Digital Care Development Lead

Please note: applications will be accepted using our application form on our website you will be redirected to this when you click apply below.

Closing date: 14 March 2025 9am

Interview date: 20 and 21 March 2025 (online)

About the National Care Forum (NCF)

We are the leading voice for the not-for-profit adult social care sector. We bring together over 170 of the UK's leading social care organisations who: support more than 220,000 people in 8,300 settings, employ 117,000 staff and 14,000 volunteers, and deliver more than £2.2 Billion worth of social care and support.

This role reports to: Director of Digital Transformation

Location: Liverpool City Region. Hybrid working available, working base will be an office location in Liverpool city centre with option of working from home up to 3 days a week. Requirement to attend 1 day bimonthly at Head Office in Coventry. Additional travel throughout the country and overnight stays may be required.

Contract: Permanent / Full Time: 37.5 hours a week.

Salary: £42K

About the role

This is a new position at the NCF that will support our collaboration with the University of Liverpool, establishing a social care testbed as part of the Liverpool City Region Life Sciences Innovation Zone Programme, part of the Government's national Investment Zone Programme. In this role, you will recruit local not for profit adult social care providers to a new social care test bed which will explore, develop and test new technologies to better understand the benefits that can be realised from their use. You will work alongside the University of Liverpool and broad-ranging stakeholders, including industry partners, to benefit nonprofit adult social care providers and the people they support. Your work will help establish a model for the rapid and robust testing of new technologies in adult social care - learning from which will then be shared with NCF Members and, where appropriate, applied in other parts of England. You will also assist the Director of Digital Transformation in supporting the overall digital strategy and goals of NCF.

What you will be doing in this role

Responsible for successfully delivering NCF's collaboration with the University of Liverpool to establish a social care testbed in the LCR and for sharing and, where appropriate, applying the lessons learned to benefit NCF Members in other regions

Support the governance of the project through the establishment of a Local Advisory Group and participation in regular Project Steering Group meetings.

Developing and implementing an engagement strategy for a wide range of stakeholders.

Onboarding at least 15 not for profit organisations to the social care testbed in the LCR and ongoing relationship management.

Undertaking Digital Maturity surveys and Data and Tech audits with adult social care providers.

Work with the Director of Digital Transformation on the development of a set of protocols to promote involvement in the testing of digital innovations by care and support providers, the people they support as well as commissioners.

Work with the Director of Digital Transformation on the development of a set of protocols to encourage tech suppliers to explore, develop and test technology solutions integral to the social care test bed.

Work with the Director of Digital Transformation to establish clear and transparent criteria for which digital innovations are to be 'tested' with providers or commissioners involved in the testbed.

Develop a mentoring programme to support those offering tech solutions to understand the social care sector.

Establishing links and partnership working with local business/innovation networks.

Provide robust project management, with responsibility for monitoring, reporting and evaluating projects.

Work with the University of Liverpool and wider NCF team to support internal and external communications about the social care test bed.

Horizon-scanning to identify potential funding opportunities to grow this area of work and completion of relevant bid applications to secure additional funding.

Stay current with emerging technology trends in social care and health, identifying opportunities to introduce these into the social care test bed or the wider work of NCF.

The skills we will be looking for

Strong project management skills with previous experience of managing projects.

Excellent interpersonal skills and experience of working in partnership with a range of internal and external stakeholders.

Skills in co-production and ability to empower and support those with lived experience to participate and inform the design of the social care testbed.

Strong organisational skills with the ability to manage time, competing pressures and conflicting priorities.

Research and analytical skills.

An understanding of current and emerging technologies in adult social care.

Skills required to work both in person and remotely as part of multi-disciplinary project teams.

A confident IT user who has experience using Zoom and Microsoft 365's Outlook, Excel, SharePoint, Teams and Forms.

The desirable skills you might have

Knowledge of the ethical implications of technology in care.

Knowledge of the current and emerging challenges for adult social care providers.

Detailed understanding of the adult social care sector.

Previous experience of engaging with adult social care providers.