Programme Director – Hospices North East & North Cumbria (an independent contractor role working flexibly)

Job Title: Programme Director – Hospices North East & North Cumbria (an independent contractor role working flexibly)
 

Purpose: To support regional collaboration with independent adult and children’s hospices and hospice at home partners across the North East & North Cumbria by strengthening the use of data to demonstrate impact and partnerships with the ICB, NHS and other key stakeholders.

Objectives:
•Build data, insight and analytics capacity
•Strengthen system influence and advocacy
•Improve equity and sustainability
•Support shared learning and operational efficiency
•Seek fair funding for all NENC hospices in the collaborative

Key Responsibilities:
•Under the direction of the CEOs, support the drive for improved data collection and consistent reporting to demonstrate the case for fair funding for all hospices in the collaborative.
•Support CEOs to develop the collective business case to secure fair NHS funding for all hospices in the collaborative.

Other responsibilities:
•Support CEOs to have more impact with statutory partners.
•Bring hospices together to build partnerships, improve efficiency and support effective delivery.
•With CEOs, to advocate for hospices within the NHS and government while uniting them behind common goals.
•Connect with other hospice collaborative programme leads to share learning and best practice.
•Represent the Collaborative across agreed ICB structures and workstreams when delegated by the CEOs, promoting hospice value and innovation (this does not replace local hospice representation for local contracting or governance decisions).
Values and Approach: Collaborative, practical and values-led. Focused on building trust, simplifying complexity, creating space for others to thrive, and ensuring hospices are seen as equal partners in system change. Driven by a belief in delivery, compassionate care, reducing health inequalities, increasing fairness and using limited resources wisely.

This role can be shaped flexibly but is offered as an independent contractor working with and across a number of organisations.

Experience and Skills Required:
•Strong track record of system leadership and partnership working across health and care, local government and voluntary sector.
•Experience developing data strategies, writing business cases and unlocking funding.
•Skilled in systems thinking, business/service redesign and practical problem-solving.
•Comfortable working across organisational boundaries and navigating NHS structures.
•Able to build trust, influence and challenge others and align varied stakeholders behind shared goals.
•Excellent written and verbal communication, with political and organisational awareness.
•Confident managing complexity, ambiguity and competing priorities.
•Values-led, with a strong commitment to collaboration, fairness and service improvement.

Contract details: A self-employed contractor – for an initial period of one year with the possibility of it extending to 3 years.

Location: Dependent on appointment. Travel between hospices and NHS/ICB regions essential.

Budget: Up to £60k per annum. Flexibly around how you would deliver year 1 outputs (Appendix A).

Next steps: If you want to chat through this opportunity, please contact Julie Clayton (CEO Eden Valley Hospice) on julie.clayton@edenvalleyhospice.org before July 18 2026.

To apply - We look forward to receiving a short proposal from you to include:
▪Your CV
▪A short statement of how you would approach this work and the skills and experience you would bring to the table, including the knowledge you have of PEoLC and the North East and North Cumbria system
Deadline for proposals: Midday Monday July 20 2026.