CQC - Strategy Managers

Job description

Grade A: £52,737 (National Framework) or £58,139 (London Framework – if you are London office based or homebased and live within the boundary of the M25) – There is also an additional homeworking allowance of £553 per annum for those working from home. For part time roles – please note this will be pro rata.

Contracted Hours: Full-time 37 hours per week or Part-time 30 hours per week. Job-share will be considered. Talk to us about compressed hours

Contract Type: Permanent  

Location: Home-based, flexible location

Closing Date: Tuesday 14th May 2024 at 11.59pm

Potential Interview Date: (via Teams) Monday 10th/ Tuesday 11th June 2024

This role is NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points-based system. Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected, and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn.

 Are you committed to helping us regulate health and social care within England?

When thinking about what drives you every day in your job, what keeps you motivated and passionate about your work what comes to mind?  For 3000+ people at the CQC we end each day knowing that we have made a difference to the lives of those most in need in our communities. We make sure health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care and encourage care services to improve. We are looking for people who are caring, demonstrate integrity and work well as part of a team to join with us and share in this sense of achievement. If you would like to help us make a positive impact to health and social care within England, then read on.

Why this could be a great role for you….
Reporting directly to the Deputy Director of Strategy, you will lead strategic policy projects and undertake strategic analysis and problem solving across CQC’s role, purpose, and regulatory functions.
You will have a unique opportunity to apply your strategy expertise to influence care quality at a national level, shape CQC’s future role and challenge the status quo. Working with colleagues across the organisation and beyond you will provide recommendations for our strategic direction, identifying policy options and identifying innovative ways to regulate that enable us to keep pace with the changing health and care landscape and ensure people receive safe, effective care. 

What you will bring…
You will be someone who thrives on forward thinking and creative problem solving, seeking out answers to difficult challenges.  You must be confident at articulating coherent rationales for your recommendations. The role would suit someone who is naturally curious, enjoys pursuing new ideas, at ease with challenging conventional ways of thinking, and is open to doing things differently.
It’s a role with plenty of cross organisation team working and engagement with stakeholders, so you’ll need to be able to work successfully at all levels and be able to build relationships quickly. You will work as part of a geographically dispersed homebased team across England and as such we are looking for people who are self-driven. You will be comfortable and experienced in working autonomously on a variety of projects and where a lot of contact is virtual.

What we can offer you...
Your health and wellbeing are important to us and are supported through our benefits scheme
- 27 days’ annual leave, rising with service to 32.5 days, plus 8 Bank Holidays
- NHS pension scheme, with around a 14% employer contribution
- Free employee assistance service 24 hours a day
- Discounts to supermarkets, high street stores, electronics and fleet cars
- Discounted gym vouchers
- Cycle to work scheme
- Internal reward scheme where you could earn yourself a voucher or two!
- Equipment for homeworking

We want to make working for CQC a great experience for everyone, and to role model a diverse and representative culture. To support an inclusive environment where colleagues feel empowered to bring their whole self to work, we support a variety of staff networks, including the Race Equality Network, LGBT+ Equality Network, Carers Equality Network, Disability Equality Network and Gender Equality network.

We want to support you to succeed and be your very best with opportunities for training and development; along with the support of experienced managers and mentors.

Accountabilities:
Lead strategic analysis, complex problem solving and examine evidence to support strategic policy development and identification of innovative solutions, particularly for questions across organisational boundaries, development of CQC’s strategic direction and horizon scanning.

Provide effective leadership of strategic projects and project teams across CQC, collaborating with and drawing on the expertise of CQC colleagues, and where appropriate external contributors, to address strategic risks and opportunities for CQC’s regulatory activity, ensure the delivery of CQC’s strategy and continuously improve the quality of its approach.

Lead the identification of strategic risks and opportunities for CQC based on developments in national policy, social, economic, and technological developments, and other factors affecting the health and social care system and delivery of CQC’s core purpose. Ensures implications which may have an impact on CQC’s core purpose are identified, analysed and actions recommended and ensures that CQC’s approach anticipates and keeps pace with these developments and remains fit for purpose.

Build and maintain strong and productive external relationships across government, regulation, and health and social care and beyond as required to keep pace with national and international developments, and to influence the policy development of CQC’s strategic partners.

Build and maintain strong and productive relationships with internal stakeholders including the Executive Team and Board, providing advice, and supporting with strategic development and strategy realisation that reflects the practical reality of CQC’s activity across all its functions

Provide effective, inclusive and compassionate leadership, direction, and support to Senior Policy and/or Strategy Officers and teams in the Policy and Strategy unit, including through leading projects, matrix and line management as appropriate.

Provide authoritative and expert advice and briefings to support robust strategy development, policy making and problem analysis methodologies, and collaborative working across CQC and beyond

Contribute to effective team working within the Policy and Strategy unit, the Engagement, Policy, and Strategy Directorate and in the wider CQC.

Ensure that evaluation and impact assessment is carried out as required.

Lead external coproduction and consultations where required, for example through developing materials or leading engagement activity including with providers and people using services.

Promotes a culture of respect and fairness and understands personal responsibilities diversity, equity and inclusion.

Role models and supports others to instil our values into everything that we do.

Essential Skills and Experience:
Role Specific
Significant experience in strategic thinking, problem solving and analysis, including rapid research and gathering of new and complex information, and translating it into actionable recommendations.
Significant experience of managing strategy, policy, or analytical projects (including associated strategic and project management processes and tools) with demonstrable organisational impact or improvement
Significant experience of taking a structured approach to problem solving in a policy context.
Demonstrable experience of successfully navigating ambiguous working environments, delivering diverse work at high quality to tight deadlines, and working flexibly across organisational boundaries and disciplines
Knowledge of the health and social care sector, government and / or regulation.
Knowledge and understanding of the development of regulatory frameworks and methods and their implementation.
Experience of analysing the impact of legislation and policy
Experience of project management and of leading projects through clear governance structures for development, approval and sign-off governance.

General
Highly developed written and verbal communication skills and influencing skills including successful presenting at Executive or Board level, with a proven record of success in presenting complex issues in a clear and coherent manner.
Proven ability to proactively manage and maintain effective relationships with external and internal stakeholders.
Strong record of relationship building and collaborative working across teams, including in situations without formal management oversight of colleagues
Experience of managing teams and projects in a complex and ambiguous environment.
Have the appropriate knowledge, skills, and experience to actively promote diversity, inclusion and equity of opportunity, treat everyone with dignity and respect and avoid unlawful discrimination.

Please note some roles may be subject to a satisfactory DBS check

For an informal discussion or further information about this role please contact Hiring Manager – Victoria Howes, Head of Strategy; [email protected] and for general enquiries contact [email protected]

Individual adjustments... 

We are committed to being open and transparent around our processes and we endeavour to offer every candidate the opportunity to perform at their best throughout the recruitment process. We seek to support candidates to identify potential challenges and work with them to identify and facilitate reasonable adjustments as appropriate. Should you require assistance and/or would like to request a reasonable adjustment at any stage of the recruitment process, please contact a member of the team via email: [email protected] 

CQC is committed to promoting a fair and inclusive workplace where all our people can flourish and reach their full potential. We know diverse teams allow for a more creative and productive environment and therefore encourage applications from everyone regardless of: age, gender/sex, gender identity or expression, religion or belief, disability, ethnicity or sexual orientation.

For this role, we are particularly encouraging people from ethnically diverse communities and people with a disability to apply, who are currently under-represented at this level in the organisation.

Our Values

Excellence – Meeting our challenge to be a high-performing organisation
Caring – Treating everyone with dignity and respect
Integrity – Demonstrating our passion for ‘doing the right thing’
Teamwork – Enabling us to be the best we can