Quality Improvement Lead

Job description

Job responsibilities

Job Responsibilities

• To support the Director of Quality (DoQ) to enhance our existing quality management system to ensure we continue to monitor and improve all our clinical services to provide excellent patient care throughout the organisation.
• To promote an open and transparent safety culture: to encourage incident reporting; making sure lessons are learnt; and action is taken to prevent any similar issues in the future. To promote a culture of continuous improvement throughout the organisation.
• To work with the DoQ to ensure the Board are aware of the quality of PML clinical services.
• To support the PML Clinical Governance Group and other key meetings to deliver high quality patient care. This includes preparing the agenda and ensuring that minutes are accurate and distributed in a timely fashion to members.
• To work with PML Care Quality Commission (CQC) Registered Managers to ensure PML complies with all CQC standards and legislative requirements.
• To work with all clinical teams to introduce annual quality improvement plans to improve and enhance patient care.
• To support the Data Protection Officer to complete the Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DPST).
• To work with the Executive Team and to ensure our quality management processes support the implementation of the PML vision and objectives.
• Co-ordinate and present reports in the Clinical Governance meetings and for Board assurance.
• Lead on PMLs preparedness for regulatory and statutory duties, such as CQC inspections. This will include working with both internal and external stake holders.
• To manage the PML quality management software ensuring it is kept up to date and relevant. To ensure PMLs document management system and master index stays up to date.
• To help develop PMLs safety culture including improving incident / learning event reporting. To roll out the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) throughout the organisation.
• To manage PMLs organisation and clinical audit programme to ensure services meet best practice standards.
• To ensure PMLs patient feedback is collected and collated effectively and ensure managers and clinical leads take action to address any issues.
• To participate in mock CQC inspections throughout the organisation.
• To support the DoQ to deliver the Health & Safety agenda ensuring PML comply with all their statutory requirements.
• To work with clinical teams to ensure PML performance reports are accurate and provide effective quality information to the Board.
• To work with the HR directorate to ensure our training, competence records and continual professional development offer is fit for purpose.
• To work with our Comms team to ensure staff are aware of all quality improvement initiatives.
• To contribute to PMLs to risk management processes to ensure appropriate risks are highlighted and added to the risk register where appropriate. To support the senior managers to ensure mitigation is taken to minimise or eliminate any risk.

This job description seeks to outline the key duties and responsibilities of the post holder and is not a definitive document and does not form part of the main statement of terms and conditions. This job will be reviewed periodically, and changes may be made in consultation with the post-holder.

Role Accountabilities

Strategic Leadership & Influence

1. Leads the development of long term service strategies, ensuring alignment with organisational vision, priorities, and wider corporate plans.
2. Acts as a trusted adviser to directors, executives, and senior stakeholders, providing expert insight, risk intelligence, and high level interpretation of complex operational and sector developments.
3. Anticipates future challenges and opportunities, shaping the strategic direction of services to ensure they remain modern, sustainable, and customer centric.
4. Influences company wide policy, planning, and investment decisions through evidence based recommendations and authoritative guidance.

Service Delivery Oversight

1. Holds end to end accountability for the performance, quality, and resilience of services within their service area, ensuring they meet agreed standards and regulatory obligations.
2. Provides leadership and direction during high risk or high impact incidents, applying advanced problem solving, judgement, and decision making.
3. Oversees and optimises operational processes, ensuring they are efficient, well governed, measurable, and continuously improved.
4. Ensures services are financially sustainable, delivering value for money and supporting effective budgeting, forecasting, and resource planning.

Policy, Standards & Governance

1. Leads the development, implementation, and ongoing refinement of service policies, standards, governance frameworks, and performance measures.
2. Ensures consistent organisational compliance with policies and standards, taking ownership of corrective actions and driving continuous adherence.
3. Provides assurance to senior leaders on service integrity, governance maturity, and organisational readiness.

Innovation & Continuous Improvement

1. Leads innovative ways of working, identifying and implementing new approaches, tools, technologies, and methodologies to improve service quality and efficiency.
2. Leads service transformation programmes, ensuring successful delivery, stakeholder adoption, and long term embedding of change.
3. Foster a culture of learning, excellence, and continuous improvement across teams.

Stakeholder Management & Communication

1. Develops influential relationships with directors, executives, senior stakeholders, customers, and cross functional teams to support effective decision making and collaboration.
2. Communicates complex operational or technical concepts in a clear, strategic, and meaningful way tailored to senior audiences.
3. Represents the service area at internal and external boards, committees, and strategic forums, promoting organisational priorities and service excellence.

Leadership of People & Teams

1. Provides inspirational leadership to managers, team leads, and specialist professionals, setting high expectations and enabling delivery of quality outcomes.
2. Leads workforce planning, talent development, and succession planning to build future capability and organisational resilience.
3. Models and embeds a positive, inclusive, high performance culture aligned with organisational values and behaviours.
4. Oversees change management and supports teams through transformation.

Risk Management & Assurance

1. Leads the identification, assessment, and strategic management of complex, high level risks across the service area.
2. Ensures robust risk mitigation, incident response, and escalation frameworks are in place and consistently applied.
3. Provides assurance on regulatory compliance, service resilience, business continuity, and audit readiness.
4. Proactively identifies systemic risks and implements preventative measures.

Person Specification

Behaviours and Attributes

Essential

• Strategic thinker able to influence at executive level.
• Acts with integrity, professionalism, and sound judgement.
• Proactive, resilient, and adaptable to change.
• Customer focused mindset with a commitment to service excellence.
• Collaborative and inclusive, building trust and engagement across teams.

Experience

Essential

• Experience and robust knowledge in governance and quality assurance framework.
• Experienced in preparation and delivery of high-level reports and policies.
• Leading and facilitating meetings involving a large number of clinical staff, including for purposes related to clinical governance.
• Developing trusting and supportive relationships with a wide range of clinical and managerial staff.
• Significant experience managing senior-level service operations or complex service portfolios.
• Demonstrated track record of solving complex, high risk problems using expert judgement.
• Demonstrated ability to develop and execute service strategies aligned with organisational priorities.
• Strong track record of delivering high quality services, driving performance improvement, and embedding best practice.
• Experience managing senior stakeholders, building strategic relationships, and influencing executive level decisions.
• Proven experience in leading teams through change, transformation, and continuous improvement.
• Deep understanding of governance, compliance, risk management, and assurance frameworks.
• Experience managing budgets, resources, and financial planning at a senior level.

Desirable

• Experience at a senior level within healthcare organisations.
• Making presentations to senior professionals.

Knowledge

Essential

• Evidence of professional knowledge in Quality and Safety systems including clinical governance and risk management processes.
• Knowledge and understanding of managing serious incidents including root cause analysis techniques.
• Knowledge and understanding of CQC inspection standards.
• Knowledge of quality management reporting systems e.g. DATIX, GP Teamnet.

Desirable

• Understanding of the wider NHS/Primary Care and community services agenda.
• Evidence of managing complaints.
• Evidence of change management.

Qualifications

Essential

• Masters level or equivalent level of relevant quality and safety management experience.
• Degree or equivalent professional experience.

Desirable

• Qualification in management / leadership.
• Clinical qualification.
• Relevant professional qualification (e.g., ITIL, CIPD, APM, service management or sector specific qualification).
• Evidence of ongoing professional development.

Other

Essential

• Commitment to upholding PML's values and mission.
• The vision and focus to continually strive to improve the service for our patients is a key attribute for this, and any role at PML.
• Able to maintain personal effectiveness and work well under pressure to tight deadlines.
• Ability to work with all staff groups equally successfully, but with the skills to persuade senior staff of importance of the patient safety programme.
• Able to overcome barriers to understanding & negotiate resolution of problems.
• Fastidious about patient safety and attentive to detail.
• Flexible and adaptable to change to meet the needs of the service.
• Experience of handling staff and/or stakeholder engagement surveys.
• Able to think strategically.

Skills

Essential

• Proven leadership and management skills.
• Excellent interpersonal skills, including influencing, motivating and negotiating.
• Excellent oral, listening and written communication skills.
• Able to initiate, plan, manage and deliver high priority projects.
• Advanced IT skills with knowledge of all Microsoft Office software, advanced keyboard skills and expertise in Word and Excel.
• Exceptional leadership skills with the ability to motivate, inspire, and develop diverse teams.
• Excellent communication and influencing skills, able to distil complex information for senior audiences and drive decision making.
• Strong analytical, problem solving, and judgement capabilities, particularly in high pressure or high impact scenarios.
• Ability to manage competing priorities and operate effectively in ambiguity.
• Skilled in process optimisation, continuous improvement methodologies, and driving organisational change.

Desirable

• Strategic thinker with the ability to interpret complex information, forecast future demand, and shape long term service direction.

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

Principal Medical Limited

Address

Principal Medical Ltd

3 Barberry Place

Bicester

Oxfordshire

OX26 3HA

Employer's website

https://www.principal-medical.co.uk (Opens in a new tab)