Job summary
Please note: at this stage, the role is open only to colleagues currently employed within Kent and Medway NHS Trusts and the Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board (ICB).
The West Directorate has a secondment opportunity for an exceptional Nurse to become the Head of Nursing and Quality for a period of 6 months. You will be required to drive for the Quality and Professional Standards agenda across the Directorate, ensuring that the delivery of high-quality care is consistent with the CQC fundamental standards, safeguarding principles, Trust Values and the Trust and Directorate Strategic Objectives.
The Head of Nursing and Quality, reporting to the Service Director, will have responsibility for the quality of care across the Directorate and will work within agreed objectives, targets, quality standards, and resource constraints in line with local and national guidance.
The post holder will take a facilitative and empowering approach, nurturing creativity and leading others to be open to doing things differently if the desired outcomes improve the patient, carer and staff experience. They will lead on working with general managers, service managers, matrons, governance lead and officers to ensure that quality data is triangulated and validated. The post holder will lead on seeking to work with others to maximise digital solutions where possible.
Main duties of the job
Head of Nursing and Quality will, by working closely with the professional heads and the Senior Management Team, provide demonstrable assurance that the quality of the clinical services, including patient safety, patient satisfaction and clinical outcomes, meet the required high standards. This will be achieved, in part, by effective leadership of the Directorate Nursing and Quality Team, which consists of a Governance Lead, a Governance Officer and matrons
They will lead the Directorate's Serious Incidents and Complaints process and ensure that lessons learnt are shared and embedded within the Directorate.
They will ensure that they are present within services to engage with service users, carers and staff using informal and formal mechanisms as appropriate.
They will be one of the Directorate escalation points for when there is a need for support, when complex clinical decision-making arises. They will use their skills, experience and knowledge to offer a perspective ensuring service users and carers are held central to any decision-making.
They lead by working with others, short-term and longer term, to ensure that safer staffing requirements are adhered to and that when this is not possible, there is a system in place to mitigate risks to patients that have the potential to arise.
About us
Come and work with us in the Garden of England where we combine exceptional professional development opportunities with a tremendous quality of life.
We are Kent and Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership Trust (KMPT), providing mental health, learning disability and specialist services, serving 1.8 million people across the county.
The Trust (rated Good overall by the CQC and Outstanding for care) has 3,283 staff working in 66 buildings across 33 locations, covering an area of 1,450 square miles.
You will be joining friendly, passionate colleagues, rich in their diversity, who are committed to providing excellent care to our service users and their loved ones.
The nature of our work attracts kindness and compassion as standard and everyone from our cleaners and porters to the chief executive and chairman are recognised as playing a vital role in providing an exemplary service.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Strategic Professional Leadership and Practice Standards
The Head of Nursing and Quality will lead a team of nurses and other health professionals to ensure improved quality of care, quality assurance, safeguarding and direct care delivery across the Directorate.
You will work in conjunction with the Service Director, Clinical Director and other members of the Senior Management Team to ensure consistency of standards, maximising learning from serious incidents, complaints, audits, research, practice experience and national guidance. They will lead the directorate's serious incidents and complaints processes by working with others.
Contribute to the performance of the directorate senior leadership team in meeting agreed goals and objectives, ensuring that quality information is accurate and that risk management systems are robust.
Service Transformation
The Head of Nursing and Quality will work with the Service Director and Clinical Director to drive the necessary service transformations.
Implement the nursing strategy by providing leadership at service level.
Work with others to implement and monitor outcomes of quality improvement initiatives within the service.
The post holder must hold a full, valid, UK driving licence and have access to a car/vehicle to use for business purposes (unless you have a disability as defined by the Equality Act 2010).
At KMPT, we are serious about diversity and inclusion, and we are working hard to build this into our DNA. We warmly welcome applications for any of our roles from people from diverse backgrounds, and we are proactively encouraging applications from under-represented communities for our more senior roles, like this one.
Please see the attached job description for full details of the main duties and responsibilities of the role.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Strategic Professional Leadership and Practice Standards
The Head of Nursing and Quality will lead a team of nurses and other health professionals to ensure improved quality of care, quality assurance, safeguarding and direct care delivery across the Directorate.
You will work in conjunction with the Service Director, Clinical Director and other members of the Senior Management Team to ensure consistency of standards, maximising learning from serious incidents, complaints, audits, research, practice experience and national guidance. They will lead the directorate's serious incidents and complaints processes by working with others.
Contribute to the performance of the directorate senior leadership team in meeting agreed goals and objectives, ensuring that quality information is accurate and that risk management systems are robust.
Service Transformation
The Head of Nursing and Quality will work with the Service Director and Clinical Director to drive the necessary service transformations.
Implement the nursing strategy by providing leadership at service level.
Work with others to implement and monitor outcomes of quality improvement initiatives within the service.
The post holder must hold a full, valid, UK driving licence and have access to a car/vehicle to use for business purposes (unless you have a disability as defined by the Equality Act 2010).
At KMPT, we are serious about diversity and inclusion, and we are working hard to build this into our DNA. We warmly welcome applications for any of our roles from people from diverse backgrounds, and we are proactively encouraging applications from under-represented communities for our more senior roles, like this one.
Please see the attached job description for full details of the main duties and responsibilities of the role.
Person Specification
Education/Qualification
Essential
- NMC registered Mental Health Nurse
- Masters or working towards or able to demonstrate ability to work at Masters level
Desirable
- Evidence of professional development in Leadership / Management
Experience
Essential
- Significant experience at a senior nursing level in a mental health Trust
- Evidenced experience of leading on a QI project that led to sustained change in outcomes for service users and carers
- Experience of managing and delivering to deadlines and within resources
- Experience of partnership working with service users and carers
Knowledge and Skills
Essential
- Knowledge of QI methodologies
- Able to think laterally able to interpret data and synthesize complex information
- Expert knowledge of Quality in mental health care and the mechanisms used for assurance.
Person Specification
Education/Qualification
Essential
- NMC registered Mental Health Nurse
- Masters or working towards or able to demonstrate ability to work at Masters level
Desirable
- Evidence of professional development in Leadership / Management
Experience
Essential
- Significant experience at a senior nursing level in a mental health Trust
- Evidenced experience of leading on a QI project that led to sustained change in outcomes for service users and carers
- Experience of managing and delivering to deadlines and within resources
- Experience of partnership working with service users and carers
Knowledge and Skills
Essential
- Knowledge of QI methodologies
- Able to think laterally able to interpret data and synthesize complex information
- Expert knowledge of Quality in mental health care and the mechanisms used for assurance.
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).
