Head of Business Development & Commissioning

Posting date:	05 September 2025
Salary:	£63,090.00 per year
Additional salary information:	£63090.00 a year
Hours:	Full time
Closing date:	14 September 2025
Location:	Tadworth, KT20 5RU
Company:	NHS Jobs
Job type:	Permanent
Job reference:	B0474-25-0116

Summary

The Head of Business Development & Commissioning (HoBD&C) plays a critical role in the successful coordination and delivery of childrens placements at The Childrens Trust. You will lead the strategic and operational management of individual placements, ensuring robust business and pathway processes are in place and embedded across the placements team and wider multidisciplinary workforce. This includes ensuring that all placements are appropriately managed, funded, and aligned with the childs clinical and care needs. You will be responsible for securing appropriate funding for all placements, ensuring full cost recovery, and contributing significantly to income generation through budgeting, forecasting, and strategic business development. A key part of the role is driving core business growth by identifying and developing new opportunities to meetand where possible, exceedincome targets. The postholder will lead and develop the business development, placements and commissioning team members, offering clear guidance, direction, and support for ongoing professional development. You will manage key accounts and referral pipelines, working to ensure seamless commissioning processes and proactive engagement in frontline business development. This includes building and maintaining trusted relationships with local authorities, commissioners, international embassies, NHS colleagues, and families. The role will also involve attending external events, supporting the implementation of our key accounts plan, and representing The Childrens Trust to external partners and referrers as a credible and strategic ambassador for the organisation. Duties and Responsibilities Placement Management Lead and manage all bed planning activities, including coordination of admissions and discharges. Monitor the impact of delays and capacity changes, escalating issues and factoring in staffing implications to optimise bed occupancy. Chair and coordinate internal admission and discharge panels, ensuring decisions are timely, well-informed, and communicated appropriately to all relevant stakeholders. Oversee the development, implementation, and continuous improvement of policies, procedures, and systems that support the full placement journeyfrom enquiry and referral through to admission, case management, discharge, and transition. Maintain oversight of processes relating to changes in tier, status, and placement type (day/residential), ensuring these are proactively identified, actioned, and reviewed to support quality of care and business continuity.Commissioning and Contract Management In collaboration with the Medical Director, manage and maintain pricing and costing models that reflect each childs holistic needs while ensuring full cost recovery for the organisation. Lead the annual inflation uplift process, taking into account market trends and organisational priorities. Implement mechanisms for funder notification, negotiation, tracking, and internal reporting. Oversee contract position across all placements, ensuring robust processes are in place to govern the responsibilities of each party involved, minimising and mitigating risks to The Childrens Trust whilst maintaining the best interests of the child. Where relevant, escalate to and work alongside colleagues in the legal team to manage contract variations and disputes. Support the finance team in billing activities, particularly in the recovery of unpaid fees, by ensuring alignment with key account management processes and commissioner engagement plans. Collaborate closely with clinical and operational teams to ensure that commissioned activity, KPIs, and service level expectations are consistently met. Lead reporting activity, both internally and externally, and support the development and implementation of remedial plans where needed. Take the lead on strategic and block contract negotiations, working alongside the Medical Director, Executive Team, and other senior stakeholders to secure sustainable funding arrangements that meet both organisational and commissioning priorities. Strategy development and implementation Support development and implementation of the organisations overarching strategy and subsequent business development strategy to drive referrals and income generating activity, leading where required on relevant modelling, scenario mapping, landscape analysis etc. Stay abreast of the commissioning landscape, both public (NHS national, regional and local, and local authority) and private sector (insurance, medico-legal, international and self-pay) ensuring our commissioning processes, contracting and associated arrangements and processes align accordingly. Support the Senior Business Development Marketing Manager, Business Development & External Affairs Advisor, and wider leadership team in monitoring and analysing the scale of potential demand; the activities of competitors; and the markets in which The Childrens Trust operates to identify opportunities to improve our service offering, and highlight risks, providing mitigation options to reduce exposure. Champion the work of The Childrens Trust externally to keep stakeholders, taking a senior role in building and maintaining relationships to enhance and maximise opportunities aligned to our strategy, objectives and priorities. Business Development Lead on development of the organisations Business Development Strategy as directed by the Medical Director, working in collaboration with the Business Development & External Affairs Advisor, Senior Business Development Marketing Manager, Lead Analyst and Impact Manager, and other directors & leads as required, ensuring all services are considered for maximising opportunities to promote our work and grow our reach. Support development and implementation of the organisations key account strategy (which forms part of the Business Development Strategy), working in close collaboration with the Senior Business Development Marketing Manager. Where required, provide hands-on management of allocated key accounts. Specifically lead on management of the organisations contractual relationship with NHS England and associated regional NHS Boards, and local ICBs, harnessing support from colleagues to ensure effective relationship management. This will include the management of reporting (monthly, quarterly, and as required), facilitating and chairing meetings, leading on contract negotiations supported by Medical Director, and ensuring performance is optimised to maximise contractual benefits. Work closely with senior leadership team colleagues, Head of Communications & Marketing, and Business Development & External Affairs Advisor where relevant to manage communications with professional audiences (through key account/relationship management) and those accessing our services. This will include scoping and creating sensitive and confidential messaging, ensuring appropriate sign-off, alignment to organisation-wide communication plans and effective distribution. Manage, monitor, and escalate response as required. Support the Senior Placement Managers to promote effective working relationships both internally and externally. Promote the work of The Childrens Trust, as required externally at meetings and conferences. Business Planning and Budget Management Take full ownership of the relevant income and expenditure budgets, ensuring delivery against agreed financial requirements and targets. Work collaboratively with frontline directors and service leads to align operational delivery with planned activity levels, budgeted occupancy, and income goals. Develop accurate, timely, and realistic income forecasts, clearly reporting performance against target. Where there is financial risk, lead the development and implementation of mitigation strategies in collaboration with the Medical Director, Lead Analyst and Impact Manager, and other relevant colleagues. Contribute to and support the development of robust business casesparticularly those related to service growth or expansion of capacityby providing financial modelling, scenario planning, and regular monitoring. Collaborate closely with the Business Development & External Affairs Advisor, Senior Business Development Marketing Manager, and other stakeholders as appropriate. Leadership Produce and present high-quality reports on core business activity for the Senior Leadership Team (SLT), relevant committees, and the Board. Collaborate with the Business Development & External Affairs Advisor, Senior Business Development Marketing Manager, and Lead Analyst and Impact Manager, ensuring all outputs are reviewed and signed off by the Medical Director. Chair the Placement Business Meetings (PBM), ensuring effective agenda setting, oversight of key performance metrics, and follow-through of agreed actions. Provide strong leadership to direct reports, motivating and supporting them to achieve high performance aligned with The Childrens Trusts values, policies, and strategic goals. Communicate organisational strategies and priorities clearly to your team, ensuring consistent understanding and alignment with wider objectives. Lead on induction, training, coaching, and development of team members. Conduct regular performance and development reviews, supporting professional growth and continuous improvement. Adhere to the policies and procedures of The Childrens Trust. Maintain professional boundaries and professionalism at all times. To undertake other or additional duties that are within your skills and abilities, as the organisation may reasonably require from time to time.