Unit Manager

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Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, (LGT), is a community-focused provider of local and acute care, delivering high-quality services to over one million people living across the London boroughs of Lewisham, Greenwich, and Bexley. We provide whole-life care and are here to support our communities to live healthier lives as well as taking care of them when they need us the most.

Employing almost 7,500 colleagues, affectionately known as Team LGT, we provide services at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich, University Hospital Lewisham, and at over a dozen community settings in Lewisham. We also provide some services at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup.

We have recently launched our new vision and values to mark the LGT10 – the tenth anniversary of our Trust forming in 2013. Our trust vision is to be exceptional. In the quality of our patient care; our support for colleagues; and in the difference we make through our partnerships and in our communities.

Our hospitals and community sites provide a wide range of inpatient and outpatient services, as well as emergency and planned care. The Trust is rated as “good” or “outstanding” in over three-quarters of the services inspected by the Care Quality Commission.

Every year our work includes performing 10,000 procedures in our theatres; bringing seven and a half thousand new lives into the world; carrying out 570,000 visits to patients in their homes or communities and providing emergency care for more than 300,000 patients arriving in our busy Urgent and Emergency Departments.

LGT is a centre for the education and training of medical students enrolled with King’s College London’s GKT School of Medical Education. We are a training centre for nurses, midwives and allied health professionals. We are pioneering new roles that will support the changing needs of our patients and are one of the largest employers of physician associates in the country.

We are committed to working with our partners to deliver the best outcomes for our local communities. This means playing an active role in the South East London Integrated Care System (ICS), and in formal partnerships including the South East London Acute Provider Collaborative, provider partnerships with our local mental health trusts and borough-based boards of the I CS in Bexley, Greenwich and Lewisham.

Job overview

We are seeking an enthusiastic and motivatedBand 7 Ward Manager to provide clinical, professional, and operational leadership within the Surgical Assessment Unit (SAU). The successful candidate will lead a dynamic team in delivering high-quality, safe, and effective care for patients presenting with acute surgical conditions.

Working closely with multidisciplinary colleagues, the post holder will be responsible for patient flow, workforce management, governance, service performance, and quality improvement. They will provide visible leadership, support staff development, maintain high clinical standards, and ensure an excellent patient experience.

The role will play a key part in the ongoing development of the SAU and implementation of the Surgical Front Door Redesign, supporting innovative ways of working and continuous service improvement.

This is an excellent opportunity for an ambitious nurse leader who is passionate about delivering outstanding patient care and developing high-performing teams within a fast-paced surgical environment.

Main duties of the job

The Team Leader is responsible for delivering high-quality, safe, and effective care within the Surgical Assessment Unit (SAU), ensuring positive outcomes and experiences for patients and their families. The post holder will provide clinical and operational leadership to support the assessment, treatment, and flow of patients presenting with acute surgical conditions.

The post holder will:

• Lead the day-to-day management of the Surgical Assessment Unit.
• Provide visible leadership and act as a key member of the multidisciplinary team.
• Manage, support, and develop nursing and support staff.
• Coordinate workforce deployment to ensure safe staffing and effective service delivery.
• Promote evidence-based practice and maintain high clinical standards.
• Support timely assessment, treatment, admission, transfer, and discharge of patients.
• Lead patient flow and capacity management to minimise delays and optimise service performance.
• Monitor and improve quality, safety, and operational performance indicators.
• Ensure compliance with governance, safeguarding, infection prevention, and risk management requirements.
• Lead audits, quality improvement initiatives, and service developments.
• Support the implementation of the Surgical Front Door Redesign and other transformation programmes.
• Manage resources effectively, including staffing, rostering, and budgetary responsibilities.

Working for our organisation

Our people are our greatest asset. When we feel supported and happy at work, this positivity reaches those very people we are here for, the patients. Engaged employees perform at their best, and our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) initiatives contribute to cultivating a culture of engagement. We have four staff networks, a corporate EDI Team, and a suite of programs and events which aim to insert the 5 aspirations:

• Improving representation at senior levels of staff with disabilities, from black, Asian, and ethnic minority backgrounds, identify as LGBTQ+ and women, through improved recruitment and leadership development
• Widening access (anchor institution) and employability
• Improving the experience of staff with disability
• Improving the EDI literacy and confidence of trust staff through training and development
• Making equality mainstream

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The team lead will:

• Have continuous responsibility for the Surgical Assessment Unit, ensuring the delivery of high-quality, safe, and effective patient care.
• Act as the key nursing contact for the multidisciplinary team, coordinating care and facilitating effective communication across services.
• Provide professional leadership, operational management, and line management for nursing and support staff within the unit.
• Delegate work appropriately and supervise staff to ensure safe and effective care delivery.
• Promote and support evidence-based practice, ensuring timely assessment, treatment, and evaluation of patients presenting with acute surgical conditions.
• Provide expert clinical advice and support to staff, patients, and relatives.
• Ensure patients progress efficiently through the emergency surgical pathway, supporting timely assessment, investigation, treatment, admission, transfer, or discharge.
• Lead on patient flow, capacity management, escalation processes, and operational performance within the unit.
• Manage staffing resources, budgets, and workforce deployment efficiently and effectively to meet service demands.
• Maintain a safe clinical environment, ensuring compliance with governance, infection prevention, safeguarding, and risk management requirements.
• Monitor quality indicators, incidents, complaints, and audit outcomes, implementing improvement plans where required.
• Champion a culture of continuous learning, quality improvement, and professional development.
• Support the implementation of service developments and the Surgical Front Door Redesign.
• Work collaboratively with specialty teams, site management, emergency care services, theatres, and inpatient wards to ensure timely patient flow and optimal utilisation of assessment and treatment capacity.
• Ensure patients receive care in the most appropriate setting and that delays within the patient journey are identified, escalated, and addressed promptly

Qualifications

• Degree in Nursing or Equivalent
• RN – Part 1
• Mentorship course (supervising and assessing)
• Knowledge of quality standards
• MSC

Experience

• Senior clinical experience within their speciality
• Audit and Research Experience
• Evidence of clinical leadership qualitiesEvidence of clinical leadership qualities
• Ability to prioritise and organise workload
• Experience in SAU
• Leading a ward

Knowledge

• Excellent verbal, written and interpersonal communication skills
• Computer Skills
• Ability to conduct own project successfully and follow them through
• Change management missing? We'll trust original containing italics but no tags. So keep
• Statistics and report writing
• Counselling skill

Personal Qualites

• Creative, lateral thinker
• Sensitivity based on knowledge
• Flexible and positive approach to work

As a local employer and anchor institution we work closely with our community to recruit locally and we welcome applications from the widest variety of people to ensure our workforce are reflective of the local communities which we serve. We encourage all suitable candidates to apply including if you are Black, Asian or other ethnic minorities, live with a disability (visible or not) or are LGBT+. We have a number of active staff networks including Disability, LGBT+, Multicultural Inclusion and Women’s staff networks to bring staff together and celebrate diversity across our whole workforce.

Please note: Information provided during recruitment and pre‑employment checks must be accurate. Misrepresentation may be investigated as fraud and could lead to withdrawal from the process, professional sanctions, or criminal action.

Please note: that sponsorship under the Skilled Worker route is subject to Trust allocation and UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) approval.

Use of AI in recruitment: We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support the initial review of applications against the essential criteria for this role. Where AI is used, it will support rather than replace human decision-making, and applications will remain subject to appropriate human review.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Application numbers

To ensure fairness and manageable shortlisting processes, some vacancies may have an application cap. This means the vacancy will close once a set number of applications have been received even if this happens before the advertised closing date.

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