Overview
Head of Specialist Operations Jobs in Crawley, England, United Kingdom at South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust
Title: Head of Specialist Operations
Company: South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust
Location: Crawley, England, United Kingdom
Job Overview
The Head of Specialist Operations will be responsible and accountable for ensuring the delivery of theHazardous Area Response Team (HART) and Specialist Operations Response teams (SORT) response capability for the Trust.
The post holder will ensure the duties of the Accountable Emergency Officer (AEO) are fully met and maintained for the organisation.
The post holder will oversee and assure delivery of HART / SORT capabilities for the Trust, ensuring integration of all HART / SORT activity into core functions of the organisation whilst maintaining the highest level of standards for preparedness in line with national policies and procedures.
The post holder will engage and work closely with NARU, NHSE (national & regional), JESIP, UKHSA, National Ambulance EPRR leads to influence national policy and developments of the HART / SORT specialism. And therefore, the post holder will advise on national policy and best practice guidance and work closely with the Directors and Managers of South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAmb) to review Specialist Operations and make improvements based on national policy and learning from incidents orevents.
Main duties of the job
Ensure the provision of HART / SORT capabilities in compliance with the NHS core standards for emergency preparedness, resilience and response.
The post holder must ensure as an NHS-funded organisation must meet the requirements of the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, the NHS Act 2006, the Health and Care Act 2022, the NHS standard contract, the NHS Core Standards for EPRR and NHS England business continuity management framework.
To ensure that the SECAMB is prepared and equipped to respond and deal with all serious / large scale / standby and declared major incidents and planned large scale events.
To ensure the appropriate specialist guidance, action cards, rotas and communication are in place for an effective response by SECAMB and all our staff in the event of a major incident.
Provide monthly updates to Operational Management team (OMT) and quarterly updates to Executive Management Board (EMB) regarding EPRR matters via a report.
Maintain a national security clearance level of Secret (SC) enabling the post holder to receive and retain highly sensitive and complex information up to and including ‘secret’ as defined by the Government Protective Marking Scheme.
Working for our organisation
- Option to join NHS pension scheme
- A minimum 27 days' holiday each year, increasing after 5 years’ service.
- Personal and professional development and training opportunities.
- Salary Sacrifice schemes for cars or push bikes.
- Access to occupational health and counselling services.
- Award winning wellbeing hub
- Back up buddy App
- Access to NHS discounts, offering NHS employees a range of money-saving deals.
Please note that the salary range noted on the vacancy is in line with agenda for change (AFC) pay scales. All successful applicants would be placed automatically at the bottom of the banding, unless proven, relevant NHS or equivalent experience can be demonstrated.
Following the revision of current national legislation (Vaccine as a Condition of Deployment), the Trust has reviewed our requirements relating to staff uptake of the SARS-COV-2 (COVID-19) vaccination.
Going forward, for patient facing positions, we strongly recommend that new starters will be appropriately vaccinated unless medically exempt in order to offer greater protection against exposure to the virus for front line staff.
In line with this recommendation, if you are successful in your application for a front line post, we will seek information from you in relation to your vaccine status, including exemption status, as applicable.
Please note, all positions come with a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check relevant to the post. This will either be a basic, standard, or enhanced check depending on the role. The level of check will be outlined in the conditional offer letter sent to successful applicants.
As part of the application process, you will be asked to declare any unspent/unfiltered convictions. If you are shortlisted you will then be sent a self declaration form, which must be completed prior to attending interview. for any queries relating to declarations, please contact the Recruitment Advisor listed on the vacancy.
The Trust is passionately committed to being an inclusive employer – a place where we can all be ourselves and succeed. As an employer we offer a range of family friendly, inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements, staff engagement networks, facilities and services to support staff from different backgrounds.
We actively support equality of opportunity for all our staff and welcome applications from individuals regardless of age, any disability, sex, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief. The Trust is making progress towards its aim of becoming more reflective of the diversity of our community in our workforce and guarantees an interview to candidates with disability who meet the essential criteria specified. We particularly encourage applications from Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic and disabled applicants and those from other under-represented groups.
The Equality Act 2010 protects disabled people – including those with long term health conditions, learning disabilities and hidden disabilities such as dyslexia. If you tell us that you have a disability we can make reasonable adjustments to ensure that any selection processes – including the interview – are fair and equitable.
We are a committed to offering opportunities to individuals with disabilities and offer on-going support, should you be successful, with any adjustments you may need when performing your role.
When completing the application please use your name as it appears on your passport and please ensure you include email addresses and contact numbers for your referees to avoid delay in the recruitment process.
Please note that under our Trust policies, we're unable to employ anyone under the age of 18 years old.
The majority of our roles will include some travel between sites for business purposes. If the vacancy you’re applying for includes work related travel, you will be required to ensure that you hold and have covered the cost of suitable car insurance to support this.
Should you require an application form in an alternative format including large print or braille, please contact [email protected] stating the vacancy reference number and we will be happy to provide this.
When completing the reference section, please include details to cover the last three years’ history.
Due to the high volume of applications at SECAmb, we regret that we will only be able to contact those applicants who are shortlisted for interview. If you have not heard from us within 10 working days of the closing date, then please assume you have not been shortlisted for interview on this particular occasion.
Please note that we contact all applicants via Trac Jobs and would advise you check your Trac Jobs account regularly.
Please be aware that the Trust reserves the right to close this vacancy early if sufficient applications are received. For this reason we recommend completing your application as early as possible.
Follow our recruitment on Twitter @SECAmbRecruit and check out our Facebook page – SECAmb NHS Recruitment. You can also find us on Linkedin under South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust.
We understand that AI tools can be useful for generating ideas or structuring your application. However, any content submitted must reflect your own experiences, skills, and understanding. Applications that are generated wholly or in large part by AI, without personalisation or accuracy, may be excluded from consideration. We value honesty, authenticity, and integrity in the recruitment process and expect all applicants to uphold these principles.
If you are a current SECAmb employee, by applying for this position, if successful you will move to the terms and conditions associated with the post. Any unsocial hours payments will be paid under the Section 2 agreement of agenda for change. Section 2 unsocial hours will need to be claimed via your monthly timesheet. More information regarding section 2 can be found in the Agenda for Change handbook and on the our dedicated Section 2 page on The Zon e.
