Lead Health Services Researcher

Lead Health Services Researcher (Ref: 199541)

Primary Care Improvement Portfolio

£60,126 - £64,906 (Band 8A)

Full time (37 hours per week)

Fixed term contract/secondment to March 2026

Edinburgh or Glasgow – hybrid working will apply for the foreseeable future

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Lead Health Services Researcher to lead the evaluation of the multi-disciplinary team (MDT) component of the 2018 General Medical Services (GMS) contract.

This role will be an integral part of the Primary Care Improvement Portfolio leading the delivery of the Primary Care Phased Investment Programme.

The programme aims to:

• improve implementation of the General Medical Services (GMS) contract with a focus on pharmacotherapy and community treatment and care (CTAC) services
• develop a culture of continual improvement across primary care settings, and
• build evidence to understand the national context for implementation.

This post will lead on the third aim “build evidence to understand the national context for implementation”. The successful candidate will work with a multidisciplinary team of improvement, clinical and project staff from the Primary Care Improvement team, analysts and data advisors from Data Measurement and Business Intelligence (DMBI) and Public Health Scotland (PHS), researchers and knowledge brokers from Evidence Evaluation and Improvement team (EEvIT) and health economists from Scottish Health Technologies Group (SHTG) to lead the evaluation through its data collection, analysis and write-up phases.

The post holder will lead different governance meetings related to data, measurement and evaluation and work with internal senior leaders from the primary care improvement team, DMBI, SHTG and EEvIT who will assure the outputs from this work. They will also work with an expert group of primary care stakeholders to use the evidence gathered from the evaluation to make recommendations to Scottish Government that will shape the future of Primary Care services in Scotland.

The successful candidate will be a motivated individual with a passion for improvement who is able to demonstrate experience of leading multi-disciplinary projects and who possesses a track record of working with a wide range of stakeholders in health and social care settings. As a natural communicator, the successful candidate will relish the opportunity to manage relations with national stakeholders, motivate and lead change.

In this role, you will work closely with senior leaders to drive impactful system change. You will be the lead responsible for the overall management and delivery of the evaluation, providing clear direction to the delivery team, managing stakeholder expectations and ensuring the final report and interim reports are delivered on time and to a high standard. The role requires adaptability, and the ability to navigate complexity. The ideal candidate will work as an integral part of the Primary Care Improvement Team and be a proactive problem-solver.

This is an exciting opportunity to be involved in a fast-paced national improvement programme. To find out more about our work please visit the primary care web pages.

For an informal discussion about the post please contact Thomas Monaghan, Portfolio Lead, at thomas.monaghan@nhs.scot, or Ciara Robertson, Portfolio Lead, at ciara.robertson@nhs.scot.

Closing Date: Sunday 1 December 2024 at midnight

It is anticipated that interviews will take place via MS Teams on Wednesday 18 December 2024

As part of the recruitment process, you will be asked to deliver a short presentation on a subject related to the role. Further details of the presentation will be shared with those candidates shortlisted for interview.

As a potential secondment opportunity for some, interested candidates will need the support of their existing manager/NHS board before applying for the post.