Health service manager

As a health service manager, you are responsible for the management of hospitals, GP and community health services.

Also known as:

• Hospital manager

Work activities

As a health service manager, you will usually be office-based with some travel, mainly for meetings or training. You’ll work with clinical and non-clinical staff on a daily basis and be a member of a management team and other networks. Your work will bring you into contact with a range of external organisations. You might specialise in a particular area, although, you may move from area to area during your career.

The main specialisms include:

• Finance.
• Human resources.
• Purchasing and contracting.
• Facilities management (managing support services, in-house or under contract, such as catering, cleaning, linen and laundry, portering and security).
• Practice management.
• Clinical management.
• Information management.

Sometimes health service managers are what is known as generalists, meaning they perform a more general, less specific task. Day-to-day work will include attending committee meetings, negotiating with health care staff, analysing data and writing reports, giving presentations, dealing with the public and the press, and routine administration and paperwork.

Personal qualities and skills

As a manager in the NHS many people will depend on your decisions, so you’ll need to accept great deal of responsibility, be dynamic and able to perform well under considerable pressure. However, as well as any formal requirements, there are some personal skills and qualities you’ll need to make a success of being a manager in the NHS. Some you will learn as your career develops; others will come more naturally.

To make a success of being a manager you will need:

• A desire to get things done.
• Willingness to work with others and respect their views.
• Good communication skills.
• Organisational skills.
• Being confident with numbers.
• Being comfortable with IT.
• Negotiating skills.
• The ability to challenge the way things are and find better alternatives.
• Honesty and fairness in dealing with other people.
• Leadership potential.
• A commitment to the ideals of quality and equity in delivering healthcare.
• Above all you’ll need determination, motivation and commitment.

Pay and opportunities

NHS employees are paid on a rising scale within defined bands on the Agenda for Change payscale, according to their skills and responsibilities. There are many roles within health service management, so we have taken clinical management as an example. Clinical managers usually start on band 6 or 7, earning from £35,392, rising to band 9, earning up to a maximum of £114,949 (December 2023).

The NHS employs health service managers. Opportunities for health service managers occur in all areas of the NHS: in hospitals, in the community and in administrative offices, in towns, cities and some rural areas throughout the UK.

There are limited opportunities for health service managers to work as self-employed consultants in the NHS (as, for example, fixed-term project managers).

Where are vacancies advertised?

Vacancies are advertised on the NHS Jobs website, in local/national newspapers, and on the Government’s Find a Job service. The Graduate Management Training Scheme is advertised each year for online application through its website.

Entry routes and training

There are a variety of entry routes into a career in health service management. The following are general entry requirements.

You can join the NHS at administrative level and work your way up to management, supported by in-house and external training schemes.

If you have a degree or equivalent vocational qualifications you can apply for junior management posts or apply for entry on the NHS Management Training Scheme in which you can specialise in general, human resource or finance management. As well as the fast-track graduate scheme, depending on your degree and your employment experience, you may be able to apply directly for junior management vacancies. Alternatively, you can join an NHS trust or organisation in an administrative role, gain experience of staff supervision and move on into management with appropriate training and support. If you already have management experience.

It may be possible to do a level 6 (degree) apprenticeship as a chartered manager within the NHS. This involves on-the-job training alongside university study. Check the NHS website and Find An Apprenticeship for apprenticeship opportunities.

The NHS welcome applications from people who have already built up management experience in the private sector or in other public or voluntary organisations. You can often join at a level corresponding to your skills and expertise. Some managers are recruited directly for specific positions. The skills and qualifications needed vary according to the type of post.

Service managers can progress to senior manager and director posts.

Rehabilitation of Offenders Act: Some management posts in the National Health Service are exceptions to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974. This means that you must supply information to an employer about any spent or unspent convictions, cautions, reprimands or warnings, if they ask you to. This is different from other careers, where you only have to reveal information on unspent convictions if you are asked to. Examples include posts where NHS managers have access to certain health records or to people receiving health care.

Qualifications

The National Health Service Graduate Management Training Scheme is open to graduates who have obtained a minimum 2:2 degree in any subject, and to people who have an acceptable equivalent professional qualification in a health or management-related discipline. The usual entry requirements for a degree in any subject are:

• Two to three A-levels.
• GCSEs at grades 9-4 in two to three other subjects.
• Edexcel (BTEC) level 3 National qualifications.
• International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma.

However, course requirements vary so check prospectuses carefully.

To get onto a degree apprenticeship, you need two A-levels plus GCSEs in English and maths.

Adult opportunities

Age limits: It is illegal for any organisation to set age limits for entry to employment, education or training, unless they can show there is a real need to have these limits.

Many managers join the NHS with experience from outside the health service. Graduates and existing staff in the NHS can apply for the Graduate Management Training Scheme. This can provide staff with the opportunity to gain management qualifications on a flexible basis, following a finance, human resources, health informatics or general management pathway. It is also available if you work in social services or a relevant voluntary/charitable organisation. Senior managers can apply for the NHS Gateway to Leadership programme, which prepares candidates for the most senior positions in the NHS. Note: this scheme might not run every year.

If you don’t have the qualifications needed to enter your chosen degree or HND course, a college or university Access course could be the way in. These courses are designed for people who have not followed the usual routes into higher education. No formal qualifications are usually needed, but you should check this with individual colleges.

A range of universities offer Health and Care degrees that include modules in Leadership and Management by part time/flexible or distance learning.

Related careers

• Administrative officer – Civil Service
• Facilities manager
• Fast stream civil servant
• Health promotion practitioner
• Human resources manager
• Local government administrator
• Manager
• Practice manager
• School business manager