Chief Operating Officer at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in Blackpool, Lancashire

Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is situated on the west coast of Lancashire, with services covering the local authority areas of Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre. The Trust is part of the Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care System (ICS) supporting a population of around 1.6 million people.

We have three main hospitals providing acute services to around 330,000 local residents. The organisation also provides specialist tertiary care for cardiac and haematology services, delivers community health services to over 445,000 residents including those in North Lancashire and hosts the National Artificial Eye Service across England. Plus, we provide urgent and emergency care services to an estimated 18 million people who visit the seaside resort each year. We employ over 7000 people from 68 different countries.

We welcome and encourage application from anyone with protected characteristics, as well as supporting reservists and Veterans who are looking for a rewarding and challenging career within the NHS.

Blackpool Teaching Hospitals encourages flexible working in all our roles to support staff in maintaining healthy home-life balance. Working patterns such as: part time working, self-rostering, compressed hours, annualised hours, term time, reverse term time and flexitime working can be explored.

Job overview

Blackpool Teaching Hospitals serves some of the most deprived communities in England while also welcoming 22 million visitors each year. This creates a demanding environment but also a unique opportunity to develop health and care services that better meet local needs.

We are currently ranked 134th out of 134 trusts in the National Oversight Framework and are seeking a Chief Operating Officer who is motivated to lead one of the NHS's most significant turnaround opportunities.

This role is broader than many COO posts. You will lead hospital and community services across three clinical divisions and act as executive lead for relationships with partners at Place and System level, including developing our Place Partnership to deliver better Neighbourhood Health. A significant proportion of your time will be spent working beyond the Trust.

Our turnaround is already underway. We are focusing on fewer priorities and using our improvement system to make good practice the standard every day. Our staff are committed to the communities they serve and want to be proud of their Trust again. They need clear direction, consistent standards and compassionate accountability to achieve that ambition.

We welcome applicants from acute, community, mental health or commissioning backgrounds, whether you are an experienced COO or an outstanding deputy ready to step into a first executive role.

Advert

As Chief Operating Officer you will be a voting member of the Board, reporting to the Chief Executive. You will:

lead delivery of hospital and community clinical services against national standards, owning the operational plan to recover urgent and emergency care, elective, cancer and diagnostic performance.
lead three Divisional Managing Directors, each the accountable officer for their division, and the wider divisional and directorate leadership teams.
be the executive lead for relationships with partners at Place and System level, including the Place Partnership and the Lancashire & South Cumbria Provider Collaborative,
lead the development of clinical service strategy with clinical leaders, and drive service developments and reconfigurations that improve Neighbourhood Health.
lead capacity planning, operational resilience and emergency planning.
take part in the Executive on-call rota.

In your first year you will lead admission and attendance avoidance at scale, restore theatre and outpatient productivity, and transform how and where outpatient care is delivered.

Working for our organisation

Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust provides hospital services to around 330,000 people on the Fylde Coast and to the almost 31 million people who visit each year. We provide community health services across Blackpool, Fylde, Wyre and North Lancashire, specialist regional services in cardiac care and haematology, and host the National Artificial Eye Service. In 2025/26 we saw 79,692 A&E attendances, 110,811 day cases and inpatients and 374,781 outpatient attendances.

Our purpose is to improve the life chances and health outcomes of our population. We serve some of the most deprived communities in England, and we know our future lies in those communities as much as in our hospitals.

We are open about the scale of the challenge. We are in NHS England's Recovery Support Programme, we work largely from a single acute site, and we have a great deal to do. We also have strong foundations: a new operating model of three clinical divisions, a newly approved Trust strategy, stable leadership and a clear set of priorities, and staff who want to be proud of their hospital again. Our values are Caring, Safe and Respectful. We are committed to equality of opportunity, and we know diversity is under-represented on our own Board. We particularly welcome applications from women, people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, disabled people and people with long-term health conditions, LGBTQ+ people and people from all protected groups.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The Chief Operating Officer is the executive lead for operational performance and for the Trust's relationships with strategic partners at Place and System level. The full job description and person specification are attached to this advert, along with a candidate information pack.

Strategic and corporate

Contribute significantly to the Trust's purpose: to improve the life chances and health outcomes of its population.
Work with Blackpool health and care partners and the Lancashire & South Cumbria Provider Collaborative to deliver more integrated, sustainable, local services.
Develop and maintain relationships with partners at Place and System level to deliver the Trust's strategy for population health and acute services, including the development of the Place Partnership(s).
Maintain effective relationships with regulators, particularly NHS England and the Care Quality Commission.
Lead the clinical activity section of the annual operational plan, and contribute to the Trust Strategy through the annual Single Improvement Plan.
Lead delivery against national standards, taking remedial action where performance varies and advising the Board on performance, risks and actions.
Promote the Trust's values, equality, diversity and inclusion, including executive leadership of an inclusion network.

Professional leadership

Develop the divisional and directorate leadership teams, including succession planning, with the Chief Medical Officer, Chief Nurse and Chief People Officer.
Review the performance of the divisional management teams and ensure continued improvement.
Ensure the financial management of operational services through service leads.

Clinical service delivery and performance

Be accountable for day-to-day operational delivery across all inpatient, outpatient and community settings.
Establish performance planning and management frameworks, and lead capacity planning across hospital and community services.
Pursue service development within the Clinical Service Strategy and Place Partnership Strategy, across the Trust and the Provider Collaborative.
Support the Chief Financial Officer on in-year contract management.

Emergency planning and resilience

Ensure a comprehensive, up-to-date emergency plan is in place, lead the Emergency Planning Group and advise the Board on resilience.

Any invitation to interview will be sent to the email account stated on your application form.

If the role you have applied for requires a Disclosure and Barring Services (DBS) check we will administer this as part of your pre-employment checks. Please note, you will be required to repay the cost on appointment. This will be collected via a salary deduction. You can choose whether to pay this over 1-3 months from your salary or as a one-off payment on commencement in post. The level of check required depends on the role that you have been offered. Currently the charges are - Basic DBS check £24, Standard DBS check £24 and Enhanced DBS check £45.

You are encouraged where possible, to register for the DBS update service. This is an annual registration fee of £15. By registering for the update service you will not have the additional cost of repeated disclosures.

Should you withdraw your application, you may be required to reimburse the cost of the DBS check.

DBS checks remain free of charge for volunteer positions.

By submitting an application for this vacancy you are confirming your agreement to the above in the event you are successfully appointed.

The DBS Code of Practice can be accessed here.

Please ensure that you read the Person Specification attached below as your application will be judged against this.

Please note that every effort will be made to keep the vacancy live until published closing date, though there may be instances where such interest is generated, that for administrative reasons the post may close earlier.

Please note that in line with national NHS guidelines this Trust operates a strict non-smoking policy. Members of staff are not permitted to smoke on Trust premises or grounds at any time nor take breaks during working hours for the purposes of smoking.

The Trust does not offer interview expenses to shortlisted candidates unless indicated in the advert.