Job overview
Secondment Opportunity/ Temporary Contract
This is a great opportunity for a senior experienced professional to join the GMMH Quality and Professions Directorate for a period of 6 months as the Associate Director for Clinical Quality and Regulation. This is a relatively new portfolio bringing together patient safety, complaints, inquests, regulation and compliance along with the Quality Improvement function to continue our recovery journey here in GMMH.
Reporting directly to the Chief Nurse and working closely with the Deputy Chief Nurse, along with the Trio colleagues (operations, nursing and medical) in the care groups, the postholder will ensure that mechanisms are in place to support the delivery of good governance and engage across the system on matters pertaining to quality.
We are looking for a skilled individual who leads with kindness to work into this team. patient and carer experience should be central to your ways of working and understanding improvement.
The secondment will be available from August until February 2026. Release in August is critical to attaining this role and any candidates should ensure they would be permitted to commence in August before applying.
Main duties of the job
As a member of the professions and quality leadership team, the post holder is responsible for ensuring that mechanisms are in place within the corporate portfolio to support the delivery of key functions within each Care Group. Develop and embed robust governance structures to ensure the delivery of well led clinical quality governance structures and processes. Providing assurance to key internal committees and external partners on behalf of the Chief Nurse.
The postholder will chair appropriate forums and have a visible presence in services to support the quality assurance processes aligned to regulatory and contractual quality standards. The postholder will have regular engagement with the ICB quality leads and partner organisations, attending appropriate meetings, presenting intelligence and feedback on GMMH services and improvement progress. The ADCQR will ensure oversight of Care Group compliance with CQC registration requirements, complaint management, PSIRF and inquest activity. They will have strong relationships with the care group associate directors to ensure a cohesive and #oneGMMH way of working.
Working with the Chief Nurse and the leadership teams within the other Care Groups, the post holder will ensure people with lived experience and their carers have a strong voice in decision making and service development and will embed continuous improvement throughout all services to ensure service users and carers experience the best possible care.
Working for our organisation
Greater Manchester Mental Health (GMMH) Foundation Trust employs over 7000 members of staff, who deliver services from more than 122 locations.
We provide inpatient and community-based mental health care for people living in Bolton, the city of Manchester, Salford, Trafford and the borough of Wigan, and a wide range of specialist mental health and substance misuse services across Greater Manchester, the north west of England and beyond.
Greater Manchester is one of the world's most innovative, original and exciting places to live and work. From the beauty of the surrounding countryside to the heart of the vibrant inner city with great shopping, entertainment and dining options.
Wherever you go you will experience a great northern welcome with people famed for their warmth, humour and generosity.
Our people enjoy their work, have opportunities to learn and develop their skills and are encouraged to generate new ideas that improve care for our service users.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Please see attached job description and person specification
Staff benefits
1. Pay Enhancements
2. 27 days annual leave plus bank holidays rising to 29 after 5 years and 33 days after 10 years
3. Excellent pension
4. Cycle to work scheme
5. Salary sacrifice car scheme
6. Wellbeing programme
7. fuelGenie Fuel Cards (for applicable roles)
Person specification
Education/Qualifications
Essential criteria
8. Masters degree qualification or demonstrable equivalent experience working at a senior level in clinical governance, risk and safety.
9. Evidence of active continued professional development to support the delivery of a leadership role.
Desirable criteria
10. Post graduate qualification or experience in associated quality governance roles, for example patient safety, quality improvement or professional additional qualifications that demonstrate an understanding of clinical quality and safety requirements.
11. Professional clinical registration such as RMN, OT, psychologist.
Experience and Knowledge
Essential criteria
12. Extensive senior clinical management/professional leadership experience in a large complex NHS organisation.
13. Evidence of success in the management of change in a multi-agency context.
14. Demonstrable experience of working in a leadership role in clinical governance NHS Trust including CQC improvement, incident management, patient safety and complaints. Demonstrable experience of the NHS strategic agenda and implementing this in practice.
15. Establishing, leading and managing organisation wide integrated governance frameworks that withstand regulatory scrutiny.
16. Demonstrable experience of budget setting and managing multiple budgets across portfolios.
17. Extensive knowledge and expertise in clinical and integrated governance and how this is applied systematically across a large complex NHS Trust.
18. Knowledge of when and how to report serious incidents to external agencies. Robust understanding of the politically sensitive and potentially contentious nature of this role.
19. Policy and strategy development and its relevance to clinical governance in the NHS.
20. Experience of working in a patient safety-related role with an understanding of the principles that underpin approaches to improving patient safety in health systems
21. Experience of implementing national guidelines and policies with the ability to interpret national advice, guidance and requirements and advise their organisation on how these should be implemented
22. Experience and knowledge of the components of clinical governance, incident response, risk management and assurance function; current NHS national policies, standards, requirements and directions that relate to measuring and improving the quality and safety of patient care
Desirable criteria
23. Experience in providing advice on complex professional and other people issues
24. Knowledge of safeguarding and the legal duties expected of NHS organisations
25. Executive management and working at sub-board level in a governance role within a NHS Trust.
26. Experience of leading governance, compliance and improvement programmes and evidence of improved ratings.
Skills and Abilities
Essential criteria
27. Ability to manage, develop and maintain communication links with all stakeholders and effectively influence people on highly complex, emotional, sensitive and contentious issues where there are significant barriers to acceptance/ understanding.
28. Ability to develop and maintain collaborative relationships and deal confidently with staff at all levels of an organization
29. Excellent report writing and presentation skills.
30. Produce clear, accurate, written and verbal reports at Board level which at times may include contentious and/or sensitive material.
31. Ability to analyse and interpret information of complex nature and present it in a concise and simple and professional manner.
The Trust mandates all post holders who require a DBS for their role to subscribe to the DBS Update Service. You will be required to enrol for this service for a fee of £16 per year and maintain registration throughout your employment with GMMH.
Applicants are encouraged to apply for posts at Greater Manchester Mental Health who have direct experience of mental health, learning disability or drug and alcohol services either as a service user or a carer.
The Trust is also committed to safeguarding children, young people and vulnerable adults and requires all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.
We are aspiring to ensure our workforce is representative of the diverse communities that we serve, and we are strongly committed to removing barriers to employment for candidates from under-represented groups, for example BAME, Disabled and LGBT+ communities. If you would like to have an informal chat about the recruitment process for this role or would value some additional support, we’d love to hear from you.
Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) when writing job applications
A candidate may utilise the help of AI when writing job application. The assessment of an application is made on its entirety and most times AI-generated content does not fully grasp the context and requirements of the job one applies for thus producing inaccurate and misleading information, especially in the supporting statement section of an application that can lack real life examples of one’s achievements, success and challenges.
We have added a disclaimer to our application process advising that the use of AI is monitored. GMMH reserves the right to follow up with a candidate at the interview on specific responses and those examples used in the supporting statement to explore it further.
Sponsorship
We are proud to be an approved sponsor for the Skilled Worker visa. Applications from individuals who require sponsorship will be considered alongside all other applications. Please be aware that not all roles are eligible for sponsorship. You can review the list of eligible roles and salary requirements on the UK Government’s website – click .
If you are offered a role with us and you require sponsorship, we will check your eligibility in line with the information on the above website. Your offer of employment could be withdrawn if the role is not eligible for sponsorship, and you are not otherwise able to evidence your right to work in the UK.
The Home Office introduces new changes from 09/04/2025 that impact the health and care sector, you may wish to familiarise with it.
Do you have experience outside the NHS?
We want to attract and retain people with diverse skills and experience, to deliver inclusive healthcare services to our communities.
We will consider relevant experience outside the NHS to calculate your salary on appointment.