Skip to main content
Please wait, loading

Job summary

Main area
Womens and Children's
Grade
NHS AfC: Band 6
Contract
Secondment: 12 months (Fixed Term)
Hours
  • Full time
  • Flexible working
37.5 hours per week
Job ref
358-8288098-W&C
Employer
University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust
Employer type
NHS
Site
Leicester Royal Infirmary
Town
Leicester
Salary
£39,959 - £48,117 per annum
Salary period
Yearly
Closing
13/10/2026 23:59

Employer heading

University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust logo

Perinatal Safety Improvement Programme Project Officer

NHS AfC: Band 6

AI tools like chatbots and virtual assistants can support you as you complete your application. For example, they can check for spelling or grammar errors, or help you to decide what to include.

But they shouldn’t replace your own responses or be used to write the application for you.

Relying too much on AI can negatively impact your chances of success, because automatically generated answers:

  • might not be specific or relevant enough to address the criteria in the recruitment profile
  • often seem generic and not personalised enough – an AI response won’t show your unique voice and perspective
  • could misrepresent information about you, such as your qualifications, skills and experience

We monitor applications for any behaviour that could create an unfair advantage, and we check all references carefully. You are likely to be tested on your experience at interview, so be honest and make sure all the information in your application is correct.

Job overview

We have a great opportunity for a project officer to join the Leicester Maternity & Neonatal team. It's an exciting time to be part of the multiple projects which are pivotal to improving standards of care for all our women and babies throughout their maternity and neonatal journey. This opportunity follows the successful trial of the Project Officers role into our Quality Improvement team.

Our Maternity & Neonatal team is creative and innovative and, like all maternity services, has investment and support from the national team. We work with women and their families to make changes based on their experience. Our project officers oversee multiple projects within the four workstreams of the Maternity & Neonatal Improvement Plan.

We are seeking a Project Officer who are organised and systematic with the ability to manage project plans. Effective communication skills are essential as you will be working closely with workstream leads, sharing information with the multi-disciplinary team and preparing reports for board. The Project Officer will provide a coordination role to increase the team's capacity to deliver multiple projects.

Applicants should have a project management qualification (APM, PRINCE2, AgilePM or similar is ideal), experience of communicating with a range of stakeholders and experience in managing projects using project management software, ideally Monday.com or similar. Previous experience in managing NHS projects would be an advantage.

Main duties of the job

The Project Officer is responsible for the operational management of the Maternity & Neonatal Services Improvement Programme, providing project and administration support to:

    • Perinatal Programme Manager
    • Senior Project Manager
    • Lead Midwife, Quality Improvement

The Project Officer will also support various workstreams and projects across the Maternity & Neonatal Improvement Programme

The post holder is required to provide leadership, direction and support to other members of the team, whilst developing effective working relationships, efficient practices and a motivated workforce.

The post holder further functions as the expert resource and first point of contact and on-going liaison for all internal and external parties on matters relating to the Maternity & Neonatal Services Improvement Programme

Working for our organisation

Our new strategy, developed with the support and feedback of colleagues, patients, and partners, is our compass for the next seven years (2023-2030).

We have four primary goals: 

  • high-quality care for all, 
  • being a great place to work, 
  • partnerships for impact, and 
  • research and education excellence

And we will embed health equality in all we do - taking active steps to reduce the avoidable differences in healthcare that some people face, working in partnership with communities.

Our strategy is underpinned by new values and we will work to ensure they are an everyday reality for all:

  • we are compassionate,
  • we are proud, 
  • we are inclusive, and 
  • we are one team 

This is an exciting moment as we look to the future with clarity on what we already do well and where we need to focus our energies to make an even bigger difference for the people we serve.

About the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust:

https://www.uhleicester.nhs.uk

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The post holder will support positive working relationships with staff across the clinical management groups (CMG), corporate directorates and other provider and commissioner organisations, including the Local Maternity & Neonatal Services (LMNS) partnership, Maternity Voice Partnership, Neonatal Voices Partnership (NVP), local authorities and social enterprises.

Demonstrate outstanding motivational skills and influencing skills in driving the work forward, encouraging collaborative working throughout

Ensure clinicians, the CMG and relevant Trust committees are suitably appraised on the purpose and progress of work programmes.

Operational Management and Leadership

Create and maintain forward looking work-programme for Maternity & Neonatal Services Improvement

Work under own initiative to resolve issues and manage work load requirements, be self-motivated and proactively seek and resolve difficulties.

To be the first point of contact first for internal and external parties for all matters relating to the Maternity & Neonatal Services Improvement Programme, and aim to resolve issues whenever possible and when required direct queries to other staff in a timely manner.

Summarise key messages for Board and Committee meetings and circulate to team on a weekly basis.

Author delegated papers, project plans, and coordinates the agenda and other papers for the Maternity & Neonatal Services and other Programme Boards as necessary. Papers will require the post holder to gather data from multiple sources and manipulate/interpret the data to present information in an accessible format to a multidisciplinary audience. Take action for designated project meetings.

Prepare and circulate monthly Maternity & Neonatal Improvement Programme papers to all CMG.

Attend internal and external meetings as required, take responsibility for appropriate actions and report back formally to the relevant member(s) of the team.

Support programme and project delivery activities, including project support for key work streams

Person specification

Training and qualifications

Essential criteria
  • Educated to degree level or equivalent experience.
  • Evidence of continual professional development.
  • Commitment to on-going learning/training
  • Project Management qualification

Experience

Essential criteria
  • Significant experience of working in partnership and collaboratively with internal and external stakeholders across a health and social care economy.
  • Supporting business case development experience
  • Able to demonstrate experience of being patient centric in approach to service development, planning and improvements
  • Able to demonstrate evidence of supporting delivery of a service improvement or project skills in an environment influenced both by internal and external changes
  • Line management experience
  • Good understanding of NHS systems, processes and current developments and vision within the NHS at a local, regional and national level
  • Project management experience and use of Microsoft Office applications
  • •Experience of developing effective processes and implementing change
Desirable criteria
  • Budget management experience
  • Commercial experience working across organisations
  • Experience within strategic development within a healthcare setting
  • Good understanding of national drives for improvement across maternity and neonatal service

Communication and relationship skills

Essential criteria
  • Enthusiastic, reliable and conscientious
  • Ability to maintain patient and business confidentiality at all times
  • Meticulous in approach and highly attentive to detail
  • Assertive with tact and diplomacy
  • Adaptable to change
  • Communicate highly complex or sensitive information clearly and concisely to staff at all levels of the organisation.
  • Present highly complex, sensitive or contentious information to groups
  • Support the function of effective working relationships with key stakeholders, both within and external to the Trust.
  • Motivational skills to encourage collaborative working to improve services/performance where there maybe resistance to change

Analytical and Judgement skills

Essential criteria
  • Ability to work on own initiative, make effective decisions with respect to complex and sensitive issues and problem solve. Innovative and creative in problem solving
  • Support & manage complex facts or situations requiring analysis, interpretation and comparison of a range of options.
  • Review business cases and use qualitative assessment to ensure compliance with a range of targets.

Planning and organisation skills

Essential criteria
  • Excellent organisational skills.
  • Ability to determine / prioritise own / others workload and forward plan effectively.
  • Ability to review processes, identify systems failures and make recommendations for change.

Personal qualities

Essential criteria
  • A ‘can do’ (and ‘will do’) attitude
  • Self-motivated and able to motivate others.
  • Ability to be flexible and respond to the needs of the organisation.
  • Well-developed emotional intelligence, being aware of self and impact on others.
  • Credible and effective leadership qualities, including being open and responsive.
  • Integrity and personal credibility. Strives for excellence, innovative and creative.
  • Ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines where there are competing demands.
  • Employ effective communication, negotiation and influencing skills to enable an effective change management with stakeholders at all levels who may hold differing and contentious views
  • Ability and experience of handling sensitive discussions/ publications with service providers which may have a challenging level of acceptance.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

Essential criteria
  • Able to demonstrate a commitment to and understanding of the importance of treating all individuals with dignity and respect appropriate to their individual needs.
  • All staff are expected to engage in compassionate and inclusive leadership in the provision of high quality care and interactions with others

Commitment to trust values and behaviours

Essential criteria
  • Must be able to demonstrate behaviours consistent with the Trust’s Values and Behaviours

Mental Agility

Essential criteria
  • Frequent concentration, work pattern unpredictable. Concentration required for checking documents and for inputting into the computer. Regular interruptions to deal with business issues.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Apprenticeships logoCare quality commission - Goodhttps://www.gov.uk/government/publications/kickstart-scheme-employer-resources/kickstart-scheme-brand-guidelinesMindful employer.  Being positive about mental health.Disability confident committedHappy to Talk Flexible Working

Applicant requirements

The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Documents to download

Apply online now

Further details / informal visits contact

Name
Seren Willson
Job title
Senior Project Manager
Email address
[email protected]
Apply online nowAlert me to similar vacancies