
- Good understanding of the healthcare innovation environment
Person Specification
Qualifications and Training
Essential
- Educated to degree level or able to demonstrate an equivalent level of knowledge, skills and experience in a relevant related or project management discipline
- Knowledge and experience of working in a similar or same role within a project/programme setting
- Evidence of continuing professional development
Desirable
- Project officer qualification e.g. PRINCE 2 or APM
- Project Management experience
- Professionally qualified or a relevant degree in a clinical/ healthcare subject
- Knowledge and experience of the NHS and local health and social care functions or of commercial work within the healthcare sector
Knowledge
Essential
- Demonstrable experience of working as part of a multi-disciplinary project team environment
- Experience of organising/ planning meetings and events
- Understanding of integrated working
Desirable
- Experience of working with customer relationship (CRM) software
- Experience of working with project management software (e.g. Verto)
Specific Skills
Essential
- Ability to gather and analyse data, compile information and prepare reports
- Ability to support multiple projects, prioritising in an ever changing environment
- Ability to interpret requirements, deployment schedules and expected benefits of projects
- Ability to communicate effectively at all levels and across organisational boundaries - both written and verbal
- Excellent organisational skills
- Ability to develop and maintain record keeping systems and procedures.
- Able to work at a high pace with changing priorities and urgent requests that impact upon the programme of work, effectively prioritising actions
- Proficient IT skills, with the ability to quickly adapt to new technologies, including demonstrating a first class knowledge of MS Office Suite
- Resourceful and capable of working on own initiative
- Capable of managing conflicting priorities and demands with a sense of urgency whilst maintaining standards of high quality service delivery
- Capable of delivering high-quality work with an astute attention to detail
- Completer finisher, approaching all work requests with a can-do attitude
- Able to appreciate current operational cultures and constraints, whilst remaining optimistic and focused on users at all levels and in all disciplines
- Able to work calmly under pressure
Desirable
- Data protection principles and NHS confidentiality requirements
- Understanding of Quality Improvement methodologies, i.e. process mapping experience
- Experience of supporting healthcare innovators and businesses
- Good understanding of the healthcare innovation environment
Additional information
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
