Health services manager : Employers and vacancy sources

The UK health sector employs around two million people, or about 7% of the UK workforce, and 73% of employment within the UK’s health sector is in the NHS, 21% within the private sector, 1.9% within the voluntary sector and the remainder within local authorities and other organisations (Labour Market Intelligence, Skills for Health , 2008).

The National Health Service (NHS)  is the largest employer in Europe, with 1.37 million staff providing services to approximately 60 million people. In 2008, there was a 9.4% increase in the number of managers. Managers may work in one of the around 500 NHS organisations in England alone, covering four main areas:

• primary care trusts (PCTs) - delivering health services that are accessed directly by the public - including GPs, pharmacists, dentists, NHS walk-in centres and ambulance trusts; 
• secondary care, including NHS hospital trusts and mental health trusts;
• strategic health authorities (SHAs) - ten SHAs responsible for planning and ensuring high-quality performance;
• the Department of Health (DH)  - driving the formation and delivery of government policy at a national level.

The private health care sector is continuing to expand. To reflect this, some providers have now developed their own graduate management training schemes (see, for example, BUPA Graduate Opportunities . To illustrate the relative size of the private sector, BMI Healthcare  (part of the General Healthcare Group (GHG)  the largest provider of 'independent' health care in the UK) now operates almost 60 private hospitals. Recruitment is open to both new entrants to the sector and to those with NHS experience. Some providers, such as BMI, actively encourage speculative applications from those interested in a career with them.

Sources of vacancies

• Search graduate jobs on this site.
• NHS Careers   
• NHS Jobs    
• NHS Authorities and Trusts  - links to all UK trusts, which have their own vacancy bulletins (useful for junior posts).
• NHS Leadership Programmes    
• NHS Scotland Management Training Scheme   
• Gateway to NHS Wales    
• Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland: General Management Training Scheme   
• BUPA Graduate Opportunities  and BUPA Careers   
• BMI Healthcare    
• Guardian Jobs  
• Health Service Journal    
• Opportunities: The Public Sector Recruitment Weekly  

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