Job summary
- Main area
- Programme Management
- Grade
- Band 8a
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week (This will be an on-site post.)
- Job ref
- 197-RF7977
- Employer
- Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- University Hospital Lewisham
- Town
- Lewisham
- Salary
- £55,690 - £62,682 per annum plus HCAS
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 15/03/2026 23:59
Employer heading
Improvement Programme Manager - Theatres
Band 8a
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.
To achieve this we value Respect, Compassion, and Inclusion; Being accountable over staying comfortable; Listening over always knowing best; and Succeeding together over achieving alone. You can read more about our visions and values here
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 ICS in Bexley, Greenwich and Lewisham.
Job overview
We have an exciting opportunity for a motivated Improvement Programme Manager to join our Improvement Delivery Team. You will play a key role in driving improvements across our perioperative services, starting with our Perioperative Productivity Programme.
In this role, you will lead workstreams aimed at maximising elective theatre utilisation, focusing on areas such as on-the-day cancellations, standardisation and optimisation of pre-operative assessment pathways, data quality, scheduling, and 6-4-2 planning across both of our hospital sites.
We are looking for candidates with insight into the perioperative pathway—a niche area where clinical or operational experience will support the successful delivery of this programme. This is an on-site role, working closely with operational and clinical teams both within LGT and across our place-based systems to deliver practical, hands-on improvements that make a real difference for patients.
You will bring strong experience in programme management, improvement methodologies, and data analysis, along with excellent stakeholder management and collaboration skills. The role includes line management responsibilities as well as informal matrix management, requiring a credible and effective approach to leadership.
Proposed interview date: Monday, 23 March 2026 (may be subject to change).
Main duties of the job
The Programme Manager will provide leadership to support the delivery of the Trust’s Priority Programmes by embedding a culture of improvement and building organisational capability in improvement, project, and change management.
The postholder will be assigned to a Trust Priority Programme aligned with the organisation’s strategic objectives. They will work both as part of a wider programme team and autonomously, reporting to the Programme Director and Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) in a matrix management structure.
The role will support the design, implementation, delivery, and transition to business-as-usual of the assigned programme. Key responsibilities include:
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Developing and delivering detailed project and programme plans, including project initiation documents (PIDs)
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Stakeholder mapping and engagement
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Designing and delivering projects using agreed-upon improvement and project methodologies
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Risk management and mitigation
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Managing budgets, business cases, and benefits realisation plans
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Providing strategic updates and high-level communications to governance groups and stakeholders
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Integrating programme outcomes into business-as-usual operations
The postholder will also play a key role in shaping a positive organisational culture through role modelling, continuous improvement, and demonstrating the impact of the programme on staff and patient outcomes.
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 cultivate a culture of engagement. We have four staff networks, a corporate EDI Team and a suite of programmes and events which aim to insert the 5 aspirations:
- Improving representation at senior levels of staff with disabilities, from black, Asian, and ethnic minorities background, 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 equalities mainstream
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
- Provide support with and lead on elements of the design and delivery of a series of specific improvement and efficiency projects and programmes from start to end, ensuring they align with agreed organisational, system and national strategic priorities.
- Deliver projects and programmes using analytical and issue-based problem solving, qualitative and quantitative analysis, and improvement/change management methodologies.
- Ensure that clinical, professional and patient engagement is central to the delivery of all project activities.
- Assist in the implementation of standardised improvement, project and change management methodologies across the trust, which will deliver the key priorities outlined in the Trust’s improvement and change strategy.
- Ensure systems are in place to enable improvement information to be used effectively by the Trust Board and managers at all levels across the Trust.
- Understand and interpret new strategic targets and policies, both at a national and local level, which are relevant to the Trust
- Analyse key performance data relating to improvement, identifying areas of poor performance and agreeing an improvement plan with the relevant teams
- Provide regular progress reports for improvement projects and programmes and ensure learning is disseminated and spread across the Trust to maximise benefit and promote sustainability of change.
- Set up appropriate programme and workstream plans highlighting key deliverables, milestones, roles and responsibilities required.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Masters degree or equivalent ability
- Formal education to first degree level or equivalent ability
- Project management qualification or equivalent ability
Desirable criteria
- Improvement qualification or equivalent ability
- Evidence of continuous professional development
Experience
Essential criteria
- Management experience in healthcare or a transferable environment where change management skills have been required in the post
- Experience in project management delivery with evidence of leading and delivering large scale improvement projects and tangible benefits including financial benefits
- Experience of modelling complex data sets, including financial data sets, and providing clear and comprehensive outputs
- Staff management experience
- Budget management experience
- Developing and delivering benefits realisation plans, including financial
- Management of change and improvement and the use of tools and methodologies
- Familiarity with basic IT applications
Desirable criteria
- Experience in financial management
- Experience of working in a clinical or operational role
Employer certification / accreditation badges
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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
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Sophie Youett
- Job title
- Senior Improvement Programme Manager
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 07502629583
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