Quality, Safety & Governance Lead- Medicine Division

Job description

Barts Health is one of the largest NHS trusts in the country, and one of Britain's leading healthcare providers.

The Barts Health group of NHS hospitals is entering an exciting new era on our improvement journey to becoming an outstanding organisation with a world-class clinical reputation.

Our vision is to be a high-performing group of NHS hospitals, renowned for excellence and innovation, and providing safe and compassionate care to our patients in east London and beyond. That means being a provider of excellent patient safety, known for delivering consistently high standards of harm-free care and always caring for patients in the right place at the right time. It also means being an outstanding place to work, in which our WeCare values and behaviours are visible to all and guide us in how we work together.

Barts Health supports the Pregnancy Loss Pledge and commits to supporting their staff through the distress of miscarriage.

We are dedicated to being an outstanding place to work and will work with you to get the best experience. We know flexible working is not a one size fits all and will mean something different to everyone. We are inclusive, so if you are interested in flexible working, please speak to the recruiting manager.

Job overview

The postholder will lead divisional governance and patient safety functions, ensuring compliance with statutory and regulatory requirements. Key responsibilities include:

• Patient Safety Leadership: Oversee PSIRF implementation, ensuring timely and high-quality learning responses for serious harm incidents.
• Governance Assurance: Maintain robust systems for triangulating incidents, complaints, mortality reviews, and outcomes to identify systemic risks and prevent repeat harm.
• Regulatory Compliance: Ensure adherence to CQC standards and Duty of Candour obligations, safeguarding patient engagement and transparency.
• Risk Management: Provide senior clinical judgment and assurance to mitigate patient safety risks and uphold organisational resilience.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Collaborate with Trust-level teams while maintaining divisional ownership of safety and governance processes.
• Capacity Building: Support the development of a strong safety culture within the division through leadership, education, and continuous improvement initiatives.

Main duties of the job

The Quality, Safety & Governance Lead - Medicine Division (Band 8a) is a senior clinical leadership role at Newham Hospital, responsible for ensuring robust governance, patient safety, and compliance within the Medicine Division. The position is critical to the Trust's functionality and is embedded within the divisional workforce plan. It requires professional registration (NMC/HCPC), senior clinical credibility, and expertise in PSIRF (Patient Safety Incident Response Framework), learning responses, and governance assurance.

Working for our organisation

Barts Health is one of the largest NHS trusts in the country, and one of Britain's leading healthcare providers.

The Barts Health group of NHS hospitals is entering an exciting new era on our improvement journey to becoming an outstanding organisation with a world-class clinical reputation. Having lifted ourselves out of special measures, we now have the impetus and breathing space to chart a fresh course in which we are continually striving to improve all our services for patients.

Our vision is to be a high-performing group of NHS hospitals, renowned for excellence and innovation, and providing safe and compassionate care to our patients in east London and beyond. That means being a provider of excellent patient safety, known for delivering consistently high standards of harm-free care and always caring for patients in the right place at the right time. It also means being an outstanding place to work, in which our WeCare values and behaviours are visible to all and guide us in how we work together.

We strive to live by our WeCare values and are committed to promoting inclusion, where every staff member has a sense of belonging. We value our differences and fully advocate, cultivate and support an inclusive working environment.

We particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and minority ethnic candidates as they are underrepresented within Barts Health at this band.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The full job description provides an overview of the key tasks and responsibilities of the role, and the person specification outlines the qualifications, skills, experience, and knowledge required. For both documents, please view the attachment/s below.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Degree-level qualification or equivalent professional Experience
• Evidence of commitment to continuing professional development

Desirable criteria

• Registered Nurse with full and current UK NMC registration / Current AHP with UK HCPC registration
• Working towards or willingness to undertake Master's level study
• Leadership, management or quality improvement training
• Training or development in patient safety, human factors or improvement science

Other

Essential criteria

• Commitment to the Trust's WeCare values and compassionate leadership
• Ability to work effectively in a complex, pressured environment
• Resilience, curiosity and a learning- focused mindset

Desirable criteria

• Motivation to develop as a senior nursing leader
• Interest in patient safety innovation, learning systems or service transformation

Skills

Essential criteria

• Ability to analyse and use quality, safety and patient experience information to support improvement
• Clear and confident communication skills, written and verbal
• Ability to influence, support and appropriately challenge colleagues
• Ability to lead change and support teams through improvement

Desirable criteria

• Experience presenting information to senior colleagues or governance forums
• Coaching, facilitation or mentoring skills
• Ability to translate learning and assurance into practical ward-level improvement

Knowledge

Essential criteria

• Understanding of clinical governance, patient safety and risk management principles
• Awareness of national patient safety priorities and quality frameworks
• Understanding of the importance of learning, openness and Duty of Candour

Desirable criteria

• Developing knowledge of PSIRF, quality improvement methodologies and systems thinking
• Awareness of regulatory and assurance processes (e.g. CQC)
• Understanding of equality, diversity and inclusion in healthcare improvement

Experience

Essential criteria

• Experience in a senior nursing role within acute hospital services
• Experience contributing to quality, safety or governance activity at ward, service or divisional level
• Experience working collaboratively with multidisciplinary teams
• Experience supporting learning from incidents, complaints or patient feedback

Desirable criteria

• Experience leading improvement, safety or governance work beyond own ward or service
• Exposure to PSIRF, learning response models or incident investigation
• Experience supporting or deputising at Matron or senior leadership level

Visa Sponsorship Information

This role is subject to UK immigration requirements. Where sponsorship is required, applicants must meet the eligibility criteria for a Skilled Worker visa in accordance with current UK Visas and Immigration rules, including any salary, qualification, and role-specific requirements applicable at the time of appointment. Candidates who require sponsorship will only be considered where the post is eligible and where all sponsorship criteria can be met. Evidence of the right to work in the UK will be required before appointment. Please note that for roles employed under Agenda for Change Terms and Conditions, the High-Cost Area Supplement (HCAS) is not included when calculating the basic salary for the purposes of sponsorship.

We strive to live by our WeCare values and are committed to promoting inclusion, where every staff member has a sense of belonging. We value our differences and fully advocate, cultivate and support an inclusive working environment where staff treat one another with dignity and respect. We aim to create an equitable working environment where every individual can fulfil their potential.

As an Equal Opportunities Employer we actively support applications from individuals' who apply under the Guaranteed Interview Scheme and will process your application as appropriate.

We reserve the right to expire vacancies prior to the advertised closing date once a sufficient number of applications has been received and we regret that we are unable to provide notification if your application is unsuccessful.

After applying via NHS Jobs, your submitted application will be imported into our preferred Third party recruitment system. All subsequent information regarding your application will be generated from apps.trac.jobs.

By applying for this post you are agreeing to Barts Health NHS Trust transferring the information contained in this application to its preferred applicant management system. If you are offered a job, information will also be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system.

Barts Health is committed to safeguarding the welfare of children and to child protection. The Trust aims to ensure as far as is possible that anyone, paid or unpaid, who seeks to work in our organisation and who gains access to children, is safe to do so. As such, you may be required to undertake a Disclosure and Barring Check as part of the recruitment process if appointed to a post with direct access to children or vulnerable adults.

Barts Health promotes active travel as part of its goal to reach Net Zero. Each site is accessible by public transport and the Trust has a cycle to work scheme and some sites have Brompton Hire Pods.

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