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The Health Foundation
The Health Foundatin is an independent charity committed to bringing about better health and health care for people in the UK.
They aim to build a healthier population, supported by high quality health care that can be equitably accessed. They learn what works to make people’s lives healthier and improve the health care system. From giving grants to those working at the front line to carrying out research and policy analysis, they shine a light on how to make successful change happen.
They make links between the knowledge we gain from working with those delivering health and health care and our research and analysis. Their aspiration is to create a virtuous circle, using what we know works on the ground to inform effective policymaking and vice versa.
They believe good health and health care are key to a flourishing society. Through sharing what we learn, collaborating with others and building people’s skills and knowledge, they aim to make a difference and contribute to a healthier population.
An overview of the Improvement intern role
The Health Foundation is offering an internship position in the Improvement team. The internship offers an exciting opportunity for a person who is enthusiastic about health care improvement and policy and wants to learn more. It will suit a recent graduate and/or someone looking to build a career in this area.
Working in the Improvement team, the intern will gain experience working across the organisation on projects spanning a range of topics. They will be supported to develop their research, analysis, project management and written and verbal communication skills.
This is a development opportunity, and the intern will receive mentoring for the duration of the placement. They will have the opportunity to connect with interns working in other teams across the Foundation. This role is an excellent stepping stone and fantastic opportunity to gain a broad range of experience relevant to working in health care improvement and policy in a supportive, creative and collaborative environment. In return, the intern will be expected to bring enthusiasm, curiosity and a flexible approach to their work. Previous interns have been able to use the skills developed at the Health Foundation to gain employment in policy, programme management and strategy roles in a wide range of organisations including national government bodies, NHS England, and consultancies.
More information on what recent Improvement interns have been doing and their reflections on what they have learned during this experience is available to download from this role’s advert on our careers page.
Improvement Team
The Improvement Team focuses on testing new ideas, building leadership and improvement capability, and supporting proven interventions to scale across health and social care in the UK. We do so through a series of improvement programmes, fellowships, networks and in house analysis.
The Improvement intern will work within the Insight & Analysis Unit (a sub-team within Improvement) and will have a key role in supporting the unit to gather and analyse the learning, knowledge & impact of our work, sharing it across the organisation and externally. They will have the opportunity to work across a diverse range of topic areas such as technology, workforce, leadership and management and NHS recovery from COVID-19 and to develop work on areas of particular interest. This work will contribute to building the evidence for what works to support effective and sustainable improvements in health and care. The intern will also have the opportunity to gain exposure to other work across the Improvement team including the design and delivery of large-scale improvement programmes, the role of collaboration and networks in health and care improvement and to virtually and in person meet teams we have funded to learn more about health care improvement at the frontline.
Key responsibilities
The intern will be allocated a mixture of fixed core/regular tasks, leaving capacity for other projects and the opportunity to work on longer term projects as well as more reactive policy and analysis work.
Key tasks and responsibilities will include:
• Supporting the drafting and publication process for a range of written work setting out the Health Foundation’s views and learning on relevant issues targeted at improving health care policy and practice. Throughout their internship, they will have the opportunity to work on written outputs which may include reports, briefings, blogs, articles, newsletter and web content.
• Contributing to reactive work on key topics, including through submissions to parliamentary committees, government departments or Arm’s Length Bodies as well as to media statements or briefings for senior stakeholders.
• Working collaboratively with Improvement colleagues (and possibly other teams) as well as external stakeholders, as appropriate, to deliver projects. Tasks could include undertaking research, analysing health policy, synthesising and distilling learning from Health Foundation funded projects, supporting the design and delivery of events, and project management.
Attending events, workshops and meetings (virtually or in-person) and sharing learning with internal teams
Supporting the publication of a monthly internal newsletter, sharing updates, impact and key milestones for the Improvement Team’s work. This will include the opportunity to lead on aspects of the newsletter drafting and publication.
Participating in the continuous improvement of the team and the wider Health Foundation. This will include proactively identifying opportunities to improve internal ways of working. Examples may include improving project management processes within Improvement or drafting core briefings on areas of the team’s work to support internal communications across the organisation.
• Providing advice and support, as appropriate, on other projects commissioned by the Foundation.
Wider contribution
As with other staff at the Foundation, the postholder will be expected to contribute to corporate activities and initiatives, such as staff meetings, cross-Foundation development programmes and other corporate projects, as necessary.
The post holder will at all times aim to embed our key behaviours –together, Achieving impact and Discovering and learning – in all aspects of their day to day delivery in the role.
Full-time role and hybrid working with 1-2 days in our London office
