The role 

The Practice Manager runs the business side of our largest practice: the Sevenoaks 24-hour hospital and Borough Green, around 60 people. You make sure the practice is well staffed, well organised, financially healthy and compliant, so that our clinical teams can focus on patients, and our Client Experience Lead can focus on clients. 

You work in partnership with the Hospital and Out of Hours Director. They lead on clinical matters; you lead on everything non-clinical, with authority across the whole practice team on conduct, rotas and staffing, pricing and charging, and practice policies. You have direct input into the practice’s financial planning and strategic direction. 

Sevenoaks is too big to be run by one person doing everything. A core part of this role is building a structure that delegates well: clear owners, team leads and champions who are trusted to make decisions, so that you, the Client Experience Lead and the Hospital Director can spend your time where it matters most.

Key responsibilities 

Operational leadership

• Own the day-to-day non-clinical running of Sevenoaks, Borough Green and the Out of Hours Service, so each site opens, runs and closes to a consistent standard. 
• Set up and maintain a clear structure of owners, team leads and champions (for example stock, debt, health and safety, rota) with defined decision rights and hold them to account. 
• Line manage the Client Experience Lead, supporting them to lead the client care teams and deliver the Pennard Standard for client experience. 
• Work with the Nursing Team Leader and clinical leads on capacity, appointment templates and use of the book, so clinical time is used well. 
• Oversee stock and procurement at practice level: stock levels, ordering, write-offs and supplier performance, working with the stock and pharmacy champion and central team. 
• Coordinate premises, facilities and equipment maintenance with contractors and the central team. 

Financial performance 

• Contribute directly to the practice budget and financial plan with the Hospital Director and finance team, and own delivery against it for the areas you control. 
• Track and act on monthly performance: revenue and EBITDAM against budget, staff costs, locum and agency spend, and controllable costs. 
• Own pricing and charging compliance across the practice: agreed prices applied, no missed or removed charges, and estimates that match invoices. 
• Lead on debt: walk-out (non-insured) debt, aged debt and payment at the point of care, working with the debt champions, Head Host, nurses and vets. 
• Bring forward business cases for investment, staffing changes or new services, with clear costs and benefits. 

People, recruitment and staffing 

• Plan the practice workforce with the Hospital Director: establishment, skill mix and cover, so every service and shift is safely staffed. 
• Lead recruitment for non-clinical roles and coordinate it for clinical roles with HR and clinical leads: vacancy forms, adverts, interviews, offers and onboarding. 
• Own rotas and leave across the practice team, delegating day-to-day rota management to team leads where it makes sense. 
• Set and uphold expectations for conduct and behaviour across the whole team, and lead or support the HR process (absence, conduct, capability, grievances) with HR, involving the Hospital Director where clinical matters are involved. 
• Make sure every line manager in the practice holds regular documented one-to-ones and annual appraisals, and that training and induction records are kept. 
• Own staff morale and wellbeing across the practice: run a short quarterly pulse survey, share the results and an action plan with the team, and follow through. Understand why people stay and leave, and act on it. 

Compliance, standards and governance 

• Keep the practice compliant with health and safety, fire, COSHH, GDPR and RCVS Practice Standards Scheme requirements, keeping risk assessments and evidence current.
• Make sure practice policies and SOPs are followed and that controlled documents come from the central SharePoint. 
• Support complaints handling with the Client Experience Lead, taking ownership of escalated non-clinical complaints. 

Strategy, systems and improvement 

• Contribute to the practice’s strategic vision and annual plan with the Hospital Director and represent Sevenoaks in group operations meetings and Operational Business Reviews. 
• Use data from the KPI reports to spot trends early and lead improvement work. 
• Find operational friction points and work with the operations and data team to test and adopt new technology, including automation and AI-supported tools, that removes them. Lead the practice through the move to Provet Cloud on the operational side. 

Where the line sits

A starting point, to be confirmed with the Hospital and Out of Hours Director.

KPIs: reviewed at six months 

Measured from the weekly KPI report, the management accounts, the debt report and HR records. We will agree a baseline in the first month and set the six-month targets together. Where a target is shown, it is a proposal for that conversation.

Person specification 

Experience 

• Essential: managing the operations of a multi-team or multi-site business; budget responsibility and working with financial reports; recruiting, managing and developing teams, including HR processes. 
• Desirable: veterinary, healthcare or 24-hour service management; practice management qualification (for example CVPM) or equivalent; leading change or a systems migration. 

Skills and attributes 

• Commercially minded and confident with numbers: budgets, KPIs, staff costs and pricing. 
• A natural delegator who builds capability in others, sets clear expectations and follows through. 
• Fair, consistent and firm on standards of conduct, with good judgement about when to escalate. 
• Organised and calm under pressure, able to prioritise across competing demands. 
• Credible with clinical colleagues and able to work in partnership with a clinical director. 
• Confident with Microsoft 365, Excel and practice management systems; curious about new technology and comfortable trialling digital and AI-supported ways of working. 

Leadership behaviours

• Builds effective teams 
• Drives results 
• Financial acumen 
• Develops talent 
• Manages complexity 

Key working relationships 

Hospital and Out of Hours Director (line manager); Head Host / Client Experience Lead (direct report); Head Nurse and clinical leads; Group Clinical Operations Director; HR, finance, data (Sai) and marketing; Practice Managers and Principals at other sites; suppliers, contractors and external partners. 

This job description is not exhaustive and will be reviewed with the postholder to reflect the needs of the practice.