Job overview

Princess Alexandra Hospital is a small organisation with big ambitions to be vertically integrated leading the delivery of healthcare to the population of West Essex and East Hertfordshire.

We already have a stronger research profile than many hospitals of a similar size. We are looking for someone to build on these successes, delivering a healthcare research portfolio that meets the needs of our local population. Participation in research improves health outcomes, and our people deserve the best.

Main duties of the job

The Trust values patient care, everyday excellence, and creative collaboration. Based on our values, the top three priorities for the role of Head of Research, Development & Innovation at The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust are:

1. Promoting Research Governance:

• Compliance with Regulations: Ensuring that all clinical trials and research activities comply with the Medicines for Human Use (Clinical Trials) Regulations 2004 and other relevant regulations.
• Policy Implementation: Developing, disseminating, and ensuring compliance with key policies across the Trust.
• Monitoring and Auditing: Overseeing the monitoring and audit of research activities to meet national requirements.

 2. User and Carer Involvement:

• Engagement: Developing and expanding the Trust's role in supporting user and carer involvement in research at all levels.
• Awareness and Training: Raising awareness and providing training for Trust staff to increase their ability to undertake research and innovation activities.
• Resource Allocation: Ensuring that the necessary infrastructure and trained personnel are available to lead or contribute to NIHR portfolio studies.

3. Financial Management and Income Generation:

• Budget Management: Managing the budgets for the R&D department and ensuring the full costing of research projects while maximising cost recovery from external funders.
• Income Generation: Generating new income through funding sources including commercial clinical trials, NIHR portfolio studies and studies sponsored by charities and universities.
• Sustainability: Ensuring the sustainability of research activities by adopting a balanced programme of observational/genetic studies and clinical interventional studies, that benefit the local population.

Working for our organisation

Our Organisation

The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust (PAHT) provides a full range of general acute, outpatient and diagnostic services at The Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, the Herts and Essex Hospital in Bishop’s Stortford, and St Margaret’s Hospital in Epping.

We employ 3,500 staff and serve a local population of around 350,000 people living in west Essex and east Hertfordshire, centred on the M11 corridor and the towns of Harlow, Bishop’s Stortford and Epping. Our extended catchment area incorporates a population of up to 500,000 and includes the areas of Hoddesdon, Cheshunt and Broxbourne in Hertfordshire.

Our Values

The Princess Alexandra Promise to our patients as identified by our 3 values which will contribute to improving our patient experiences:

Patient at heart – Always holding the patient and their wellbeing at the centre of our thoughts and efforts

Everyday excellence – Sharing and celebrating our successes, being honest when we get it wrong, giving us the ability to learn from both

Creative collaboration – Knowing strength comes from diversity, we combine our experiences, skills and talents, working together to find new and better ways to care

The Trust believes in investing in all our staff and rewarding high standards of care whilst building for excellence and in return we expect our staff to uphold the Trust values to the highest level.