Roles and skills Digital health care job roles reference
Illustrative Reference profiles for a generic digital health care organisation, not official job descriptions. About this reference.

Head of delivery management

Band 8c · Delivery manager · 633 job evaluation points

UK GDaD PCF level: Head of (Agile) delivery management

Most often performed at Civil Service grade G6.

A head of (Agile) delivery management is an experienced practitioner who exemplifies what good looks like across the delivery roles.

At this role level, you will:

  • represent and champion the role within your department, across government and in industry
  • lead the community of practice for this role and build capability and excellence (in an Agile, Lean practice)
  • be responsible for the recruitment of the right people to the right teams
  • support professional development and continuous improvement of your community
  • work with other heads of roles to promote effective cross-functional delivery
  • be a skilled team leader who can confidently communicate the value of the role to digital and non-digital stakeholders
  • be credible and influential across departments
Contains public sector information from the UK Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework (https://understand-digital-data-roles-skills.service.gov.uk/), licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. © Crown copyright.

Responsibilities

Skills

SkillExpected levelWhat this level means
Agile and Lean practicesUK GDaD PCFExpert (4)

You can:

  • coach and lead teams in Agile and Lean good practices
  • create and tailor the right approach for a team, challenging, evaluating and iterating the approach through the life cycle
  • experiment with new and innovative ways of working to improve delivery across the organisation
  • act as a recognised expert and advocate for Agile and Lean approaches
Commercial managementUK GDaD PCFExpert (4)

You can:

  • act as the escalation point and resolve large or high risk commercial management issues
  • coach others in appropriate commercial management
Communicating between the technical and non-technicalUK GDaD PCFExpert (4)

You can:

  • mediate between people and strengthen relationships, adopting the appropriate communication method with stakeholders at all levels
  • manage stakeholder expectations and moderate difficult discussions about high risk and complex topics, even within constrained timescales
  • speak on behalf of, and represent the community to, large audiences inside and outside the organisation
Financial managementUK GDaD PCFPractitioner (3)

You can:

  • negotiate, influence or set budgets in complex environments
  • write or input into business cases and can communicate business-value propositions
Life cycle managementUK GDaD PCFExpert (4)

You can:

  • lead and coach teams through different phases of the life cycle
  • ensure effective support for the product or service and its users
  • predict, prevent, mitigate and manage potential risks at different phases of the life cycle
  • contribute to the assessment of other teams, providing guidance and support
Maintaining delivery momentumUK GDaD PCFExpert (4)

You can:

  • optimise the delivery flow of teams
  • actively address the most complicated risks, issues and dependencies including where ownership exists outside the team or no clear ownership exists
  • identify innovative ways to unblock issues
Making a process workUK GDaD PCFExpert (4)

You can:

  • identify and challenge organisational processes of increasing complexity and those processes that are unnecessarily complicated
  • add value and can coach the organisation to inspect and adapt processes
  • guide teams through the implementation of a new process
PlanningUK GDaD PCFExpert (4)

You can:

  • lead a continual planning process in a very complex environment
  • plan beyond product delivery
  • identify dependencies in plans across services and co-ordinate delivery
  • coach other teams as the central point of expertise
Team dynamics and collaborationUK GDaD PCFExpert (4)

You can:

  • change organisational structures to fixable and sustainable designs
  • lead on strategy for an entire organisation, joining up business needs with innovative analysis
  • make and justify decisions characterised by high levels of risk, impact and complexity
  • effectively build consensus between organisations (private or public) or highly independent and diverse stakeholders
  • solve and unblock issues within teams or departments at the highest level
  • understand the psychology of a team and have strong mediation skills
  • coach an organisation on team dynamics and conflict resolution
Understanding health and care servicesThis referencePractitioner (3)

You can:

  • analyse how a service fits into care pathways across organisations
  • work with clinicians, care staff, and patients to shape digital services
  • explain the effect of digital decisions on care, safety, and staff workload
Clinical risk managementThis referencePractitioner (3)

You can:

  • lead hazard identification and risk assessment for a product or change
  • write and maintain hazard logs and clinical safety case reports
  • agree risk controls with product teams and check that they work
  • advise teams on applying clinical risk management standards
Information governance and data protectionThis referencePractitioner (3)

You can:

  • lead data protection impact assessments and information sharing agreements
  • advise teams on lawful basis, consent, confidentiality, and retention
  • investigate incidents and recommend improvements
Organisational risk managementThis referencePractitioner (3)

You can:

  • run the risk process for a directorate or programme
  • assess risks against the risk appetite and escalate them
  • report on risks to committees
Budget managementThis referencePractitioner (3)

You can:

  • hold and manage a budget, forecasting and explaining variances
  • build a business case with costs and benefits
People managementThis referenceExpert (4)

You can:

  • lead managers and shape the culture of a large area
  • design workforce plans and organisational change
  • coach leaders and resolve complex people issues

Typical qualifications and experience

Band 8c outline

Knowledge
Expert knowledge, and wide organisational and sector understanding.
Autonomy
Sets strategy for a function; accountable to a director.
Scope
A function or department.
Leadership
Leads a function through several management layers.
Accountability
A function's performance, workforce, and budget.

Job evaluation (illustrative)

FactorLevelLevel summaryPoints
Communication and relationship skills6Gives highly complex, highly contentious information where there are significant barriers to acceptance, using the highest level of communication skills.60
Knowledge, training, and experience7Highly developed specialist knowledge across the range of the specialism (master's level or equivalent).196
Analytical and judgemental skills5Judgements on highly complex facts or situations needing analysis, interpretation, and comparison of options.60
Planning and organisational skills5Forms long-term strategic plans, with uncertainty and effects across the organisation.60
Physical skills2Skills gained through practice, such as standard keyboard use or driving.15
Responsibility for patient and client care1Helps patients, clients, or relatives during incidental contact.4
Responsibility for policy and service development5Implements and develops a range of policies or services for a directorate.45
Responsibility for financial and physical resources4Holds or sets the budget for a department or service, or buys or maintains its assets.32
Responsibility for people4Line manages a function or department, designs training programmes as a main duty, or delivers a full range of HR services.32
Responsibility for information resources6Manages and develops information systems across the organisation as the main duty.46
Responsibility for research and development1Carries out surveys or audits for own work; occasionally takes part in research or testing.5
Freedom to act5Works within general policies, and in most cases decides how to interpret them.45
Physical effort1Sitting, standing, and walking, with little physical effort.3
Mental effort4Frequent prolonged concentration, or occasional intense concentration.18
Emotional effort1Rare exposure, or occasional indirect exposure, to distressing circumstances.5
Working conditions2Occasional unpleasant conditions, frequent travel or outdoor work, or near-continuous screen use on most days.7
Total (Band 8c: 630 to 674)633

Self assessment

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Rated 0 of 15 skills: 0 meet the expected level, 0 below, 0 above.

Agile and Lean practices Expected: Expert
Commercial management Expected: Expert
Communicating between the technical and non-technical Expected: Expert
Financial management Expected: Practitioner
Life cycle management Expected: Expert
Maintaining delivery momentum Expected: Expert
Making a process work Expected: Expert
Planning Expected: Expert
Team dynamics and collaboration Expected: Expert
Understanding health and care services Expected: Practitioner
Clinical risk management Expected: Practitioner
Information governance and data protection Expected: Practitioner
Organisational risk management Expected: Practitioner
Budget management Expected: Practitioner
People management Expected: Expert
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