Deputy Chief Midwife
- NHS
- Full Time
- Birmingham
- 94356.00 - 108814.00 a year
Job Description
Job summary
The Nursing Directorate leads the delivery of safe high-quality care across the Midlands by implementing national quality and experience strategies and overseeing statutory functions. A primary function of the directorate is system and provider quality oversight, safety monitoring, and analytical insight, ensuring delivery of national priorities, the 10-year plan and the CNO professional strategy. Working with colleagues across NHSE, Clusters, ICBs, providers, and partners, the team drives quality improvement, supports high-risk areas, and shares learning from national reports and investigations. It also offers clinical and professional leadership for nursing and midwifery, strengthening workforce development and promoting strong, compassionate leadership across the Midlands health and care system.
The post holder will also work with the regional Chief Nurse, the regional Executive Team, the Director of Intensive Support and the local health economy (including Clinical Commissioning Groups, Strategic Transformation Partnerships/Integrated Care Systems, Specialised Commissioning, Quality Surveillance groups, the Care Quality Commission, LMNS' and regional NICE leads).
Main duties of the job
As the Deputy regional Chief Midwife, the post holder will support the Regional Chief Midwife to provide strategic leadership and professional guidance regionally, working with key stakeholders across the health system to ensure that the NHS ambitions are realised through the effective commissioning and provision of safe and personalised maternity services.
There are five key responsibilities:
1) Lead the implementation of national maternity review recommendations, including the national strategies to improve care and safety of maternity services across the region. This would include immediate and essential actions and be underpinned by recognised QI methodology and associated resources and undertaking the role of regional maternity safety champion
2) Provide strategic professional midwifery leadership and guidance on the effective commissioning and provision of safer and personalised maternity services
3) Support the strategy and delivery of the Maternity Transformation Programme, including the maternity commitments of the NHS 10-year Plan.
4) Support the development, growth and value of the midwifery and support staff workforce, including leadership capacity and capability across the region.
5) To deputise for the regional chief midwife across all workstreams at regional and national level
Please refer to the job description for further information.
About us
NHS England has a wide range of statutory functions, responsibilities and regulatory powers. These are focused on supporting the wider NHS to deliver high quality care, as well as doing those things that are best done once for the whole NHS.
Our staff bring expertise across clinical, operational, commissioning, technology, data science, cyber security, software engineering, education, and commercial specialisms -- enabling us to design and deliver high-quality NHS services.
In March 2025, the Government announced that NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care will increasingly merge functions, ultimately leading to NHS England being fully integrated into the department.
If you currently work within the NHS and if successful at interview, we will initiate an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR).This retrieves key data from your current or previous NHS employer to support onboarding, including competency status, Continuous Service Dates (CSD), and annual leave entitlement. You may opt out at any stage of the process.
Colleagues with a contractual office base are expected to spend, on average, at least 40% of their time working in our offices.
Staff recruited from outside the NHS will usually be appointed at the bottom of the pay band.
Job responsibilities
You can find further details about the job, in the attached Job Description and other supporting documents.
For further details / informal visits contact: Gaynor Armstrong: [email protected]
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Registered Midwife
- Educated to Masters level or equivalent level or equivalent experience of working at a senior level in specialist area
- Experience of project and programme management techniques and tools such as Prince 2 practitioner or equivalent; managing successful regional or national projects
Knowledge and Experience
Essential
- Expert knowledge acquired over a significant period of time in the following areas: Midwifery & Maternity and Strategy & Policy
- Proven and significant leadership experience from a regional and/or national perspective and/or formal management qualification with proven success
- Exceptional ability to critically analyse data, write reports, prepare briefings
- Proven Board level experience (preferably at regional and/or national level) of leading and delivering complex change and strategy development programmes in a politically sensitive and complex environment
- Significant management experience at senior level in the NHS or other public healthcare related industry
- Extensive experience of delivering presentations to large groups of stakeholders in a pressured and politically sensitive environment
Skills Capabilities & Attributes
Essential
- Demonstrate ability to lead change at a regional or national perspective in a politically sensitive environment
- Credible Midwifery Leader accustomed to the demands of a complex organisation(s)
- Strong external communications skills in a politically sensitive environment with knowledge of and experience in handling media relations
- Ability to analyse highly complex issues where material is conflicting and drawn from multiple sources (verbal, written and numerical)
- Demonstrable leadership, vision, strategic thinking and planning with highly developed political skills at regional or national level
- Ability to make decisions autonomously, when required, on difficult issues
Values and behaviours
Essential
- Able to make a connection between their work and the benefit to patients and the public
- Consistently thinks about how their work can help and support clinicians and frontline staff deliver better outcomes for patients
- Will consider the most effective way to promote equality of opportunity and good working relationships in employment and service delivery with the ability to take actions which support and promote this agenda
- Values diversity and difference operates with integrity and openness
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
NHS England
Address
Midlands Region with 40% office working required
Birmingham
B2 4HQ
United Kingdom
Employer's website
https://www.england.nhs.uk/about/working-for/ (Opens in a new tab)
