Job Title: Chief People Officer
Hours: Full-time (flexible working requests considered subject to the needs of the service)
Reporting to: Chief Executive
Location: Trust HQ, Royal Albert Edward Infirmary. Will be required to travel to all Trust sites.
Salary: Attractive VSM Grade Salary
This is a compelling and career-defining opportunity to join Wrightington, Wigan & Leigh Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (WWL) as our next Chief People Officer (CPO) — a values-led, strategic executive role at the heart of an organisation entering one of the most ambitious phases of transformation in its history. As a key member of the Board and Executive Team, you will shape and deliver a People & Culture agenda that is fundamental to the Trust’s future success, its clinical strategy, and the experience of the 7,000 colleagues who make WWL such a distinctive and high-performing organisation.
This appointment arrives at a pivotal moment. WWL has recently embarked on a major £4.8m transformation programme in partnership with the local authority and ICB — a unique development in Greater Manchester that is reshaping urgent and emergency care and accelerating our acute-to-community shift. The Trust has redesigned its operating model around two new divisions, Start Well and Live Well, aligned with system thinking and future service need. Coupled with a strong financial recovery trajectory, a stable and unified executive team, and a newly appointed Chair passionate about integrated care, the platform is set for a CPO who wants to drive real, measurable impact at organisational, place and system level.
A Strategic and Visible Board-Level Leader
As CPO, you will be both a strategic equal and a corporate leader — responsible for designing, implementing and evaluating the Trust’s People & Culture Strategy, ensuring alignment with the NHS People Plan, People Promise and long-term NHS workforce objectives. You will set the direction for recruitment and retention, organisational development, leadership, talent, inclusion, education, digital workforce systems, and colleague experience, including leading our work to become fully anti-racist. This is a role that demands both forward-looking innovation and the “grip and control” needed to run an excellent people function, ensuring consistently high-quality services across employee relations, workforce planning, leadership development and wellbeing.
You will lead and inspire a senior People & OD team, embedding a culture of service improvement, modernisation and high performance. You will enhance people management capability organisation-wide, ensuring managers at every level have the tools, confidence and behaviours to deliver compassionate, values-driven people leadership. The Board will look to you to provide professional advice on complex workforce matters, to act as a barometer of culture, and to drive colleague engagement through transparent communication, inclusive leadership and proactive partnership with Trade Unions.
A System-Minded Workforce Architect
WWL plays a central role in the Healthier Wigan Partnership and the Greater Manchester ICS, and the CPO will be pivotal in shaping place-based workforce redesign. You will help lead the shift from acute-centred models towards integrated, community-aligned pathways and new workforce configurations that support the “home first” intermediate care model and the needs of a rapidly ageing population. This includes challenging traditional workforce assumptions, modernising roles, and working with clinical and operational leaders on new multidisciplinary models that secure sustainability, quality and safety across the care continuum.
You will also champion WWL’s role as an anchor institution, strengthening our Wigan Educational Skills Partnership with colleges, universities, and local partners to build a vibrant pipeline into health and care careers. With 70% of colleagues living locally, this work is both mission-aligned and economically transformative — a rare opportunity to shape the workforce of the future for an entire borough.
A Culture and Inclusion Leader
WWL’s culture is one of its greatest strengths: low turnover, high engagement, and a strong ethos of continuous improvement. Your role is to build on this, leading organisational development and cultural transformation that strengthens psychological safety, team cohesion, leadership capability and colleague voice. You will oversee leadership development, talent pipelines and succession planning, ensuring WWL grows and retains exceptional leaders who bring compassion, integrity and inclusion to everything they do.
Equality, Diversity & Inclusion sits at the heart of the role. You will serve as the Executive Lead for EDI and anti-racism, driving year-on-year improvements against WRES, WDES, gender pay and other key indicators. You will ensure robust EDI governance, impactful interventions and sustained progress towards eliminating discrimination and improving the lived experience of colleagues who identify with protected characteristics.
About You
You will be an experienced, credible, and highly visible People & OD leader with a track record of delivering transformation in a complex organisation, ideally within the NHS or wider public sector. You will combine strategic insight with operational discipline, bring deep expertise in inclusion and culture, and possess the confidence, passion and values to influence at Board level and across the system. The Trust is seeking someone who can inspire, motivate and galvanise others — someone who genuinely places people at the heart of decision-making, aligns effortlessly with WWL’s values, and brings personal authenticity, compassion and courage to their leadership.
This role demands a leader who is energised by challenge, who sees opportunity in complexity, and who thrives on shaping long-term, sustainable change in partnership with others. Above all, you will share our ambition for WWL’s future — an ambition rooted in high-quality care, powerful community partnership, and a culture where every colleague feels supported, valued and able to thrive.
For a confidential discussion, please contact our retained recruitment partner Jonathan Phillips at Seymour John on 07817 988490 or email jp@seymourjohn.com
To apply please find our recruitment timetable and “how to apply” on the next page.