The Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust is seeking an outstanding Group Director of Quality and Assurance to provide strategic leadership across our Group, ensuring robust quality governance, risk management and assurance arrangements that underpin world class care.

Accountable to the Group Chief Nurse, you will operate at executive level, shaping and delivering the Trust’s quality and risk strategies, providing Board-level assurance, and leading a high performing team responsible for patient safety, clinical governance, risk, legal services and health and safety.

This is a pivotal leadership role for an individual with credibility, influence and a deep commitment to improving safety, experience and outcomes for patients and staff.

Main duties of the job

The postholder provides executive leadership for quality, patient safety, clinical governance and risk management across the Royal Free London Group. Accountable to the Group Chief Nurse, the role leads the development and delivery of the Trust’s Quality Strategy and assurance framework, ensuring national standards, regulatory requirements and best practice are embedded.

The role leads ward to Board quality governance, ensuring effective systems for incident reporting, investigation, learning and improvement, supported by high quality dashboards and triangulated intelligence. The post holder holds responsibility for patient safety, clinical risk, legal services and health and safety, and acts as the senior lead for CQC readiness and inspection. Working closely with Directors of Nursing, they ensure consistent application of quality and assurance processes across hospital and community services, while maintaining strong relationships with regulators, commissioners and system partners.

As a senior corporate leader, the postholder contributes to strategic and operational leadership, deputising for the Chief Nurse as required and ensuring quality and risk are central to decision making and service transformation. The role leads the Quality and Safety directorate, promotes a fair and just culture, and provides visible clinical and professional leadership to drive continuous improvement in safety, effectiveness and experience.

About us

The Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust is one of the UK’s biggest and most innovative trusts. Across three main hospitals, our dedicated army of staff care for over 1.6 million patients, treat more than in A&E, deliver over 8 000 babies and carry out more than 17 million tests.

Our size, scale and influence offer you unrivalled career opportunities and a forward thinking approach to working that respects your lifestyle. From flexible hours and generous benefits, to next level training, we make it easier to take your career to the top.

Education and Qualification

• Master’s degree or equivalent related to Health, Leadership or Management
• Registered nurse, midwife or other healthcare professional

Experience

• Significant experience of quality governance management at a senior level in a complex setting
• Knowledge of Quality Improvement methodology Safety Science
• Proven track record of innovation with an ability to inspire and lead
• Sound knowledge of clinical governance and risk processes
• Proven experience of managing substantial change within a complex environment
• Experience of working with external regulators
• Successful leadership and people management
• Managing complex relationships in a matrix environment

Skills and Abilities

• Good knowledge and experience of developing and implementing quality strategies
• Highly developed political skills and judgement
• Commitment to, and experience of multi professional working arrangements and projects
• Ability to plan, organise and prioritise own, and teams, workload to continue to operate effectively as a team even when working under pressure
• Able to manage the translation of strategic intent into operational reality
• Highly developed facilitation skills
• Strong understanding of, and responsiveness to the complexities and dynamics of the health care environment, including the important role of clinical governance
• Exceptional interpersonal skills and the ability to influence at Board level and forge effective professional relationships
• Highly developed report writing skills

Royal Free World Class Values

• Demonstrable ability to meet the Royal Free Group’s values

Personal Attributes

• Passion, enthusiasm and pride for their profession
• Ability to commend confidence of colleagues
• Ability to plan strategically, tactically and creatively
• Ability to take an innovative approach
• Proactive, versatile and problem solving approach
• Robust and persistent in the pursuit of objectives whilst responding to short term challenges and priorities
• Able to maintain personal credibility
• Able to prioritise and work under pressure
• Sound judgement
• Commitment to self development

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

£121,528 to £138,529 a year per annum inclusive of HCAS