Programme Manager | NHS Visa Sponsorship

Position: Programme Manager

Job Type: Full Time

Salary: £57,528 – £64,750 per annum

Location: Worthing

Employer: University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust

Application Deadline: August 25^th, 2026

About our Trust

Candidate Information Pack

At UHSussex we’re proud to be at the heart of the NHS. As one of the UK’s largest acute trusts, we’re a leading example of the excellence, the ambition and the values that have embodied the NHS for over 70 years.

Our hard-working, talented and dedicated people work together towards a common goal – to deliver Excellent Care Everywhere for our patients, our people and our communities. Whatever your role here at UHSussex you will play a part in driving us forwards and in improving the lives of patients across Sussex.

At UHSussex, diversity is our strength, and we want you to feel included to help us deliver Excellent Care Everywhere. Your uniqueness and experiences will be part of our creative and innovative community where everyone is encouraged to succeed. We have a range of staff networks to help break down barriers, and can offer a buddy to help new members settle in. We’re proud to be a Disability Confident Employer (Level 3) and a Veteran Aware Trust.

We value compassion, inclusion and respect as our core values. We treat our patients and staff with the same compassion and empathy we expect for ourselves. We’re here for them when they need us, and we go above and beyond to meet their needs. This can be seen in our wellbeing programme  for staff which is extensive and designed to support you when you need it, including where possible, flexible working to support work life balance – because we know that to look after others we must first look after ourselves.

As a university trust and a leader in healthcare research, we value learning, teaching and training so that we can be the best that we can be. From the moment you start with us and throughout your career we will help you to grow and develop. We hope that in choosing UHSussex you are choosing a long and happy career where you will be able to see the difference you make and feel valued for all that you do.

As part of our commitment to access for all, please see the different ways you can access the application form: https://apps.trac.jobs/accessibility?_ts=1

We look forward to receiving your application and the start of your journey with UHSussex.

Job overview

UHSussex is the subject of an important Independent Maternity Review (IMR), commissioned by the Department of Health on behalf of the Secretary of State. This is due to commence in October 2026 and is expected to last at least 3 years. The review will examine approximately 1,000 cases of stillbirths, neonatal deaths, maternal deaths, neonatal harm due to severe brain injury and severe maternal harm dating back to at least 2018. The purpose is to understand what happened, reach conclusions on the care provided, provide answers for families and identify learning for the organisation and wider NHS. The review is, by its’ very nature, extremely sensitive and politically charged. The impact is expected to be significant for the families at the heart of the review, current and past staff and the wider organisation. In parallel, the Trust is the subject of an active police investigation – Operation Bramber. The programme of work required to ensure the Trust can meet the needs of families, the IMR team, Sussex Police, staff and other bodies is complex and diverse. It will span quality and corporate governance, information management, information governance, analytics, communications, wellbeing, recruitment, training, inclusion and professional standards. Working effectively with teams across Women and Children’s services and critical corporate teams will be essential to identify, manage and complete actions required for readiness and to run it smoothly day to day.  

Main duties of the job

The programme manager will provide expert leadership in developing and overseeing the countdown to readiness plan and day to day management of the delivery plan once the review is live. They will ensure a single version of the truth is in in place capturing all the week on week actions required to enable the Trust to be ready on time, identifying critical interdependencies and ensuring the sequencing of tasks is effectively managed. They will proactively identify risks, work to resolve those they can and escalate others to the Quality Director and Director of Regulatory Affairs. Once the IMR is live, their focus will move to programme management of the operational activities required to service the review and any Police investigations, working across clinical and corporate services to embed attention to detail, robust audit trails, pace and proactive problem solving. They will also support core governance activities – routine reporting, risk and issue management for internal and external audiences.  This is a real opportunity to be involved in a truly consequential piece of work. You will be part of a new team and a new programme, able to shape how we respond using your professional expertise and experience. Applicants should be a qualified Programme manager with experience of working on large, complex, time-critical programmes in the NHS.

Working for our organisation

UHSussex is the subject of an important Independent Maternity Review (IMR), commissioned by the Department of Health on behalf of the Secretary of State. This is due to commence in October 2026 and is expected to last at least 3 years. The review will examine approximately 1,000 cases of stillbirths, neonatal deaths, maternal deaths, neonatal harm due to severe brain injury and severe maternal harm dating back to at least 2018. The purpose is to understand what happened, reach conclusions on the care provided, provide answers for families and identify learning for the organisation and wider NHS. The review is, by its’ very nature, extremely sensitive and politically charged. The impact is expected to be significant for the families at the heart of the review, current and past staff and the wider organisation. In parallel, the Trust is the subject of an active police investigation – Operation Bramber.

The programme of work required to ensure the Trust can meet the needs of families, the IMR team, Sussex Police, staff and other bodies is complex and diverse. It will span quality and corporate governance, information management, information governance, analytics, communications, wellbeing, recruitment, training, inclusion and professional standards. Working effectively with teams across Women and Children’s services and critical corporate teams to identify, manage and complete all the actions required for readiness and to run it smoothly day to day.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

This role is eligible for visa sponsorship under the UK Visas & Immigration (UKVI) Skilled Worker route however sponsorship can only be provided where applicants meet the specific requirements set by UKVI, including the relevant skill and salary thresholds (£25000), and any role-specific criteria.

The programme manager will provide expert leadership in developing and overseeing the countdown to readiness plan and day to day management of the delivery plan once the review is live. They will ensure a single version of the truth is in in place capturing all the week on week actions required to enable the Trust to be ready on time, identifying critical interdependencies and ensuring the sequencing of tasks is effectively managed. They will proactively identify risks, work to resolve those they can and escalate others to the Quality Director and Director of Regulatory Affairs. 

Once the IMR is live, their focus will move to programme management of the operational activities required to service the review and any Police investigations, working across clinical and corporate services to embed attention to detail, robust audit trails, pace and proactive problem solving. They will also support core governance activities – routine reporting, risk and issue management for internal and external audiences. 

As the IMR and investigations are evolving entities, this will require flexibility in when and how to respond. Given the nature of the work, high standards of professionalism, discretion, sensitivity and commitment to preserving confidentiality of highly sensitive information are critical. 

Key Working Relationships 

Internal

• Director of Regulatory Affairs, Quality Managers IMR Team, Administrative staff in the IMR team, Women and Children’s Clinical and Quality IMR Support Team, 
• Chief Nursing Officer and other Executive Directors, Women Children and Clinical Support Divisional Leadership Quad, WCCSS Divisional Quality and Safety Lead ; WCCSS Divisional Quality and Safety Director ; Heads of Midwifery and Neonatal Nursing, Clinical Directors and Clinical Leads for Perinatal Services, Head of Legal, Head of Communications, Director of Integrated Governance and team, Trust Secretary, Digital and IG leads, Business Intelligence Teams ; Divisional Leadership Team Surgical Division, CD and clinical leads. .

External 

• IMR Team ; Sussex Police ; NHS England ; Surrey and Sussex ICB, Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership. 

Main Duties and Responsibilities 

Leadership

• Own the production, management and maintenance of the countdown plan to readiness and the operational delivery plans, ensuring that these are fit for purpose and evolve to meet changing needs. 
• Take responsibility for ensuring that the clinical and corporate teams within the scope of the programme actively inform the countdown and delivery plans and own delivery of their contributions.  
• Own the risk and issues registers, ensuring that these comply with Trust standards and have robust assurance measures as well mitigations described and liaise with the Chief Corporate Affairs Officer’s team to ensure risks are logged on Divisional or Corporate registers as appropriate. 
• Lead embedding best practice programme management techniques to ensure rigorous management of all critical activities and regular gateway reviews. 
• Act as champion for evidence-based assurance ie challenge colleagues to provide objective evidence that tasks have been completed and are having the necessary impact. 

Team Management

• Contribute to recruitment and induction of new members of staff to the team, including ensuring staff understand how to use systems used to record, track and log evidence of completion of tasks. 
• Train the IMR and Bramber Business Manager to maintain and manage the countdown and delivery plans, risks and issues register to ensure resilience during times of sickness or annual leave. 
• Prioritise own workload flexibly and using sound judgement, to ensure that risks to delivery are minimised 
• Work with the Quality Director to ensure there is a drum beat of daily, weekly and monthly tasks, with allocated responsible individuals which are followed through and closed off and hold people to account for their contribution
• Work with the Director of Regulatory Affairs and Quality Director to develop the network of contacts in the IMR team, Divisions and Corporate functions needed to build and iterate the readiness and delivery plans and deliver the actions within agreed timeframes. 

Programme Management 

• Build a suite of programme documents for the IMR with input from subject
• Matter experts –a countdown plan, a delivery plan for when the review is live, interdependencies maps, stakeholder and engagement plan, risks and issues log and benefits mapping using recognised programme management techniques. 
• Work with the IMR and key corporate team to ensure there is a robust set of policies and SOPs used to run the IMR and police investigations and respond to the diverse range of enquiries and requests. These must ensure compliance with Trust policies, information governance & Caldicott principles. Ensure robust processes are in place to review and update these before they are beyond their due date. 
• Work with the business manager to ensure that robust document management systems are in place to record all contacts with the IMR team, communications, supporting documents and evidence of completion, using Nottingham University Hospitals systems as a basis for 
• Ensure there is a clear forward look available for the programme of actions due in the next week, month and quarter to inform team meetings, huddles, the expert panel and reporting internally and to DHSC-NHSE. Work with teams to anticipate and mitigate risks and issues. 
• Track completion of tasks in the programme plan robustly and provide check and challenge on the evidence used to deem something complete and effective, to ensure the programme operates robust assurance. 
• Flex to provide support to other members of the team during periods of pressure, including the programme team in perinatal services. 
• Participate in learning and reflection activities to evaluate and improve the team’s response to the IMR and Operation Bramber, including facilitating formal gateway reviews. 
• Participate in joint learning with members of the team from Leeds Teaching Hospitals and sharing of good practice. 
• Work with members of the Team and the Perinatal Services to ensure there is an audit trail of evidence actions have been closed and benefits have been realised. 

Reporting and Resource Management 

• Develop the mechanisms to extract compliance against Key Performance Indicators agreed with the Police and IMR teams and carry out analysis to understand any causes of non-compliance to feed into continuous improvement of the Team’s processes.
• Capture the data and soft intelligence sources necessary to demonstrate whether the benefits and mitigations set out for the programme are being realized. 
• Produce the routine reports for the Operational Oversight Group, Executive Management Committee, Board and DHSC-NHSE Learning and Improvement Group. 
• Report against budget, identifying areas of variance and working with team leaders to take appropriate action. 
• Support development of robust business cases for any increase in budget, in line with Standing Financial Instructions and Trust policies. 

Person Specification

Education

Essential criteria

• Educated to Master’s level or demonstrable equivalent career path experience
• Evidence of on-going further personal and professional development
• Programme management qualification eg MSP

Desirable criteria

• Understanding of information governance requirements and Caldicott principles
• Quality improvement techniques

Experience

Essential criteria

• Previous experience of working as a programme manager on a large complex programme with multiple inter-related streams of work
• Previous experience of working in a hospital / health care environment at middle management level
• Line and performance management of junior administrative staff
• Setting up team ways of working including weekly routines, standard operating procedures, meeting terms of reference etc
• Experience of working in a multidisciplinary team including clinicians, managers and corporate staff

Desirable criteria

• Experience of supporting programmes which relate to regulatory requirements eg CQC
• Experience of working with teams in Women and Children’s Services

People Management and Development

Essential criteria

• Able to translate broad programme plans into workstreams and week on week tasks and outputs and hold people to account for delivery
• Able to coach people in new ways of working and identify training and experiential ways to develop their skills and confidence
• Models Trust values and behaviours as set out in the Behavioural Compass
• Able to build positive relationships with staff from diverse backgrounds working in multiple functions
• Planning & Organisational Skills

Essential criteria

• Detail orientated
• Highly organised and able to respond flexibly as needs require Completer-finisher
• Tenacious
• Able to set out clear schedules of daily weekly and monthly tasks
• Forward thinking and proactive

Communication Skills

Essential criteria

• Able to give clear written and verbal instructions and check understanding
• Commitment to handling sensitive and confidential information with the greatest of care
• Able to respond calmly and compassionately to people who may be frustrated or in distress
• Active listening skills
• Confidence and ability to challenge colleagues and ask questions to clarify understanding
• Clear on the threshold for evidence needed for true assurance

Equality Inclusion and Diversity

Essential criteria

• Evidence of championing diversity and inclusion in previous roles
• Awareness of unconscious bias as a general and personal issue

Desirable criteria

• Understanding of the equalities issues in perinatal care
• Unconscious bias /EDI trained
• Analytical & Judgment skills

Essential criteria

• Able to appreciate the potential ramifications of the review for families, staff and the Trust and factor this into judgements.
• Able to manipulate large, complex spreadsheets and databases and extract data eg through Excel functions
• Able to proactively identify risks and issues, problem solve or escalate as appropriate using sound judgement
• Able to respond appropriately to requests for sensitive or confidential information and hold the line where necessary
• Freedom to Act

Essential criteria

• Ability to make autonomous decisions on complex issues, often under pressure
• Knows own limitations and when to ask for help from other experts
• Equality Diversity & Inclusion
• Essential criteria
• Evidence of having undertaken own development to improve understanding of equalities issues
• Evidence of having championed diversity in previous roles (as appropriate to role).

Important information for applicants:

A Note on AI Use in Applications

We value the individuality and authenticity that each candidate brings to the application process. While AI tools are increasingly accessible, we strongly discourage their use in completing your application. Your responses should reflect your own voice, experiences, and motivations—elements that are essential to a fair and accurate evaluation.

Applications that rely heavily on AI-generated content may misrepresent your abilities and could result in your application being rejected. We encourage you to take the time to present your genuine self, as this helps us better understand your potential and ensures a transparent selection process.

Closing Adverts Early:  In the event of exceptional interest, we may close adverts earlier than specified.

Some of our adverts are capped for a limited number of applications; therefore, the advert will close once the cap has been reached. We therefore encourage you to submit your application as soon as possible if you are interested in the position to prevent you from missing out on applying for the opportunity.

Flexible Working:  If you would like to explore potential options regarding flexible working please speak with the appropriate recruiting/line manager.

DBS Checks:  As part of our commitment to a safe working environment, we undertake a Disclosure and Barring Service check on all new employees where the role is eligible for a criminal record check . We make offers in line with the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1975.

Skilled Worker Visa: Applications for Skilled Worker Sponsorship are welcome for the roles that meet the Visa and Immigrations eligibility criteria.  For further information please visit the gov.uk website searching for Skilled Worker. It is your responsibility as the applicant to ensure that you meet this criteria.

UHSussex reserves the right to close the role early if we receive a high volume of applications

Further Information

For help with the application process for Nursing vacancies, please email uhsussex.nursingteam@nhs.net.

For help with the application process for Non-Nursing vacancies, please email uhsussex.nonnursingteam@nhs.net.

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