We are Ascenti. The leading provider of physiotherapy, mental health, and government assessment services in the UK. Our three Business Units – Ascenti Physio, Advo Health, and Six Physio – are bound together by our common purpose to help people live fuller lives. With more than 25 years’ experience serving both the public and private sectors, we are industry leading experts and passionate believers in our distinct clinical philosophy, because we know how it works and see first-hand how it helps people every day.

Your purpose

An Area Performance Manager is both an operational leader and commercial partner. You will play a leading role in advancing our patient care standards and operational excellence, helping to take Ascenti to the next level.

Being an Area Performance Manager is about supporting and nurturing your team to be the best they can. You will lead and manage a team of physiotherapists, to deliver services to our customers and patients. You are accountable for the achievement of performance and quality standards of contracted-out services.

How your role fits within our team

As an Area Performance Manager, you will be the first port of call for your team. You will lead the delivery of contracted-out services and will be an expert in local health and care pathways. You will deliver a consistent service, continually improve standards, and spot opportunities to grow and develop revenue.

You will develop meaningful working relationships with your team, regularly reviewing their performance, listening to their feedback, coaching them to improve and celebrating their successes. You know that the best way to lead a team of physiotherapists, is to respect their clinical opinion, collaborate, and support them when they need your help.

You will naturally take accountability and be ready to motivate and lead your team members to deliver excellence, ensuring that you have the right blend of skills across your team. You will support physiotherapists to achieve their ambitions, managing performance consistently and fairly, and work to achieve agreed budgets and /or measures. Above all, you will celebrate diversity and create an environment where your team feel able to bring their true selves to work.

As an Area Performance Manager, you will be responsible for overseeing the contractual partnership with the Central Lancashire Integrated Care Board (ICB). This includes full ownership of SLA and KPI negotiations, management of reporting cycles, and close collaboration with the commercial team on contract renewals and commercial changes. You will work directly with internal stakeholders and external partners to ensure quarterly and annual performance targets are achieved, while shaping new agreements to support sustainable growth and operational excellence.

Key responsibilities

Pioneering – Leading the organisation

• Deliver our business plan and our commitment to high standards of performance.
• Manage your resources within agreed budgets and achieve agreed deadlines.
• Raise and maintain Ascenti’s profile and reputation by achieving agreed contractual standards, taking an innovative approach to shared challenges, and positioning Ascenti as a partner of choice.
• Ensure sustainability by protecting customers, colleagues, and Ascenti from unnecessary risks.
• Create a culture of open and honest communication, cascading communications, feeding back concerns through appropriate channels, and celebrating success across the organisation.
• Be a champion of our social and sustainability strategy, bringing our activities to life.
• Manage informal and formal change projects to achieve shared business goals.
• Spot opportunities for improvement and provide feedback on how we can do things better.
• Proactively implement new ways of working, launch new services, and create new sources of revenue.
• Take an active role in the opening of new clinics and/or new services to customers.
• Lead on regulated activities including medicines management.

Dependable – Leading self

• Discuss and agree measurable annual, quarterly, and monthly goals with management.
• Become a trusted advisor to your stakeholders, communicate clearly, and meet agreed deadlines.
• Have a clear and detailed understanding of your contractual obligations. Regularly present performance and assurance information to Ascenti colleagues, commissioners, and other external stakeholders.
• Grow your leadership skills through formal and informal learning opportunities, Continuing Professional Development, and reflective practice.
• Manage your time effectively to optimise team and personal performance, minimise unnecessary travel (and expenses), support team members consistently, and meet your goals and objectives.
• Demonstrate an operationally focused, evidence-based and practical approach to decision making.
• Collaborate with internal specialists to achieve area, regional, and company goals and objectives.

United – Leading others

• Work in partnership to deliver positive health outcomes to local people.
• Create an environment where colleagues feel safe and can bring their true selves to work, ensuring that Ascenti is an equal, diverse, and inclusive workplace.
• Manage a team of physiotherapists at all stages from recruitment and selection, through to induction and training, as established members of your team, and as they move onto their next role.
• Support your team to achieve their career goals and give regular feedback about team and individual performance, through 1:1s, meetings, appraisals, competency assessments, etc.
• Ensure that all mandatory learning modules are completed by your team.
• Protect the wellbeing of your team with the support of the People Team and other partners.

Caring – Delivering great customer service and high standards of patient care

• Truly understand the needs of patients in Central Lancashire, paying particular attention to areas of demand, the availability and location of physiotherapists, and potential gaps in services.
• Be an ambassador for Ascenti and our values, both internally and to external stakeholders.
• Ensure that your team complies with all legal, regulatory, and governance requirements at all times. 
• Support your team to manage customer expectations and to respond to direct feedback, complaints and/or concerns in a constructive way. 
• Respond promptly when complaints are escalated to you and take action to identify common causes and minimise repeated complaints.

Knowledge, experience, and qualifications

• Excellent knowledge of the Central Lancashire patient demographic, local health economy, and care pathways
• Sound understanding of leadership principles, managing resources and budgets, leading teams, and providing high standards of customer care.
• Good computer literacy and IT skills – particularly working with Microsoft Office and bespoke systems.
• Appreciation of ethical obligations in physiotherapy/healthcare, with a strong sense of professional integrity.
• Strong written and oral communications skills to meet the needs of diverse audiences.
• Project management and/or strategy development and implementation.
• Theory and best practice in relation to developing positive culture and making organisational changes.
• Advanced leadership skills.
• Experience of line management and team development of a specialist team of practitioners.
• Experience of account, relationship and/or contracts management.
• Experience interpreting data and presenting performance reports to senior stakeholders.
• Experience implementing project plans, corporate goals/objectives and sustainability activities. 
• Experience working in an environment of ongoing change.
• Demonstrable experience within a cluster/area management role.
• Experience of working in a leadership role in a regulated environment - such as Health/Medical/Finance.
• Experience managing large, dispersed teams.
• Experience managing large revenue budgets.
• Level 5 leadership qualification, educated to degree level or equivalent professional experience.
• CPD folder with evidence of leadership development.

Professional standards

We care about doing the right thing by our people and everyone that we work with. We also expect our people to do the right thing and to model the behaviours outlined in our Code of Conduct.

As an Ascenti employee you will follow key principles and policies covering Safeguarding, Equality Diversity and Inclusion, Data Protection, and Risk Management.

Experience and qualifications

Clinical qualifications and physiotherapy experience is not essential, but you will need to demonstrate that you are a highly capable manager of people with:

Experience of line management and leading a team.

Leadership qualification, educated to degree level or equivalent professional experience.

Evidence of experience managing a department, resourcing, and budgets.

Good PC/keyboard skills.

Excellent communication skills, both verbal and written, with the ability to adapt style to meet the needs of diverse audiences.

A flexible approach with the ability to adapt quickly to meet the demands of a busy environment.