Deputy Head of Service in Exeter

Child and Family Health Devon (CFHD) is advertising for a Band 8b Deputy Head of Service to work closely with the CFHD Heads of Service in a deputy role. We are looking for an enthusiastic and resilient individual with outstanding operational skills and experience. You will have exceptional communication skills, experience of leading through change and the ability to have a compassionate focus on improving services for children and young people. With a keen eye for detail, you will bring your experience of managing and improving performance to help us to reduce waiting times and mobilise our new pathways of care across CFHD.

You will need to be flexible and reflective in your approach and have an enthusiasm to work closely with operational and clinical leads, partner agencies and stakeholders. You need a high standard of professionalism and an ability to represent CFHD in a range of different forums. We are looking for a service manager who is passionate about delivering outstanding care to children and can work with others to lead and develop services through change and pilot new innovations across Devon. There will initially be a focus on the mental health and neurodiversity pathways but the role does span across the whole of CFHD.

Main Duties

Working alongside the operational, clinical and medical leads for the service, you will be supported to bring your operational skills, experience and enthusiasm to this role. You will supervise and manage others, ensuring the service responds in a timely way to meet the needs of children, young people and families. We are looking for individuals who enjoy operational management, who like to collaborate and work with others, who have skills in leadership and can remain calm and compassionate under pressure. A keen eye for data and a focus on performance is on the wish list along with the ability to bring innovation to the table.

We value people who can work well as part of a team but also have the confidence and ability to be autonomous and pace setting when needed. This is an exciting time as we are a service going through a process of re-design, development and growth, so you need to have experience in leading services through change and keeping our children and young people at the centre of what you do. The successful candidates will be based at one of our CFHD sites (Barnstaple, Tiverton, Exeter, Dartington or Torbay). You will want to be on site with your team for some of the time, but we can support some remote working as part of your job plan.

About Us

Children and Family Health Devon is a system-wide service that delivers an integrated, coordinated support model which wraps around the child, young person and family. It has been specifically designed to respond to all elements of the commissioners strategy and specification along with the vision and strategic direction of the STP. It builds on our strong relationships across education, health, social care and voluntary sector services in Devon, and, most importantly, it has been developed and refined in partnership with children, young people and their families/carers.

Children And Family Health Devon Is Part Of An Alliance That Is Unique And Brings Together Leading Providers Of Adult And Childrens Community, Acute And Mental Health Services In Devon: Torbay and South Devon FT, Devon Partnership NHS Trust. Successful applicants will be employed by Devon Partnership Trust.

About Devon Partnership Trust

We provide mental health, learning disability and neurodiversity services, as well as a range of specialist & secure services for the wider south west region & nationally.

Job Responsibilities

Full Vacancy details can be found on the attached Job Description/Person Specification. Please refer to your suitability to the post in your supporting information from the role requirements or person specification.

Person Specification – Experience

• Experience of working collaboratively with service users and their families/carers
• Working effectively within the local and national political environment
• Experience of working with a wide variety of children's health needs, across the whole age range, reflecting all levels of clinical severity including maintaining a high degree of professionalism in the face of highly emotive and distressing problems and verbal abuse
• Experience of supervising and managing others, leading and managing multi-disciplinary teams and developing positive supervisory relationships with a range of professionals.
• Experience of safeguarding children and ensuring the safety of young people in partnership with other agencies as appropriate.
• Experience that evidences an ability to tend to diversity and work in a way that promotes anti-discriminatory practice
• Ability to build alliances and secure ownership of proposals across organisational boundaries
• Experience of senior/middle operational management of clinical teams in health or social care

Desirable Experience

• Track record of undertaking and completing significant projects
• Influencing, negotiating and interpersonal skills (relating to NHS Leadership Qualities Framework)

Person Specification – Abilities

• The post holder will contribute to the Out Of Hours rota
• Ability to manage, and support others to manage, stressful situations with resilience and self-awareness.
• Ability to think and plan strategically, tactically and creatively, and to prioritise work programmes in the face of competing demands.
• The ability to work as an autonomous senior staff member, to take on responsibility, make decisions under pressure and seek support as appropriate.

Person Specification – Qualifications

• Masters Degree level education or equivalent
• Registration with the relevant body (e.g. NMC, HCPC, BACP).
• A professional qualification relevant to Children (such as Social Work, Nursing, Clinical Psychology, Speech and Language Therapy, Occupational Therapy.)
• Leadership/management qualification or equivalent relevant experience in health or social care

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions. UK Registration Applicants must have current UK professional registration.

For further information please see NHS Careers website.

Employer Details

Employer name: Devon Partnership NHS Trust

Address: Children & Family Health Devon, Bittern Road, Sowton Industrial Estate, Exeter, EX2 7FW

Employer's website: https://www.dpt.nhs.uk/