Job Title:      Medical Director

Salary: Up to circa £100,000 @ 1.0 WTE *

Hours:  Part-time / job-share applications welcomed and encouraged *

Contract: Fixed Term for 12 months, initially.  

It is anticipated that the post holder(s)will likely be appointed via NHS secondment for the initial  period and will ultimately transfer to KSS AHSN Terms of Employment.  

NB:  KSS AHSN is not an AfC / NHS employer

Location:   KSS AHSN works on a hybrid basis. The successful candidate is expected to be able to attend meetings within London and the Southeast geography

Base:   KSS AHSN’s primary place of business is The Beehive, located in Gatwick / Crawley, West Sussex. Other normal places of work include our satellite sites located in Guildford and Brighton. Contractually,   your base will be KSS AHSN’s primary place of business and other normal places of work (except home)

Reports to:  KSS AHSN Chief Executive Officer

Accountable to: KSS AHSN Board of Directors (* for the post holder who is in an executive role).

* NB: The position is open to health and care professionals of all relevant professional backgrounds. There is potential for a job-share arrangement which may result in a split of executive and non-executive responsibilities. It is anticipated that the post holder(s) will currently be working in a clinical, or care system leadership role.

Background

Kent Surrey Sussex AHSN (KSS AHSN) is the AHSN covering a geography which encompasses 4.7 million people within the Southeast of England. Our geography includes a large coastline, and coastal population; with affluence and poverty; with health and care challenges experienced by a growing elderly population, by international migrants, and by significant communities whose voices historically have not been heard.

We exist to transform lives and believe this is delivered by; understanding need at the front line of the receipt and delivery of care, through research and implementation of discovery, and through improvement and innovation. We work in partnership with industry, academia, the public and our three Integrated Care Systems (ICSs), acting as a guide and catalyst, and a facilitator of change. Our ambitions are to improve health and care outcomes and to support economic growth, through facilitating system-wide change. We believe digital and information availability are important enablers and whilst this is an important part of our work, this is not all that we do. We fundamentally believe that better health and care outcomes should be both acceptable and accessible to everyone. It is our job to ensure that pathways are formed and in place which allow anybody, from any part of our society, to benefit from those outcomes.

Academic Health Science Networks (AHSNs) serve to connect partners from academia, NHS and local authority staff, patients and the public, and industry. The AHSN Network’s purpose is to accelerate the process of innovation and facilitate the uptake and spread of new care that; delivers more and better outcomes, supports the workforce, and generates economic growth. There are 15 AHSNs across England, that work together, collaboratively, to achieve greater impact from their own local programmes and also to achieve faster scale uptake. Our work is funded by NHS England, with additional commissions that support patient safety (NHS Improvement) and our industry focus (Office for Life Sciences). All 15 AHSNs work locally, but together, to deliver a nationwide offer.

Our programmes also focus on local health priorities; as set by ICSs and coincide with NHSE Core20PLUS5 ambition for health equality and beyond that. In addition, we work to regional NHSE priorities. At present these priorities lie mostly within post-COVID recovery. We support our NIHR ARC with the collective skills of our staff and with spread and adoption of the research findings.

Job purpose

We are currently seeking to strengthen our Executive Management Group by appointing outstanding clinical / care leader(s) to join us.

The Medical Director contributes to the leadership, strategic direction, performance management and governance of the AHSN and shares corporate responsibility for ensuring the AHSN achieves its strategic objectives and fulfills the condition of its licence from its commissioners.

They are responsible for clinical leadership and oversight across our portfolio of work and focused on the adoption and spread of innovation, to improve health equity.

The post holder(s) work in collaboration with the AHSN’s executive and senior management teams to inform and influence our work. They lead our support to build the capability of local health and care systems and build strategic relationships with clinical stakeholders at a local, regional and national level.

General responsibilities

The post holder(s) will:

• Be a member of the KSS AHSN Executive Management Group * and provide visible, dynamic and effective clinical/ professional leadership, direction and oversight, both internally and externally, working closely with the CEO and other members of the executive and senior management teams.
• Be a full voting member of the Board of Directors and deputy to the CEO *.
• Provide support for the executive directors in the ongoing management of the AHSN.
• Contribute to the AHSN’s strategic development.
• Take on a specific leadership role for major projects, including networking and relationship management with our ICSs and other stakeholder organisations.
• Support the executive directors in recruiting, managing and developing other members of the team.
• Engage and collaborate with senior clinical leadership across the wider AHSN Network (of 15 AHSNs) and to that end, provide support on areas of work which KSS is leading upon, on behalf of the Network.
• Promote the vision and values of the KSS AHSN.
• Ensure effective communications within and between teams, be involved in and participate in meetings, team briefings, development days, corporate events etc.
• Engage with the Chief Executive Officer in regular appraisals and performance reviews against agreed objectives. To be responsible for actively identifying own development needs and committing to a personal development plan based on continuous learning consistent with the requirements of Medical Revalidation.

* if job-share arrangement is in place, this only applies to the role holder with executive responsibilities.

Specific internal responsibilities

• Provide senior clinical / professional leadership for the AHSN.
• Provide expert advice to the CEO and Board
• Provide Clinical / professional leadership and support for wealth creation (within the OLS brief, and also for a sustainable, dynamic AHSN). Provide a clinical overview of all themes and projects within the AHSN, supporting the programme delivery leads within each of their respective clinical themes
• Provide clinical support and mentorship to our clinical directors
• Provide clinical leadership to cross cutting programmes notably the Health Tech Accelerator, Information and Technology, and Communications teams by working in collaboration with senior colleagues to incorporate clinical expertise and language into the design, development and implementation of our work.

• Act as a champion for patients, carers and the public, ensuring that their interests are meaningfully incorporated in the development of all business within the AHSN.
• Keep up to date with changes to national and local healthcare arrangements in order to advise the AHSN on new potential opportunities and/or challenges in the delivery of our portfolio.
• Identify and exploit linkages and (clinical) synergies between the diverse programmes and projects being conducted by our teams and foster close working between all internal teams.

Specific external responsibilities

• Create, maintain and influence relationships with clinical, operational, local authority, HEI and industry stakeholders at a local, regional and national level. This will include working with executive colleagues to build relationships with key stakeholders from our Regional Clinical Networks, ICSs, Primary Care Networks, health & care provider organisations, NIHR Clinical Research Network, NIHR Applied Research Collaborative, universities and commercial partners.
• Engage effectively with other NHS and local authority/ third sector organisations, particularly clinicians, to maximise reach, impact and delivery of the AHSN’s senior programme management team.
• Engage with the local clinical community to provide ongoing clinical leadership and support for all AHSN and Unity Insights’ evaluation and analysis functions.
• Lead the development of our clinical associate network to provide high quality clinical engagement, advice and leadership across all our work.
• Key clinical point of contact with NHSE Clinical Networks.
• Key clinical point of contact with the Southeast Clinical Senate.
• Key point of contact for clinical professional bodies (e.g. Royal Colleges etc.).
• Contribute to national AHSN initiatives, in particular to develop and share best practice.
• Promote KSS AHSN activity throughout the Network area and represent the AHSN at local, regional and national meetings.

• Provide line management of clinicians seconded or delivering services to the AHSN, ensuring effective use of resources.

Person specification: Clinical / Medical Director

Education, qualifications & training

Essential criteria:

• Qualified professional registration (e.g. medical, nursing, AHP, social care).
• Evidence of continuous professional development; record of CPD shows strong self-development ethos and learning from a broad range of interests.

Desirable criteria:

• Membership of the applicable Royal College
• Board level experience / previous executive role
• QI, managerial or leadership qualification.

Skills, knowledge & experience

Essential criteria:

• Significant experience of a clinical/local authority leadership role
• Credible and well-respected leader
• Experience of undertaking significant improvement work
• Excellent clinical knowledge underpinning evidence-based decision making
• Comprehensive understanding of medical audit, medical education, clinical quality, ethics and medical competence issues, and national / local healthcare priorities
  
• Extensive knowledge of clinical governance and good systems of medical management such as job planning, revalidation and appraisal
• An understanding of the key NHS policies shaping both national and local priorities
• A good understanding of how to use data to improve quality and efficiency
• Evidence of cross-professional working.

Desirable criteria:

• Experience of working across system boundaries, e.g. in leadership role(s) or within change programme(s)
• Experience of service innovation and development
• Knowledge of clinical improvement and change methodologies, with experience applying them across a range of clinical areas.

Skills & abilities:

Essential criteria:

• Strong influencing and negotiating skills
• A high level of interpersonal, communication and organisation skills
• Ability to contribute to the development, promotion and implementation of improved systems of patient care
• Decisive leader, capable and committed to translating policy and analysis into practical actions
• Ability to communicate complex/controversial information positively with stakeholders and the media
• Ability to influence and build trusted relationships with clinical and operational stakeholders of all levels
• Creative thinker able to think conceptually, laterally and with innovation to achieve outcomes
• Highly credible and exemplar advocate for clinical engagement
• Ability to initiate and lead development and implementation of strategy and policy
• Ability to plan and deliver complex objectives to deadline
• Strong influencing skills, especially when handling difficult and contentious issues
• Ability to lead, motivate and hold themselves and others to account
• Ability to develop strong working relationships with clinical leaders.

Personal style & behaviours:

Essential criteria:

• Passionate about improving health and care systems and engaged by our long-term ambition to improve health and care equity
• Displays clear judgement, independence of thought and presents him/herself as a good role model
• Builds trust and works collaboratively to bring people together and harness a diverse range of expertise and experiences. 
• Constructively challenges current practice Communicates clear purpose and direction 
• Takes a visible lead 
• Helps others to develop themselves 
• Influential leader with flair and energy
• Learning mind-set – a track record working on complex issues, embedding learning into practice and generating insight to inform approaches.

Physical and other requirements 

Essential criteria:

• Ability to travel, in particular, extensively across Kent, Surrey and Sussex
• Ability to manage part-time working hours flexibly to meet the demands of the role.

Desirable criteria:

• Possesses a current driving licence and access to a car.