Programme Support Officer | NHS England

Are you passionate about improving the lives of people with cancer? Do you want to ensure more people survive cancer than ever before? Working in NHS England’s Cancer Programme, that’s just what you’ll do.

Working in the NHS Cancer Programme, you will help set the agenda for cancer care in England. Our goal is to diagnose cancer earlier, help more people survive it, and improve their quality of life and experience of care. We work with people affected by cancer, clinicians, charities, Regions, Cancer Alliances, and trusts, and develop national policy and strategy to transform services for people across the country.

We have worked closely with colleagues in the Department of Health and Social Care to develop the National Cancer Plan which was published in February and will shape the transformation of cancer services in the years to come.

Our work is improving the experience of cancer patients across England. You will be instrumental in delivering our ambition for better cancer outcomes.

The Cancer Programme Team takes its responsibility to promote equality and diversity seriously. We respect colleagues from different backgrounds and embrace different cultural preferences in everything we do.

As a Programme Support Officer, you will support delivery of Performance and Pathways Team priorities, including pathway improvement, governance, stakeholder engagement, programme reporting and the coordination of products and meetings that support national and regional delivery.

NHS England has a wide range of statutory functions, responsibilities and regulatory powers. These are focused on supporting the wider NHS to deliver high quality care, as well as doing those things that are best done once for the whole NHS.

Our staff bring expertise across clinical, operational, commissioning, technology, data science, cyber security, software engineering, education, and commercial specialisms — enabling us to design and deliver high-quality NHS services.

In March 2025,the Government announcedthat NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care will increasingly merge functions, ultimately leading to NHS England being fully integrated into the department.

If you currently work within the NHS and if successful at interview, we will initiate an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR). This retrieves key data from your current or previous NHS employer to support onboarding, including competency status, Continuous Service Dates (CSD), and annual leave entitlement. You may opt out at any stage of the process.

Colleagues with a contractual office base are expected to spend, on average, at least 40% of their time working in our offices.

Staff recruited from outside the NHS will usually be appointed at the bottom of the pay band.

We cannot offer visa sponsorship for any vacancies.

You will be responsible for

• Supporting the Performance and Pathways Team with project planning, programme delivery and tracking of key milestones.
• Engaging with stakeholders, such as Cancer Alliances, clinical teams, national subject matter experts, Royal Colleges, charities and patients, to support the design and delivery of Performance and Pathways Team priorities.
• Supporting the governance groups by providing high-quality secretariat support to project meetings, workshops and engagement events.
• Supporting the development of programme communications and products, including preparing slide decks, maintaining action logs, coordinating briefing materials and updating programme documentation.
• Sharing learning, ideas and ways of working across the Performance and Pathways Team and wider NHS Cancer Programme to increase consistency and efficiency.
• Closely managing project documentation to support delivery on time and to agreed governance requirements, including recording actions, risks, issues and decisions.

You can find further details about the role, including key responsibilities and accountabilities, alongside the organisational structure and person specification in the attached Job Description and other supporting documents

Secondments

Applicants from within the NHS will be offered on a secondment basis only, agreement should be obtained from their employer prior to submitting the application.

This advert closes on Monday 9 Nov 2026