Programme Manager

at  The Christie NHS Foundation Trust

Greater Manchester Cancer is the cancer programme of the NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care System representing the whole of Greater Manchester and Eastern Cheshire, covering a population of 3 million people. Personalised Care is a key part of the NHS Long Term Plan as well as the cancer operational planning guidance. It is a whole system approach that enables a variety of services across the health, social care, public health and community spectrum to be integrated around the individual in order to deliver better outcomes and experiences. Personalised Care is therefore an integral cross-cutting programme within the Alliance which has grown rapidly over the past 12 months and in need of programme leadership.
Greater Manchester Cancer Alliance (CA) is looking for an enthusiastic and committed Programme Lead to work in our Personalised Care Team delivering on our ambitions within the Alliance. This role will be oversee and contribute to the delivery of projects in relation to mainstreaming genomic and genetic testing as well as the psychological support and prehab/rehab requirements within the 24/25 planning guidance. The successful applicant will have experience of managing in a cancer environment within Greater Manchester and have led programmes in complex and challenging environments. They would also ideally have an understanding of genomics testing in cancer and how it is delivered.
The Programme Manager will have line management responsibility and will report into the Programme Director. The post holder will have responsibility for a wide variety of personalised care projects and will need to co-ordinate the strategic oversight and delivery. A summary of main duties include but are not limited to:
Oversight and co-ordination of the transformation
Line management of project team members
Project management and day to day running of large-scale transformation
Setting up and planning of the project(s) including project steering groups, project assurance function, project teams, project documentation using the CA programme management documentation and recognised project management methodologies
Identifying resources to enable project delivery and assuring delivery on time and to budget
Manage and monitor the budgets associated with the projects including procurement, transacting funds to the relevant organisations and regular reporting of spend for local, regional, and national financial returns
Project reporting compliant with the CA programme governance framework
Identifying and managing the risks associated with each project
Maintaining knowledge of local, regional, and national projects that are current and pending
Providing expert project management advice and support to other staff and teams within the CA and partner organisations.
This is only available as a secondment until the end of March 2025.
The Christie is one of Europe’s leading cancer centres, treating over 60,000 patients a year. We are based in Manchester and serve a population of 3.2 million across Greater Manchester & Cheshire, but as a national specialist around 15% patients are referred to us from other parts of the country.
We provide radiotherapy through one of the largest radiotherapy departments in the world; chemotherapy on site and through 14 other hospitals; highly specialist surgery for complex and rare cancer; and a wide range of support and diagnostic services. We are also an international leader in research, with world first breakthroughs for over 100 years.
We run one of the largest early clinical trial units in Europe with over 300 trials every year. Cancer research in Manchester, most of which is undertaken on the Christie site, has been officially ranked the best in the UK.

Programme Managers will lead, support and co-ordinate projects to improve and sustain the quality and patient experience of an entire integrated care pathway across all the providers system-wide in Greater Manchester, and further afield. Programme Managers are the conduit between the Greater Manchester Cancer core team and the organisations/cancer teams in GM. With the new ICS structure, the Cancer Alliance has become more influential in addressing inequalities and performance across the system. The roles and responsibilities are as follows:
Set-up and organisation
Lead a number of multidisciplinary projects, ensuring full representation from across Greater Manchester NHS Trusts, relevant organisations, and key partners (including radiology, pathology, commissioning, primary care, patients’ representatives, charities) in the care of patients across the whole patient pathway. This requires considerable concentration for prolonged periods of time at least twice a week and leads to emotional strain and pressure associated with a high workload volume and engagement as a regular feature of the role
Creation of complex bids for funding e.g., to improve early diagnosis of cancers
Analysing data from varying sources (qualitative and quantitative) and including relevant data in the comprehensive reports/bids/plans to support the cases of need produced by the postholder
Develop yearly work plans across a number of projects and manage the delivery of these plans in line with the NHS Long Term Plan and GM Cancer plan
Developing evidence-based plans, projects, policy, and service developments to directly improve patient outcomes across the GM population, relating to early diagnosis, increasing survival rates and equity of access to specific cancer services. These plans/policies/service developments could be new GM patient pathways or services, or based upon national initiatives that are mandated to be delivered across the multiple Trusts/organisations in Greater Manchester
Lead specific GM/multiple organisation-wide projects and bids including responsibility and management of the budgets for these projects
Co-ordinate, facilitate and manage all the multi-organisational Project Board meetings, creating and presenting progress reports/documents at these meetings
Prepare agendas, papers, and minutes for Project Board meetings, being responsible for the follow up of agreed actions, holding to account the relevant senior clinicians/managers, and leading the progress of the actions
Propose and deliver meaningful educational events for a wide group of pathway stakeholders and interested parties across organisations and professions whether face to face or remotely, to allow new developments and learning from the Project Board to be disseminated across the system. These events can be regional or national to train/support the workforce to deliver improved patient outcomes/best practice, creating and delivering the content
Create opportunities and facilitate full and active patient participation in the work of Project Boards, working with patient representatives and adapting communication methods to overcome any barriers to communication
Lead on building meaningful relationships across GM organisations and beyond, including public health bodies (e.g., Public Health England, cancer screening services) and service user engagement, to enhance, share and embed best practice within the pathways, including working with voluntary community and social enterprise organisations (e.g., CRUK, Macmillan)
In conjunction with the Clinical Leads, identify and mitigate/escalate any issues/risks to the programmes of work
Ensure research and clinical trials are supported and identify opportunities for system-wide participation/expansion in trials for equity of access and to reduce health inequalities
Communication and support
The post holder is the key management support for the Project Clinical Leads and the programme management, including delivery of GM-wide projects and provide updates into the GM Cancer Alliance governance structure reporting into Programme Assurance Group for progress and risk mitigation/issues for escalation
The post holder is the key communication link between Project Clinical Leads and the Greater Manchester Cancer Senior Management Team
Has responsibility to develop and write innovative proposals and business cases, including financial modelling, outcomes and benefits for system-wide service change, improvement, and transformation for cancer pathways, with the Project Clinical Leads. Examples include introducing new innovative best practice such as Cytosponge, remote PSA sampling for prostate cancer across the NHS provider Trusts and NHS-related organisations of Greater Manchester
Actively engage with the Clinical Leads, members of the Pathway Boards and managerial colleagues to ensure the project/work programme objectives are prioritised and delivered, using a range of communication methods to suit the varying audiences
Is the main point of contact and link to expertise and resources regarding the specific projects
Challenge and hold to account the Project Clinical Leads and their Project Boards if they exhibit a lack of ambition or consider objectives that do not contribute towards those of Greater Manchester Cancer
Maintain excellent communication for wider Greater Manchester Cancer developments
Formally update the Greater Manchester Cancer Senior Management Team via the assurance framework with project plans, and identify where support or challenge is needed
Responsible for creation of reports and papers from the postholder’s data sources/involvement with the programmes of work to update the Greater Manchester Cancer Board on project developments and to seek approval for recommended action
Human Resources
Responsible for the recruitment of administration/support staff
Line management of project managers, including appraisal and development, performance, and work streams, including responsibility for grievance and disciplinary procedures
Maintaining all records pertaining to line management functions
Contributing to the recruitment and annual appraisal of the Project Clinical Leads (senior clinicians)
Data and information
Research general and tumour-specific background data and literature from national and international sources to support the programmes of work/projects/focus of future projects across Greater Manchester organisations/Trusts
Collate data and literature into concise reports and tools and present to relevant Boards to support the direction of the projects
Develop measurable outcomes for each element of the project and track and report progress to the relevant Boards, GM Cancer Senior Management Team, and Programme Assurance Group
Analyse cancer data and intelligence to identify trends, key messages, and opportunities to improve patient outcomes and experience
Support GM Cancer programmes in the collation, critical analysis, and presentation of GM system-wide audit data, comparing this to national data to inform decisions and prioritisation of objectives
Use of appropriate systems such as Curator/Tableau to create reports to inform GM-wide system performance for the specified projects
Financial Management
Manage and monitor the budgets associated with the projects including procurement, transacting funds to the relevant organisations and regular reporting of spend for local, regional, and national financial returns
Lead the development of funding bids and business cases including the establishment of a compelling case of need required to support the implementation of performance programmes. This will also include budget analysis, modelling and projection to ensure that the programmes continue to maximise all available external funding and revenue streams throughout their lifecycle.
Ensure a comprehensive benefits realisation strategy is in place, including management of benefits beyond the lifecycle of the programmes to ensure that the programmes deliver the expected outcomes and improvements
Accountable for authorising expenditure of projects in line with agreed delegated authorities/decision rights
Planning and reporting
In conjunction with the Project Clinical Leads and their Project Boards, manage responses to the NHSE Long Term Plan cancer elements
Develop system-wide (across GM Trusts and organisations) operational procedures and documentation in line with national strategies for the relevant staff within these Trusts/organisations to use operationally, to ensure equitable access and progression of the cancer pathways and specific services
Develop and manage the projects to contribute towards the delivery of the GM Cancer plan in conjunction with the Project Clinical Leads. Ensuring the projects contain clear objectives, tasks and identified leads, and holding these leads to account for their specific actions
Manage and monitor a number of competing deadlines to support delivery of the projects instigating corrective action where appropriate
Develop and support Project Boards in defining outcome measures so that achievement can be monitored during the year
Track progress against the project outcome measures and provide progress reports to GM Cancer
Develop and maintain a risk register for the Project objectives, reporting risks and issues to the Project Clinical Lead (Greater Manchester Cancer trusts will retain responsibility for the clinical governance of cancer services provision)
Quality and peer review
Work collaboratively with GM Cancer Alliance programmes and across the GM system to ensure adherence to all required quality assurance programmes, including the national quality surveillance programme and peer review across GM Trusts
Proactively engage and work to embedding policies/agreements that relate to post holder’s projects to develop and sustain services that meet local and national commissioner specifications and NICE improving outcomes guidanc