Job summary
An exciting opportunity has arisen to work at The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust, in the role of Deputy Chief Nurse.
The postholder will support the Chief Nurse in the corporate and strategic leadership role, providing professional nursing expertise and advice and direct operational support and take part in the on-call rota.
The postholder will work collaboratively providing leadership, vision, advice, supervision and support to Nurses, Midwives and Allied Health Professionals throughout the Trust and Group, ensuring that high quality clinical standards are integrated and embedded into all patient services.
The post holder will be required to develop excellent clinical and professional standards on behalf of the Chief Nurse, ensure the development of leadership, potential capacity within nursing and midwifery workforce and ultimately drive consistent improvement in quality, safety and improved experience for patients.
This role is a 12 months fixed term post only. - The interviews will be held on 22nd April 2026.
Main duties of the job
The post holder will be an excellent nursing or midwifery visible and accessible leader, and a role model, providing professional leadership to enable delivery of high quality, efficient and effective patient care. The post holder will work with the Chief Nurse to lead the development of the Group's Nursing and Midwifery strategy, aligning this to national professional and clinical strategies, and hold delegated authority for the Chief Nurse, representing the Chief Nurse at Trust Board, other Committees and external meetings as required.
The post holder willset and monitor high standards of nursing practice across the Trust, producing reports to Committees and Boards as required, and ensure that quality standards, both those agreed with commissioners and dictated by national policy, are achieved, aligning safety themes against national standards.
The post holder will contribute to the annual and strategic plans as delegated by the Chief Nurse, manage staff and budgets within the Directorate of Nursing and Midwifery, ensuring that quality and service delivery is triangulated with financial data to demonstrate efficiency and effectiveness.
The post holder will be responsible for developing and implementing a 2-5 year workforce plan in conjunction with the Group Director of Nursing and the wider clinical teams to deliver a transformational, innovative, stable and affordable nursing workforce, and that feeds into the annual business planning process.
About us
At The Dudley Group our patients and staff are at the heart of all that we do and that is to provide a world class service that aligns with our vision of "excellent healthcare for the people of Dudley". We are seeking to recruit staff who share our vision and values of making The Dudley Group an incredible workplace.
We are committed to becoming a diverse and an inclusive employer and where people feel sense of belonging. Seeking to expand diversity within our teams, we positively encourage applications from under-represented groups such as ethnically diverse, disabled and LGBTQ+ groups. We are also under-represented in-terms of gender within nursing roles and we would welcome applications from people from male and non-binary backgrounds.
The Dudley Group offer many opportunities for our staff to develop and grow within their roles through our Learning & OD department. These include topics such as communication, wellbeing, team development, cultural competency, and values, plus much more. For those in a Leadership role, there are additional programmes to support you to develop the skills you need. These include our Managers Essentials Programme and a Leadership Programme that all managers will attend as part of your Dudley Managers Induction. Our Learning Prospectus is a great way to discover the details behind what's available for you here at The Dudley Group.
We are committed to home life balance through flexible working and making reasonable adjustments where possible
Job description
Job responsibilities
Please refer to the attached job description for full details of the main duties and responsibilities that the post holder is required to undertake.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Please refer to the attached job description for full details of the main duties and responsibilities that the post holder is required to undertake.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Registered Nurse/Midwife
- Masters degree level qualification
- Leadership Course
- Evidence of continuous Professional Development relevant to post
- Management qualification or equivalent demonstrable experience
Knowledge
Essential
- Track record of leading individuals and teams to achieve challenging targets
- Evidence of ability to motivate and develop clinical and managerial staff to their potential
- Develop and deliver strategic vision for services
- Ability to translate the national agenda into local action
- Utilise systematic evidence based approach to project management
- Ensure clear accountability for project leads
- Ability to meet challenging deadlines
- Excellent written communication skills
- Highly developed motivational skills and strong commitment to staff empowerment/involvement
- Demonstrate success in working in collaboration and partnership with other organisations
- Committed to working in partnership with the Local HEIs and NHS organisations
- Ability to deal with highly sensitive situations
- Ability to present complex reports and recommendations to senior forums and large staff meetings
- Expert knowledge of current issues in the NHS and the changing nature of healthcare policy
- Understanding of the environment in which the Trust and Group operates both inside and outside the NHS, consistent with our aim to work collaboratively with other agencies and to provide high quality patient care, teaching and research
- Strong analytical skills
- Ability to have difficult conversations
- Ability to deal effectively with conflict
- Ability to deal with highly sensitive situations
Experience
Essential
- Significant experience as a Nurse/Midwife working in a senior role to include challenging the status quo and managing conflict
- Demonstrable success in leading and effectively managing change
- Evidence of engaging stakeholders in developing service improvements
- Ability to manage/influence challenging and complex clinical and personnel issues
- Track record of developing and implementing framework for ensuring Clinical Governance
- Experience of implementing an effective performance management framework
- Experience of workforce planning and development
- Experience of successful budget management at senior level
- Evidence of up-to-date knowledge of issues likely to impact on nursing and midwifery services
- Experience of working with multi-agency committees and establishing relationships with external organisations
- Successful achievement of projects through working closely with multidisciplinary teams
- Evidence of networking with local, regional and national committees
- Strategic awareness of the NHS and commissioning
- In-depth knowledge and understanding of safeguarding, complaints processes and patient experience engagement and pathways in an Acute Trust and Group setting
Personal Qualities
Essential
- Ability to lead on Governance issues at strategic level
- A leader with personal and professional credibility and authority, with potential to achieve a Board level post
- Confident and able to inspire confidence in others
- A change agent who constantly challenges the status quo
- Resilience to work in a pressurised environment
- Strong patient/carer focus
- Utilise feedback to improve own leadership style
- Evidence of ability to influence outcomes at a senior level
- Ability to lead on initiatives at strategic level for corporate nursing
- Evidence of negotiating skills
- Ability to plan, co-ordinate and monitor the delivery of services
- Evidence of innovative and creative thinking in relation to service development
- Demonstrate advanced investigative, report writing and presentation skills
- Provide expert advice to executive team, medical colleagues, general managers, matrons and senior nursing and midwifery and all other stakeholders on professional nursing and midwifery issues
- Ability to champion nursing and midwifery at a strategic level and deputise for the Chief Nurse
- Articulate, assertive and able to communicate at all levels
Desirable
- Recognition and credibility outside the Trust and Group for a contribution to the development of health and health care and/or nursing/midwifery
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Registered Nurse/Midwife
- Masters degree level qualification
- Leadership Course
- Evidence of continuous Professional Development relevant to post
- Management qualification or equivalent demonstrable experience
Knowledge
Essential
- Track record of leading individuals and teams to achieve challenging targets
- Evidence of ability to motivate and develop clinical and managerial staff to their potential
- Develop and deliver strategic vision for services
- Ability to translate the national agenda into local action
- Utilise systematic evidence based approach to project management
- Ensure clear accountability for project leads
- Ability to meet challenging deadlines
- Excellent written communication skills
- Highly developed motivational skills and strong commitment to staff empowerment/involvement
- Demonstrate success in working in collaboration and partnership with other organisations
- Committed to working in partnership with the Local HEIs and NHS organisations
- Ability to deal with highly sensitive situations
- Ability to present complex reports and recommendations to senior forums and large staff meetings
- Expert knowledge of current issues in the NHS and the changing nature of healthcare policy
- Understanding of the environment in which the Trust and Group operates both inside and outside the NHS, consistent with our aim to work collaboratively with other agencies and to provide high quality patient care, teaching and research
- Strong analytical skills
- Ability to have difficult conversations
- Ability to deal effectively with conflict
- Ability to deal with highly sensitive situations
Experience
Essential
- Significant experience as a Nurse/Midwife working in a senior role to include challenging the status quo and managing conflict
- Demonstrable success in leading and effectively managing change
- Evidence of engaging stakeholders in developing service improvements
- Ability to manage/influence challenging and complex clinical and personnel issues
- Track record of developing and implementing framework for ensuring Clinical Governance
- Experience of implementing an effective performance management framework
- Experience of workforce planning and development
- Experience of successful budget management at senior level
- Evidence of up-to-date knowledge of issues likely to impact on nursing and midwifery services
- Experience of working with multi-agency committees and establishing relationships with external organisations
- Successful achievement of projects through working closely with multidisciplinary teams
- Evidence of networking with local, regional and national committees
- Strategic awareness of the NHS and commissioning
- In-depth knowledge and understanding of safeguarding, complaints processes and patient experience engagement and pathways in an Acute Trust and Group setting
Personal Qualities
Essential
- Ability to lead on Governance issues at strategic level
- A leader with personal and professional credibility and authority, with potential to achieve a Board level post
- Confident and able to inspire confidence in others
- A change agent who constantly challenges the status quo
- Resilience to work in a pressurised environment
- Strong patient/carer focus
- Utilise feedback to improve own leadership style
- Evidence of ability to influence outcomes at a senior level
- Ability to lead on initiatives at strategic level for corporate nursing
- Evidence of negotiating skills
- Ability to plan, co-ordinate and monitor the delivery of services
- Evidence of innovative and creative thinking in relation to service development
- Demonstrate advanced investigative, report writing and presentation skills
- Provide expert advice to executive team, medical colleagues, general managers, matrons and senior nursing and midwifery and all other stakeholders on professional nursing and midwifery issues
- Ability to champion nursing and midwifery at a strategic level and deputise for the Chief Nurse
- Articulate, assertive and able to communicate at all levels
Desirable
- Recognition and credibility outside the Trust and Group for a contribution to the development of health and health care and/or nursing/midwifery
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.
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
Additional information
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.
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
