Skip to main content
Please wait, loading

Job summary

Main area
Communications
Grade
NHS AfC: Band 8c
Contract
Fixed term: 12 months (Cover for maternity leave for up to 12 months)
Hours
Full time - 37.5 hours per week (Mon to Fri)
Job ref
19-SMT1551
Employer
Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust
Employer type
NHS
Site
Guy's Hospital
Town
London
Salary
£78,163 - £88,884 p.a. inc HCA (pro rata)
Salary period
Yearly
Closing
12/05/2024 23:59

Employer heading

Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust logo

Head of Communications

NHS AfC: Band 8c

Guy’s and St Thomas’ is among the UK’s busiest and most successful NHS foundation trusts. We provide a full range of hospital and community services for people in south London and as well as specialist care for patients from further afield including cancer, renal, orthopaedic, respiratory and cardiovascular services.

Guy’s is home to the largest dental school in Europe and a £160 million Cancer Centre opened in 2016. As part of our commitment to provide care closer to home, in 2017 we also opened a cancer centre and a kidney treatment centre at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup. St Thomas’ has one of the largest critical care units in the UK and one of the busiest emergency departments in London. It is also home to Evelina London Children’s Hospital.

Evelina London cares for local children in Lambeth and Southwark and provides specialist services across south east England including cardiac, renal and critical care services. We lead a number of specialist service networks aiming to ensure children are treated locally where possible, but have access to specialist expertise when they need it. Our community services include health visiting, school nursing and support for families of children with long-term conditions. 

Our adult community services teams deliver care at the heart of the local communities we serve, working in partnership with GPs, local authorities and other healthcare and voluntary sector organisations. Working with our partners in Lambeth and Southwark, we are focusing on new ways of working to improve care for local patients.

In February 2021 the Royal Brompton and Harefield joined Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, bringing together world-leading expertise in the care and research of heart and lung disease. Our merger provides a once in a generation opportunity to build a lasting, world-renowned heart and lung centre, providing the highest quality care for patients and conducting world-leading research.

We have a reputation for clinical excellence and high quality teaching and research. We are part of King’s Health Partners, one of eight accredited UK academic health sciences centres. In partnership with King’s College London we have dedicated clinical research facilities including an MHRA accredited Phase I clinical trials unit.

Patients are at the heart of everything we do and we pride ourselves on ensuring the best possible patient experience as well as safe, high quality care. We are proud to have one of the lowest mortality rates in the NHS. Following a comprehensive Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection in 2019 we maintained our overall rating of ‘good’. Our adult community services achieved a rating of ‘outstanding’.

The commitment of our 23,500 staff is key to our success. We are one of the largest local employers and we aim to develop and support all our staff so they are able to deliver high quality, safe and efficient care. The 2019 NHS staff survey results show that we have one of the most engaged and motivated workforces in the NHS. We know this has a positive impact on the care provided to our patients.

We have one of the most ambitious capital investment programmes anywhere in the NHS.



Job overview

We are looking for an experienced and confident senior communications lead. This role leads KHP’s communications service and works across the full range of organisational and strategic needs to further the vision and mission of the partnership, as well as leading the development and implementation of integrated and creative communications strategies.

This is an exciting time to join the team as we develop the KHP 2030 strategy. 

Our ideal candidate will be a strategic thinker, with a masters or equivalent qualification or demonstrable experience at this level and able to demonstrate continued learning and development.

You should have extensive experience of working in public relations or a communications environment, preferably within an NHS, Academic or Research setting

It will be essential to have experience in senior communications leadership and governance, including sitting on or working closely with Executives/Boards and material development/business case delivery at this level.

A team player, with strong management skills as a leader of a team, you will also have the political acumen and experience of working in a highly complex and sensitive environment and able to demonstrate significant influencing and persuasion skills.

 

Main duties of the job

You will be a member of the KHP Executive and Senior Management Group working with the Joint Clinical Strategy Directors and Professors of key programmes to oversee delivery progress. 

You should have excellent communications and relationship building skills in order to maximise stakeholder management at a local, regional, national and global level, including:

  • Our own partnership and South East London Integrated Care System (ICS), focussing on population health communications work for the joint programme, as well as across all south east London NHS trusts, primary care, boroughs and healthcare organisations (including Healthwatch, South East London Cancer Alliance, Black Thrive, Impact of Urban Health).
  • Within London, for SC1 London Life Sciences Innovation District, which was jointly founded by KHP, Lambeth and Southwark Local Authorities and the GSTT Foundation as well as a dotted line of responsibility for the South East London Cancer Alliance’s communications lead.
  • Nationally, with the wider Academic Health Science Centre network, playing a key role in the partnership’s reporting and accreditation process into NHS England and Improvement and the National Institute for Health Research
  • Globally, with members of the European University Health Alliance, and a range of international partners to lead KHP’s communications about joint work, e.g., with healthcare and educational organisations in Sydney, Denmark, the US, Africa and India.

Working for our organisation

You will lead our communications team which is one of the central teams within KHP. We have about 60 core staff within KHP central, including teams for education, partnerships and programmes, clinical academic partnerships, Mind & Body and business support.

The core team has a Deputy Head of Communications, a Communications Officer and Digital Communications Officer and an Events and Engagement Project Officer.

At KHP, we have a very active programme of professional development, which includes "all team" strategy meetings, lunch and learns, conferences and other events, with lots of opportunity to get involved in new initiatives and work.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

To lead and manage an effective and efficient communications function for King’s Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC). This includes:

  • Leadership of the communications teams across the full range of communications activities, including professional management of associated communications staff.
  • Management of the strategic planning, oversight of operational delivery and management of the budget for King’s Health Partners’ core communications strategy and functions.
  • Providing strategic advice to the KHP Executive Director, Director of Partnerships and Operations, Director of Strategy , Executive Group and Senior Leadership Team on the strategic direction and approach for all KHP workstreams and proposals.
  • Leading on the management, strategic planning, delivery, evaluation and continuous improvement of all KHP communications channels including its website, social media, internal and external events, stakeholder engagement and newsletter.
  • Management of all media relations for the Academic Health Sciences Centre and its Senior Leadership Team.
  • Leading on communications for the core programmes of work within King’s Health Partners (Centre for Translational Medicine, KHP Digital Health Hub, Clinical Academic Groups and Clinical Academic Partnerships, KHP Mind & Body Programme, KHP Education and King’s Clinical Academic Training Office (KCATO), the joint SEL ICS and KHP Population Health and Equity Programme, Academic Surgery) providing expert advice, guidance and oversight to embedded communications staff as required.
  • Leading on relationships with our partnership’s various fundraising teams, ensuring promotion of their work and campaigns, brand governance and alignment and offering strategic communications advice.
  • Leading communications strategies for the development of the Clinical Academic Partnerships (CAPs) and Clinical Academic Groups (CAGs) , ensuring effective collaboration across partner organisation Communications Directors, providing appropriate communications leadership, direction and support for the  programme boards, KHP Senior Leadership Team..
  • Provide leadership and strategic communications direction for the Academic Health Science Centre’s implementation of its strategy.
  • Holding and building the relationships with other Academic Health Science Centres and Health Innovation Networks to ensure that KHP maintains a leading position in its field, working out and through external groups to achieve this.
  • Holding and building our relationships with our four partner Communications teams, SEL ICS, and our key system stakeholder communications teams including the Health Innovation Network South London and NIHR infrastructure
  • Leading and overseeingall international communications, including with EUHA, our Global Health programme and our international collaborations and partnerships.
  • Providing expert advice, guidance and oversight to embedded communications staff and ensuring brand and style governance is maintained throughout all KHP sub-channels.
  • Ensuring that all of KHP’s communications channels and content are in line accessibility legislation and good practice, and building on diversity, inclusion and equity within all channels and content.
  • Building on the success of  the YouTube funded partnership for its health strategy for KHP, working  with communications leads from King’s College London and South London and Maudsley.
  • Leading on strategic communications advice and guidance for our business and operational management and working with the other senior staff to support office, staff and operational management and direction.
  • Leading the communications strategies for the Clinical Academic Partnerships , ensuring effective collaboration across partner organisation Communications Directors, providing appropriate communications leadership, direction and support.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria
  • Educated to Masters or equivalent experience with evidence of continued learning/development and/or further study
Desirable criteria
  • Post graduate communications or management qualification

Experience

Essential criteria
  • Experience in senior communications leadership and governance role (ideally in NHS, Academic or Research setting), including sitting on or working closely with Executives/Boards and material development/business case creation and delivery

Skills

Essential criteria
  • A strategic thinker with excellent communications skills (written and verbal) and demonstrable stakeholder and team management

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Timewise helps businesses to attract and develop the best talent through flexible working.Care quality commission - GoodDisability confident employer

Documents to download

Apply online now

Further details / informal visits contact

Name
Joseph Casey
Job title
Director of Partnerships and Operations
Email address
[email protected]
Additional information

We welcome informal enquiries. Please email in the first instance to [email protected] 

Apply online nowAlert me to similar vacancies