Operational Manager for Clinical Services

Job summary

We are looking for an experienced and motivated operational leader to join Trinity Hospice as our Operational Manager for Clinical Services on a fixed-term maternity cover contract.

This key role will provide senior operational leadership across a range of clinical services, supporting safe, high-quality care for patients and families while ensuring effective governance, workforce planning, performance monitoring and service improvement. Working closely with clinical and corporate colleagues, you'll help maintain service continuity, manage operational challenges and support the delivery of our strategic priorities.

This is an exciting opportunity to make a meaningful contribution within a compassionate, values-led organisation dedicated to improving the experience of people affected by life-limiting illness.

Main duties of the job

As Operational Manager for Clinical Services, you will provide senior operational leadership across a range of hospice services, supporting managers and clinical leads to deliver safe, effective and high-quality care. You will help ensure services run smoothly, providing guidance on operational issues, workforce planning, service performance and risk management, while maintaining a strong focus on patient and family experience.

Working closely with colleagues across the organisation, you will support governance and quality improvement activities, oversee performance reporting, monitor key objectives and contribute to the delivery of organisational priorities. You will play a key role in ensuring that actions arising from incidents, audits, complaints and service reviews are progressed effectively and translated into meaningful improvements.

The role also includes supporting the management of key contracts, service level agreements and external partnerships, ensuring strong collaborative working across hospice, community, hospital and wider healthcare services. You will contribute to service development projects, pathway improvements and initiatives that enhance service efficiency, integration and accessibility.

In addition, you will provide management support to designated teams, promoting staff wellbeing, engagement and development while fostering a positive, values-led culture of continuous improvement throughout the organisation.

About us

Trinity Hospice has been providing compassionate specialist palliative and end of life care across the Fylde Coast for over 40 years. We support patients and families through a wide range of services, including inpatient care, community-based support, hospital palliative care, wellbeing services, counselling, social work and bereavement support. Our vision is to ensure that everyone affected by a life-limiting illness receives outstanding care, support and compassion when they need it most.

We are proud to be a values-led organisation where people are at the heart of everything we do. Our staff work as one team, supporting each other to deliver high-quality care while continually seeking opportunities to learn, improve and innovate.

In return for your skills, experience and commitment, we offer a supportive and rewarding working environment together with a range of benefits, including:

• Competitive salary
• Generous annual leave entitlement plus bank holidays
• Enhanced occupational sick pay and family-friendly policies
• Contributory pension scheme or NHS Pensions can be transferred
• Access to employee wellbeing support and counselling services
• Learning and development opportunities to support your professional growth
• Free on-site parking
• A welcoming, inclusive and values-driven culture where your contribution is recognised and valued

Job responsibilities

This is an exciting opportunity to join Trinity Hospice in a senior operational leadership role, providing maternity leave cover for up to 12 months. The Operational Manager for Clinical Services will work closely with clinical and non-clinical leaders to ensure the continued delivery of safe, effective and high-quality care across a range of hospice services. The postholder will provide day-to-day operational leadership, supporting service managers and team leaders to manage operational challenges, workforce pressures, performance requirements and service improvement initiatives.

The role is responsible for maintaining continuity across a broad range of services and functions, including inpatient and community services, hospital palliative care services, clinical administration, social work, chaplaincy, service access functions and other associated support services. Working collaboratively across teams, the postholder will help ensure services remain responsive, resilient and focused on delivering the highest standards of care and support for patients, families and carers.

A key aspect of the role is providing oversight of governance, quality and risk management activities. This includes supporting investigations, incidents, complaints, audits, safeguarding, policy development and quality improvement initiatives, ensuring that learning and actions are effectively implemented and embedded across services. The postholder will contribute to regulatory preparedness and assurance activities, helping to maintain compliance and promote a positive culture of continuous improvement.

The Operational Manager will monitor service performance and support the production of regular reports, dashboards and performance information for senior leadership and the Board of Trustees. This includes analysing operational, workforce and quality data to support service planning, decision-making and improvement activities.

The role also includes operational oversight of a number of key contracts, service level agreements and partnership arrangements, working collaboratively with external organisations including NHS partners, local authorities and other service providers. The postholder will support partnership reviews, monitor performance and ensure that any risks, concerns or opportunities for improvement are appropriately escalated and managed.

Working closely with managers and team leaders, the postholder will support workforce planning, recruitment, induction, performance management, staff development and wellbeing initiatives. They will provide visible, values-led leadership, promoting collaboration, accountability and a positive working culture across services.

The postholder will be expected to build and maintain effective relationships with colleagues, stakeholders and external partners, representing Trinity Hospice professionally and contributing to operational, partnership and service development meetings as required.

As part of the senior leadership team, the successful candidate will participate in the hospice senior management arrangements, including the out-of-hours management on-call rota, providing operational leadership and support when required.

The full Job Description is attached.

Person specification

Skills and Abilities

Essential

• Excellent organisation, prioritisation and workload management skills, with the ability to manage competing operational, people, governance and reporting priorities.
• Excellent written, verbal and interpersonal communication skills, including the ability to produce clear reports, updates, action plans and service narratives.
• Strong analytical and judgement skills, with ability to interpret workforce, quality, finance, risk and performance information and make practical recommendations.
• Ability to build relationships, influence, negotiate and work diplomatically across clinical, non-clinical and external partner boundaries.
• Ability to investigate incidents, complaints and concerns, identify themes, support root cause analysis and translate learning into improvement actions.

Desirable

• Project/programme management skills or experience using structured improvement methodologies.
• Experience presenting to senior managers, trustees, commissioners or external partners.
• Advanced Excel, dashboard, data visualisation or digital reporting skills.
• Coaching, mentoring or facilitation skills.
• Formal investigation, quality improvement or governance training.

Qualifications

Essential

• Leadership/management qualification or equivalent senior operational management experience.
• Educated to degree level or able to demonstrate equivalent knowledge, skills and experience.
• Strong knowledge of healthcare, hospice, palliative care or comparable regulated service environments.

Desirable

• Postgraduate qualification or equivalent CPD in leadership, management, people practice, business, quality, governance or healthcare.
• Knowledge of NHS/community healthcare structures and contract/SLA arrangements.

Personal Attributes and Values

Essential

• Compassionate, values-led and professional approach aligned to Trinity Hospice values.
• Calm, flexible and resilient in a complex, changing environment.
• Able to work autonomously within agreed accountability and escalation arrangements.
• Commitment to equality, diversity, inclusion, confidentiality and safeguarding.

Desirable

• Experience working within a values-led charitable or hospice environment.
• Commitment to ongoing personal and professional development.

Experience

Essential

• Significant operational management experience in a healthcare, hospice, charity, NHS or comparable regulated setting.
• Experience of managing and supporting services across multiple teams or workstreams.
• Experience of service improvement, change management, pathway development, workforce planning and capacity/demand analysis.
• Experience of contract, SLA, provider or partnership management, including review meetings, performance oversight and escalation of risks or service issues.
• Experience of KPI monitoring, performance reporting, report writing and preparing information for senior leadership or Board-level audiences.
• Experience of line management or management support, including recruitment, induction, supervision, appraisal, absence, capability and performance processes.

Desirable

• Experience in specialist palliative care, end of life care, hospice services or community/hospital interface services.
• Experience of digital transformation, dashboard/reporting development, e-rostering or clinical system improvement.
• Experience managing or supporting contracts/SLA arrangements for pharmacy, social work, chaplaincy, psychology, hospital palliative care or similar multidisciplinary support services.
• Experience of producing business cases, options appraisals, quality account statements or strategic action plans.
• Experience supporting staff wellbeing, resilience-based supervision, team development or organisational development initiatives.