Job summary
- Main area
- Programme support
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 5
- Contract
- Fixed term: 5 months (Secondment only for current NHS employees. until 31 March 2027)
- Hours
- Full time
- Part time
- Job share
- Flexible working
- Job ref
- 990-PC-EC6496-E
- Employer
- NHS England
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Wellington House
- Town
- London
- Salary
- £38,488 - £46,852 per annum (inclusive of London Weighting)
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 09/11/2026 23:59
Employer heading
Programme Support Officer
NHS AfC: Band 5
Our Organisation
We share the core values set out in the NHS Constitution, which all colleagues are expected to demonstrate.
We support you to work in a way that is best for the NHS, our patients and you and your colleagues. 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.
As part of our commitment to improving patient safety and maintaining safe and trusted services, all successful candidates will be subject to Baseline Personnel Security Screening (BPSS), which includes a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. By submitting your application, you are confirming your agreement to these checks being undertaken as part of the recruitment process.
Anyone who has received a voluntary or compulsory redundancy payment from NHS England since the start of the 2026/27 financial year is not eligible to apply.
Job overview
Are you passionate about improving the lives of people with cancer? Do you want to ensure more people survive cancer than ever before? Working in NHS England’s Cancer Programme, that’s just what you’ll do.
Working in the NHS Cancer Programme, you will help set the agenda for cancer care in England. Our goal is to diagnose cancer earlier, help more people survive it, and improve their quality of life and experience of care. We work with people affected by cancer, clinicians, charities, Regions, Cancer Alliances, and trusts, and develop national policy and strategy to transform services for people across the country.
We have worked closely with colleagues in the Department of Health and Social Care to develop the National Cancer Plan which was published in February and will shape the transformation of cancer services in the years to come.
Our work is improving the experience of cancer patients across England. You will be instrumental in delivering our ambition for better cancer outcomes.
The Cancer Programme Team takes its responsibility to promote equality and diversity seriously. We respect colleagues from different backgrounds and embrace different cultural preferences in everything we do.
Main duties of the job
As a Programme Support Officer, you will support delivery of Performance and Pathways Team priorities, including pathway improvement, governance, stakeholder engagement, programme reporting and the coordination of products and meetings that support national and regional delivery.
Working for our organisation
NHS England has a wide range of statutory functions, responsibilities and regulatory powers. These are focused on supporting the wider NHS to deliver high quality care, as well as doing those things that are best done once for the whole NHS.
Our staff bring expertise across clinical, operational, commissioning, technology, data science, cyber security, software engineering, education, and commercial specialisms — enabling us to design and deliver high-quality NHS services.
In March 2025, the Government announced that NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care will increasingly merge functions, ultimately leading to NHS England being fully integrated into the department.
If you currently work within the NHS and if successful at interview, we will initiate an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR). This retrieves key data from your current or previous NHS employer to support onboarding, including competency status, Continuous Service Dates (CSD), and annual leave entitlement. You may opt out at any stage of the process.
Colleagues with a contractual office base are expected to spend, on average, at least 40% of their time working in our offices.
Staff recruited from outside the NHS will usually be appointed at the bottom of the pay band.
We cannot offer visa sponsorship for any vacancies.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
You will be responsible for:
- Supporting the Performance and Pathways Team with project planning, programme delivery and tracking of key milestones.
- Engaging with stakeholders, such as Cancer Alliances, clinical teams, national subject matter experts, Royal Colleges, charities and patients, to support the design and delivery of Performance and Pathways Team priorities.
- Supporting the governance groups by providing high-quality secretariat support to project meetings, workshops and engagement events.
- Supporting the development of programme communications and products, including preparing slide decks, maintaining action logs, coordinating briefing materials and updating programme documentation.
- Sharing learning, ideas and ways of working across the Performance and Pathways Team and wider NHS Cancer Programme to increase consistency and efficiency.
- Closely managing project documentation to support delivery on time and to agreed governance requirements, including recording actions, risks, issues and decisions.
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
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.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Educated to Degree level in a relevant subject or equivalent level of qualification or significant equivalent previous proven experience.
Knowledge and experience
Essential criteria
- Significant previous experience in a senior administrative or business support role or equivalent experience of working in a large, complex organisation.
- Advanced knowledge of Microsoft Office software applications (Word, Excel, Power point, Outlook etc.)
Skills and capabilities
Essential criteria
- Skills for communication on complex information and administrative matters, requiring developed interpersonal and oral/ written communication skills.
- Ability to pull together comprehensive draft reports, data and letters. Negotiating, networking and persuasive skills.
- Excellent administrative skills, including the ability to construct clear, grammatically correct letters and reports to a high standard of presentation.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Peter Hawkins
- Job title
- Programme Manager
- Email address
- [email protected]
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