Head of Policy

Repots to : Director of Practice & Quality

Directly manages : Policy Manager, Clinical Audit Project Manager

Salary range : £47,941 - £62,220 per annum, depending on experience

Location : London – EC4Y 8EE (Hybrid)

Contract : Permanent, full-time (31.5 hours per week)





Job Purpose


As BSR’s Head of Policy, you will lead a portfolio of work that truly supports our members’ priorities and works towards creating the conditions that will enable rheumatology care across the UK to thrive and flourish.


To excel in this role you will need to be comfortable working both at a strategic level and with detail and data. You will ensure BSR understands and responds to current and emerging needs in rheumatology practice, identifying gaps in quality, policy and research. You will develop BSR’s evidence and intelligence base about our members’ priorities, the state of rheumatology care across the UK and the challenges and opportunities in rheumatology. Through collaborating with colleagues you’ll help us ensure this insight informs our policy agenda, our strategic planning and operational decision making, ultimately achieving maximum possible impact in our work to drive-up standards in the delivery of rheumatology services and to inspire and activate changes that improve lives.

Main responsibilities

• Leadership and management
  • Work closely with BSR’s Senior Management Team to devise and deliver priorities for the portfolio, ensuring alignment with organisational goals and identifying opportunities to maximise impact
  • Ensure that BSR’s decision making is informed by the best available and appropriate level of evidence by communicating strategic insights across the organisation
  • Lead, coach and support team members and manage overall team capacity and resource planning
  • Oversee contract and budget management for the team and across individual projects, ensuring cost-effective allocation of resources
  • Collaborate with the SMT and other teams to ensure integrated approaches to policy, communications, and member engagement
  • Provide support and strategic insight to BSR working groups, including the Clinical Affairs Committee and MDT Advisory Council
  • Develop strong relationships with members and stakeholders and represent BSR to external audiences.
• Policy, research and strategy
  • Lead BSR’s policy agenda, supporting the Policy Manager to deliver policy analysis and development, produce high quality outputs and influence changes in policy and practice
  • Oversee a programme of proactive research, including data analysis and member engagement, to build a robust body of evidence and intelligence about the key issues impacting BSR members and rheumatology care across the UK
  • Ensure that evidence, insight and analysis effectively informs BSR’s policy work, strategic planning and operational decision making
  • Continuously monitor UK-wide policy and practice changes and assess their impact on the rheumatology community and patient care
  • Ensure BSR’s members and senior leaders receive timely analysis of key policy and practice developments impacting rheumatology
  • Develop, lead and support cross-team workstreams and projects that deliver on organisation-wide priorities.
• Best practice and quality improvement
  • Provide leadership to the National Early Inflammatory Arthritis Audit (NEIAA) team, supporting the team to deliver work to a high standard
  • Engage members to develop BSR’s evidence base on good practice and quality improvement, and keep abreast of relevant external developments
  • Provide expertise to colleagues on best practice and quality improvement, ensuring that insight and ambitions are effectively communicated and inform BSR’s policy work, strategic planning and operational decision making
  • Identify and develop opportunities to share and promote best practice and quality improvement to members and external audiences, achieving maximum possible reach and impact
  • Identify and develop opportunities to work with partners across health and social care to promote and support best practice and quality improvement.

Person Specification

• Significant experience in a senior policy, practice or programme management role in healthcare

• Extensive knowledge of health policy and/or healthcare systems and how policy is developed and implemented

• Understanding of research methods, with the ability to analyse and translate quantitative and qualitative research findings

• Understanding of audit and/or QI methodology and experience of delivering or supporting quality improvement initiatives

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with a focus on evidence-based decision making

• Leadership and team management experience and ability to coach staff to reach their potential

• Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to build and influence relationships, including at partnership level, with colleagues and senior leaders

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to convey complex issues to a wide range of stakeholders and prepare high
  quality, accessible outputs

• Strong organisational skills, with the ability to work under pressure to conflicting deadlines

• Flexible in response to changes in the external environment and the need to balance proactive and reactive work

Inclusion and Diversity statement


BSR is committed to encouraging inclusion, equality and diversity in our workforce. We are actively trying to increase the diversity of our staff team. We try to
reduce as many barriers as we can for those with a disability. We know that everyone is an individual, so please always tell us what we can do to support you.


We welcome approaches from individuals from underrepresented groups, including those from minoritised communities, and those with a disability, to better
reflect the community we serve and help broaden our perspectives.