Lead User Researcher for Digital Urgent and Emergency Care

Technology and digital innovation has never been so important for the NHS It is front and centre of the NHS Long Term Plan and the continued commitment to improving health outcomes for patients.

The NHS England Transformation Directorate has a mandate to deliver a very broad and complex set of new products, platforms, services and capabilities over the coming years to support the transformation of health and care. The scale and maturity of the digital health is now central to the delivery of health and care goals.

To support this mandate and our continued commitment to ensuring products and services are accessible, inclusive and built on the core principles of user-centred design, we are continuing to grow our User Research capability. With this in mind, we now have an exciting opportunity for an experienced user researcher to join us and work across our Digital Urgent and Emergency Care (DUEC) Portfolio area as a lead member of the Safe and Effective Triage workstream, in their Senior Leadership Team as a Lead User Researcher.

The work we do has a direct impact on patient’s lives, helps them access the essential services they need and supports them to get appropriate care as quickly as possible. Within the Safe and Effective Triage workstream, we manage a number of key products including the NHS Clinical Decision Support System, which is a suite of products used in Urgent and Emergency care settings. It is used over the telephone to support non-clinical call handlers to assess callers’ symptoms and direct them to the most appropriate level of care for the needs of the patient at the time of the call. It is used by all NHS 111 telephone service providers in England, and over half of 999 service providers. NHS Pathways content also powers’ 111 Online and has a version of content which is used in Emergency Departments. It currently supports the remote assessment of 23 million symptom assessments per year. 

Our user researchers have an inclusive, user-centred approach and enjoy adapting and learning at pace. You will be welcomed into a supportive user research and user-centred design community, with plenty of opportunity to collaborate and problem solve with colleagues within the NHS, and partners across the health and care system. Part of your job will involve working closely with experienced clinical and other colleagues, to ensure that user-centred design is fully embedded into product development.

You will see real outcomes and the work you do will have an impact on a national scale, helping our NHS achieve amazing things for patients and health and care staff.   

As a Lead User Researcher you will be responsible for:

• Inspiring and coaching user researchers working across a portfolio of programmes, and the wider directorate, facilitating close collaboration and peer support within the research community

• Co-ordinating user research activities across different programmes, making considerations around resourcing to suit changeable priorities and ensuring a good fit of user researchers in terms of skills and experience

• Providing senior oversight and support for user research activities and expert advice on methodology, approaches, tools, equipment, quality and standards across the programme and directorate

• Ensuring research activities are inclusive, so your findings help prevent barriers to accessing health and care

• Representing user-centred design across the NHS

Some of the key skills and experience you'll bring include:  

• Experience of working at a strategic level, with the ability to lead a multi-disciplinary team of user-centred design professionals, (both permanent and contractor), across a portfolio of programmes

• Experience of guiding and influencing user research within agile multi- disciplinary product teams to devise programmes of research for the development of inclusive digital health services

• Proven specialist knowledge of user research methodologies, tools and techniques

• Experience in guiding and influencing successful user research programmes, across agile multi-disciplinary teams, in highly complex environments

• Working knowledge of the Government or NHS Digital Service Standards

• Experience of leading high-performing teams and nurturing a culture of collaboration and continued improvement and development.

• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to turn complex user research into compelling stories for non-technical audiences.

• Excellent senior stakeholder management and negotiation skills.

• Experience working with clinicians or in health is desirable but not essential

As a flexible employer, we want to support you to work in a way that is best for the NHS, our patients and you. Talk to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that’s a job share, part time, hybrid working or another flexible pattern.

All of our Lead User Researcher roles have a specified office base (London, Leeds, Southport or Exeter), however we remain committed to supporting flexibility around workplace locations. If it works for the service, we will do our best to make it work for you.

As this role can be based from a selection of offices we are running parallel adverts to cover the different locations.  You only need to apply to this advert to be considered for all locations.

We are a great place to work. What we do matters.

NHS England leads the NHS in England to deliver high quality care for all. We support NHS organisations to deliver better outcomes for our patients and communities, work to get the best possible value for taxpayers, and drive improvement across the NHS. This includes improving the health of the population and the quality of care, tackling inequalities, and delivering care more efficiently. 
 
Our outstanding teams are passionate about technology and public service, making use of everyone’s skills to improve people’s lives.

We collaborate to deliver world class tech and intelligence, so come and join us. We are committed to sustainability, diversity and inclusion; our people are at the heart of what we do.

To find out more about the type of work we do, please take a look at our website.

We value the different experiences our people bring to their work. We're working to create an environment where everyone can make a full contribution no matter their background, identity, or circumstances.  Which means, we encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and abilities.  

Our work matters. You matter.

What we offer you:

• we're moving to a hybrid working approach which offers you an informal, flexible way of blending home and office working. Colleagues with a contractual office base are expected to spend, on average, at least 40% of their time working in-person.
• flexible working opportunities - we value and respect the diversity of our employees, and applications from prospective candidates who require flexible working arrangements are welcomed; these include part-time hours, job sharing, flexible hours and part-remote set ups
• 27 days annual leave increasing to 33 days with service
• a generous pension (with our contribution equal to 20.6% of your earnings)
• NHS Discounts including shops, restaurants, gym, mobile phones, and insurance
• employee benefit schemes including our Season Ticket Loan, Car Lease and Bike to Work schemes

We use NHS Terms and Conditions of Service (Agenda for Change) pay rates. Most new employees to the NHS will start at the bottom of the band. You can find more information about Agenda for Change pay rates here Pay scales for 2023/24 | NHS Employers.

Next steps

Remote interviews will take place from mid May. Applicants who are shortlisted for interview will be contacted by email.

To view further information please see the attached role profile.

If you require a reasonable adjustment or support with your application, please contact [email protected] 

This post is not exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. We only ask applicants to disclose convictions which are not yet spent / unspent under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. Following an offer of employment, we will carry out a Basic Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check as part of the pre-employment check process.

We have approved the external recruitment of this business-critical role on a permanent basis. This decision was made through the established recruitment controls process and endorsed by key HR stakeholders. The team has explored alternative resourcing options which has proven to be an unviable option due to the specialist technical skill set required to carry out this specific role