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Deputy Head of Midwifery
The closing date is 07 September 2025
The Deputy Head of Midwifery has responsibility for the delivery of safe, clinically and cost effective and compassionate midwifery care within the Trust and provides assurance evidence to the Head of Midwifery and other senior colleagues regarding compliance against all appropriate professional, organisational and national standards.
Please note we reserve the right to close this vacancy prior to the closing date once the required number of suitable applications have been received.
Main duties of the job
The Deputy Head of Midwifery Role is key to supporting the operational management of the maternity services reporting into the Head of Midwifery.
The post holder will be an enthusiastic, motived, visible and accessible professional midwifery leader and be professionally responsible for the delivery of a high quality maternity service within the Trust.
The Deputy Head of Midwifery will direct manage the maternity matrons.
About us
We manage three major locality hospitals at North Tyneside, Wansbeck and Hexham, plus a number of smaller community hospitals and clinics from Tynemouth to Berwick on Tweed, in addition to our state-of-the-art Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital, the first of its kind in England. We also care for people in their homes and provide services from facilities in local communities such as health centres. We give people greater choice and control over their care to help them to live independently at home and avoid hospital admission where appropriate. High quality patient care is at the heart of everything we do and we strive to ensure every single patient and service user has an exceptional experience with us. We have one of the most extensive patient experience programmes of any trust in England.
Job responsibilities
To provide professional and effective clinical leadership and accountability for the midwifery service in conjunction with the Heads of Midwifery and Business Unit leadership team.
To deputise for the Head of Midwifery as and when required.
Support the Head of Midwifery, Directors of Nursing & Executive Director of Nursing Midwifery and Allied Health Professionals in delivering the Trusts safety, quality and improvement priorities and clinical strategy.
To take shared responsibility with the Lead Clinician/Clinical Director/General Manager for Clinical Governance and responsibility for clinical governance issues related directly to midwifery.
To ensure the highest standard of midwifery care through the provision of effective leadership, advising clinical staff and line management of maternity Matrons and Specialist Midwives.
Manage and develop clinical practice in line with national and local guidance ensuring the delivery of specific performance targets associated with the role, development of best practice, quality and service improvement priorities in conjunction with the Business Unit and other key stakeholders.
Responsible for advising on the appropriate skill mix and establishment of midwifery staff in line with BirthRate Plus recommendations.
To provide visible, accessible and senior leadership presence in the hospital and community settings.
Deal with concerns and actively problem solve to improve both patient and staff experience.
Investigate and respond to incidents and complaints within target timescales.
To role model compassionate and inclusive leadership in order to shape the creation of a collective leadership culture within the trust. This means demonstrating a consistent leadership style which (a) engages, enables and empowers others (b) uses coaching to promote ownership of learning and quality improvement and (c) facilitates team working and collaboration within teams / departments and across organisational boundaries.
Provide professional and clinical advice.
Prepare, plan and deliver matron and ward managers development for succession planning.
Facilitate an environment where health promotion and informed patient choice and personalised care is encouraged and developed to its maximum potential, with the available resources.
Person Specification
Education and Qualifications
* NMC registered midwife with post registration qualification, at degree level
* masters level or equivalent experience o Evidence of sustained personal & professional development
* Significant senior nursing experience and credible leadership experience
* Teaching qualification and the ability to facilitate learning to others
* Substantial experience in change and project management skills
* Experience in change management
* Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF), SEIPS trained.
* Leadership Programme
Previous Knowledge and Experience
* Able to demonstrate in depth leadership and management knowledge through training and experience acquired over time. This includes, financial, HR and activity management as well as the leadership of a range of clinical services
* Significant experience of leading clinical midwifery teams
Other
* Driving Licence - It is an essential requirement of the role that the post holder has a valid driving licence and is either a car owner and able to use the car for work purposes, or has a Trust personal lease vehicle which may be used for the role.
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.
Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
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