Clinical Operations Manager

37.5 hours per week

Permanent

Salary: £55,690 - £62,682 per annum

Closing Date: 9th March 2026

Interview Date: TBC

This post may close early due to high numbers of applications, so you are advised to apply promptly. All correspondence for this vacancy will be sent by email; please check your account regularly including your Junk and SPAM areas.

A great and friendly place to work, so bring your passion, commitment and expertise and enjoy the opportunities to make a difference every day. We welcome applications from the Armed Forces Community - get in touch to find out more.

We are seeking an experienced and solutions-focused Clinical Operations Manager to lead the Coventry & Warwickshire Community Dental Service. This is an excellent opportunity for a motivated leader with strong operational, financial, and governance skills to shape the future of special care dentistry across the region.

The postholder will line manage all qualified dental staff within the service, supporting recruitment, workforce planning, staff development, and daily workload allocation. You will act as a key point of contact for internal and external stakeholders, ensuring services are safe, responsive, and aligned with regulatory requirements.

The candidate will be a collaborative leader with strong problem-solving abilities, able to deliver high-quality community dental care and contribute to ongoing service development across Coventry & Warwickshire.

As Clinical Operations Manager, you will lead the delivery of a diverse portfolio of community special care dentistry, including but not limited to GA & sedation services, domiciliary care community and placed based delivery units. You will take responsibility for driving clinical and operational excellence, whilst ensuring achievement of commissioned contracts. You will drive and monitor progress, ensuring services are delivered safely, on time, and to the highest regulatory standards.

You will line manage administration staff, dental nurses, therapists and dentists. You will support and guide the wider research delivery team, supporting recruitment, training, and development to build a motivated and skilled workforce. A key part of your role will be strengthening collaboration with external partners, key internal stakeholders, and regulators, while ensuring the financial sustainability of the portfolio through accurate and timely income recovery, contract delivery and CPIP identification.

This is a role for someone who thrives on leadership and problem-solving. Whether streamlining processes, guiding staff, or representing the service, you will be central to advancing the improvements in special care dentistry to the lives of people within Coventry & Warwickshire.

Our vision at George Eliot is to excel at patient care. We are an ever-evolving clinically-led acute service provider, continually providing high quality, safe and responsive services delivered by inspiring, friendly and compassionate staff who share our corporate values.

Values:

• Effective open communication
• Excellence and safety in everything we do
• Challenge but support
• Expect respect and dignity
• Local health that inspires confidence

Benefits include on-site nursery, 27 days minimum annual leave plus bank holidays, cycle to work scheme, flexible working, in-house training and development, buying and selling of annual leave, subsidised restaurant, tranquility garden and generous subsidised on-site parking.

In this role you will be responsible for the operational management and performance of services delivered across multiple sites, ensuring effective, efficient, and compliant delivery against SLA-based contracts.

Clinical Responsibilities:

• Monitor and ensure clinical standards and legislation applicable to the dental service are adhered to and understood.
• Responsible for ensuring that all Infection Prevention and Control standards are adhered to including policies, staff training and competencies, decontamination standards and maintenance and cleanliness of clinical environments.
• Lead and engage with clinical teams to ensure standards of care are effectively and efficiently delivered.
• Ensure that all staff have a clearly defined responsibility and accountability towards agreed objectives and service plan.
• Responsible and accountable for ensuring the delivery of a high quality, patient centred service that meets the needs of the patient.
• Facilitate changes to service provision to ensure effective and safe patient pathways.
• Promote and lead change in clinical practice to improve the patient experience.
• Ensure effective communication channels exist between patients and relevant stakeholders at all levels.
• Communicate sensitive information to staff and patients requiring a high level of negotiating, persuasive and reassurance skills, especially with patients with special care requirements, disabilities and nervous/phobic conditions.

Leadership and Performance Management:

• Work cohesively with the Consultant Clinical Lead, Dentists, Therapists and the Oral Health Team to ensure efficient service delivery and support national and local targets.
• Provide a clear, effective and appropriate leadership style that engages and involves the multi-disciplinary team.
• Manage resources efficiently to maximise service efficiency and meet Trust targets, ensuring appropriate staffing through skill mix review and benchmarking.
• Negotiate with various disciplines, levels of management, clinicians and service users and their families.
• Recruit and retain registered dental nurses and dental team and ensure ongoing registration with the General Dental Council.
• Oversee staff sickness and absence, ensuring adherence to policy and taking appropriate action to reduce sickness.
• Maintain awareness of clinical and non-clinical targets, working with stakeholders to achieve targets using a supportive culture of performance management.
• Promote staff development through regular performance reviews and personal development plans.
• Produce and implement standards of practice, policy, service-related business objectives and agreed targets within Community Dental.
• Communicate service-related information to staff and managers.
• Develop collaborative relationships with other healthcare professionals and participate in professional and managerial meetings as appropriate.
• Attend relevant Trust and operational managers meetings and represent the profession on Dental Services and Trust meetings.
• Chair Dental Service Meetings and keep the team updated on developments and service changes within the Dental Service and Trust.
• Develop strategic plans and annual objectives for dental nursing and the dental team in agreement with the Head of Nursing and the Surgical Triumvirate.
• Undertake the Dental Service Delivery Continuity plan.
• Participate in clinical audit, benchmarking and sharing of good practice.
• Work with the Directorate Management Team and Dental Clinical Lead to ensure sound operational management with robust, auditable systems.
• Produce written communication of highly complex and sensitive information including patient reports, project reports and policy documents.

Finance and Contracting:

• Monitor and manage the Coventry & Warwickshire Special Care Dental Commissioned budget.
• Monitor Commissioner Contracts and undertake assessment and costing to ensure completion of contracts and identify over‑ or under performance.
• Identify, complete and present capital bids/10 year Capital Plans for Community Dental Service.
• Work with the General Manager to ensure all dental costs are accurately reflected within the financial and contractual frameworks used to support contract negotiations and ratify bids to the Clinical Commissioning Groups and Workforce Development Directorate.
• Lead and develop business cases involving Dental Services.
• Be responsible for the pay and non‑pay budgets in the Coventry & Warwickshire Community Dental Service.

Education and Training:

• Oversee and ensure mandatory training for all registered qualified dental nurses and monitor to the level required by the General Dental Council.
• Ensure all registered qualified dental nurses maintain accurate CPD records to allow them to maintain registration with the General Dental Council and promote a positive and dynamic workplace.
• Create a positive learning environment where skills and knowledge can be shared, developing a culture of continuous improvement and development in clinical practice.
• Develop a career framework for dental nursing operating under the NHS Knowledge and Skills framework and Agenda for Change.
• Promote staff development through regular performance reviews and personal development plans.
• Participate in team, professional and personal development activities and promote a commitment to continuous development.
• Provide professional and clinical supervision demonstrating advanced levels of knowledge, judgement and decision making.
• Identify workforce requirements to meet the team and organisation objectives.

Risk Management & Governance:

• Promote a positive culture regarding incident reporting and shared learning within the Dental Service.
• Ensure risk registers are populated and utilised, managing risk and keeping the team, Directorate and Trust Board informed.
• Oversee and be accountable with the Dental Governance Lead in effective interpretation, implementation and supervision of mandatory and statutory legislation relating to the dental nursing team and their clinical practices, including Health & Safety, COSHH, Control of Infection, Decontamination and conducting Risk Assessments within all clinical departments; lead the timely investigation and resolution of complaints, clinical adverse events and untoward incidents, involving staff and/or patients, implementing strategies to reduce risk of reoccurrence and promote quality.
• Ensure that the relevant national policy, guidance and targets in respect to clinical governance are implemented and adhered to.
• In partnership with the Clinical Director and General Manager, improve the effectiveness of clinical services by ensuring that the clinical standards, education, audit and research are pursued in line with the Trust policy and that the ongoing clinical practice is evidence based.

Responsibility for Research & Development:

• Lead on environmental and clinical audits to support best practice.
• Lead on implementation of best practice at Dental Nurse meetings.
• Supervise and support in conjunction with the Booking & Access Team Leader on computer training packages and assist in the implementation of any new computer programme.

Special Requirements:

• Atherstone
• Bedworth
• Camp Hill, Nuneaton
• Lillington, Leamington Spa
• Leamington Special Care Dental Clinic
• Rugby Orchard Centre
• Stratford Dental Clinic
• Some remote and flexible working will be supported in line with service need and team coordination.