Lead Consultant - Health and Local Government

About the Role

We are excited about the future of public services, and partner with health and local authorities to deliver meaningful transformation at pace that has a tangible positive impact on the people they serve. Our consulting teams work at the heart of public services to improve experiences and outcomes for people, and reduce spend by delivering the right care in the right place. We will typically work on either an intense diagnostic or on multi-year, multi-million-pound transformation programmes with the guarantee of a delivery outcome to our clients. This can be, for example, building new services and ways of working, improving hospital flow, improving care pathways to maximise independence, or making the shift to proactive preventative approaches. It is crucial that we understand the client fully to identify the biggest opportunity for improvement, design the right solutions, and work hand‑in‑hand with the client to implement these in a way that is sustainable. We work where our client works, which can often mean working away from home during the week.

As a Lead Consultant, you will be responsible for the delivery of workstreams typically delivering value of ~£2m to the client. You will design solutions, identify the right KPIs for yourself and your team, and drive continuous improvement. You will have productive mid‑level client relationships that help to deliver excellent results. You will be at the heart of driving results, getting the best out of both your team and the client.

Key Responsibilities

• Manage a small team of consultants (no more than four) through advanced analysis and modelling to identify the biggest opportunities, and lead your team and the client to deliver them.
• Review the proposed design for a workstream as created by the Principal Consultant or Business Manager in your programme.
• Work closely with programme leads to ensure your workstream KPIs are aligned to client organisational outcomes and wider goals.
• Align your team and client to measurable KPIs through the design and implementation of effective governance that embeds a culture of continuous progress review day‑to‑day, enabling successful delivery.
• Work on site, day‑to‑day with client counterparts to review progress and problem‑solve to drive performance up, directly or through your teams, building the client’s capability.
• Create a clear, compelling story for stakeholders—from frontline managers to senior managers—and work with programme leads to develop this for the senior client stakeholders to remove blockers to progress.
• Proactively elevate risks, and support the adjustment of resource and commercial plans to keep the programme on track.

Successful recruitment will see you hired into our Public Cluster. During your onboarding that chosen cluster will commit to scheduling you into the right client programmes with the right support to adapt to Newton's core approach to programme delivery. Once you are fully onboarded there will be opportunities to work more broadly across our other markets in line with business needs.

Requirements

A Lead Consultant in Newton is likely to be at the early stages of a Manager grade (or equivalent title) or progressing towards that in another consulting firm, or an equivalent public sector transformation role leading part of a programme with support from a programme lead and directly managing small teams. You will be used to building and maintaining relationships with senior managers or heads of function or programme. We will be looking for demonstrable experience in delivering multiple operational transformation and improvement projects with a focus on driving tangible improvement in public service delivery in any of the following sectors:

• Health services
• Local government
• Central government

It is crucial to have the following skills and attributes to be successful in this role:

• Building trusted relationships with clients and internal teams
• Direct line management of a small team of multi‑disciplined consultants
• Purpose‑led analysis skills and the ability to use logic to solve a problem
• Resilience in solving highly complex problems
• Collaborative nature, working with internal and external teams to get to the best outcome together
• Proven track record for driving improvement or impact with an outcome‑focused mindset
• Willingness for self‑development and commitment to supporting the development of others around you; actively seeks and gives feedback
• Ambitious and driven; always strives for the best outcomes for self and others
• Flexible and willing to work away from home

Benefits

Supporting you starts from day one. New joiners often highlight the Newton energy and support they first encounter in the recruitment process and that continues through into their time at Newton. Once in the role, you’ll get support from several sources—including stretching projects, on‑the‑job feedback, and developmental guidance from Directors and Partners. You’ll have a dedicated and consistent Sponsor/Development Manager to support your career progression with promotions at Newton happening throughout the year and based on performance and readiness to perform and succeed at the next level. You’ll receive regular appraisals and annual pay reviews. We offer a highly competitive salary, a standardised sign‑on bonus and a generous benefits package that includes car allowance, life assurance, income protection, pension contributions and 28 days holiday (not including bank holidays). We also operate profit share and equity schemes so that our people share in the success of the business. The profit share bonus is based on company performance and typically paid out in March and September. Joining us also brings many social benefits. We have a full social calendar with spring activity days, Christmas events, a 2‑day summer event and four Newton‑sponsored weekends a year.