Associate Director of Improvement (Safety)

Job summary

The Royal London Hospital is seeking an exceptional senior leader to take on the pivotal role ofAssociate Director of Improvement (Safety). This is a high-visibility, high-impact post reporting directly to theMedical Director, responsible for driving measurable improvement in patient safety across one of the UK's busiest and most complex acute hospitals.

As our senior site-level safety improvement leader, you will shape and deliver the hospital'sSafety Improvement Plan, championing a culture of learning, reliability, and continuous improvement. You will work across clinical and operational teams, using improvement science, human factors principles, and data-driven insight to reduce harm, strengthen safety systems, and enhance patient experience.

What You'll Lead

• Design and deliver a cohesive, ambitiousSafety Improvement Programmefor the Royal London Hospital
• Strengthen safety culture through visible leadership, coaching, and data-informed decision-making
• Embed effective learning systems aligned with PSIRF and trust governance
• Partner with the Medical Director, Director of Nursing, Clinical Directors and senior leaders to tackle safety priorities at scale
• Build improvement capability across all services, supporting teams to own and sustain change
• Provide high-quality assurance and reporting to site and trust governance forums

Main duties of the job

The Associate Director of Improvement (Safety) is the senior site-level leader responsible for driving measurable, sustained improvements in patient safety across the Royal London Hospital. The role provides visible leadership, expert improvement methodology, strategic direction, and operational oversight of all safety-related improvement activity across the hospital. Working closely with the Medical Director, Director of Nursing, Clinical Directors, matrons, governance and risk teams, and corporate patient safety specialists, the postholder will embed a culture of continuous learning, evidence-based improvement, and system thinking.

Key points of role

Provide strategic and operational leadership for patient safety improvement at RLH.

Lead the design and implementation of the RLH Safety Improvement Plan with measurable outcomes in harm reduction, safety culture, reliability, escalation, human factors integration, and deteriorating patient response.

Build an embedded culture of continuous safety improvement across clinical and non-clinical services through coaching, capability-building, structured methodology, and data-driven decisions.

Act as the senior improvement expert for safety, ensuring consistent, evidence-based methodologies across the site.

Strengthen learning systems and translate insights from incidents, investigations, complaints, audits, and risks into high-impact, sustainable improvements.

About us

Barts Health is one of the largest NHS trusts in the country, and one of Britain's leading healthcare providers.

The Barts Health group of NHS hospitals is entering an exciting new era on our improvement journey to becoming an outstanding organisation with a world-class clinical reputation. Having lifted ourselves out of special measures, we now have the impetus and breathing space to chart a fresh course in which we are continually striving to improve all our services for patients.

Our vision is to be a high-performing group of NHS hospitals, renowned for excellence and innovation, and providing safe and compassionate care to our patients in east London and beyond. That means being a provider of excellent patient safety, known for delivering consistently high standards of harm-free care and always caring for patients in the right place at the right time. It also means being an outstanding place to work, in which our WeCare values and behaviours are visible to all and guide us in how we work together.

We strive to live by our WeCare values and are committed to promoting inclusion, where every staff member has a sense of belonging. We value our differences and fully advocate, cultivate and support an inclusive working environment.

Employer details

Employer name

Barts Health NHS Trust

Address

Royal London Hospital

London

E1 1FR

Employer's website

https://www.bartshealth.nhs.uk (Opens in a new tab)

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Employer details

Employer name

Barts Health NHS Trust

Address

Royal London Hospital

London

E1 1FR

Employer's website

https://www.bartshealth.nhs.uk (Opens in a new tab)

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