Commissioning and Governance Manager - Public Health

The Commissioning & Governance Manager is part of the Islington Public Health Directorate. They will lead and manage a small team and will work primarily on substance misuse, with responsibilities across commissioned services and the development of the Combatting Drugs Partnership. Whilst their role will focus on substance misuse, the postholder will provide commissioning, budget and contract management advice across the directorate, supporting all areas of public health commissioning and contributing to the effective business management of the directorate. 

The postholder is responsible for

• providing senior commissioning and procurement advice across the domains of public health
• providing governance advice on the full range of Public Health commissioned services and to the department more broadly
• managing the strategic commissioning of substance misuse services,
• monitoring the performance of commissioned services, and
• leading the planning and commissioning of high-quality health and social care services for people with substance misuse needs across Islington.

They will provide robust and timely senior advice to support effective commissioning, procurement and governance across the full range public health services and activities.

They will critically appraise the evidence from a range of sources; make recommendations and take actions to implement based on a sound and thorough understanding and analysis of the evidence base, information and data.

The postholder will actively shape the development and delivery of work programmes within Islington’s Combatting Drugs Partnership. They will work closely with the Assistant Director of Public Health, Strategists, Commissioning Managers and Officers, Analysts and across the Public Health directorate on the implementation of the overall agenda around substance misuse, sexual health and smoking cessation. They will embed and champion co-production and service-user involvement in all aspects of service development.

As a system leader, they will develop excellent and productive working relationships with partners from the Integrated Care System, Criminal Justice System, and across the Council, as well as with service users and providers from the NHS, private, voluntary and community sectors. They will build public health capacity and capability and support the design, implementation and evaluation of services and pathways. They will proactively monitor developments across the substance misuse sector to maintain awareness of national policy developments and ensure our services reflect current best-practice.

For an informal conversation about the role, please contact Public Health Assistant Director, Miriam Bullock, miriam.bullock@islington.gov.uk or Lorraine Manager, Business Manager lorraine.wilkins@islington.gov.uk

Closing date: Sunday 11th June 2023 at 23:59

Interview date: week commencing 19th June 2023

The Public Health team is a fundamental part of both the local authority and the local health and social care system. You will join a supportive, ambitious, dynamic team delivering programmes that tackle health inequalities across all aspects of life in Islington, enabling our residents to live better, longer, healthier lives. 

Please refer to the attached Person Specification when applying for this vacancy. 

The areas of focus described below may change to reflect the detail of operational policy and working arrangements.

Strategic  Responsibilities

1. To act as lead commissioner for substance misuse services for Islington, developing, monitoring and evaluating commissioned services to ensure residents’ needs are met.
2. To lead the development of specifications for key commissioned services, ensuring they are evidence-informed and meet the needs of the borough and the populations.
3. To provide senior commissioning, procurement and governance advice across the Public Health directorate.
4. To deputise for the Assistant Director, Public Health and represent the Council positively at a range of internal and external meetings with senior stakeholders, including regionally and nationally and with other agencies, including other Local Authorities, Clinical Commissioners and NHS Trusts, working together to improve services and deliver key objectives.
5. To be an active member of the Public Health Directorate and to support Assistant Directors in the leadership and management of the service.
6. To be the commissioning lead for Islington’s Combatting Drugs Partnership and to actively shape the development and delivery of its work programmes.
7. To collate, analyse and interpret key public health data, information and evidence, to profile  health  needs  and  status  of  the  population  in  Islington  and  to identify priorities and trajectories for improvement.

Financial management

1. To contribute to managing, setting and monitoring the public health budget for particular service areas in association with the budget holder.

1. To manage delegated budgets, as required, as part of lead areas of responsibility or as part of project work, keeping a record of all expenditure and monitoring expenditure against available budget.

Joint Working

1. To work in partnership with other Islington Council departments, Clinical Commissioners, Public Health Specialist staff, service users and carers and providers from the private, voluntary and community sectors to establish effective services and re-engineer or decommission services no longer needed.
2. To support the development of an integrated approach to joint commissioning across health and care.

Programme  Management

1. To lead the development and delivery of the substance misuse commissioning work programme, monitoring progress against key milestones to ensure the programme delivers on time and in budget.
2. To manage a portfolio of projects and / or policy briefs working with Commissioning Managers and Assistant Directors to develop commissioning plans.
3. To commission innovative and cost-effective services and schemes for the client group(s) they manage.

Quality Management and Co-production

1. To ensure that all commissioned services deliver a person centred approach that engages individuals in their own treatment and care, promotes independence, choice and control and puts dignity at the heart of care and support.
2. To ensure that patients and the public are involved in the commissioning cycle so that their views and experiences lead to better decision about the design, improvement, integration and modernisation of local services.
3. To ensure that individuals and groups that find it hard to have their say, because they are socially excluded, vulnerable or experience the worst health are listened to, involved and consulted.
4. To apply the highest standards of care in the execution of their commissioning role, ensuring full compliance with all relevant Care Quality Commission standards and the Council’s procurement, contract and finance standards to secure best value services.
5. To ensure that all are treated fairly and equally, and that the Council and the CCG are meeting their responsibilities under the Equality Act (2010).

Performance Management and Legislation

1. To lead in the review of existing services and schemes, working closely with other funding and external commissioning partners, to ensure that quality services are delivered and value for money is achieved.
2. To propose and negotiate changes or closures of services and schemes with providers where required, ensuring that Councillors’ and the press office are briefed to mitigate any adverse publicity that might arise from controversial decisions.
3. To manage the collection and collation of performance, activity and quality data on services commissioned to facilitate the production of accurate, informative and timely performance reports that meet departmental, corporate, partnership, and government requirements.
4. To evaluate commissioned services’ performance and activity to ensure that the Council and local people are receiving value for money and that statutory responsibilities are being met.
5. To ensure that all services, strategies and plans are developed in accordance with the council’s equal opportunities policies, government requirements and health and social care legislation.
6. To ensure full compliance with the Council’s systems including finance, procurement and legal governance, risk management, performance monitoring, information governance and staff performance management.
7. To keep abreast of new legislation, Government policy, best practice and of external factors relevant to the development of health and social care services.

Market  Development

1. To develop an expert knowledge of the relevant local market.
2. To ensure that the local market is clear about Islington’s requirements and is supported to change and develop so that those requirements can be best met
3. To contribute to commissioning and market development initiatives on behalf of the Council taking a co-productive approach.

1. To ensure that provider failure plans are in place to enable continued service delivery for Islington’s most vulnerable residents.

Resource Management and Planning

1. To directly manage their team with responsibility for day-to-day work assigned to them.
2. To lead the commissioning budget management process for substance misuse services. To do this by ensuring effective budget monitoring arrangements are in place and that timely corrective action is taken to deal with any variances and eventualities that arise.
3. To provide budget and contract management advice and expertise to any area of Public Health commissioning as required, contributing to the overall business management and effective governance across the directorate.

Supervisory  Responsibilities

1. To follow the requirements of the Council’s Supervision Policy for supervisees.
2. To provide and ensure that all team members have regular supervision and annual appraisals in accordance with Council Policy.

Management  Reporting

1. To be responsible for the production of strategic documents and reports analysing data and making recommendations to relevant boards and forums.
2. To oversee reporting key data to Central Government

Other

1. To participate in and provide training and development activities as necessary to ensure up to date knowledge and skills within their team.
2. To chair meetings including inter-agency, multi-disciplinary meetings as required
3. Attend meetings on behalf of the Assistant Director Public Health when required
4. To represent the Council at appropriate Islington forums and provide external training and information widely for external organisations.