Hospital Manager (CQC)
Location: Mill Lodge Acute Hospital, Kegworth, DE74 2EJ
Hours: 40 hours per week
Salary: £65,000 per annum
Looking for a senior leadership role where your decisions directly shape quality, safety, and patient outcomes?
As Hospital Manager with Rushcliffe Care Group, you will lead a regulated acute mental health hospital, ensuring high standards of care, strong governance, and consistent compliance, even when the service is under pressure.
About Rushcliffe Care Group
You will be joining Rushcliffe Care, a company with over 35 years of experience in offering the highest levels of care to our most vulnerable in society. Across our services, we support people to live safer, more fulfilling lives, with dignity, choice, and consistency at the centre of everything we do.
Our work is guided by clear values. These are not slogans. They shape how we treat people, how we work together, and what we expect from each other.
About the Role
As Hospital Manager, you will hold full operational, clinical governance, and regulatory accountability for Mill Lodge Acute Hospital. You will act as the CQC Registered Manager and lead the hospital in line with statutory requirements, CQC registration conditions, and Rushcliffe Care Group policies and values.
You will provide visible, values-based leadership and ensure the hospital delivers safe, effective, and patient-centred care. You will work closely with the Responsible Clinician, medical team, commissioners, and internal support functions to deliver strong outcomes for patients and a stable, accountable culture for staff.
This role requires confident decision-making, strong professional judgement, and the ability to maintain standards during periods of service pressure. Flexibility is required to meet operational needs, including attendance during incidents, inspections, or out-of-hours visits where required.
About You
This is a senior hospital leadership role, and you must meet the essential criteria.
You are:
1. A Registered Mental Health Nurse (RMN) with current, unrestricted NMC registration
2. Experienced in senior leadership within a regulated mental health hospital or inpatient setting
3. Confident leading clinical governance, quality assurance, and regulatory compliance activity
4. Strong in workforce management, including recruitment, staffing, supervision, and performance management
5. Comfortable working with scrutiny and accountability, and able to make safe decisions under pressure
It is desirable if you have previous experience as a CQC Registered Manager in a hospital setting and experience of budget management and service performance oversight.
What Our Values Mean in Practice
Reputable Care
6. Keeping the hospital inspection-ready every day, not just when an inspection is expected
7. Making sure governance actions are completed properly, evidenced, and sustained
8. Holding clear standards on staffing, clinical practice, and record quality, and addressing issues early
Respect and Compassion
9. Leading in a way that protects patient dignity, safety, and rights, especially when risk is high
10. Making time for patients and families to be heard, particularly following incidents or complaints
11. Supporting staff firmly but fairly, recognising the pressure of acute environments without lowering standards
Robust Communication
12. Ensuring handovers, governance updates, and incident learning are clear, recorded, and acted on
13. Escalating concerns early, including staffing risk, safeguarding concerns, or quality deterioration
14. Working collaboratively with the Responsible Clinician, MDT, commissioners, and internal teams to resolve issues quickly
Real Commitment
15. Being visible on-site and leading from the front, including during difficult periods
16. Following through on improvement plans, not letting actions drift, and keeping people accountable
17. Staying focused on patient safety and service quality, even when operational pressures are high
About the Service
Mill Lodge Acute Hospital is a 36-bed specialist mental health hospital located in Kegworth, Leicestershire. The hospital provides assessment and treatment for adults aged 18 and over with acute and complex mental health needs, including individuals detained under the Mental Health Act.
The service supports both informal patients and those detained under the Mental Health Act, presenting with a range of diagnosed mental health conditions, including acute episodes, relapse, and complex risk profiles. This includes individuals with co-existing needs where the primary diagnosis is a mental health condition, requiring structured assessment, consistent observation, and robust clinical governance.
The hospital operates across four single-sex acute wards and delivers care within a regulated hospital environment. All bedrooms are single occupancy with en-suite facilities, and the building is purpose-designed to support safety, dignity, and therapeutic engagement, including anti-ligature fixtures and clear observation lines.
Care is delivered through a full multidisciplinary model, including psychiatry, nursing, psychology, occupational therapy, and social work. Patients often require coordinated input across disciplines, clear care planning, and ongoing risk management, placing a strong emphasis on leadership, communication, and decision-making at senior level.
As Hospital Manager, you will hold responsibility for ensuring the hospital safely admits, supports, and discharges patients in line with its registration, commissioning arrangements, and legal frameworks. This includes oversight of admissions, patient flow, safeguarding, incident management, and the maintenance of safe staffing and governance systems.
Mill Lodge operates in a high-scrutiny environment where standards must be maintained consistently. The Hospital Manager plays a central role in setting expectations, leading improvement activity, and ensuring that patient safety, dignity, and outcomes remain the priority, even during periods of operational pressure.
What We Offer
We provide a senior leadership role with clear accountability and support.
You will have access to organisational support functions including quality, governance, HR, and operational oversight. You will be supported to maintain strong compliance standards, lead improvement activity, and develop your leadership practice through ongoing CPD and internal governance forums.
Whether you are an experienced hospital manager already, or stepping into full CQC Registered Manager responsibility, apply now to join Rushcliffe Care Group and lead a service where quality and safety come first.
All roles are subject to an enhanced DBS check, the cost of which is covered by Rushcliffe Care.
Equal Opportunities Statement
Rushcliffe Care Group is committed to being an equal opportunities employer. We value diversity and are dedicated to creating an inclusive workplace where all individuals are treated with dignity and respect, in line with the Equality Act 2010. We encourage applications from all sections of the community, regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation. Employment decisions are based on individual merit, qualifications, and the needs of the service. Some roles may have specific requirements, such as physical ability or effective communication in English, due to the nature of the care we provide. These requirements are in place to ensure the safety and well-being of our service users and are applied fairly and proportionately. To support our commitment to equal opportunities, we may collect diversity data as part of the application process. This information is used for monitoring purposes only, is anonymised where appropriate, and does not form part of the selection process. If you require any adjustments to the recruitment process, please let us know so we can support you.
Recruitment Process and Application Information
18. This vacancy has arisen as part of a positive leadership development within Rushcliffe Care Group, creating an opportunity to appoint a new Hospital Manager for Mill Lodge Acute Hospital.
19. Interviews will be held in a two-stage process. Shortlisted candidates will be invited to an initial interview, with successful applicants progressing to a second-stage interview.
20. To be considered for this role, applicants must submit a full and up-to-date CV. This should clearly outline relevant senior management experience, including previous hospital or service management posts, details of any CQC Registered Manager responsibilities held, and associated CQC inspection outcomes or ratings where applicable.
21. Only applications that provide sufficient detail to demonstrate senior leadership and regulatory experience will be progressed.