National Operations Service Programme Director

We are currently looking for motivated individuals to join the National Operations Service (NOS) as t he National Operations Service Programme Director for the Multi-Cancer Blood Test (MCBT) Programme.
The NHS Long Term Plan has set out key ambitions for cancer diagnosis and care. This aims to ensure that an extra 55,000 people each year will survive their cancer for five years or more, and 75% of people with cancer will be diagnosed at an early stage. Increasing earlier-stage diagnosis rates, raises the likelihood of curative treatment and improves long-term survival. The plan aims to maximise the number of cancers identified through screening.
Should the NHS-Galleri Trial meet interim goals, to be assessed in spring 2024, the NHSE MCED Blood Test Screening Pilot will offer up to 1 million Galleri tests (which has been found to predict the tissue of origin of >50 types of cancer) to asymptomatic people from summer 2024 for two years. Participants who receive a ‘Cancer Signal Detected’ result will be referred to secondary care for diagnostic testing to confirm if cancer is present.
The National Operations Service will support the NHSE MCED Blood Test Screening Pilot through the provision of 3 main operational functions:
Demand Management Team
Call Centre Team
Clinical Team
The National Operations Service Programme Director will be responsible and accountable for the overall management of the National Operations Service and all staff providing the service.
The National Operations Service Programme Director will be responsible for:
Managing performance to ensure deliver of all KPI activity, workforce and financial targets to ensure that the service that we offer to participants is of the highest quality, safety and efficiency.
Supporting the delivery of the strategic priorities of the NHSE Multi-Cancer Blood Test Pilot Screening Programme by the provision of an integrated, safe and multifaceted service across all screening pilot areas in England.
Ensuring that participants can easily engage in the pilot
Ensuring safe and effective management of positive results
Supporting local systems with safe and effective pathways to manage the demand and capacity requirements.
Based in the North East of England we provide a range of hospital and community health services from our leading facilities, including the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Blaydon urgent care centre and Bensham Hospital, all within Gateshead.
Established in 2005, we were one of the first foundation trusts in the country and since then have consistently achieved the highest levels of care for patients.
We now employ around 4,800 staff and currently provide 444 hospital beds across the Gateshead region.
Our values should be the ‘golden thread’ which runs through everything we do – they are the core of who we are. Our five values can easily be remembered by the simple acronym ICORE; Innovation, Care, Openness, Respect, Engagement.
We have a number of staff networks including the Global Ethnic Majority (GEM) network, D-Ability network, LGBTQ+ Network and the Women’s Network, to challenge us and help us to constantly improve. Our Armed Forces network is one of our emerging networks.
The health and wellbeing of our staff is one of our highest priorities, and we offer a range of support and initiatives as part of our ‘Balance’ programme balancegateshead.com to cater for our diverse workforce, so that your individual needs can be supported, allowing you a happy and healthy working experience with us.
The National Operations Service is being set up to support the NHSE Multi-Cancer Blood Test Screening Pilot through the provision of 3 main operational functions:
Demand Management Team (local recruitment): will support the invitation of the selected population cohort, ensuring that capacity and demand is optimised.
Call Centre Team (local recruitment): will manage all booking and query calls for participants and public accessing the call centre.
Clinical Team (national recruitment): Will support the call centre with clinical queries from participants; will manage abnormal results, including contacting the participant and ensuring the onward referral into secondary care for diagnostic testing; provide referral safety netting and support local Trusts within the pilot areas with referrals.
The National Operations Service Programme Director will:
lead and manage all staff in the National Operations Service
be responsible for engaging Operations Managers, Clinical Nurse Specialists, Admin and Project Support managers and other senior staff in the complex management and clinical agenda including the preparation of operational performance and quality updates and plans to develop capacity and capability to deliver on NHSE priorities.
be responsible for the development of capacity and capability of the call centre, invitations, clinical and admin teams to deliver the programme objectives and priorities.
be accountable to the clinical director and NHSE for the delivery of all key operational, performance, quality and safety, financial and workforce targets
be responsible for managing the relationship with NHSE throughout the pilot, attending NHSE Galleri Testing Programme Board, providing quality and performance reports as required and supporting the wider objectives of the screening pilot.
be responsible for providing clinical support to local trusts engaged in the pilot
See Job Description for further detail.