Service Manager | Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust in Preston

We are looking for an inspiring and driven Senior Operational Manager to lead and shape high-quality community mental health services. This is a pivotal leadership role where you will combine strategic vision with hands-on operational management to ensure services are safe, effective, compassionate, and responsive to local need.

You will work closely with clinical leaders, partner organisations, and service users to deliver seamless patient pathways, optimise capacity and resources, and drive continuous improvement. With responsibility for performance, quality, workforce, and financial management, you will play a key role in transforming services and improving outcomes for people who use them.

If you are passionate about community mental health, motivated by innovation, and thrive in a complex, fast-paced environment, this is an exciting opportunity to make a real and lasting difference. This role provides senior leadership and operational management across service lines to ensure safe, high-quality, efficient patient care that meets performance, quality, and financial targets.

• Service & Patient Pathway Management: Lead and manage patient pathways to optimise capacity, productivity, and resource use, ensuring services meet quality standards, KPIs, and best practice.
• Leadership & Communication: Build a positive, accountable culture with strong teamwork, clear communication, staff empowerment, and continuous improvement; represent the service internally and externally.
• Performance, Quality & Risk: Monitor activity, performance indicators, risks, complaints, incidents, audits, and compliance, taking corrective action where required.
• Planning & Strategy: Lead operational planning, workforce planning, capacity and demand reviews, and service transformation aligned to Trust strategy, People Plan, and national guidance.
• Policy & Service Development: Implement and develop policies, lead major quality improvement and transformation projects, and drive service development across the Trust.
• Financial Management: Manage budgets, control expenditure, deliver cost improvement programmes (CIPs), and maintain financial balance.
• People Management: Provide effective line management, ensure safe staffing, support recruitment, retention, development, appraisal, and staff wellbeing, and uphold Trust values and H&S responsibilities.

LSCFT values diversity and inclusion, recognising that talent from varied backgrounds creates a flexible, creative, and effective workforce. We actively challenge discrimination and welcome applications from all, regardless of age, disability (including those with experience of accessing or caring for someone who has accessed mental health or learning disability services), ethnicity, gender, religion, belief, or sexual orientation. Our aim is to reflect the communities we serve, so we particularly encourage applications from under-represented groups.

If you’d like to discuss your application, please ask. We also welcome individuals with lived experience relevant to the role or service area, as your insight brings authenticity to our services. LSCFT support flexible working, we believe that a positive work/life balance benefits NHS employees through improved health and wellbeing. We would consider working patterns such as term time, part time, compressed hours and flexi-time.