Thank you for your interest in joining the Board of East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust.  We are a large hospitals Trust, with five hospitals and a number of community clinics serving around 700,000 people in east Kent. We also provide specialist services for a wider population of over a million, including renal services in Medway and Maidstone, the county’s specialist vascular surgery service and a cardiac service for all of Kent based at William Harvey Hospital, Ashford. We have 10,169 staff members.

Everyone at the Trust is very focussed on improving both the standard of care and speed with which people are seen, and as a Board, we have a strong focus on the work required to put the Trust on a more sustainable footing. This has required significant changes, which are starting to become embedded. We have implemented a new organisational structure designed to ensure staff and services have the right level of support and focus to meet the needs of our local population. We have an improved grip on our financial plans and plans to reduce waiting lists and improve operational performance. We are also working hard to listen to and respond to what our staff are telling us about how it feels to work at the Trust, which we need to substantially improve.

We are seeking to appoint two Non-Executive Directors. We are looking for an individual who possess the necessary skills and experience to help propel our strategic initiatives, as well as a commitment to uphold the Trust’s values. We are eager to secure an individual with experience in estates management, ideally from within the NHS, who can help support the Board as we turn to our own estates and their management and improvement.  In our second NED, we are seeking a generalist who can provide senior leadership expertise, gained in the public, private or not for profit sector.

We are committed to cultivating a culture of continuous quality improvement that thrives on the agility, innovation, and transformation of our staff. To effectively achieve this, we need a Board that reflects the diversity of the communities we serve, and I warmly encourage applications from individuals from underrepresented groups. I invite you to explore the information available on our website and discuss the role with our search partner, Anderson Quigley. If you are dedicated to positioning our Trust as a leading provider of acute health service, improving health and wellbeing, for our patients and our staff, then I look forward to receiving your application. Thank you once again for your interest.

We are a large hospitals Trust, with five hospitals and a number of community clinics serving around 700,000 people in east Kent. We also provide specialist services for a wider population of over a million, including renal services in Medway and Maidstone, the county’s specialist vascular surgery service and a cardiac service for all of Kent based at William Harvey Hospital, Ashford. We have 10,169 staff members.

We provide a number of services in the local community, including in people’s own homes. This includes home dialysis, community paediatrics, mobile chemotherapy and stoma care.

As a teaching Trust, we play a vital role in the education and training of doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals, and are working in partnership with the new Kent and Medway Medical School. We will continue to work with our long-term partner, King’s College University in London and with St George’s Medical School.

We value participating in clinical research studies, and we consistently recruit high numbers of patients into research trials. Kent and Medway’s Clinical Trials Unit is based in our Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital, Margate.

Buckland Hospital provides a range of local services. Its facilities include a minor injuries walk-in centre, outpatient facilities, renal satellite services, day hospital services, child health and child development services, ophthalmology surgery and a community diagnostic centre, which includes CT and MRI scanners.

Kent and Canterbury Hospital (K&CH) provides a range of surgical and medical services. It is a central base for many specialist services in east Kent such as elective orthopaedics, renal, vascular, interventional radiology, urology, dermatology, neurology and haemophilia services. It also provides a 24/7 urgent treatment centre. Kent & Canterbury Hospital has a postgraduate teaching centre and staff accommodation.

Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital, Margate (QEQMH) provides a range of emergency and elective services and comprehensive trauma, obstetrics, general surgery and paediatric services. It has a specialist centre for gynaecological cancer and modern operating theatres, Intensive Therapy Unit (ITU) facilities, children’s inpatient and outpatient facilities, a Cardiac Catheter Laboratory, a Renal satellite service and Cancer Unit. QEQM host the county’s Clinical Trials Unit, has a postgraduate teaching centre and staff accommodation. On site there are also co-located adult and elderly mental health facilities run by the Kent & Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust.

The Royal Victoria Hospital, Folkestone provides a range of local services including an urgent care centre (provided by Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust), a thriving outpatients department, the Derry Unit (which offers specialist gynaecological and urological outpatient procedures), diagnostic services, and mental health services provided by the Kent and Medway NHS & Social Care Partnership Trust.

The William Harvey Hospital (WHH), Ashford provides a range of emergency and elective services, including a trauma unit, as well as comprehensive maternity, paediatric and neonatal intensive care services. The hospital has a renal satellite service, a specialist cardiology unit undertaking angiography, angioplasty, a state-of-the-art pathology analytical robotics laboratory that reports all east Kent’s General Practitioner (GP) activity and a robotic pharmacy facility. A single Head and Neck Unit for east Kent includes centralised maxillofacial services with all specialist head and neck cancer surgery co-located on the site. WHH has a postgraduate teaching centre and staff accommodation.

Our vision and values

Our vision is to be a leading provider of acute healthcare services by delivering ‘Great Healthcare from Great People‘.

Our mission is to improve health and wellbeing, for our patients and our staff.

Our values are very important to us and we want everyone who experiences our Trust to feel cared for, safe, respected and confident we are making a difference.

We are focusing on five priorities to continue to transform our Trust and deliver our vision of great healthcare, from great people:

• patients
• people
• partnerships
• sustainability
• quality and safety

Leaders in the NHS help deliver better health and care for patients by setting the tone for their organisation, team culture and performance. We have worked with a wide range of leaders from across the NHS to help describe what we do when we operate at our best.

The competency domains reflect the NHS values, and the following diagram shows how they  are aligned:

The competency domains are aligned with Our NHS People Promise, Our Leadership Way and the Seven Principles of Public Life (Nolan Principles).

The Six NHS Leadership Competency Domains:

Driving high-quality and sustainable outcomes

The skills, knowledge and behaviours needed to deliver and bring about high quality and safe care and lasting change and improvement – from ensuring all staff are trained and well-led to fostering improvement and innovation, which leads to better health and care outcomes.

Candidates will have:

• A demonstrable interest in health and social care and a strong desire to achieve the best sustainable outcomes for all patients and service users through encouraging continuous improvement, clinical excellence and value for money.
• Strong understanding of financial management, with the ability to balance the competing objectives of quality, operational performance and finance.
• An appreciation of constitutional and regulatory NHS standards.

Setting strategy and delivering long-term transformation

The skills that need to be employed in strategy development and planning, and ensuring a system wide view, along with using intelligence from quality, performance, finance and workforce measures to feed into strategy development. Candidates will have:

• Experience of leading and delivering against long-term vision and strategy.
• Experience leading transformational change, managing complex organisations, budgets and people.

Promoting equality and inclusion and reducing health and workforce inequalities

The importance of continually reviewing plans and strategies to ensure their delivery leads to improved services and outcomes for all communities narrows health and workforce inequalities and promotes inclusion. Candidates will have:

• A clear commitment towards issues of equality, diversity and inclusion.
• Significant experience of engaging with the diverse social, economic and cultural groups served by the organisation.

Providing robust governance and assurance

The system of leadership accountability and the behaviours, values and standards that underpin our work as leaders. This domain also covers the principles of evaluation, the significance of evidence and assurance in decision making and ensuring patient safety, and the vital importance of collaboration on the board to drive delivery and improvement. Candidates will have:

• Prior board experience (any sector, executive or non-executive role).
• Evidence of successfully demonstrating the NHS Leadership competencies in other leadership roles.
• An ability to identify and address issues, including underperformance, and to scrutinise and challenge information effectively for assurance.

Creating a compassionate, just and positive culture

The skills and behaviours needed to develop great team and organisation cultures. This includes ensuring all staff and service users are listened to and heard, being respectful and challenging inappropriate behaviours. Candidates will have:

• A clear commitment to the NHS and the trust’s values and principles.
• Experience of building effective teams, encouraging change and innovation and shaping an open, inclusive and compassionate culture through setting the right tone at the top and championing diversity at and across all levels.
• Strongly focused on the experience of all staff and patients.
• Experience managing conflict, finding compromise and building consensus across varied stakeholder groups with potentially conflicting priorities.

Building a trusted relationship with partners and communities

The need to collaborate, consult and co-produce with colleagues in neighbouring teams, providers and systems, people using services, our communities, and our workforce.

Strengthening relationships and developing collaborative behaviours are key to the integrated care environment. Candidates will have:

• A desire to engage with the local population and to collaborate with senior stakeholders across the health and care system.
• Strong interpersonal, communication and leadership skills.

Applications will be assessed on merit, as part of a fair and open process, from the widest possible pool of candidates. The information provided by applicants will be relied on to assess whether sufficient personal responsibility and achievement have been demonstrated in previous/other roles, to satisfy the experience being sought.

The best boards are those that reflect the workforce and communities they serve. We particularly welcome applications from women, people from local black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, and people with disabilities, who we know are all under-represented in these important roles.

Values and Concepts from NHS Leadership Competency Framework

Our people promise:

• We are compassionate and inclusive
• We are recognised and rewarded
• We each have a voice that counts
• We are safe and healthy
• We are always learning
• We work flexibly
• We are a team

NHS values

• Working together for patients
• Respect and dignity Commitment to quality of care
• Compassion
• Improving lives
• Everyone counts

Our leadership way

• We are compassionate
• We are inclusive, promote equality and diversity, and challenge discrimination.
• We are kind and treat people with compassion, courtesy and respect.
• We are curious
• We aim for the highest standards and seek to continually improve, harnessing our ingenuity.
• We can be trusted to do what we promise
• We are collaborative
• We collaborate, forming effective partnerships to achieve our common goals
• We celebrate success and support our people to be the best they can be

Health and Care Act 2022

• Collaborate with partners to address our shared priorities and have the core aim and duty to improve the health and wellbeing of the people of England.
• Improve the quality, including safety, of services provided.
• Ensure the sustainable, efficient use of resources for the wider system and communities.

Selflessness 

• Holders of public office should make decisions solely in terms of the public interest. They should not do so in order to gain financial or other material benefits for themselves,  their family, or their friends.

Integrity  

• Holders of public office should not place themselves under any financial or other obligation to outside individuals or organisations that might influence them in the performance of their official duties.

Objectivity  

• In carrying out public business, including making public appointments, awarding contracts, or recommending individuals for rewards and benefits, holders of public office should make choices on merit.

Accountability  

• Holders of public office are accountable for their decisions and actions to the public and must submit themselves to whatever scrutiny is appropriate to their office.

Openness 

• Holders of public office should be as open as possible about all the decisions and actions that they take. They should give reasons for their decisions and restrict information only when the wider public interest clearly demands.

Honesty 

• Holders of public office have a duty to declare any private interests relating to their public duties and to take steps to resolve any conflicts arising in a way that protects the public interest.

Leadership 

• Holders of public office should promote and support these principles by leadership and example.

It is the responsibility of each Non-Executive Director to ensure that they can make sufficient time available to discharge their responsibilities efficiently, and prior to taking the appointment the successful candidate should inform the Chair of any other time commitments.

£13,000 per annum for an initial 3-year term

Further Dates: The Board meets face-to-face each month for 1-day; alternating between formal Board meetings in public and Board-only  strategy sessions.  Our Finance and Performance Committee is monthly; our People & Culture and Quality & Safety Committees are once every two months; Our Integrated Audit and Governance Committee is quarterly.   Dates are available on request.

The successful candidate must satisfy all of the criteria of the Fit and Proper Persons Requirement, as outlined in this document.

To be eligible for appointment as a Non-Executive Director, you will need to be a member of  the Trust. You can complete the membership form on-line at   https://www.ekhuft.nhs.uk/patients-and-visitors/members/membership-form/.

The successful candidate will ideally be resident within one of the following  areas:

• Ashford Borough Council
• Canterbury City Council
• Dover District Council
• Shepway District Council
• Swale Borough Council
• Thanet District Council

However, applications from individuals who live outside East Kent are welcome to apply,  provided they maintain strong visibility in the Trust and fulfil the expected time commitment for the role. Such applicants will need to be a member of the Trust and can join as members of the ‘Rest of England and Wales’ constituency.

Disqualification criteria  

To be eligible for appointment as Non-Executive Director, you must not be disqualified by  virtue of the criteria set out below:

• A person who has been adjudged bankrupt or whose estate has been sequestrated and  (in either case) has not been discharged.
• A person who has made a composition or arrangement with, or granted a trust deed for,  his creditors and has not been discharged in respect of it.
• A person who, within the preceding five years, has been convicted in the British Islands of any offence if a sentence of imprisonment (whether suspended or not) for a period of not less than three months (without the option of a fine) was imposed.

Anderson Quigley is acting as an advisor to the Trust, an executive search process is being carried out by Anderson Quigley in addition to the public advertisement.

The closing date for applications is 28 February 2025.

Applications should consist of:

• A full CV. A covering letter (ideally two pages) outlining how you meet the essential experience criteria of the person specification and your motivations in joining the Trust.
• Details of where you live and your knowledge of the local community.
• Please include details of two referees in either your CV or covering letter, though please note that we will not approach your referees without your prior consent and only should you be shortlisted.
• Please also include details of how you will meet the time commitment required. You must also complete and send a copy of the fit and proper persons declaration which can be accessed here.

We are actively committed to building a diverse, gender-balanced, and representative workforce that values and celebrates diversity, including at the board level. We encourage applicants from all backgrounds to apply, ensuring our Board reflects the diverse communities we serve and promoting diversity of thought.

Should you wish to discuss the role in strict confidence, please contact Helene Usherwood on +44 (0)7719 322 669 or helene.usherwood@andersonquigley.com or Aino Betts on +44 (0)7743 934 723 or aino.betts@andersonquigley.com.