Senior Community Partnerships Lead

Cnwlnhshealthcharity; United Kingdom; On-site; GBP 72,000 - 84,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading NHS organization in the UK seeks a Senior Community Partnership Lead to enhance mental health services through fostering partnerships. The successful candidate will manage relationships, drive strategy, and ensure governance of contracts. Qualifications include a relevant degree and experience in procurement. The role offers a yearly salary of £72,921 - £83,362 and aims to create impactful collaborations across communities.

Benefits

Generous relocation package

Flexible working opportunities

Qualifications

• Proven team management experience.
• Understanding of NHS procurement regulations.
• Experience in leading contract management.

Responsibilities

• Drive strategic delivery and partnerships.
• Ensure governance for external contracts.
• Manage relationships with VCSE partners.

Skills

Team management

Stakeholder engagement

Procurement knowledge

Data analytics

Education

Degree or equivalent relevant experience

Masters or Post Graduate degree in management

Procurement or Commissioning Qualification

Job description

Search here to find a new job, a new career, an opportunity

to up skill or to simply change your career direction.

Become part of our team.

We care for you as much as you care for others.

There’s a place for you at CNWL.

We’re passionate about delivering first-class patient‑centred, safe and effective care, whether it is in a hospital setting, in a community clinic or in the patient’s own home. Patients are at the heart of everything we do.

Providing top quality care depends on our ability to employ the best people.

We’re always looking to recruit outstanding people who will go the extra mile to support our patients, colleagues, teams and the Trust. With every new employee we’re hoping to find our future leaders and we’ll support our staff by providing opportunities to develop your career.

With a diverse culture and equally diverse range of opportunities across mental health, community services, addictions, eating disorders, learning disabilities and more – whatever stage of your career you're at, there's always a place for you at CNWL.

Site The Gordon ساتھ Hospital Town London Salary £72,921 - £83,362 per janvier annum incl. HCAS [pro rata if PT] Salary period Yearly Closing 28/01/2026 23:59

CNWL (Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust) has almost 8,000 staff providing integrated healthcare to a third of London's population, Milton Keynes and areas beyond. We involve service users, carers, the public, staff and partner organisations in the way that we are run.

Our catchment area spans diverse communities, with over 100 first languages spoken. It contains areas of great affluence as well as areas of much deprivation. We are committed to providing services that meet the needs of the people who use them, and we actively encourage involvement from local people who can help make a difference. We’re proud of our diversity and we continue to undertake new initiatives to advance equality for LGBT+, BME and people with disabilities to promote good relations and understanding between our staff.

We are recognised locally, nationally and internationally for providing high quality, innovative healthcare. We aim to employ only the best people, and our experts are frequently called upon to contribute to national health strategy and policy, and many models of our care have been adapted for use in other countries.

We offer a generous relocation package (subject to eligibility assessment) and flexible working domestically including bank assignments for most roles. For more information on these and other benefits of working for us, see our Benefits, Reward and Wellbeing page

Become part of our team. We care for you as much as you care for others.

CNWL NHS Foundation Trust are committed to safeguarding all children and vulnerable adults and expect all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. We follow safe recruitment practices to protect children and vulnerable adults.

Job overview

We are seeking a values-led, compassionate, and capable senior lead with a demonstrable commitment to improving and supporting mental health, learning disabilities, and autism services. The successful candidate will deliver high-quality, robust programmes, drive strategy, and manage relationships at all organisational levels. This role is pivotal in championing partnership working, particularly with the VCSE sector, and ensuring effective collaboration to deliver outstanding mental health services across North West London. The postholder will have contact with a wide range of stakeholders, including service users, carers, local authorities, and voluntary sector partners.

Main duties of the job

The Senior Community Partnership Lead plays a pivotal role in driving strategic delivery and fostering strong, collaborative relationships with a wide range of partners, particularly within the VCSE sector. The postholder leads on the engagement and management of the mental health VCSE contract portfolio, ensuring that all partnership work aligns with divisional and Trust priorities, this involves proactively building and maintaining relationships with community haigents, championing co-production, and embedding community collaboration into all aspects of service transformation. The role requires identifying gaps in provision, influencing commissioners, and ensuring that the impact and outcomes of VCSE contracts are clearly demonstrated and aligned with population health needs.

In addition, the postholder is responsible for leading the end-to-end procurement acquisitions for VCSE contracts, working closely with procurement, contracts, and finance teams to ensure robust governance, value for money, and quality outcomes. They oversee contract management, monitoring, and reporting, addressing any underperformance and ensuring that all contracts operate within agreed budgets.

Ultimately, the Senior Community Partnership Lead is expected to provide clear leadership, represent the Trust externally, and ensure that partnership working delivers tangible improvements in mental health services across the community.

Working for our organisation

This is a senior lead position within the Jameson Strategy, Transformation, and Partnerships team, working across the Jameson and Goodall Divisions.

Our Vision:
Wellbeing for life: We work in partnership with all who use our services to improve health and wellbeing. Together, we look at ways of improving an individual’s quality of life through high-quality healthcare and personal support.

Our Values:

• Compassion: Led परम compassion and care.
• Respect: Valuing diversity and creating an inclusive environment.
• Empowerment: Involving and empowering patients, service users, carers, and staff.
• Partnership: Working closely with partners for the best outcomes.

CNWL is committed to providing quality services tailored to individual needs, delivered close to home. We value our employees, offering clear roles, personal development, and a supportive environment free from discrimination.

söö Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please review the attached Job description for more detail about the role.

Main Duties and Responsibilities

Strategic Delivery, Engagement, and Relationship Building

• Lead partnership working and third sector engagement, informed by population health data and community collaboration.
• Build relationships with VCSE partners and influence the development of community partnerships.
• Scope existing community assets-Tracing gaps in provision, raising these with commissioners and funders and building cases for investment.
• Monitor performance of external leukste Providers, addressing underperformance through escalation and improvement processes.
• Ensure robust governance for partnership working, supporting shared learning and responsibility for care pathways.
• Research and share good practice in third sector partnerships and support peer support workforce development.

Contracts, Procurement, and Budgetary Planning

• Lead procurement for the VCSE portfolio, ensuring compliance with NHS regulations.
• Oversee contract management, monitoring, and reporting for VCSE contracts.
• Ensure governance structures for contract and procurement issues.
• Deliver value for money, quality, and safety from VCSE contracts.
• Maintain cost and budget plans, supporting funding proposals for commissioning VCSE and other partners.

Managerial Responsibility

• Act as a senior team lead, providing leadership, supervision, and performance management.
• Manage staff and external support to achieve deliverables.
• Make decisions to meet tight and changing timescales.
• Control and manage budgets in accordance with Trust policy.

Personal and Organisational Expectations

• Maintain the highest standards of care and service.
• Follow national and local codes of practice and maintain professional registration where required.
• Protect confidentiality and keep accurate records.
• Ensure compliance with health and safety standards and attend mandatory training.
• Safeguard and promote the welfare of children and vulnerable adults.
• Support equality, meaningful diversity, and respect human rights.
• Engage in decisions affecting services and contribute to service improvement.

Person specification

Qualifications

• Degree or equivalent relevant experience.
• Masters or Post Graduate degree in management or equivalent years of demonstrable experience in a relevant programme management role.
• Procurement or Commissioning Qualification.

Experience

• Experience of team management, facilitating supervision, appraisal and personal development.
• Experience of leading NHS procurement processes and commissioning in healthcare.
• Experience of leading contract and performance management and setting up supporting governance and oversight structures.
• Experience of delivering services in partnership with/as a VCSE organisation.
• Experience of and commitment to co-production.
• Experience of working across multi-organisational boundaries and with a wide range of professional groups at a senior level.
• Experience of using population insights to inform contract acquisition and delivery.
• Experience of commissioning in healthcare.
• Experience of working in/with mental health services.
• Experience of successfully managing programmes of work/projects.
• Experience of delivering training and presentations.

Knowledge every

• A strong understanding of NHS procurement regulations and processes.
• A strong understandingazzjonijiet of contract and performance management.
• A strong understanding of the ambition of the NHS 10-year Plan for mental health care and implication for service transformation and delivery.
• A good understanding of the changing NHS environment at national and local levels.
• Expert knowledge of partnerships, community engagement and successfully influencing change.
• A strong understanding of budget management.
• Expert knowledge of managing complex communication and engagement across multiple channels in a dispersed organisation.
• Strongcleo stakeholder engagement experience, including developing engagement plans, running stakeholder groups and incorporating feedback into the service delivery process.
• Knowledge of population health insights to inform contract and procurement requirements and deliverables.
• Knowledge and understanding of community collaboration approach, personal recovery, social inclusion and peer support and their application to service delivery.

Skills and Abilities

• Ability to mentor, team build and prioritise.
• Experience and knowledge to plan over short term, medium and long term timeframes.
• Ability to provide and receive highly complex, sensitive or contentious information, and present sensitive information to large groups.
• Ability to build a credible reputation amongst senior management teams, clinical staff and peers.
• Ability to develop and maintain communication with people about difficult matters and/or in difficult situation, varying language and style as appropriate.
< শৰ>Ability to have challenging conversations with external partners regarding underperformance, and to negotiate and implement improvement plans.
• Excellent excel, data analytics and basic modelling skills.

Personal disposition

• Ability to make difficult decisions working to tight and often changing timescales.
• Ability to travel across the CNWL geographical area.

< constructor> The successful applicant may have contact with patients or service users. As an NHS Trust we strongly encourage and support vaccination as this remains the best way to protect yourself, pickup them, your family, your colleagues and of course patients and service users when working in our healthcare settings.

• Due to the high response levels we may expire any of them prior to the advertised closing date and advise you to submit your application as soon as possible.
• Applications from job seekers who require sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. Before submitting your application and to avoid disappointment please check that you are eligible under the UKVI points based system.
• Our Agenda for Change employment contracts are subject to a contractual 13vis probationary period.
• If you are offered a job, information will be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Name James Holden Job title Head of Strategy, Transformation and Partnerships Email address [e-mail]