Senior Researcher

Grade B: £39,784 (National Framework) or £45,456 (London Framework - if you are London office based or homebased and live within the boundary of the M25) - There is also an additional homeworking allowance of £581 per annum for those working from home

Contracted Hours: Full time 37 hours per week. We may also be able to offer part time hours (minimum 30 hours) or a variety of flexible working patterns.

Contract Type: Permanent

Location: We can offer homeworking, office-based working or talk to us about flexible working

Closing Date: Sunday 30 March 2025 at 11.59pm

This role is NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points-based system. Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected, and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn.

Are you committed to helping us regulate health and social care within England?

When thinking about what drives you every day in your job, what keeps you motivated and passionate about your work what comes to mind? For 3000+ people at the CQC we end each day knowing that we have made a difference to the lives of those most in need in our communities. We make sure health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care and encourage care services to improve. We are looking for people who are caring, demonstrate integrity and work well as part of a team to join with us and share in this sense of achievement. If you would like to help us make a positive impact to health and social care within England, then read on.

Why this could be a great role for you....

This is a brilliant opportunity for a Senior Researcher to join our Data and Insight team.

As the Senior Researcher, you will develop and deliver, and lead others to develop and deliver, analytic content using primary research methods, with a focus on survey research methods and the national NHS Patient Experience Survey programme.

In this role you will:

• Undertake primary research including defining scope, methodology, analysis and outputs.
• Contribute to the development and delivery of the NHS patient experience survey programme, ensuring that it meets the changing needs of CQC, the public, providers and other stakeholders.
• Collaborate with internal and external stakeholders, including research partners, to achieve outcomes, and hold key external relationships, such as commercial contractors for the NHS patient experience survey programme.
• Undertake analysis to extract relevant information and insight from primary research data and other sources, presenting it in a clear and actionable manner.
• Create outputs and prepare internal or external reports and communications, or other elements of the review or study, for example, research development plans, survey designs, and methodology reports.
• Oversee projects to ensure these deliver the required outputs to agreed quality and timescales. Prepare regular management reports identifying progress, planned work and identify and manage key issues for resolution.

What we can offer you...

Your health and wellbeing are important to us and are supported through our benefits scheme:

• 27 days of leave per year, rising to 32.5 days with length of service, plus bank holidays (usually 8 days per year).
• Opportunities and support for in house and external training and development.
• Free, unlimited access to Headspace meditation app.
• Sports and gym discounts.
• Free employee assistance service 24 hours a day.
• NHS pension scheme, with around a 14% employer contribution.
• Discounts to high street stores, supermarkets, restaurants and more.
• Eligibility to apply for a Blue Light Card, which cost £4.99 and are valid for 2 years.
• Fleet home electronics and car leasing salary sacrifice scheme.
• Cycle to work scheme up to the value of £5,000.
• Internal reward scheme where you could win a voucher or two!

We want to make working for CQC a great experience for everyone, and to role model a diverse and representative culture. To support an inclusive environment where colleagues feel empowered to bring their whole self to work, we support a variety of staff networks, including the Race Equality Network, LGBT+ Equality Network, Carers Equality Network, Disability Equality Network and Gender Equality network.

What you will bring...

You will have a strong understanding of research methods, in particular survey research methods, and be confident coaching and supporting colleagues to apply these methods in ways that generate high quality data. You will enjoy working in a busy team, managing competing demands and be committed to using data to generate impact.

The ideal candidate will:

• Be educated to degree level or have equivalent professional experience.
• Have expert research, analysis and reporting skills.
• Have a proven ability in the application of survey research methods, including large-scale surveys; probability sampling; and of working on all stages of the survey process.
• Have a proven ability to lead others in undertaking research and in applying appropriate methods to analyse data and synthesise findings.
• Have experience of working flexibly and in multi-disciplinary teams with the ability to engage well with colleagues and other stakeholders.
• Have experience of effective project planning and delivery.
• Have good leadership and people management skills.

To access the full Job Description, please click the link below:

Senior Researcher - Job Description.docx

For an informal discussion or further information on the role, please contact Nicola Collins, Principal Researcher at nicola.collins@cqc.org.uk .

Individual adjustments...

We are committed to being open and transparent around our processes and we endeavour to offer every candidate the opportunity to perform at their best throughout the recruitment process. We seek to support candidates to identify potential challenges and work with them to identify and facilitate reasonable adjustments as appropriate. Should you require assistance and/or would like to request a reasonable adjustment at any stage of the recruitment process, please contact a member of the team via email: recruitment@cqc.org.uk

CQC is committed to promoting a fair and inclusive workplace where all our people can flourish and reach their full potential. We know diverse teams allow for a more creative and productive environment and therefore encourage applications from everyone regardless of: age, gender/sex, gender identity or expression, religion or belief, disability, ethnicity or sexual orientation.

Candidates must ensure that all information provided in their application is detailed in their own words and is factually accurate. Any examples provided must be taken from personal experience. CQC abides by honesty and integrity as part of its core values, if evidence of plagiarism or generating answers from other sources is found, applications may be withdrawn.

Our Values

Excellence - Meeting our challenge to be a high-performing organisation

Caring - Treating everyone with dignity and respect

Integrity - Demonstrating our passion for 'doing the right thing'

Teamwork - Enabling us to be the best we can