Job summary
As Head of Patient Safety you will lead the development and delivery of a portfolio of purposefully designed innovation and implementation projects and programmes focused on maternity, neonatal and womens health. These initiatives will be purpose built to achieve our impact goals (improving health and care services, health outcomes, and economic outcomes) in the South West Peninsula.You will also be responsible for delivering the NHS England Patient Safety Commission.
Portfolio delivery will be achieved through management of a skilled and diverse team. You will be responsible for managing a budget c. £1m.
Main duties of the job
Success in this role is dependent on building deep and trusted relationships externally with potential funders, sponsors, and with our partners across the health and care system, supporting them to adapt and develop care pathways and workforce models to benefit from innovative technology and ways of working, and internally across our talented high-performing organisation.
About us
Health Innovation South West is a place-based innovation organisation dedicated to tackling the health, care and economic challenges facing rural and coastal communities. We act as a catalyst and connector, working with partners and anchor institutions to improve health outcomes, reduce inequalities and stimulate sustainable economic growth within our rural and coastal context.
Weve built a specialist team of over 60 people with deep expertise in building partnerships to deliver health and economic impact through innovation. Were an independent company, governed by our NHS and university members, and licensed and commissioned by NHS England and the Office for Life Sciences.
Details
Date posted
19 March 2026
Pay scheme
Other
Salary
£70,000 to £77,000 a year
Contract
Permanent
Working pattern
Full-time, Part-time, Flexible working, Home or remote working
Reference number
E0153-26-0000
Job locations
South West Peninsula A H S N Ltd
Vantage Point
Pynes Hill
Exeter
Devon
EX2 5FD
Job description
Job responsibilities
Key success factors
Portfolio development and delivery: proven ability to deliver multi-year, multi-organisational, complex projects and programmes with a focus on impact.
Programme leadership: ability to shape and deliver strategic patient safety and improvement portfolios.
Portfolio performance: achievement of patient safety, quality improvement and maternity and neo natal and womens health specific portfolio objectives and risk management.
Business Development: proven track record in securing investment for portfolios of work.
Current knowledge of government strategy, policy and evidence-base required for portfolio delivery.
Leading people: effective people manager, with a proven ability to lead, motivate and develop others.
Influencing: collaborative and entrepreneurial, experienced in building compelling narrative to influence and persuade stakeholders at all levels; knowledge of effective account management approaches and refined communication skills.
Delivering an enterprise-first approach: consistently demonstrating a dynamic and proactive approach, with strong commercial flare and drive for effective business development and customer satisfaction.
Adaptable: comfortable with ambiguity, with the ability to look around problems, adapt approaches and make hard choices to achieve goals.
Forward looking: maintaining awareness of relevant policy environment and operating context, current evidence base and cutting edge thinking in order to anticipate change and develop portfolios accordingly.
Learning mind-set: a track record working on complex issues, embedding learning into practice and generating insight to inform approaches.
Passionate about delivering impact in the South West Peninsula.
Responsibilities
Delivery leadership: develop and lead delivery of a portfolio of work that spans different stages of the innovation pipeline, from find and test through to implementation of proven innovations, focused on improving outcomes within maternity, neonatal and womens health.To deliver the National Patient Safety Improvement Programmes which support a culture of safety, continuous learning and sustainable improvement across the healthcare system.
Subject Matter leadership: lead responsibility for Maternity, Neonatal and Womens Health Portfolio and Patient Safety portfolio, including safety culture, incident response, learning systems and implementation into practice. Expert knowledge and ability to teach continuous quality improvement methodology to others both within the organisation and to system partners. Maintain deep expertise in current national safety standards, governance frameworks, and emerging approaches to patient safety. Act as a strategic advisor on safety and improvement priorities to the Senior Management and Executive Teams. Provide authoritative advice to Health Innovation South West colleagues, acting as a visible champion for the specialism, and proactively cultivate networks of influence across clinical, operational, and policy domains. Identify and secure opportunities for collaboration, translating these into measurable outcomes that enhance the organisations portfolio, reputation, and impact on care quality and safety.
Innovation and/or Implementation leadership: using deep knowledge of quality improvement and patient safety across the innovation pathway, deploy specialist expertise to move safety and improvement innovations from early stage impact testing and pilot support, through to scaling proven innovation and models across the geographical footprint, using Quality Improvement and adoption and spread methodologies. Apply specialist knowledge of patient safety systems to accelerate adoption of evidence-based interventions. Lead initiatives that embed safety improvement into clinical practice, workforce development and operational processes across health and care systems.
Delivery leadership: as a results-focused leader, you will be responsible for achieving portfolio objectives and executing the annual business plan, focusing on the delivery of the maternity, neonatal and womens health portfolio, and patient safety commission. By visibly demonstrating our values, contribute to a positive and inclusive culture to secure the continued success of Health Innovation South West.
People management: line manage, develop and matrix manage a blended (permanent, fixed-term and associates) and diverse, team of staff to ensure effective delivery of programme and portfolio aims.
Partnership and Business Development: identify and secure the necessary financial and stakeholder support to grow the portfolios of work. Develop strategic partnerships with national, regional and local NHS systems, commissioners and organisations, academic institutions and voluntary sector partners to deliver successful outcomes. Secure funding for new programmes and contribute to national efforts to reduce harm and improve care outcomes through improvement and innovative programmes of work.
Account management: develop, manage and influence long-term relationships with partners, funders and commissioners to support portfolio delivery. Key relationships include Government bodies, all partners across Integrated Care Systems, academic collaborators and partners from industry (pharma, MedTech SMEs). Ensure alignment of priorities and sustained engagement to deliver impact across the region.
Governance and oversight: ensure that projects, programmes and portfolios adhere to organisational governance and processes, managing risks, and contributing to performance oversight. Ensure robust governance of all programmes, embedding ethical, inclusive, and evidence-based practices. Oversee compliance with national frameworks (e.g. NHS England Patient Safety Strategy, NICE, CQC, NRLS/LSMS systems) and contribute to policy development and service improvement.
Network engagement: play a proactive role in the wider Health Innovation Network, engaging with national governance structures ensuring our work is aligned to national priorities, advising on how to shape and develop new national programmes and portfolios such that they align with the needs of the South West.
External engagement: represent the organisation externally, acting as an ambassador for the organisation at a local, regional and national level. Deputise for Portfolio Directors as necessary, ensuring the organisations voice is present in strategic discussions and sector-wide initiatives.
Internal Operations and capability building: be an ambassador for improvement and implementation methodology through leadership of internal initiatives to improve operational efficiency and safety culture across programmes, using data-driven approaches and improvement science methodologies. Design and deliver training programmes to build organisational capability in patient safety, human factors, and continuous improvement. Foster a culture of learning, transparency, and excellence in care delivery.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Key success factors
Portfolio development and delivery: proven ability to deliver multi-year, multi-organisational, complex projects and programmes with a focus on impact.
Programme leadership: ability to shape and deliver strategic patient safety and improvement portfolios.
Portfolio performance: achievement of patient safety, quality improvement and maternity and neo natal and womens health specific portfolio objectives and risk management.
Business Development: proven track record in securing investment for portfolios of work.
Current knowledge of government strategy, policy and evidence-base required for portfolio delivery.
Leading people: effective people manager, with a proven ability to lead, motivate and develop others.
Influencing: collaborative and entrepreneurial, experienced in building compelling narrative to influence and persuade stakeholders at all levels; knowledge of effective account management approaches and refined communication skills.
Delivering an enterprise-first approach: consistently demonstrating a dynamic and proactive approach, with strong commercial flare and drive for effective business development and customer satisfaction.
Adaptable: comfortable with ambiguity, with the ability to look around problems, adapt approaches and make hard choices to achieve goals.
Forward looking: maintaining awareness of relevant policy environment and operating context, current evidence base and cutting edge thinking in order to anticipate change and develop portfolios accordingly.
Learning mind-set: a track record working on complex issues, embedding learning into practice and generating insight to inform approaches.
Passionate about delivering impact in the South West Peninsula.
Responsibilities
Delivery leadership: develop and lead delivery of a portfolio of work that spans different stages of the innovation pipeline, from find and test through to implementation of proven innovations, focused on improving outcomes within maternity, neonatal and womens health.To deliver the National Patient Safety Improvement Programmes which support a culture of safety, continuous learning and sustainable improvement across the healthcare system.
Subject Matter leadership: lead responsibility for Maternity, Neonatal and Womens Health Portfolio and Patient Safety portfolio, including safety culture, incident response, learning systems and implementation into practice. Expert knowledge and ability to teach continuous quality improvement methodology to others both within the organisation and to system partners. Maintain deep expertise in current national safety standards, governance frameworks, and emerging approaches to patient safety. Act as a strategic advisor on safety and improvement priorities to the Senior Management and Executive Teams. Provide authoritative advice to Health Innovation South West colleagues, acting as a visible champion for the specialism, and proactively cultivate networks of influence across clinical, operational, and policy domains. Identify and secure opportunities for collaboration, translating these into measurable outcomes that enhance the organisations portfolio, reputation, and impact on care quality and safety.
Innovation and/or Implementation leadership: using deep knowledge of quality improvement and patient safety across the innovation pathway, deploy specialist expertise to move safety and improvement innovations from early stage impact testing and pilot support, through to scaling proven innovation and models across the geographical footprint, using Quality Improvement and adoption and spread methodologies. Apply specialist knowledge of patient safety systems to accelerate adoption of evidence-based interventions. Lead initiatives that embed safety improvement into clinical practice, workforce development and operational processes across health and care systems.
Delivery leadership: as a results-focused leader, you will be responsible for achieving portfolio objectives and executing the annual business plan, focusing on the delivery of the maternity, neonatal and womens health portfolio, and patient safety commission. By visibly demonstrating our values, contribute to a positive and inclusive culture to secure the continued success of Health Innovation South West.
People management: line manage, develop and matrix manage a blended (permanent, fixed-term and associates) and diverse, team of staff to ensure effective delivery of programme and portfolio aims.
Partnership and Business Development: identify and secure the necessary financial and stakeholder support to grow the portfolios of work. Develop strategic partnerships with national, regional and local NHS systems, commissioners and organisations, academic institutions and voluntary sector partners to deliver successful outcomes. Secure funding for new programmes and contribute to national efforts to reduce harm and improve care outcomes through improvement and innovative programmes of work.
Account management: develop, manage and influence long-term relationships with partners, funders and commissioners to support portfolio delivery. Key relationships include Government bodies, all partners across Integrated Care Systems, academic collaborators and partners from industry (pharma, MedTech SMEs). Ensure alignment of priorities and sustained engagement to deliver impact across the region.
Governance and oversight: ensure that projects, programmes and portfolios adhere to organisational governance and processes, managing risks, and contributing to performance oversight. Ensure robust governance of all programmes, embedding ethical, inclusive, and evidence-based practices. Oversee compliance with national frameworks (e.g. NHS England Patient Safety Strategy, NICE, CQC, NRLS/LSMS systems) and contribute to policy development and service improvement.
Network engagement: play a proactive role in the wider Health Innovation Network, engaging with national governance structures ensuring our work is aligned to national priorities, advising on how to shape and develop new national programmes and portfolios such that they align with the needs of the South West.
External engagement: represent the organisation externally, acting as an ambassador for the organisation at a local, regional and national level. Deputise for Portfolio Directors as necessary, ensuring the organisations voice is present in strategic discussions and sector-wide initiatives.
Internal Operations and capability building: be an ambassador for improvement and implementation methodology through leadership of internal initiatives to improve operational efficiency and safety culture across programmes, using data-driven approaches and improvement science methodologies. Design and deliver training programmes to build organisational capability in patient safety, human factors, and continuous improvement. Foster a culture of learning, transparency, and excellence in care delivery.
Person Specification
Experience and capabilities you’ll develop in the role
Essential
- Delivering a portfolio of projects and programmes focused on finding, testing and evaluating innovation in a real world setting, with a focus on improving health and economic outcomes.
- Applying cutting-edge methodological approaches to facilitate the spread of innovative practice.
- Working as part of a national network to transform lives through healthcare innovation, at the forefront of implementing health and life science priorities set by Government.
- Building multi-partner collaborations that deliver impact across a large geography.
- Commercial knowledge and a track record of successfully winning funding and investment to support portfolio ambitions.
- Experience working in a consultancy organisation, with demonstratable experience of proactively supporting commercial deliverables. Experienced in working with a matrix organisation to ensure agility and make best use of resources.
Desirable
- Abilities and attributes
- Focus on impact: the ability to adapt and evolve approaches to achieve outcomes.
- Agile and flexible: ability to effectively manage a complex range of competing priorities and make hard choices to achieve goals.
- Determined and resilient: sets high standards and achieves them.
- Passionate: about innovation in health and care and committed to responding to the distinctive needs of rural and coastal communities across the South West Peninsula.
- Builds trust: works collaboratively to build relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
- Strong communicator: ability to communicate convincingly to a wide range of audiences.
Experience
Essential
- Leading large scale, cross-system portfolios of patient safety, improvement projects, maternity and neo natal and womens health specific and programmes in a complex environment to achieve quantifiable impact
- Ability to teach and apply change methodologies, such as Quality Improvement; Model for Improvement, Six Sigma, or others, to deliver transformational change.
- Deep practical experience of delivering and/or leading patient safety and preferably maternity and neo natal and womens health, minimum three years (e.g., clinical, research or other relevant experience).
- Managing and influencing senior stakeholder relationships to drive change and deliver improvement in patient safety and maternity and neo natal and womens health.
- Commercial knowledge and a track record of successfully winning funding and investment to support portfolio ambitions preferably in in patient safety and maternity and neo natal and womens health.
- A track record of leading, inspiring and managing high performing multifaceted teams in a dynamic environment.
- Demonstrable management skills in planning and reporting, and operational financial planning and reporting across a diverse portfolio of projects.
Person Specification
Experience and capabilities you’ll develop in the role
Essential
- Delivering a portfolio of projects and programmes focused on finding, testing and evaluating innovation in a real world setting, with a focus on improving health and economic outcomes.
- Applying cutting-edge methodological approaches to facilitate the spread of innovative practice.
- Working as part of a national network to transform lives through healthcare innovation, at the forefront of implementing health and life science priorities set by Government.
- Building multi-partner collaborations that deliver impact across a large geography.
- Commercial knowledge and a track record of successfully winning funding and investment to support portfolio ambitions.
- Experience working in a consultancy organisation, with demonstratable experience of proactively supporting commercial deliverables. Experienced in working with a matrix organisation to ensure agility and make best use of resources.
Desirable
- Abilities and attributes
- Focus on impact: the ability to adapt and evolve approaches to achieve outcomes.
- Agile and flexible: ability to effectively manage a complex range of competing priorities and make hard choices to achieve goals.
- Determined and resilient: sets high standards and achieves them.
- Passionate: about innovation in health and care and committed to responding to the distinctive needs of rural and coastal communities across the South West Peninsula.
- Builds trust: works collaboratively to build relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
- Strong communicator: ability to communicate convincingly to a wide range of audiences.
Experience
Essential
- Leading large scale, cross-system portfolios of patient safety, improvement projects, maternity and neo natal and womens health specific and programmes in a complex environment to achieve quantifiable impact
- Ability to teach and apply change methodologies, such as Quality Improvement; Model for Improvement, Six Sigma, or others, to deliver transformational change.
- Deep practical experience of delivering and/or leading patient safety and preferably maternity and neo natal and womens health, minimum three years (e.g., clinical, research or other relevant experience).
- Managing and influencing senior stakeholder relationships to drive change and deliver improvement in patient safety and maternity and neo natal and womens health.
- Commercial knowledge and a track record of successfully winning funding and investment to support portfolio ambitions preferably in in patient safety and maternity and neo natal and womens health.
- A track record of leading, inspiring and managing high performing multifaceted teams in a dynamic environment.
- Demonstrable management skills in planning and reporting, and operational financial planning and reporting across a diverse portfolio of projects.
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.
Employer details
Employer name
South West Peninsula AHSN Ltd
Address
South West Peninsula A H S N Ltd
Vantage Point
Pynes Hill
Exeter
Devon
EX2 5FD
Employer's website
Employer details
Employer name
South West Peninsula AHSN Ltd
Address
South West Peninsula A H S N Ltd
Vantage Point
Pynes Hill
Exeter
Devon
EX2 5FD
Employer's website
Employer contact details
For questions about the job, contact:
Details
Date posted
19 March 2026
Pay scheme
Other
Salary
£70,000 to £77,000 a year
Contract
Permanent
Working pattern
Full-time, Part-time, Flexible working, Home or remote working
Reference number
E0153-26-0000
Job locations
South West Peninsula A H S N Ltd
Vantage Point
Pynes Hill
Exeter
Devon
EX2 5FD
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Head of Patient Safety Job Pack
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