Head of service design

Band 8c · Service designer · 634 job evaluation points

UK GDaD PCF level: Head of service design

Most often performed at Civil Service grade G6.

A head of service design is an expert practitioner with broad industry experience, who can define and assure best practice while influencing, leading and mentoring others.
At this role level, you will:
influence both design and organisational strategy and priorities
collaborate with counterpart colleagues across government
focus on ensuring the right conditions and environment for designers to work effectively

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

Lead the service design profession and set its strategy, standards, and ways of working.
Influence organizational strategy so that services are designed around the needs of patients, carers, and staff.
Build service design capability, including recruitment, career paths, and training.
Make the conditions for good design, such as access to users, time to research, and design in governance.
Work with peers across the health and care system to design joined-up services.

Skills

Skill	Expected level	What this level means
Design communicationUK GDaD PCF	Expert (4)	You can: communicate design strategy across organisational boundaries coach others in how to effectively communicate design develop or introduce more effective methods of communicating design and working in the open
Designing for everyoneUK GDaD PCF	Expert (4)	You can: improve the practice of inclusive, accessible and environmentally sustainable design in multiple teams or across your organisation against measurable criteria help others understand and mitigate potential barriers, biases and assumptions that may exclude or harm users
Designing strategicallyUK GDaD PCF	Expert (4)	You can: work with leaders to ensure that design is part of developing organisational strategy, and involved early enough in policy, technology and delivery processes to inform effective decision making enable use of patterns and components across the organisation help teams align their work to the goals and vision of their organisation
Designing togetherUK GDaD PCF	Expert (4)	You can: effectively plan and run design sessions that include senior leaders or stakeholders coach other designers in how to involve stakeholders of any level in the design process develop or introduce more effective ways to design together help teams connect and work across organisational boundaries
Evidence-based designUK GDaD PCF	Expert (4)	You can: embed a practice of hypothesis-driven design in a team guide the organisation in how to use evidence to improve content or services analyse, synthesise and use evidence to improve the way the organisation works ensure user insights are shared with and used by the wider organisation and across government
Iterative designUK GDaD PCF	Expert (4)	You can: embed the practice of iterative design and agile working in teams or wider organisation guide designers in creating materials to test complex ideas at any fidelity help teams adapt quickly to changes in requirements, priorities or user needs iterate delivery processes or team structures to help teams work effectively
Leading designUK GDaD PCF	Expert (4)	You can: set a vision for and lead design across multiple teams or a whole organisation work effectively with senior leaders across your organisation or wider public sector support a culture of learning and experimentation in your organisation iterate and measurably improve design maturity within your organisation and its partners
Understanding health and care servicesThis reference	Expert (4)	You can: shape organizational strategy using a deep understanding of the health and care system represent the organization with health and care partners and leaders anticipate how policy and service changes will affect digital services and care
Equality, diversity, and inclusionThis reference	Expert (4)	You can: set inclusion strategy and hold the organization to account for it lead culture change on equality, diversity, and inclusion
Information governance and data protectionThis reference	Practitioner (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
Clinical risk managementThis reference	Practitioner (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
Designing for clinical safety and human factorsThis reference	Practitioner (3)	You can: apply human factors methods, such as task analysis and use-error analysis, to complex clinical workflows design to reduce alert fatigue and cognitive load across a whole service provide design evidence for clinical safety cases and usability evidence for regulated software
People managementThis reference	Expert (4)	You can: lead managers and shape the culture of a large area design workforce plans and organizational change coach leaders and resolve complex people issues
Budget managementThis reference	Working (2)	You can: track spending against a small budget and raise variances authorize spending within your limit

Typical qualifications and experience

Extensive experience of leading design and a design practice.

Band 8c outline

Knowledge: Expert knowledge, and wide organizational 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)

Factor	Level	Level summary	Points
Communication and relationship skills	6	Gives highly complex, highly contentious information where there are significant barriers to acceptance, using the highest level of communication skills.	60
Knowledge, training, and experience	7	Highly developed specialist knowledge across the range of the specialism (master's level or equivalent).	196
Analytical and judgmental skills	5	Judgments on highly complex facts or situations needing analysis, interpretation, and comparison of options.	60
Planning and organizational skills	5	Forms long-term strategic plans, with uncertainty and effects across the organization.	60
Physical skills	2	Skills gained through practice, such as standard keyboard use or driving.	15
Responsibility for patient and client care	1	Helps patients, clients, or relatives during incidental contact.	4
Responsibility for policy and service development	5	Implements and develops a range of policies or services for a directorate.	45
Responsibility for financial and physical resources	4	Holds or sets the budget for a department or service, or buys or maintains its assets.	32
Responsibility for people	4	Line manages a function or department, designs training programs as a main duty, or delivers a full range of HR services.	32
Responsibility for information resources	6	Manages and develops information systems across the organization as the main duty.	46
Responsibility for research and development	2	Regularly does research, development, trials, or equipment and system testing as part of the job.	12
Freedom to act	5	Works within general policies, and in most cases decides how to interpret them.	45
Physical effort	1	Sitting, standing, and walking, with little physical effort.	3
Mental effort	3	Frequent concentration on unpredictable work, or occasional prolonged concentration.	12
Emotional effort	1	Rare exposure, or occasional indirect exposure, to distressing circumstances.	5
Working conditions	2	Occasional unpleasant conditions, frequent travel or outdoor work, or near-continuous screen use on most days.	7
Total (Band 8c: 630 to 674)			634