NS 18.34 Health Economics Manager in Norfolk

As Health Economics Manager, you will play a pivotal role in shaping commissioning, transformation and investment decisions across Norfolk and Suffolk. Working with commissioners, clinicians and system leaders, you will lead economic evaluation, modelling and business case development, helping ensure that resources are invested where they can deliver the greatest benefit for patients, populations and the wider health and care system.

This is a rare opportunity to join the Norfolk and Suffolk Intelligence Function, a high-performing analytical team at the heart of strategic decision-making. You will work on some of the most complex and impactful challenges facing the NHS, applying health economics to support service redesign, pathway transformation, productivity improvement and population health outcomes. The role offers significant scope to influence senior decision-making, develop innovative approaches to economic evaluation, and help build capability across a large and ambitious Integrated Care System.

If you are an experienced health economist with strong analytical, communication and problem-solving skills, and are passionate about using evidence to improve healthcare outcomes and value for money, we would love to hear from you. Join a collaborative, ambitious team and help shape the future of health and care for the communities of Norfolk and Suffolk.

Main duties of the job:

• Lead health economic analysis to identify, prioritise and appraise transformation schemes.
• Support commissioners to prepare business cases by developing the economic case, including option appraisal, benefits quantification and quality assurance of the economic analysis ahead of Board.
• Provide independent economic assurance and critical appraisal of the economic element of business cases developed elsewhere in the ICB and wider system.
• Horizon-scan national policy and funding frameworks and align the economic case to unlock associated funding.
• Advise on market management across planned care, mental health, community and place-based services, including capacity, demand, pathway redesign and value for money.
• Develop standardised tools, methods and guidance for economic evaluation and benefits quantification.
• Communicate assumptions, methods and findings clearly to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Ensure analytical work complies with information governance, GDPR, NHS data standards and data quality requirements.

We manage an annual budget of 4.9 billion to commission safe, high-quality and accessible health services for 1.7 million people living in Norfolk and Suffolk. We work with hospitals, GP practices, dentists, pharmacies, community, mental health and ambulance services, alongside local councils and voluntary organisations, to improve care. We involve local communities in shaping decisions and use their insights to improve services.

As a statutory NHS organisation, we are accountable to NHS England and the UK Government. Our role is to ensure services meet current and future needs by setting local NHS strategy, allocating funding, maintaining quality and safety standards, improving access, reducing health inequalities and enabling joined-up care.

Norfolk and Suffolk include rural, coastal and deprived communities, with an older-than-average population. Around half of residents live in rural or coastal areas, where access can be harder, and about 219,000 people live in the most deprived areas, where early deaths are significantly higher. These factors shape our planning and focus on reducing inequalities.

Our vision is for people to live longer, healthier lives with access to safe, joined-up, patient-centred care. We prioritise improving healthy life expectancy, reducing inequalities and ensuring consistent access to high-quality services. We work across five local Places and partner with NHS providers, councils, the VCFSE sector and communities to deliver locally responsive care.

Person Specification:

• Qualifications: Masters-level qualification or equivalent experience in a relevant analytical, statistical, numerical or health economics field. Membership of a relevant professional body is desirable.
• Skills: Strong experience applying health economics methods, including cost-effectiveness, cost-utility, budget impact, return on investment, opportunity cost, scenario modelling and decision analytics in healthcare settings. Experience developing the economic component of business cases (the economic case within the HM Treasury Five Case Model), including translating benefits into cashable savings versus cost avoidance within NHS payment regimes (block contract, Aligned Payment and Incentive, ICB allocations, Better Care Fund). Able to explain complex, sensitive or contentious information clearly through reports, presentations and stakeholder discussions, including with senior or non-technical audiences. Able to plan across short, medium and long-term horizons, manage changing priorities and support project delivery. Formal project management experience is desirable.
• Management: Able to lead and coordinate analysts from the wider analytical pool on specific projects and supervise or oversee contracted external economics support where justified, managing workload, quality and competing priorities.
• Experience: Demonstrable experience in economic appraisal and evaluation, applying the HM Treasury Green Book; advanced spreadsheet-based economic and financial modelling. SQL and R or Python for reproducible analysis is desirable.
• Equality and Diversity: Committed to equality, diversity and inclusion and focused on improving outcomes.
• Autonomy: Able to work autonomously, make recommendations and advise on policy implementation or service improvement.