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Job overview
Are you ready to shape patient safety and experience across what will become one of England’s largest Foundation Trusts?
University Hospitals Bristol & Weston NHS Foundation Trust and North Bristol NHS Trust are working together as the NHS Bristol Group, with the ambition to become a single Foundation Trust in Summer 2026. This transformation will enhance outcomes for patients, staff, and our wider communities.
We are seeking an Associate Director of Quality (Patient Safety & Experience) to provide strategic leadership across the Group. You will drive an integrated approach to human factors, patient safety, and patient experience—embedding safety science, improving experience, and generating insight that supports continuous improvement.
In this highly influential role, you will align people, policy, practice, and partnerships to strengthen how we work and the impact we make. You’ll join forward‑thinking, ambitious organisations that value innovation, curiosity, and learning.
It’s a dynamic environment with real opportunity to shape our future direction. Are you ready to make a meaningful difference?
Main duties of the job
The Patient Safety Specialist will provide leadership, visibility, and expert support to strengthen patient safety culture, clinical risk management, and safety systems in line with NHS England PSIRF. The role depends on strong relationship‑building, influencing culture, and acting as a change agent across internal teams, system partners, and external agencies. Representing the Trust at strategic forums, the post holder will help align work with wider NHS and integrated care priorities.
A core responsibility is developing and overseeing systems that collect, analyse, and act on patient feedback, ensuring insights drive learning and improvement. The role will enhance safety mechanisms and work with divisional and corporate teams to embed best practice and compliance with governance and risk standards.
Working with the Associate Director of Quality (Insight, Clinical Effectiveness & Regulation) the post holder will use technology and data‑driven approaches to improve reporting, analysis, risk identification, and patient engagement, supporting the Trust’s Quality Management System.
Given evolving NHS models and Group ambitions, the role requires adaptability, innovation, and awareness of emerging trends in safety science, digital safety, and patient and carer experience. The post holder will hold clinical registration and a safety‑related qualification, work autonomously, and deputise for the Group Director of Quality when needed.
Working for our organisation
University Hospitals Bristol & Weston NHS Foundation Trust and North Bristol NHS Trust are collaborating under a Joint Clinical Strategy as the NHS Bristol Group. During Summer 2026 we aim to become a single Foundation Trust for the benefit of patients, people, population and the public purse.
Together. we employ over 28,000 healthcare professionalsacrossBristol, NorthSomersetand South Gloucestershire, and have been positively progressing our Joint Clinical Strategypublished inMarch2024.
Ouraim as a Group is to deliver even better care by reducing duplication, investing in frontline services, and strengthening integration across our hospitals and communities. We are making great progress but there are still barriers to overcome and complexities to work around. By working together as one team wefirmly believewe will be able to do more than ever for the people and communities we serve.
Within the Bristol NHS Group, we know diverse and inclusive environments lead to happier and healthier teams and improved patient care and outcomes. We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive, and to being a place where we all belong. We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates who are currently underrepresented in NBT’s workforce at Band 8a and above. These include people from global majority backgrounds, disabled people and LGBTQIA+ people.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Please refer to the attached job description for full details of the main duties and responsibilities that the post holder is required to undertake.
Key Dimensions
· Staffing: Responsible for c. 42.0 WTE across the Group Quality patient safety and experience function.
· Budget: Direct budget responsibility for c. £2.5m, with wider influence over budgets linked to quality and governance programmes.
· Portfolio: Group-wide delivery leadership responsibility for Patient Safety investigation, learning response & action oversight, training and education, Human Factors strategic development and delivery, Complaints & PALS services, Patient & Carer Experience strategic planning & delivery, Sustaining and leading the development of patient and carer partners, supporting Digital safety practice – working collaboratively with CCIO, CNIO and digital safety leads
· Impact: Critical to achieving and sustaining “Good” and “Outstanding” CQC ratings, enabling corporate and clinical teams to gain quality insight for assurance and improvement to enhance care delivery.
Key Relationships
· Internal: Group Executive Team, Group Directors, Divisional Directors, Clinical Directors, senior nursing and medical leaders. Clinical and corporate functions: Microbiology, Infectious Diseases and Pharmacy Teams, Tissue Viability services, estates, risk, digital, data and analytics teams, Emergency Preparedness, Resilience & Response (EPRR). Patient and staff networks.
· External: NHS England, Care Quality Commission, Integrated Care Board, academic partners, Health Education England, professional regulators (NMC, GMC, HCPC), Health Innovation network and other specialist networks, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO), patient partners (including patient safety partners), voluntary/community organisations, patients, and carers.
Key Responsibilities
1 Strategic and Operational Leadership of Patient Safety and Experience
· Provide strategic leadership for the development and integration of Group-wide patient safety and experience strategic plans, policies and teams, ensuring alignment with organisational strategy (and national priorities).
· Working with the Associate Director of Quality: Insight, Effectiveness & Regulation, lead the management and continuous improvement of digital systems for patient safety and other types of incident management, PALS, complaints, patient feedback systems (including the Friends and Family Test) and contribute to the development and embedding of the Trust’s approach to a Quality Management System.
· Working with the Quality Insights team, translate complex patient safety and experience data into meaningful narratives and insights that support clinical teams, inform executive decision-making and provide assurance to the Board.
· Ensure that the Trust meets national best practice in its continued development of the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) and implements a board approved Patient Safety Incident Response Plan (PSIRP).
· Lead the strategic development of Human Factors practice developing and embedding the principles, techniques and mindsets into quality improvement programmes.
· Lead the oversight and, where necessary, improvement of supplier performance.
· Provide strategic Leadership of Patient and Carer Experience Programmes to enhance patient and carer experience, ensuring alignment with national policy, NHS England frameworks, and trust-level priorities.
· Provide leadership and delivery oversight to ensure the collection, curation, and presentation of Patient Stories for use at the Board, in governance meetings, staff training, and quality improvement. Ensure stories are appropriately planned and delivered for impact, taking account of the trust’s strategic direction, key areas of quality improvement and are gathered in line with trust policy.
2 Patient Safety Specialist role
· Lead, oversee and support patient safety improvement in the Trust and ensure that systems thinking, human factors understanding and just culture principles are embedded in all patient safety processes, working in line with NHS England PSIRF requirements.
· Support the fundamental principle that patient safety is everyone’s responsibility and support the future requirement for patient safety to be a core element of all staff training.
· Act as a key component of a safe system within the Trust and to influence and have direct access to the executive team, including access at no notice to escalate immediate risks or issues.
· Provide an overview and ability to influence and interact with all patient safety processes within the organisation and to influence the executive team to enable effective change management.
· Work as part of a wider team in ensuring that patient safety is appropriately prioritised and considered in the work of the organisation.
· Develop and sustain key relationships with medication safety officers (MSOs), medication device safety officers (MDSOs), patient safety specialists in other organisations, chairs of relevant internal patient safety and/or clinical governance committees and divisional/directorate managers and members of other safety departments, Caldicott Guardian, information governance lead, Freedom to Speak Up Guardian, Director of Infection Prevention and Control, equalities lead, Patient Support and Complaints team, improvement team safeguarding leads and national patient safety team and NHS England and NHS Improvement regional teams.
· Develop and lead the involvement of patient safety partners (patient and public representatives involved specifically in patient safety) as these roles develop.
· Analyse information from a number of sources including national strategy and frameworks, trust level incident activity and staff skill mix and make judgements to inform, develop and operationalise local trust strategy and plans (including structure and staffing) for managing patient safety and continuous learning and improvements.
· Act independently in determining policy and systems relating to patient safety across the trust. Manages the corporate patient safety department, interpreting national patient strategy and frameworks for implementation trust wide.
3 Engaging with commissioners & regulators
· Participate in contract discussions with commissioners and other healthcare providers to develop and agree the quality schedules in commissioning contracts on behalf of the Chief Nurse and Medical Director, ensuring the Trust’s perspective is represented in the final contract
· Represent the Chief Nurse and Chief Medical Officer in contract quality assurance meetings
· Ensure provision of robust and timely assurance information to commissioners that evidences the quality of services provided by the Trust
· Represent the Trust at national patient safety forums (. NHSE) as required.
· Act as the Trust’s representative on the West of England Patient Safety Collaborative Board
· Provide assurance of compliance with statutory Duty of Candour and regulatory compliance with CQC Outcome 12 “Safe Care and Treatment.
· Work proactively with Executive, operational and Divisional leads to ensure the Trust maintains a state of readiness for CQC inspections with respect to patient safety and patient experience.
4 Governance, Assurance & Compliance
· Ensure robust governance systems provide Board-level assurance on patient safety & experience quality performance, statutory and regulatory compliance and clinical risk management.
· Lead mandatory reporting requirements (. LfPSE, Complaints KO41) and ensure data accuracy, analysis and insight inform improvement actions.
· Maintain corporate oversight of risk registers for patient safety and patient experience and escalate concerns appropriately, in line with the Trust’s Risk Management Strategy & policy.
· Produce high-quality reports for the Board, Quality & Outcomes Committee, Trust Clinical Quality Groups and regulators (CQC, UKHSA), evidencing compliance and improvement.
· Ensure learning from patient safety events, complaints/PALS and patient and carer feedback provides meaningful insight to drive sustainable quality improvement.
· Lead the contribution of patient safety and experience content for the Trust’s annual Quality Account ensuring that this statutory document is developed according to the necessary timescales, led by the Associate Director of Quality (Insight, Clinical Effectiveness and Regulation)
5 Leadership, Culture and Improvement
· Act as a senior role model for quality, safety and continuous improvement, promoting a just, learning and compassionate culture.
· Act as a change leader in alignment requirements for the Bristol NHS Group embracing the opportunities this presents and supporting clinical and corporate teams through any changes from legacy approaches.
· Provide leadership, development and performance management for teams within the portfolio.
· Influence and support senior clinical and operational leaders to embed quality control and assurance into everyday practice.
· Hold delegated responsibility for managing budgets associated with the patient safety & experience portfolio and will ensure resources are deployed effectively to maximise quality impact.
· Represent the Group at system, regional and national forums as required.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
1. Educated to master’s degree level in a relevant subject, or hold an equivalent level professional qualification or equivalent experience at senior level
2. Registered healthcare professional (NMC/HCPC)
3. Evidence of strong and recent commitment to relevant ongoing professional development
4. Completion of national patient safety specialist training (levels 3 and 4 of the national patient safety syllabus)
Knowledge & Experience
Essential criteria
5. Experience in a senior NHS management post with direct responsibility for strategic and operational leadership.
6. Knowledge and experience of driving improvement in the quality and safety of patients.
7. Experience of working in a patient safety related role for at least two years, with an understanding of the concepts which underpin approaches to improving patient safety in health systems.
8. Experience of patient feedback systems and approaches and leading the effective review, learning and support for continuous improvement within clinical and corporate teams
9. Expertise in a range of aspects of patient safety science such as human factors, systems thinking, investigation, quality improvement, change management, prospective and reactive risk analysis and management, error theory and just culture.
Skills & Behaviours
Essential criteria
10. Ability to develop and communicate a long-term vision for patient safety and convert that into plans, objectives and deliverables for their organisation
11. Highly skilled in managing stakeholder relations, establishing and using networks and developing and maintaining strong relationships across an organisation
12. Resilient, adaptable and able to manage complexity and ambiguity.
13. Ability to analyse and resolve complex issues, capable of interpreting and evaluating complex, multi-faceted information to reach judgements about the best course of action and advise the organisation on how these should be implemented
14. Ability to develop, maintain and monitor information systems to support improvement initiatives
The successful applicant(s) will normally commence at the minimum of the scale unless they have previous NHS service at the same band. Progression through the scale is by annual increments.
At North Bristol Trust (NBT), we know diverse and inclusive environments lead to happier and healthier teams and improved patient care and outcomes. We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive, and to being a place where we all belong. We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates who are currently underrepresented in NBT’s workforce at Band 8a and above. These include people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, disabled people and LGBTQIA+ people.
Please note that stringent pre-employment checks are undertaken on all successful applicants prior to commencement in post.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.