Head of Social Value
Job Description
Job summary
The New Hospital Programme is more than building hospitals, it's a once in a generation opportunity to shape the future of healthcare in England. We're delivering over 40 new hospitals that will be modern, sustainable and built around the needs of patients and staff. We're looking for people who care about purpose, who thrive in complex environments and who want to help deliver change at scale for future generations.
Main duties of the job
We are seeking an experienced Head of Social Value to lead the delivery and embedding of the social value elements of the New Hospital Programme's Social, Economic and Environmental (SEE) Delivery Strategy.
Reporting to the Director of Sustainability, you will provide strategic leadership for social value across a complex national programme, ensuring consistent delivery, assurance and performance management. Working with NHS Trusts, contractors and delivery partners, you will establish standards, promote best practice, monitor performance and drive continuous improvement across the programme.
You will play a key role in ensuring social value commitments are translated into measurable outcomes, supporting communities and maximising the wider benefits delivered through the programme.
We are looking for someone with:
- Significant experience in developing and delivering social value strategies and programmes.
- Strong leadership and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence at senior levels.
- Experience of performance management, assurance and reporting within complex programmes.
- Knowledge of social value frameworks, public sector delivery and sustainability principles.
- A track record of driving continuous improvement and sharing best practice across large organisations.
About us
NHS England has a wide range of statutory functions, responsibilities and regulatory powers. These are focused on supporting the wider NHS to deliver high quality care, as well as doing those things that are best done once for the whole NHS.
Our staff bring expertise across clinical, operational, commissioning, technology, data science, cyber security, software engineering, education, and commercial specialisms -- enabling us to design and deliver high-quality NHS services.
In March 2025,the Government announcedthat NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care will increasingly merge functions, ultimately leading to NHS England being fully integrated into the department.
If you currently work within the NHS and if successful at interview, we will initiate an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR).This retrieves key data from your current or previous NHS employer to support onboarding, including competency status, Continuous Service Dates (CSD), and annual leave entitlement. You may opt out at any stage of the process.
Colleagues with a contractual office base are expected to spend, on average, at least 40% of their time working in our offices.
Staff recruited from outside the NHS will usually be appointed at the bottom of the pay band.
We cannot offer visa sponsorship for any vacancies.
Job responsibilities
You can find further details about the role, including key responsibilities and accountabilities, alongside the organisational structure and person specification in the attached Job Description and other supporting documents.
For more information on the NHP programme
Due to ongoing organisational change and developments, aspects of this role may be subject to change.
By applying for this position, you acknowledge and understand that NHS England is currently undergoing a consultation process to finalise its structure, which may impact this role.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Educated to degree level or equivalent level of experience of working at a similar level in large and complex organisations
Desirable
- Membership of a relevant professional body (e.g. Social Value UK, ICRS, RICS, RTPI, CIOB, or equivalent).
Knowledge
Essential
- Demonstrable experience of managing and prioritising a large budget with solid working knowledge of financial process requirements
- Understanding of procurement regulations and social value requirements (including the Public Services (Social Value) Act 2012 and PPN 002).
- Demonstrated experience in measuring and reporting on social or public value outcomes
Desirable
- Significant experience in a large, complex organisation or major programme
- Significant experience of developing and embedding social value strategies and delivery plans within contractual and commercial frameworks, with proven ability to translate strategy into actionable plans with measurable outcomes.
- Proven track record of delivering against social value targets in the public or private sector, ideally within a government, NHS, or infrastructure delivery context
- Experience of establishing and leading collaborative delivery partnerships involving public, private, VCSE and community stakeholders, including supporting partner organisations at varying levels of capability and maturity
- Extensive experience with cross-functional working and stakeholder engagement and management.
- Experience of social value delivery within NEC or alliance-based contract frameworks
- Experience of working with NHS Trusts or healthcare infrastructure programmes, including supporting organisations to develop social value capability
- Understanding of skills pipeline development, local labour market intervention, and workforce planning across the infrastructure and healthcare lifecycle
- Experience of Green Book appraisal, wellbeing valuation, or cost-benefit analysis in relation to social value.
Skills
Essential
- Technical expertise in social value strategy, measurement, and delivery; procurement and commercial frameworks; stakeholder and community engagement; programme assurance; and translating policy into operational delivery
- Highly developed communication skills with the ability to communicate on highly complex matters and difficult situations
- Ability to provide and receive, convey and present highly complex, sensitive and/or contentious information to large groups, responding openly to questions to ensure full understanding and engagement
- High level analytical skills and the ability to draw qualitative and quantitative data from a wide range of sources and present in a clear concise manner
- Leadership, vision, strategic thinking and planning with highly developed political skills
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
Employer details
Employer name
NHS England
Address
Any NHSE Office
Nationally
SE1 8UG
United Kingdom
Employer's website
https://www.england.nhs.uk/about/working-for/ (Opens in a new tab)
