Policy Advisor

About NHS Providers

NHS Providers is the membership organisation for the NHS hospital, mental health, community and ambulance services that treat patients and service users in the NHS. We help those NHS foundation trusts and trusts to deliver high-quality, patient-focused care by enabling them to learn from each other, acting as their public voice and helping shape the system in which they operate.

NHS Providers has all trusts in England in voluntary membership, collectively accounting for £115bn of annual expenditure and employing 1.4 million people.

We are highly regarded for our effectiveness and impact. We are the ‘go to’ organisation for comment and debate on the issues facing public providers of NHS services, and we believe that the work we do makes a real difference to our members, their staff, and patients.

We are a busy, high performing team of around 100 staff, based in central London, although we are flexible and are currently working in a hybrid format, with both office and homeworking.

The role 

NHS Providers is recruiting a Policy Advisor to join our busy, supportive and high performing team. The team of Policy Advisors within the NHS Providers policy and strategy directorate take leadership of individual policy areas, influence the national policy agenda on behalf of members and work flexibly to contribute to the organisation’s other priorities, including supporting members and working in partnership with other organisations. This working model allows Policy Advisors to develop a firm grasp of the general policy issues facing our members, while providing an opportunity for each advisor to gain a deeper understanding and experience of specialist areas. It also enables Policy Advisors to collaborate with policy team colleagues, as well as with the communications and development and engagement directorates.

The current focus of this role is to analyse and influence the national policy agenda on NHS funding levels, financial performance, payments systems and contracting. This portfolio is one of the most high profile and reactive areas of work in our organisation and carries with it the opportunity to develop and lead projects, working closely with directors of NHS trusts and foundation trusts, and with the senior management of NHS Providers, including working closely with our media and public affairs teams.

The postholder will also support our policy work on other priority areas, such as ‘operational performance’ by which we mean access standards, progress against national targets, planning and prioritisation.

The NHS is in a significant period of reform, due to the legislative change establishing integrated care systems (ICSs) as statutory organisations in 2022. It is also in a uniquely challenging period due to ongoing operational and financial pressures, rising demand, workforce challenges, and the need to recover care backlogs. The reform agenda and operational context both mean trusts need to find new ways to work in their local systems and deliver for patients.

This role is an exciting opportunity to support trust leaders as they respond to this challenging and changing environment. This role will require the postholder to be flexible, adapt to a rapidly changing external landscape, responsively manage parts of a wide-ranging portfolio, and contribute to media, public affairs and board development work. The focus of the role may change over time, dependent on the needs of our members.

How to apply 

Please send a CV and covering letter setting out why you are interested in the role and how you meet the person specification by an email via the button below by noon, Friday 26 April 2024.

Interviews will take place in the week commencing 13 May 2024.

For an informal conversation about the role, please contact Georgia Butterworth, senior policy manager (georgia.butterworth@nhsproviders.org)