Communications and Engagement Manager, Children's Hospital Alliance

at  Alder Hey Childrens NHS Foundation Trust

This essential new role will support the Children’s Hospital Alliance PMO team to expand and professionalise the CHA’s broad set of communication and engagement activities, working to and alongside the CHA’s Strategy and Advocacy Lead to provide strategic advice, project management, relationship management and message development for the PMO team, our co-chairs and other senior clinical and operational leaders.
The post-holder will develop and lead on delivery of communication and engagement strategies for the CHA, develop and lead on dynamic, relevant and engaging campaigns and communications activity for NHS staff, the public, stakeholders and colleagues. Building on successful awareness-raising activity, new engagement interventions will raise participation and engagement in the CHA’s work amongst our diverse stakeholder base. The post holder will build measurement into everything they do, testing and adapting as they go.
The role has been created to professionalise the CHA’s communications function and bolster our capacity to support our members, manage our partnerships and increase the reach and impact of our policy and advocacy activities. It reports into the CHA Strategy and Advocacy Lead, who will work closely with the post-holder to provide support and guidance on priorities and a shared approach.

PROFESSIONALIZING OUR COMMUNICATIONS FUNCTION :

Communications campaigns
Stakeholder engagement to support the CHA’s policy and advocacy on behalf of children, families and staff
Working as a key member of the CHA PMO team.
For Further info, please see full JD attached
The Children’s Hospital Alliance brings together specialist and large children’s hospitals across the UK.

We use our voice as a group of expert children’s providers, collaborating

• To learn from each other and innovate;
• To lead on service transformation, tackling health inequalities;
• To advocate for children and young people.

Through our shared work programmes we aim to improve working lives of staff and access & experience of hospital care for children, young people and their families.
The group first convened in 2016 and transformed in 2021, leveraging a £20m grant from the NHS Covid Recovery Accelerator scheme. The 10 Accelerator trusts all exceeded pre-Covid activity levels and worked together on innovation, shared learning and improvement. The Paediatric Accelerator became a national case study for best practice & won the 2022 HSJ Award for Performance Recovery.
Member trusts are now self-funding a programme team to realise the potential of this collaborative way of working.
The CHA is hosted by Alder Hey and co-chaired by Matthew Shaw (CEO GOSH) and Ruth Brown (CEO Sheffield Children’s). It is run by a PMO team led by Managing Director, Alexandra Norrish (also Development Director Sheffield Children’s), supported by the senior leadership teams within member trusts. The network is growing, with 13 member trusts in England and an associate member in Wales (Cardiff).
More detail is available in the attached job description.

Communications strategy and planning: Development of a communication strategy and plan to build on the reach and impact of the CHA’s annual work plan and support its business development and policy and advocacy objectives. Development of a stakeholder map and relationship management system and support for a programme of stakeholder outreach activities, from private meetings to public speaking opportunities.

• Member engagement: Managing the CHA Directors of Communication group to develop and implement the communications plan and help raise awareness of CHA activities and resources within the CHA member community. Ensuring a well-run secretariat service for this group – preparing and circulating agendas; checking minutes and action logs ; writing and commissioning papers.

Drafting membership newsletters, updates, and reports; developing relationships with members and handling their day-to-day queries; creating engaging content for various platforms and supporting our active programme of learning and sharing activities.

• Professionalising our communications function : Creating a CHA communications toolkit to support the PMO team and member trust communications teams with the amplification of consistent key messages and professional communication content. Providing support to produce high quality and engaging written materials across CHA programmes – from funding bids, to project evaluations, to conference presentations. The post holder will manage a modest communications budget and have access to an excellent freelance design partner to deliver these activities.

The post holder will also work with the CHA Directors of Communication group to develop and agree a media relations protocol, to ensure that member trusts retain appropriate control over media enquiries relating to the CHA. They will also explore the involvement of trust communications teams in developing mini-campaigns, issuing press releases and statements and arranging interviews with targeted media outlets, in support of the communication strategy.

• Project management for our annual conference: The CHA is bringing all of its members and a range of partners together in person for the first time in March 2025 in Birmingham Aston Conference Centre to launch the new CHA Annual Conference. The Communications Manager will work with the CHA Admin Lead, the wider PMO team and speakers to support the development of a high-quality programme, support event management logistics and leverage content to promote our wider learning, leading and advocating activities.
• Digital communications: The role will lead on maintenance and development of the CHA website and member’s web area, the development of a CHA partners space on NHS Futures, creating and pitching content for partners websites and the establishment of a social media presence.
• Stakeholder engagement to support the CHA’s policy and advocacy on behalf of children, families and staff: Working to the CHA’s Strategy and Advocacy Lead; and with our analytics team and working with staff and partners to support the development of policy horizon-scanning materials, position statements, case studies and reports. This material will help raise awareness of and bring to life the issues that our staff and families are facing, and to present compelling solutions, which will be developed in partnership with the leadership teams at our member trusts, aligning with and supporting the wider work of national policy-makers teams and policy-influencing partners. The Communications Manager will work with the Strategy and Advocacy lead to secure meetings with High Impact Individuals (including senior politicians, civil servants and leaders within NHSE); develop policy briefing materials and reports on each interaction, and work to ensure actions are followed through and future engagements progress each relationship.

The role of children, young people and families in the advocacy space is not an area that the CHA has actively developed to date. The Communications Manager will be invited to work with communications leads and patient and public involvement experts within our member trusts to explore appropriate engagement channels and leveraging opportunities to involve them in the CHA’s work and supporting them to have a voice.

• Working as a key member of the CHA PMO team : Adopting a customer service management approach to our members, prioritising their needs and requests and adding value to the CHA PMO team as a paid-for service. Attending PMO team meetings twice each week, providing updates and supporting team admin and work planning, providing cross-cover for team colleagues in the case of annual leave or sickness, contributing actively and taking responsibility for the development of the wider work programme, including the annual plan. Attending PMO team away days and the majority of member meetings, to developing a deep understanding for our members perspectives, issues and aspirations – for their own services and for the CHA – demonstrating curiosity and engaging actively in discussions. Representing the CHA in a wide range of external meetings to support the development of constructive and impactful partner relationships.

CRITICALLY, THE ROLE WILL INVOLVE:

Communications strategy and planning
Project management for our annual conference
Member engagement

The role of children, young people and families in the advocacy space is not an area that the CHA has actively developed to date. The Communications Manager will be invited to work with communications leads and patient and public involvement experts within our member trusts to explore appropriate engagement channels and leveraging opportunities to involve them in the CHA’s work and supporting them to have a voice.

• Working as a key member of the CHA PMO team : Adopting a customer service management approach to our members, prioritising their needs and requests and adding value to the CHA PMO team as a paid-for service. Attending PMO team meetings twice each week, providing updates and supporting team admin and work planning, providing cross-cover for team colleagues in the case of annual leave or sickness, contributing actively and taking responsibility for the development of the wider work programme, including the annual plan. Attending PMO team away days and the majority of member meetings, to developing a deep understanding for our members perspectives, issues and aspirations – for their own services and for the CHA – demonstrating curiosity and engaging actively in discussions. Representing the CHA in a wide range of external meetings to support the development of constructive and impactful partner relationships