The Patient Safety Learning Response Lead provides expert clinical leadership to ensure that learning from patient safety incidents is compassionate, proportionate and improvement-focused, in line with the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF).
The post holder will lead, coordinate and support learning responses following patient safety incidents, harm events and near misses, working closely with clinical teams, patients, families and corporate governance colleagues. The role focuses on moving the organisation away from blame-based investigation towards system-based learning, psychological safety and meaningful improvement.
As a registered Nurse or Allied Health Professional, the post holder brings clinical credibility, strong facilitation skills and a commitment to restorative approaches. They will support high-quality learning responses, ensure learning is translated into action, and contribute to assurance that improvements are embedded across services.
This role sits within the Governance and Patient Safety function at Newham University Hospital, with cross-site working as required, and plays a key role in strengthening the Trust's patient safety culture.
The Patient Safety Learning Response Lead will coordinate and support proportionate learning responses following patient safety incidents, harm events and near misses in line with the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework. The post holder will advise clinical teams on appropriate learning response approaches, including After Action Reviews and multidisciplinary learning reviews, ensuring responses are timely, inclusive and focused on systems learning rather than individual blame.
Using professional clinical judgement, the post holder will support high-quality analysis of patient safety events, identify learning themes and contribute to the development of practical improvement actions at ward, service and divisional level.
The role includes supporting compassionate engagement with patients, families and staff affected by patient safety incidents, including Duty of Candour processes and restorative approaches. The post holder will promote psychological safety, openness and reflective practice, and contribute to building a positive patient safety culture.
The post holder will maintain accurate records of learning responses and improvement actions, contribute to patient safety reporting and governance forums, and support assurance that learning is tracked, shared and embedded across services.
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.
1. Learning Response Leadership (PSIRF)
The post holder will lead, coordinate and support proportionate learning responses following patient safety incidents, harm events and near misses, in accordance with the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF).
They will provide expert advice to clinical and corporate teams on the most appropriate learning response, including After Action Reviews, multidisciplinary learning reviews and thematic learning responses, ensuring responses are proportionate, timely and focused on systems learning rather than individual blame.
The post holder will facilitate learning responses in a way that promotes psychological safety, inclusivity and constructive reflection, enabling staff at all levels to engage meaningfully in learning from patient safety events. They will ensure that learning responses are well-planned, appropriately documented and completed to a high standard.
They will support Duty of Candour processes and restorative engagement approaches, working sensitively with patients, families and staff affected by patient safety incidents, and ensuring that involvement is compassionate, transparent and aligned with Trust policy.
2. Clinical Insight, Analysis and Assurance
Using professional clinical judgement and experience, the post holder will support the identification and exploration of contributory factors underpinning patient safety incidents, including system pressures, workflow design, communication, environment and human factors.
They will contribute to high-quality analysis of incidents and learning themes, ensuring outputs are credible, clinically informed and focused on improving care delivery and patient outcomes.
The post holder will work closely with divisional governance teams, Patient Safety Specialists and senior clinical leaders to ensure learning from incidents is appropriately escalated, quality-assured and aligned with organisational priorities.
They will support assurance that learning responses result in clear, actionable improvement plans, and that actions are monitored and followed up through appropriate governance routes.
3. Improvement and Translation of Learning into Practice
The post holder will support clinical teams to translate learning from patient safety incidents into practical and achievable improvement actions at ward, service and divisional level.
They will work collaboratively with Quality Improvement and data teams to align learning responses with improvement methodologies where appropriate, supporting teams to test, implement and embed changes in practice.
They will contribute to thematic analysis across incidents, identifying recurring risks, patterns and system weaknesses, and support the dissemination of learning across services to reduce the likelihood of recurrence.
The post holder will support proactive learning by identifying opportunities to share good practice, emerging risks and system insights beyond individual incidents.
4. Education, Capability Building and Safety Culture
The post holder will support the development of staff capability in learning response facilitation, reflective practice, systems thinking and patient safety principles.
They will contribute to building a culture of openness, curiosity and continuous improvement, encouraging staff to speak up about safety concerns and engage positively in learning from harm.
They will act as a role model for compassionate, inclusive and professional patient safety practice, demonstrating behaviours consistent with Trust values and supporting a just and learning culture.
5. Governance, Reporting and Record Keeping
The post holder will maintain accurate and timely records of learning responses, learning themes and improvement actions in line with Trust policy and information governance requirements.
They will contribute to patient safety reporting, assurance and oversight processes, including divisional and Trust-level quality and safety meetings, providing updates on learning response activity, themes and progress.
They will support the preparation of reports, briefings and summaries relating to patient safety learning and improvement, ensuring information is clear, evidence-based and suitable for governance review.
6. Professional Practice and Development
The post holder will maintain professional registration and engage in ongoing professional development relevant to patient safety, learning response practice and quality improvement.
They will work flexibly across clinical and non-clinical environments, building effective working relationships with multidisciplinary teams, patients, families and external partners where required.
They will contribute to the continuous development of patient safety and learning response practice within the organisation, supporting the evolution of PSIRF-aligned approaches.
This advert closes on Monday 2 Mar 2026