Job summary
This is your moment to shape the future of maternity care for an entire county. Gloucestershire is undertaking its first full maternity health needs assessment in a decade, and we are seeking an exceptional Director of Midwifery to lead with vision and purpose.
Our maternity teams are skilled, committed and proud of the care they provide. Like many services nationally, we have faced complexity and pressure in recent years. We are looking for a strategic leader who can bring clarity, confidence and renewed momentum as we continue our redesign and improvement.
As Director of Midwifery, you will be the professional voice for safe, effective and responsive care. You will set the strategic direction, guide service transformation and ensure that women, birthing people and families remain central to every decision. You will work closely with the LMNS, the Gloucestershire ICB and wider midwifery networks to turn insight into action and ambition into measurable progress.
This is a genuinely autonomous role, offering the freedom to shape priorities and steer the service through a defining period. It also comes at a key transition point: our Head of Midwifery is retiring, giving the incoming Director the opportunity to appoint their senior team and build a structure that supports long-term stability and improvement.
If you are motivated by purpose, excited by transformation and ready to lead service into its next chapter, we would be delighted to receive your application.
Main duties of the job
Inspire shared purpose and ensure the maternity and neonatal strategy is developed with key stakeholders and delivered efficiently with the Divisional Leadership Team. Lead with care and compassion. Provide expert support for sustainable workforce planning, including education and training. Ensure safe staffing with clear escalation and mitigation. Enable staff to raise concerns and ensure accountability for acting on issues. Seek diverse information to generate ideas and make effective plans for improvement. Lead clinical governance, ensuring the Trust Board has oversight of quality and performance and that lessons from investigations are implemented.
Be accountable to the Director of Quality and Chief Nurse for professional midwifery leadership and work with them to provide assurance to the Trust Board on the quality of care. Drive continuous improvement and transformational change. Work closely with the Maternity Voices Partnership, leading experience-improvement programmes using co-design. Understand system working and pathway interdependencies. Provide timely expert maternity, neonatal and midwifery advice to senior leaders and the Executive Team. Support clinical engagement and co-design across maternity and neonatal services. Contribute to national maternity and neonatal priorities and help develop sustainable workforce solutions aligned to future models of care. Proactively manage key risks within strong clinical governance structures.
About us
We deliver acute care across two large district general hospitals -- Cheltenham General Hospital and Gloucestershire Royal Hospital -- with maternity services also provided at Stroud Maternity Hospital. As the principal provider of secondary care in the county, Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust plays a central role in the health and wellbeing of our population.
At the heart of our organisation is a highly skilled and committed nursing, midwifery and care workforce. Joining us means becoming part of a community of more than 2,000 nursing and midwifery professionals who bring expertise, compassion and ambition to everything they do.
Our patients and families remain our constant focus, and it is the dedication of our nurses, midwives and care staff that ensures we deliver safe, high-quality care and a positive experience for the people of Gloucestershire.
Job description
Job responsibilities
The Director of Midwifery is a highly autonomous role and will be responsible and accountable for the provision of midwifery services across the Trust, they will provide expert support to the Trust and lead and advocate for safe, effective, sustainable and responsive maternity and neonatal care for all women, babies, birthing people and their families. The post holder is required to advise on leading and informing complex transformation and improvement, through collaboration and mature partnership working. Accountable to the Chief Nurse, the Director of Midwifery is responsible for improving the strategic leadership of the midwifery workforce and the overarching safety and quality of the services alongside the Divisional Leadership Team. The principal goal of the post is to drive forward the maternity improvement and safety activities across the service which then demonstrates improved clinical outcomes. The post holder will work closely with the Local Maternity and Neonatal Network (LMNS) / Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board (ICB) and with the clinical and professional Director of Midwifery Networks.
Key drivers for change are our well established improvement plans, actions from our CQC inspection and the overall delivery of our divisional vision excellence in care as measured by our outcomes, patient experience and our staff values.
Responsible and accountable for the improvement of reporting frameworks for the maternity service and neonatal service. This will involve developing key quality indicators and measures and ensuring statutory and regulatory aspects of risk, safeguarding, complaints, safety, feedback and clinical governance are delivered across all of the maternity services. The post holder will have accountability and responsibility for the strategic and operational development of the departmental plans and the programme of work will be underpinned by the delivery of short, medium and long term objectives.
Interview Date: 16th December 2025
Contact Details
Sharon Elliott (Executive Assistant to the Chief Nurse)
sharon.elliott10@nhs.net
07977 787173
Please arrange an informal conversation with Matt Holdaway, Chief Nurse by contacting Sharon Elliott, Executive Assistant
Job description
Job responsibilities
The Director of Midwifery is a highly autonomous role and will be responsible and accountable for the provision of midwifery services across the Trust, they will provide expert support to the Trust and lead and advocate for safe, effective, sustainable and responsive maternity and neonatal care for all women, babies, birthing people and their families. The post holder is required to advise on leading and informing complex transformation and improvement, through collaboration and mature partnership working. Accountable to the Chief Nurse, the Director of Midwifery is responsible for improving the strategic leadership of the midwifery workforce and the overarching safety and quality of the services alongside the Divisional Leadership Team. The principal goal of the post is to drive forward the maternity improvement and safety activities across the service which then demonstrates improved clinical outcomes. The post holder will work closely with the Local Maternity and Neonatal Network (LMNS) / Gloucestershire Integrated Care Board (ICB) and with the clinical and professional Director of Midwifery Networks.
Key drivers for change are our well established improvement plans, actions from our CQC inspection and the overall delivery of our divisional vision excellence in care as measured by our outcomes, patient experience and our staff values.
Responsible and accountable for the improvement of reporting frameworks for the maternity service and neonatal service. This will involve developing key quality indicators and measures and ensuring statutory and regulatory aspects of risk, safeguarding, complaints, safety, feedback and clinical governance are delivered across all of the maternity services. The post holder will have accountability and responsibility for the strategic and operational development of the departmental plans and the programme of work will be underpinned by the delivery of short, medium and long term objectives.
Interview Date: 16th December 2025
Contact Details
Sharon Elliott (Executive Assistant to the Chief Nurse)
sharon.elliott10@nhs.net
07977 787173
Please arrange an informal conversation with Matt Holdaway, Chief Nurse by contacting Sharon Elliott, Executive Assistant
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Bachelor's degree
- Master's degree
- Registered Midwife with the Nursing and Midwifery Council
- Evidence of sustained personal and professional development.
Experience
Essential
- Demonstrable capability and capacity as a senior leader in a large complex health care environment
- Good working knowledge and experience of clinical quality and improvement.
- Extensive experience of translating national policy into practice.
- Evidence of effective management of staff.
- Broad range of experience as Head of Midwifery.
Knowledge
Essential
- In-depth understanding of the NHS, maternity, social care, and local authority 'landscape' and interdependencies.
- Appreciation of evidence and thinking relating to practices which reduce health inequality and improve maternity services.
- Highly developed communication skills with the ability to communicate on complex matters and difficult situations.
Skills and Attributes
Essential
- Leads with compassion and humility.
- Exceptional communication skills which engender community confidence, strong collaborations, and excellent partnership working.
- Coaching and mentoring skills
- Written - evidence of good presentation with clear, well-reasoned argument, appropriate degree of research and logical conclusions.
Personal Values
Essential
- Determination, perseverance, and resilience.
- Personal commitment to the values of the NHS Long Term Plan, the NHS People Plan, the NHS Constitution, the Nolan Principles and National Maternity Policy.
- Compassionate and collaborative leadership style, with a track record of improvements in equality, diversity, inclusion, and social justice.
Other
Essential
- Ability to fulfil the travel and on call requirements
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Bachelor's degree
- Master's degree
- Registered Midwife with the Nursing and Midwifery Council
- Evidence of sustained personal and professional development.
Experience
Essential
- Demonstrable capability and capacity as a senior leader in a large complex health care environment
- Good working knowledge and experience of clinical quality and improvement.
- Extensive experience of translating national policy into practice.
- Evidence of effective management of staff.
- Broad range of experience as Head of Midwifery.
Knowledge
Essential
- In-depth understanding of the NHS, maternity, social care, and local authority 'landscape' and interdependencies.
- Appreciation of evidence and thinking relating to practices which reduce health inequality and improve maternity services.
- Highly developed communication skills with the ability to communicate on complex matters and difficult situations.
Skills and Attributes
Essential
- Leads with compassion and humility.
- Exceptional communication skills which engender community confidence, strong collaborations, and excellent partnership working.
- Coaching and mentoring skills
- Written - evidence of good presentation with clear, well-reasoned argument, appropriate degree of research and logical conclusions.
Personal Values
Essential
- Determination, perseverance, and resilience.
- Personal commitment to the values of the NHS Long Term Plan, the NHS People Plan, the NHS Constitution, the Nolan Principles and National Maternity Policy.
- Compassionate and collaborative leadership style, with a track record of improvements in equality, diversity, inclusion, and social justice.
Other
Essential
- Ability to fulfil the travel and on call requirements
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.
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.
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
Employer details
Employer name
Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Address
Trustwide (Based at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, to work across all maternity sites)
Gloucestershire
GL1 3NN
Employer's website
https://www.gloshospitals.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)
