Job Description

Here at Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust, we are proud to provide expert, compassionate care for our local population. We are ranked as the third in the country for research, embedding education and training across the organisation. Our main hub is the Queen Alexandra Hospital, which is one of the largest hospitals on the south coast employing over 8,700 staff.

Join our dynamic Therapy Team at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth, dedicated to delivering patient centred care in the acute hospital setting and supporting their journey back out into the community. We pride ourselves in fostering a collaborative environment where innovation and professional growth thrive.

Band 7: £49,387 - £56,515 pro rata, per annum

Full-Time (37.5 hours per week)

Permanent Position

Are you an experienced therapist looking for an exciting leadership opportunity? We are seeking a dedicated and dynamic Operational Lead to join our Medical Therapy Team.

As the Operational Lead, you will play a crucial role in leading and managing the Medical Therapy Team. You will be responsible for ensuring the delivery of high-quality, patient-centred care, and for supporting the professional development of the therapy team. This is a fantastic opportunity to take on a leadership position and make a significant impact on patient outcomes and service delivery.

Key Responsibilities:

• Oversee the day-to-day operations of the Medical Therapy Team.
• Lead, motivate, and manage a team of physiotherapists, occupational therapists and therapy support workers, ensuring high standards of clinical practice and patient care.
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams to provide comprehensive care to patients.
• Monitor and evaluate service delivery, implementing improvements where necessary.
• Manage caseloads, prioritizing urgent and complex cases.
• Ensure compliance with relevant policies, guidelines, and best practice standards.
• Support the training, development, and supervision of therapy staff and students.
• Contribute to service development initiatives and quality improvement projects.

If you are a proactive and experienced therapist with a passion for leadership and patient care, we would love to hear from you.

For further information, please contact Lucy Elloway via l.elloway@nhs.net or ext. 6838

Please refer to the for further details

Qualifications

Essential

• Registered with HCPC (Health and Care Professions Council).
• BSc in Physiotherapy or Occupational Therapy
• Significant post-qualification experience in a clinical therapy role, ideally within an urgent care/medical setting.
• Proven leadership and management experience in a healthcare environment.
• communication, organizational, and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to work effectively within a multidisciplinary team.
• Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to manage complex situations. A commitment to continuous professional development and service improvement

Skills and Knowledge

Essential

• Operational leadership skills
• Supportive, excellent interpersonal skills including ability to communicate clearly both written and oral
• Outstanding leadership skills
• Understand legal responsibilities of your profession, with knowledge of professional and ethical issues in practice
• Ability to build effective working relationships within the Multi-Disciplinary Team
• Knowledge of health and safety issues
• Detailed knowledge of the principles and application of clinical governance including experience of quality issues and audit
• Specialist knowledge and application of assessments, interventions, outcome measures
• Self-motivated, assertive, diplomatic and tactful
• An ability to work alone, autonomously and set own priorities
• Ability to work flexibly and manage pressure of work
• Ability to delegate and negotiate.
• Able to analyse professional and ethical issues, including ability to critically appraise own performance
• Ability to recognise when to seek advice
• Supervisory and appraisal skills
• Ability to organise and respond efficiently to complex information
• Ability to cope with a stressful working environment and with emotional or aggressive patients or carers
• Ability to build effective working relationships
• Competent IT skills
• Presentation skills
• Commitment to lifelong learning
• Ability to engage with service users, including a commitment to client centred, non-discriminatory practice
• Ability to keep accurate and legible patient notes including numeracy and literacy skills.
• Driving licence as required for role

Experience

Essential

• Evidence of experience to meet the scope and authority of the post.
• Evidence of advanced level of practice including in depth experience at band 6 level
• Supervision of staff/students
• Leadership, recruitment and selection of staff
• In individual/group and team work in a variety of relevant settings
• Of research/audit
• Documented evidence of Continuous Practice Development (CPD)
• Practice innovation
• Of working with users/carers and external agencies

Additional Information

The health and wellbeing of our staff is at the forefront of everything we do. We are proud to be able to offer our staff some fantastic benefits including our on-site Nursery, access to our free Beach Hut for those long summer days, our on-site Wellness Centre including a gym and a swimming pool, access to our fantastic staff networks including LGBTQ, Race Equality and DisAbility, and awards ceremonies to recognise your achievements. We believe we can offer support to all of our staff when they need it the most.

We welcome the unique contributions that you can bring in terms of your education, opinions, culture, ethnicity, race, sex, gender identity and expression, nation of origin, age, languages spoken, veteran’s status, colour, religion, disability, sexual orientation, and beliefs.

We welcome the unique contributions that you can bring in terms of your education, opinions, culture, ethnicity, race, sex, gender identity and expression, nation of origin, age, languages spoken, veteran’s status, colour, religion, disability, sexual orientation, and beliefs.

For more information, please see our People and OD Strategy 2026