Job vacancy: FOI Manager, NHS England, London

Job summary

Main area: Communications
Grade: NHS AfC: Band 7
Contract: Fixed term: 12 months (until 31st October 2026)
Hours: Full time - 37.5 hours per week
Job ref: 990-STR-18128-E

Employer: NHS England
Employer type: NHS
Site: Any NHSE Office
Town: London
Salary: £47,810 - £54,710 per annum (exclusive of London Weighting)
Salary period: Yearly
Closing: 23/10/2025 23:59

FOI Manager

NHS AfC: Band 7

Our Organisation

The NHS is building a culture that is positive, compassionate and inclusive – and we all have our part to play.

As employers we are committed to protecting and promoting the physical and mental health and wellbeing of all our colleagues. This underpins our values as set out in the NHS Constitution and supports us to be an Employer of Choice, while helping our colleagues to deliver high quality services for our patients and communities.

As a flexible employer, we want to support you to work in a way that is best for the NHS, our patients and you. Talk to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that’s a job share, part time, hybrid working or another flexible pattern. In addition, although the role advertised may have a ‘home’ office base indicated, we remain committed to supporting flexibility around workplace locations. If it works for the service, we will do our best to make it work for you.

We are an accredited Living Wage Employer which means that every colleague working for our organisation and third-party contractors will earn a real Living Wage. We are one of over 15,000 organisations, who voluntarily chose to pay the real Living Wage.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The post holder will manage responses independently, liaising with colleagues when appropriate. Tasks include:

· Networking effectively with all the Directorates of NHS England and Improvement, and the Chief Executive’s office.

· Managing the FOI system

· Ensuring that record-keeping and knowledge management within the area of work is effective.

· Representing the area of work to others, internally.

· Being an effective advocate for the importance of FOI.

· Line Management of Senior Case Officers

Key Functional Responsibilities Project Management

· Contribute to performance improvement, taking a lead for identified areas.

· Provide coordination of and participate in relevant working groups and provide project advice, expertise and support where requested.

Provide relevant and timely specialist advice and guidance on own portfolio.

· Work with members of the Team to investigate the causes of any variance from plan and proactively contribute to the implementation of solutions.

· Management of a risk and issues tracking mechanism and the resolution and escalation processes.

Financial and Physical Resources

· Provide regular reporting on the targeting of resources and monitoring their implementation from a value for money perspective.

· Provide oversight and monitoring of all aspects of team budgets or manage budgets as required.

· Ensure project expenditure is monitored accordingly.

People Management

· Take a lead in the coordination of training, development and recruitment activity across the Team.

· Manage staff, undertaking appraisals, and managing any employee relations issues.

Information Management

· Devise and provide improvements to current management information, analysing, reporting and suggesting procedures to enhance decision making processes.

· Ensure timely and accurate detailed information analysis and reporting to management on agreed areas of work.

Research and Development

· Contribute to the development of key performance indicators.

· Delegate aspects of research and development activities, collating information, analysing and reporting findings.

Planning and Organisation

· Contribute to the strategic planning of team projects, identifying interdependencies, and potential impacts on wider organisation, resource requirements and building in contingency and adjustments as necessary.

· Contribute to short, medium and long-term business plans.

Policy and Service Development

· Develop policies and procedures in own work function with an impact on the wider organisation, as required.

· Contribute to the development of an integrated approach to service management.

Key Working Relationships

· The post holder will be required to maintain constructive relationships with a broad range of stakeholders.

· Participate in relevant working groups/projects, services and initiatives to provide, information and analytical advice and expertise.

· Develop and implement data collection systems that will provide accurate and timely data.

Present information and issues, explaining highly complex issues, to a wide range of stakeholders.

Secondments

Applicants from within the NHS will be offered on a secondment basis only, agreement should be obtained from their employer prior to submitting the application.

You can find further details about the role, including key responsibilities and accountabilities, alongside the organisational structure and person specification in the attached Job Description and other supporting documents.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

Educated to Post-graduate degree level in relevant subject or equivalent level qualification or significant experience of working at a similar level in specialist area.

Desirable criteria

FOI Practitioner Certificate (or equivalent)

Knowledge and experience

Essential criteria

Good understanding of current healthcare policy and communications environment and the implications for NHS England and information management
Demonstrable specialist knowledge in FOI processes
Ability to deliver the Freedom of Information system and the organisation’s statutory responsibilities for the FOI Act 2000.
Experience of working in a fast paced environment, delivering against competing priorities and deadlines while also directing the work of teams/individuals.

Skills Capabilities and Aptitudes

Essential criteria

Demonstrate a good ability to deliver at pace in complex environments.
Work autonomously
Clear communicator with excellent written and presentation skills; capable of constructing and delivering clear ideas and concepts concisely and accurately to a diverse and varied range of audiences consisting of internal and external stakeholders
Demonstrated capabilities to manage own workload and make informed decisions in the absence of required information, working to tight and often changing timescales.

Our commitments to you

We are passionate about creating an inclusive workplace that promotes and values diversity. We know that different ideas, perspectives and backgrounds create a stronger and more creative work environment that delivers better patient outcomes. We strive to ensure our people feel trusted, valued and empowered. We’re passionate about nurturing and developing people. When you join us, we want you to grow and excel, and we offer many opportunities for you to do that. We welcome your talent and enthusiasm irrespective of age, disability, neuro-divergence, sex, gender identity and gender expression, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, sexual orientation, or other personal circumstances. We have policies and procedures to ensure that all applicants are treated fairly and consistently at every stage of the recruitment process, including the consideration of reasonable adjustments for people who have a disability and/or who are neuro-divergent.

We welcome applications from disabled candidates. If you meet all the essential criteria, you will be guaranteed an interview.

Your application is your opportunity to demonstrate to us how you meet the requirements of the role. Whilst we appreciate that you may have had support with your application (e.g., using AI technology or guidance from a trusted individual), it’s important that the information contained within your application reflects your own knowledge, skill, and experience and we trust that you apply on that basis.

If applying for this role on a secondment basis, please make sure you have obtained prior agreement from your current line manager to apply for this position.

Please note that we currently do not accept applications via recruitment agencies.

To comply with the HM Government Functional Standard GovS 007, and specifically the Personnel Security Standards 2024, individuals employed or contracted by NHS England may be required to undergo a Baseline Personnel Security Standards check, dependent on the role.

The NHS Business Services Authority is responsible for the processing of your application; a privacy notice is attached to advise you on how we will process your personal data.

If you have applied via NHS Jobs, your submitted application will be imported into our preferred third-party recruitment system. All subsequent information regarding your application will be generated from apps.trac.jobs. If you are appointed to a post, information will also be transferred into the NHS Electronic Staff Records system.

You will not be able to track the progress of your application or receive messages through NHS Jobs, and furthermore, as an employer, we will not be able to respond to any emails sent to us via NHS Jobs. If you have a query relating to your application, please contact the recruitment team on [email protected] or 0300 330 1369. You can view our Privacy Notice here.

NHS England