Band 7 Attendance Lead

University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust

The closing date is 15 November 2026

You will lead five Attendance Support Advisors based across UHB in a pilot service supporting colleagues to return to work as early as safely possible, sustain their return and prevent further sickness absence. You will build a service where colleagues feel heard, supported and connected to work, setting clear standards for consistent, practical support. The pilot's key performance indicator (KPI) is reduced sickness absence.

Combining compassion, organisation and sound judgement, you will be visible, approachable and flexible, connecting with advisors in person and remotely, understanding local pressures and bringing them together as one team. Alongside leadership responsibilities, you will retain a case-management focus for the Facilities workforce.

Your team will focus on early-intervention sickness case management, coordinating support and progressing agreed return plans, rather than providing medical advice or owning formal long-term absence procedures. Working with colleagues, managers and specialists across multiple specialisms, you will draw on their expertise and a range of tools to coordinate bespoke return-to-work plans, address individual needs and barriers, and review plans as needs change.

You will bring calm judgement, persistence and a willingness to recognise and challenge your own assumptions and biases.

You will stay close to the team's day-to-day work, combining visible, approachable leadership with line management, professional supervision and case reviews. You will help advisors build confidence, develop skills and look after their wellbeing, going beyond emails and reports to create space to ask for help, share ideas and reflect on challenging situations.

You will measure and evaluate the pilot throughout, with reduced sickness absence as its primary KPI. Using agreed baseline data and measures, you will track sickness absence, how early colleagues return safely, whether returns are sustained and further absence prevented. You will turn case information into insight on barriers, growing demand and improvements, leading regular reporting and benefits reviews through oversight groups to adapt the service and demonstrate its impact.

This work can be emotionally demanding. You will support advisors working with distress, uncertainty and difficult workplace circumstances while balancing competing priorities, supported in turn by a wider community of site and corporate senior leads.

This is an opportunity to shape a service through the people you lead. By developing advisors and turning insight into improvement, you will combine care with clear direction and accountability, enabling consistent, compassionate support for safe, sustainable returns to work and making a difference for colleagues, teams and patients.

University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust strives to have an inclusive culture where everyone feels like they belong, can thrive, knows that they add value and feels valued. We do this by developing compassionate and culturally competent leaders, being values driven in all that we do and by creating a welcoming and inclusive workplace that thrives on the diversity of our people.

As such we want to attract and recruit talented individuals from all backgrounds, and for each of you to feel supported for the diversity you bring, to achieve your full potential. For those staff with a disability, including physical disability, long term health condition, mental health or neurodiverse condition, this also means being committed to making reasonable adjustments needed for you to carry out your role.

Please Note:

for more information about this exciting role, please see attached detailed Job Description

• Educated to postgraduate diploma level or able to demonstrate relevant equivalent knowledge and experience e.g. human resources, operational leadership, service delivery, project/programme management or service improvement.
• Evidence of continuing professional development relevant to the requirements of the role.

• * Substantial experience of leading or supervising an operational team, service or programme, including allocating work, setting standards, supporting staff and managing performance and development.
• * Experience of overseeing several work streams, projects, cases or service demands at the same…