Public Partnerships Manager

Salary: £33,966 to £36,024 with progression to £44,263 per annum, pro rata

Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits. We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.

Closing Date: 09 June 2024

The Role

This is an exciting new post to deliver the public partnership activity for NIHR HealthTech Research Centre in Diagnostic and Technology Evaluation (HRC). Public Partnership is a term to collectively describe ways in which patients, service users, carers, members of the public and charities and community groups work with researchers, and health and care professionals, in the creation and use of health and care research. This is also often referred to as patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE). 

You will ensure that there is meaningful and diverse public representation embedded across all HRC activities both at strategy and operational level. The HRC drives innovation and efficiency, bringing new diagnostic technologies to those who need them most, supporting the health and care workforce to reduce workload, and help alleviate pressures on the health and care system. 

You will work as part of a multidisciplinary team within the HRC. Line management will be provided by Kasia Kurowska, Head of Public Partnership, Newcastle Health Innovation Partners. 

Key activity will include: 
 
•    Overseeing the delivery of PPIE across every level of the HRC including operational and strategic involvement activities
•    Working with academic leads and researchers in the HRC, develop innovative PPIE activities to widen opportunities for patient and public involvement in our research and promote diversity
•    Developing and maintaining relationships and collaborations with key external stakeholders including the public, patient groups and wider voluntary and community sectors
•    Building capacity and expertise in PPIE through development of training and learning resources, and provision of expert guidance and advice, including evaluation approaches and reporting
•    Working collaboratively with colleagues in the NIHR infrastructure and nationally with other HRCs to ensure that PPIE activity aligns with the UK Standards for Public Involvement in research and other PPIE best practice

Please note that if you are successful to this role, you will require medical clearance before you can commence in the role and a Disclosure and Barring Service Check.

This post is tenable for 4 years at 0.6 FTE.

For further information please contact Kasia Kurowska kasia.kurowska@newcastle.ac.uk  

Key Accountabilities

• Proactively identify public involvement and engagement opportunities for the strategic development of HRC and 3 HRC Research Themes, to enable delivery of outstanding and exemplary PPIE activity
• Responsible for liaising with and building strong relationships with public contributors, including acting as point of contact, supporting their attendance at meetings, provision of training as needed
• Develop positive and two-way relationships with community and charity organisations and other groupings to increase diversity in HRC research PPIE activities
• Manage the PPIE governance and operational activity of the HRC Insight Panel. This may include chairing meetings and acting as secretariat within involvement meetings
• Develop evaluation processes to enable assessment of PPIE impact for reporting purposes and oversee their implementation across HRC
• Responsible for the collation and management of information about our PPIE activity, including evaluation metrics, and drafting annual reports
• Take an active role in local and regional PPIE networks, including relevant patient groups/organisations, voluntary and community sectors, to share learning from our activities and maintain up-to-date knowledge of best practice in PPIE
• Take an active role in the national HRC Network to support cross collaborations in PPIE to benefit patient population
• Proactively identify public engagement opportunities and lead the development and delivery of a programme of activities, with a focus on novel and innovative approaches that will promote awareness of the HRC related research among population groups who are underserved by research
• Provide guidance on the use of accessible language for the website and written materials, such as plain English summaries, patient information sheets and for feedback to public contributors
• Develop engagement materials such as reports, website content and other written materials to ensure optimal external visibility of the HRC PPIE activities. Facilitate patient and public involvement in disseminating research findings to a wide range of audiences, including professionals, policy makers, third sector and the public
• Manage the HRC PPIE budget and provide effective financial management in support of PPIE activity. This will involve working with the HRC team to develop budget plans, costing and forecasting
• Be aware of and comply with current data protection legislation, and ensure that all activity, data collection and management comply with these demands
• Any other relevant activities required by the HRC

The Person

Knowledge, Skills and Experience 

• Experience of project management and producing high quality outputs
• Experience of patient and public involvement and engagement 
• Experience of community engagement and involvement activities and evidence of working with diverse groups 
• The ability to communicate verbally and in writing to a range of audiences (via verbal, written and digital media)
• Excellent interpersonal skills with different people 
• Ability to use initiative, prioritise and a has creative approach to problem solving
• Ability to work flexibly and co-operatively with others, but also to work independently
• Experience of working with patients or public in developing processes and practices to achieve agreed objectives
• Chairing and governance skills and experience of leading development of governance arrangements to increase public voice in decision making
• Strong IT skills
• Experience of working as part of a multi-professional and multi organisation teams and collaborations
• Experience of working at regional and national level in collaborative work and teams
• Experience of engagement event organisation and management
• The ability maintain confidentiality and to handle difficult or sensitive situations

Attributes and Behaviour

Planning and Organising  

• Manages time and resources by prioritising and organising effectively

Communicating  

• Uses clear, concise and accurate communication, tailoring the approach accordingly and encouraging a two-way communication process

Delivering Services

• Works continually towards achieving excellent service delivery through understanding and meeting / exceeding the expectations of stakeholders

Gathering Information  

• Gathers a broad range of relevant information from internal and external sources making this information widely available

Qualifications

• Educated to degree level or equivalent, plus extensive relevant experience

Newcastle University is a global University where everyone is treated with dignity and respect.  As a University of Sanctuary, we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all, offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution.

We are committed to being a fully inclusive university which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society.  We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all of our employees and the communities they represent.  We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams, we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and experiences reflect the diversity of our university and student population.

At Newcastle University we hold a silver Athena Swan award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality.  We also hold a Race Equality Charter Bronze award in recognition of our work towards tackling race inequality in higher education REC.  We are a Disability Confident employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role as part of the offer and interview scheme.

In addition, we are a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe. 

Requisition ID: 27088