Strategic management
An NHS strategic manager is a leader that puts patients, the public and our staff at the very heart of decision making and setting the organisation's direction.
"The best part of my job is that I have the opportunity to improve patient care for 7.5 million people across the north west."
Read Dan's story [1]
Working life
You will be play a major part on setting the vision, aims and objectives for the organisation and creating routes towards reaching these goals. You could also be responsible for planning and implementing change and you're likely to be a senior leader.
Job roles will vary depending on the organisation, but essentially have responsibility for the successful delivery of a range of services within the organisation. In the NHS, your role in strategic management will certainly involve:
- leading people
- resource and budget management
- working with clinical colleagues and cross-functional teams to improve the way in which services are delivered
- consulting patients and the public
- focusing on how the NHS can be modernised to meet patients’ needs.
Your role could range from being responsible for a whole service division of staff and a multi-million pound budget in a hospital trust to managing primary care [2] or mental health services over a wide geographical area and across many sites.
Roles in strategic management
Examples of roles in strategic management include:
Change manager
In this example, you’d be working in a large acute trust and would play a pivotal role in shaping and transforming the future of the trust. It would initially focus on delivering benefits in an area such as diagnostic imaging services, working with clinicians and managers and then move into wider clinical or non-clinical areas.
Commissioning manager (social inclusion)
This is a varied and challenging example of a role working in primary care [2] and would give you the opportunity to develop unique services for people often excluded from planning.
Working with a range of services, you’d be responsible for ensuring that the differing needs of the community were met efficiently. The role would involve commissioning and developing healthcare services for a variety of groups, such as:
- HM prison
- asylum seekers
- black and ethnic communities
- as well as developing smoking cessation services.
Director of strategic development
Based in a mental health trust, you would be an executive director and play a significant role in shaping the future mental health services and social care provision. You would offer a board overview of new developments in specific areas such as the child and adolescent service and regional women’s forensic services.
General manager
You would be based in a high profile directorate within one of England’s largest mental health trusts. This directorate forms a key part of the NHS's plans to reform the management, assessment and treatment of high risk patients thought to be dangerous and severely personality disordered (DSPD).
As a member of the directorate management, you’d provide strategic support and professional guidance, while managing a multi-million pound budget and over 300 people.
Want to learn more?
- Find out more about the entry requirements, skills and interests required to enter a career in strategic management [3]
- Find out more about the training you’ll receive for a career in strategic management [4]