Deputy Chief People Officer (People & Culture)
Northampton General Hospital NHS TrustJob overview
Deputy Chief People Officer – Culture & Safety (Band 9)
Are you a senior people leader ready to lead a Trust‑wide culture improvement strategy — shaping a workplace where everyone feels they belong, can speak up, and can deliver outstanding care?
Working closely with the Chief People Officer, you will provide visible, values‑led leadership across organisation development, inclusion, people development and health and wellbeing. You will lead strategic programmes that strengthen engagement, embed just and compassionate leadership, and place safety, equality and belonging at the heart of how we work.
This is a high‑impact senior leadership role for someone who:
- Has a strong track record of leading culture change and improvement in complex organisations
- Is credible at Board and system level, and confident influencing senior leaders
- Can translate values into practical, measurable improvements for colleagues and patients
- Leads with authenticity, courage and compassion
If you are motivated by building a culture where people thrive — and where safety, inclusion and continuous improvement are everyone’s business — we’d love to hear from you.
Informal conversation about the role is welcome, please contact: [email protected]
Advert
The Deputy Chief People Officer is a key member of the senior People team and plays a key role in leading the delivery of the UHN People strategy.
The Deputy Chief People Officer will act as a role model in terms of organisational values and behaviours and support the Chief People Officer in their responsibilities covering all aspects of leadership and people management across UHN. The post holder will support the Chief People Officer in providing a comprehensive workforce service, providing leadership for the People Plan, annual business plan, Care Quality Commission standards and other workforce related governance and compliance requirements.
The post holder will lead initiatives to develop high levels of workforce engagement and performance to support delivery of the organisation’s strategic and performance goals and improvement priorities.
The Deputy Chief People Officer has a wide-ranging and extensive portfolio including strategy and policy and major change programmes. With the Chief People Officer, the post holder will ensure that the people directorate’s structure and functions – and the capacity and capability of people that work in the directorate – are fit for purpose and designed to support business needs, whilst maintaining the highest professional standards.
Working for our organisation
Please submit your application as soon as possible as we reserve the right to close adverts once we have received sufficient applications
Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is on an exciting journey with all of our divisions committed to doing things better, with more efficiency as we update, modernise, and advance. We have also entered a Group Model with neighbouring Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust and become University Hospitals of Northamptonshire (UHN). As part of this collaborative approach, there may be a requirement for you to work across both the Kettering and Northampton hospital sites, depending on the needs of the service.
Our Excellence Values
- Compassion
- Accountability
- Respect
- Integrity
- Courage
We want to recruit the best people to deliver our services across UHN and help to unleash everyone's full potential.
UHN encourages applications from people who identify from all protected groups. We understand that we need to work with colleagues from diverse backgrounds and make sure the environment they work in is inclusive and collaborative.
We recognise the valuable contribution that the Armed Forces community make to our organisation. We have signed the Armed Forces Covenant and achieved Silver Award under the Armed Forces Employer Recognition Scheme.
We have active Networks that promote and support colleagues from all backgrounds. This ensures everyone feels supported and has a sense of belonging working for UHN.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Leadership and Management
• In partnership with the Chief People Officer, have corporate responsibility to lead the development and delivery of the Trust People Plan and any associated strategies and service developments and contribute to its ongoing development and monitoring, developing and monitoring key people related metrics and performance measures.
• To lead People Plan pledge service functions, measuring the service impact with quantitative and qualitative information.
• Proactively contribute to the development and delivery of workforce plans ensuring they are consistent with corporate workforce priorities and that there is alignment between workforce, finance, and service strategies.
• Actively engage in the annual planning process, advising on workforce strategies and the impact of any planned service developments and cost improvements.
• Oversee improvements within the functions which promote operational excellence through standardising, simplifying and streamlining processes, whilst keeping customer need and experience at the heart of the enhancements and ensuring maximising operational and cost efficiency
• To support the use of technology in developing a modern workforce service
• Develop KPI’s and performance dashboards to measure and report on the effectiveness and impact of the services. Take a lead, with the Chief People Officer in the implementation of the UHN People Plan to support the organisation’s operational and strategic business plans.
• Set up and maintain effective governance at System, Trust, programme and project level to enable successful delivery of people related programmes, including clear risk management and benefits realisation. Hold leads to account for delivery of action plans, ensuring that meaningful key performance indicators (KPIs) are identified and routinely reported.
• Ensure the development and delivery of national priorities and targets and demonstrate achievement of these as a part of national and regional reporting for the hospitals e.g. National NHS Staff Survey
• Working in partnership with the Communications and Engagement team, develop and maintain workforce communication processes which actively inform and engage colleagues in the delivery of our UHN vision
• Manage budgets to meet strategic and operational business plans
• Act as a change agent, providing leadership and support particularly at senior management levels.
• Promote a positive image of UHN with appropriate external professional/ NHS/ Government and other organisations.
• Represent the Chief People Officer at internal and external meetings, attending executive and board meetings as needed.
• Participate in the on-call rota
Governance
• Lead on all employment governance ensuring that all people related risks and systems to manage them are managed and mitigated i.e.
- DBS
- Right to Work
- Professional Registration
- Fixed Terms Contracts
- Safeguarding
• Regularly report on the status of workforce related risks to ensure the status of all is known and where remedial action is required.
• Ensure risk reporting mechanisms are regularly updated and where incidents occur these are investigated in a comprehensive and timely manner.
• Work with the Governance teams to ensure that Care Quality Commission (CQC) requirements are met and in the event of inspections - data requests are responded to in a timely and comprehensive manner.
• Ensure all workforce and resourcing services meet the requirements of legislation, Internal Audit, Care Quality Commission and the NHSLA standards for Trusts.
For Full details and responsibilities of the role, please see attached job description and person specification
At Northampton General Hospital we provide general acute services and hyper-acute stroke, vascular and renal services to people living in Northamptonshire. As well as this we are an accredited cancer centre and provide cancer services to a wider population of Northamptonshire and parts of Buckinghamshire.
We are proud to be the first hospital in the UK to have obtained Pathway to Excellence® designated accreditation from the American nurses credentialing centre (ANCC).
We celebrate staff achievements and value the importance of working as one big team. That’s why we talk about Team NGH. It’s all about working together to provide the best possible care for our patients and supporting each other to grow and develop our skills. We are driven to helping you to be the best you can be.
We want to recruit the best people to deliver our services across the University Hospitals of Northamptonshire and help to unleash everyone’s full potential. As an organisation, we value how we communicate and promote our vacancies to all communities. The Hospital Group encourages applications from people who identify from all protected groups, especially those from BAME, Disabled and LGBTQ+ backgrounds as these are underrepresented in our hospitals. We understand that we need to work with colleagues from diverse backgrounds and make sure the environment they work in is inclusive and collaborative. We have active Networks that promote and support colleagues from all backgrounds. This ensures everyone feels supported and has a sense of belonging working for Kettering and Northampton General Hospitals.
Apply today and join the largest family in Northamptonshire.
Our Excellence Values:
- Compassion
- Respect
- Integrity
- Courageous
- Accountable
To apply for this post, scroll down to the bottom of this page and select “apply online now”.
In submitting an application form, you authorise Northampton General Hospital to confirm any previous NHS service details via the Electronic Staff Record Inter Authority Transfer process should you be appointed to the post.
Due to the high number of applications received we are unable to respond to each application individually. If you have not been contacted within 4 weeks of the closing date you have been unsuccessful in this application.
For further information on nursing, apprenticeships, A&E or any other departments please visit our specific website or pages that are indicated on the right hand side of this advert.
Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust recognises that staff of differing backgrounds and life experiences enrich our workforce and bring different skills and knowledge. We therefore encourage and welcome applications for our vacancies from all candidates regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.
PLEASE NOTE THAT WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO CLOSE VACANCIES PRIOR TO THE ADVERTISED CLOSING DATE WHEN WE ARE IN RECEIPT OF SUFFICIENT APPLICATIONS