Deputy Head of Midwifery (XR09)

Job responsibilities

The Deputy Head of Midwifery / Nursing has responsibility for the delivery of safe, clinically and cost effective and compassionate nursing/midwifery care within the CSU and provides assurance evidence to the Head of Midwifery / Nursing, Director of Nursing (Operations)/Deputy Chief Nurse and Chief Nurse/Deputy Chief Executive regarding compliance against all appropriate professional, organisational and national compliance standards.

The Deputy Head of Midwifery / Nursing will be responsible for the care and professional practice delivered within a large CSU.

The role of the Deputy Head of Midwifery /Nursing will include the requirement to engage with partners outside of the organisation e.g. to collaborate in city-wide and national improvement projects and developing relationships with service users.

Services provided within the CSU have a significant regional role in providing healthcare and this is represented in the requirement for a Deputy Head of Midwifery / Nursing post-holder to allow the Head of Midwifery / Nursing to liaise regionally and align service provision at a strategic level.

PRINCIPAL DUTIES & AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY

Leadership and management

The Deputy Head of Midwifery / Nursing has responsibility for the leadership and line management of midwifery / nursing across the CSU and supports the Head of Midwifery / Nursing who is the named and identified lead for all issues of midwifery and nursing practice within the CSU.

Identified as a senior midwife within the CSU responsible for decision making where practice or service delivery issues cross specialities or require cross speciality leadership.

Has responsibility for the delivery of safe and clinically effective care within the CSU - providing assurance evidence in this regard to the Head of Nursing, Director of Nursing (Operations) and Chief Operating Officer (COO)

Has line management responsibility for Senior Midwives and directly reporting ward managers within the CSU.

Leads and manages the clinical services in defined clinical areas/specialities.

Deputises for the Head of Midwifery / Nursing when required.

Utilises leadership and management skills to ensure the effective planning and delivery of midwifery / nursing care and services across the CSU planning for seasonal variations in case mix and workload and collaborating with other Heads of Nursing where cross CSU working is required.

Provides credible, visible and effective leadership, to the midwifery / nursing team within the CSU.

Through performance management and monitoring, ensures essential quality standards are achieved and improved. Leads and participates in performance review programmes throughout the clinical areas.

Contributes to the leadership of nursing and midwifery within the Trust as a member of the professional forum.

Develops mechanisms to enable Matrons to develop and strengthen their leadership and management skills in order to meet the responsibilities of their roles.

Actively works to support and empower Senior Sisters/Charge Nurses to develop and utilise their clinical leadership skills. Enabling them to assume appropriate levels of authority to undertake their role effectively to support and develop the leadership within their wards and teams.

Takes the lead on defined and time limited projects or work programmes across the CSU identified by the Head of Nursing and Director of Nursing (Operations) to support the delivery of Trust priorities, national and local professional priorities and objectives.

Takes the lead on defined areas of professional practice on behalf of the Head of Midwifery / Nursing.

Participates in Trust initiatives to develop and improve clinical practice and patient care, providing expert advice and current service provision future developments.

Participates in the Trust on-call rota

Actively promote and use the Leeds Improvement method to improve the quality and safety of the service.

Communication

Establishes and fosters an effective working relationship with the team to lead improvement in nursing and midwifery care and service delivery and the achievement of organisational priorities within the CSU.

Utilises negotiating and influencing skills to secure and support change and improvement in care and service delivery within the CSU.

Ensuring robust systems are in place within the CSU to deliver effective communication from wards and departments to the CSU management team (ward to board and board to ward communication).

Taking the lead role within the CSU for communicating with individual midwifery / nursing teams regarding the context of professional care and service delivery, organisational priorities and whole hospital transformation, particularly where information is complex, sensitive or contentious.

Utilises developed interpersonal, communication, empathetic and re-assurance skills when communicating on an individual basis with patients, families and staff for example regarding complaints or complex human resources or professional conduct issues.

Regularly produces written reports and papers for the CSU triumvirate (e.g. assurance reports and business cases).

Promotes staff involvement and engagement within the CSU.

Care and service - delivery and quality.

Maintains own clinical practice standards by participating with the delivery of patient care regularly (as agreed with the Head of Midwifery / Nursing and Director of Nursing (Operations).

Fulfils the requirements as directed by the Nursing and Midwifery Council to maintain and revalidate registration.

Maintains a regular visible presence in own clinical speciality wards and departments.

Has overall responsibility for the delivery of safe, clinically and cost effective and compassionate nursing/midwifery care within the CSU. Utilises planning and organisational skills to ensure services are organised and delivered to achieve on:

Safe care

Safer maternity plans

HCAI (including MRSA, CDI and CAUTI)

Nutrition and hydration

Compassionate, private and dignified care

Positive patient experience, involvement and engagement

Learning and improving from incidents and complaints.

Ensures systems and processes are in place to monitor and assure the quality of midwifery / nursing care and patient experience within the CSU.

Provides highly specialised advice to the CSU triumvirate regarding midwifery / nursing care and service delivery within the CSU.

Proactively promotes and uses the Leeds Improvement Method to improve the quality and safety of our service within the CSU.

Leads and champions the improvement and development of midwifery / nursing practice within the CSU in line with regulatory requirements, Trust objectives, national guidance, and whole system transformation.

Lead responsibility for ensuring the provision of safe, clinically and cost-effective midwifery / nursing/allied health professional staffing within the CSU.

Analyses and interprets data from a variety of sources to provide a midwifery / nursing opinion - making decisions regarding care and service delivery and staffing e.g. roster central to make decisions on staffing.

Leads service improvement projects within the CSU, analysing and interpreting highly complex data and making recommendations to the CSU triumvirate.

Responsible for the implementation of a range of policy and service improvements within area of responsibility. Utilises polices, regulations and guidance to ensure that appropriate results are achieved.

Identifies areas for service improvement, guideline, and policy development.

Makes a corporate contribution to the nursing / midwifery, clinical practice development and strategic decision making within the CSU and as a member of the wider Trust senior nursing / midwifery team.

Identify areas of clinical risk and take preventive action including incident investigation, staff and patient feedback and promotion of clinical audit.

Act as a named lead investigator for serious untoward incidents and never events.

Takes the lead role in ensuring effective patient and public involvement and engagement within the CSU and fostering a close working relationship for current services and future service provision to ensure full user involvement and access.

Promote a culture that supports the active involvement of patient and carers in actively seeking their views on services provided in the planning, delivery and evaluation of their care.

Ensure that nursing practice is delivered in a manner consistent with the NMC Code of Professional Conduct, the NMC Scope of Professional Practice.

Acts in such a way that safeguards the health and wellbeing of children and vulnerable adults at all times.

Financial Responsibility

For their own area of responsibility:

Prime budget holder for wards and departments

Operates within the agreed income and expenditure budget working to ensure financial performance is optimised.

Implements and actively maintains frameworks for monitoring financial performance, demonstrating sound mechanisms for review and for the identification, agreement and implementation of actions necessary to address performance issues and to achieve agreed targets.

Supports delegated budget holders and ensures that they successfully fulfil their financial responsibilities and can meet the financial competencies required in their role.

Takes responsibility for the development of annual budgets and robust business and financial plans.

Ensures that robust safe and effective cost efficiency plans are identified and delivered.

Leads the production of bids and business cases for service developments and capital investment.

Please review full job description attachment for full details of roles, responsibilities and duties of the role.

Qualifications

Essential

• Registered Midwife
• Current registration with the NMC
• Bachelors degree in subject relevant to the role.
• Masters degree or evidence of practical application of expertise at this level
• Post-graduate qualification within a leadership programme/study or evidence of practical application of expertise at this level

Desirable

• Project Management qualification

Other Criteria

Essential

• Ability to make links and ensure a joined up approach, ensuring that all outputs are sound in terms of both rational and evidence
• Ability to conceptualise problems and identify solutions
• Ability to initiate, lead and manage change
• Demonstrable ability to interpret highly complex facts and situations, analyse and make judgements based upon this

Skills and Behaviours

Essential

• Takes on board the need to achieve financial balance and to operate within available resources when making day to day decisions, being prepared to take all necessary actions
• Clearly communicates the need to achieve financial targets and to operate within budget throughout their area of responsibility, ensuring consistent messages are given and ownership encouraged
• Establishes and maintains appropriate mechanisms within their area to allow comprehensive performance management in terms of financial management responsibilities and objectives
• Behaves in accordance with legislation, policies and procedures designed to ensure governance and probity and takes steps to address any issues of non-compliance within areas of responsibility
• Able to communicate complex, sensitive information.
• Excellent communication, interpersonal and negotiating skills

Experience

Essential

• Significant experience as a senior midwife.
• Demonstrable evidence of specialist knowledge of the professional leadership and management of midwives / nurses/allied health professionals (pertaining to the area of clinical practice)
• Evidence of on-going and relevant personal and professional development in the last 2 years.
• Demonstrable experience managing clinical services and of leading improvements in clinical settings, patient care and experience across multiple specialities.
• Knowledge and experience of human resources management, communicating complex and contentious information to individuals and large groups
• Experience of managing budgets and financial resources, including the associated processes such as budget setting, financial planning and making proposals for service developments across multiple area
• Evidence of on-going and relevant personal and professional training
• In depth knowledge of the clinical governance agenda including clinical risk and safety.
• Specialist knowledge of midwifery or allied health professionals professional issues and care and service delivery
• Demonstrates a clear understanding of and continuing acceptance of the need for financial governance and probity

Desirable

• Demonstrable evidence of project management

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.

Certificate of Sponsorship

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).