Chief nurse information officer

Job overview

The Chief Nursing Information Officer (CNIO) is a senior clinical leadership role responsible for shaping and delivering the digital nursing and AHP agenda across Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. Working at a strategic level, the CNIO will ensure that digital systems are clinically safe, usable and optimised to support high‑quality patient care, professional practice and service transformation.

The post holder will combine strong clinical credibility with expertise in digital health, informatics and change leadership, acting as the senior nursing voice in the development, implementation and optimisation of digital solutions, including the Electronic Patient Record (EPR), electronic prescribing and wider digital clinical systems. The CNIO will work in close partnership with the Chief Clinical Information Officer (CCIO), Director of Informatics (DoI), Chief Nursing Officer and senior clinical leaders, ensuring that digital transformation is grounded in frontline clinical need and aligned to Trust and system priorities.

Interview will include an assessment task

Main duties of the job

The CNIO will provide strategic assurance on clinical safety, professional practice and adoption, supporting compliance with national standards and contributing to ICSD level and national digital nursing networks. The role will champion innovation, workforce engagement and digital capability development, ensuring nurses and AHPs are empowered to lead and embed digital change that improves patient outcomes, safety and experience.

Key aspects of the role include:

• Strategic leadership of the Trust’s nursing and AHP digital vision
• Strategic input into EPR and clinical system design, implementation and optimisation
• Assurance of clinical safety, usability and workflow alignment of digital solutions
• Influencing Trust‑wide digital strategy and system‑level collaboration
• Leading workforce engagement, capability building and digital readiness
• Acting as the senior nursing advocate for safe, effective digital care delivery
• Involvement in the procurement, design and implementation of a new EPR system

This is a high‑impact, Trust‑wide role requiring senior leadership capability, professional authority and transformational influence, appropriate to Agenda for Change Band 8C level.

Working for our organisation

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves a population of over 600,000 with a workforce of over 10,500 dedicated and skilled staff across 21 sites.

Our services:

Acute Care

Providing emergency and maternity services at Whiston, Southport and Ormskirk hospitals, and medical and surgical specialties across all our sites.

Primary Care

Providing primary care services at Marshalls Cross Medical Centre situated in St Helens Hospital.

Community Services

Providing adult community services for St Helens and a wheelchair service in Chorley, South Ribble, and West Lancashire. Our inpatient unit at Newton Community Hospital is where patients needing acute hospital beds can continue rehabilitation. We also provide urgent care at our Urgent Treatment Centre located in St Helens town centre.

Specialist Regional Services

We provide the Mersey Regional Burns & Plastic Surgery Unit at Whiston Hospital and the Spinal Injuries Unit at Southport Hospital to more than 4 million people across the whole of Merseyside, West Lancashire, Cheshire, Isle of Man and North Wales.

Achievements:

• Rated Outstanding by CQC Inspection August 2018
• Top 100 places to work in the NHS (NHS Employers & Health Service Journal)
• National Preceptorship Accreditation (2023) for Nursing & AHP Preceptorship Programme

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please ensure you have read through the attached Job Description and Person Specification before submitting your application.

Advertising date: 17th June 2026

Closing date: 8th July 2026

Proposed Interview date: 22nd July 2026

Please note, this post may close earlier than advertised if a sufficient number of applications are received.

Person specification

Values

• We are kind
• We are open
• We are inclusive

Qualifications

• Educated to Master’s level or equivalent level of experience and training.
• NMC Registration
• Advanced clinical qualifications and evidence of ongoing professional development.

Knowledge

• Extensive and up to date knowledge of nursing and other clinical, administrative and/or operational workflows and processes within a hospital environment.
• Excellent clinical and managerial knowledge of one or more specific area, including knowledge of relevant operational policies and procedures
• Expert clinical knowledge and skills in clinical informatics to ensure successful implementation of technology that benefits patient care and achieves expected outcomes.
• Knowledge of policy relating to safeguarding adults and children.
• Knowledge of Information Governance, SOPs and other governance, national and professional standards of practice or other regulations
• Knowledge of national standards for recording patient assessments and clinical data
• Knowledge of all aspects of patient safety and quality.
• Experience of planning and managing change in large and diverse clinical teams.
• Previous NHS experience as a nurse leader at Matron Level or above.
• Experience of managing high performing multi-disciplinary teams evidenced by improvement e.g. improved recruitment / retention / staff morale / clinical outcomes
• Experience of planning and delivering a broad range of complex programmes which impact across a large multi site organisation
• Experience of managing clinical teams including recruitment, appraisals, sickness and performance management

Skills

• Demonstrates professional and personal credibility
• Maintain clinical knowledge and skills for professional registration and revalidation
• Ability to concentrate for long periods of time to author documents, analyse information. The post holder will need to be adaptable as the work pattern is unpredictable and may be required to switch concentration if an incident arises
• High level of personal resilience to be able to deal with the frequent requirement to deal with potentially emotive situations, communicating difficult messages to staff, patients or family members
• Ability to setup and oversee an R&D programme which will identify, review and evaluate new digital solutions

Thank you for considering an application to work for Mersey West Lancashire NHS Trust. MWL is an exciting and forward-thinking NHS Trust who are one of the best places to work for in England.

Given sometimes we receive a high volume of applications to work for us, please be aware, that we may close a vacancy earlier than stated should a sufficient number of applications be received from which a shortlist can be confirmed. Therefore, you are advised to apply at your earliest convenience.

The Trust may contact you during the recruitment process for your feedback on your experience. We always aim for continuous improvement in our practice.

Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion

We actively cultivate a professional environment of fairness, equality, dignity, and respect for all individuals. We welcome individuals from all backgrounds and value the unique skills, perspective and experience you bring. We are grounded in the belief that diversity enhances our collective strength, fostering innovation and excellence within our workforce. We welcome all applications irrespective of people’s race, disability, gender, sexual orientation, religion/belief, age, gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy/maternity and in particular those from under‑represented groups.

As a Disability Confident Leader, we commit to offering an interview to all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the job (the essential criteria) listed in the personal specification. If you wish to apply under this Guaranteed Interview Scheme, please indicate this on the online application form.

If you are having difficulty completing an online application, or require any disability reasonable adjustments, to the application process, please contact Recruitment@merseywestlancs.nhs.uk

We also commit to offering an interview to all armed forces veterans who meet the minimum criteria for the job (the essential criteria) listed in the personal specification. If you wish to apply under this Guaranteed Interview Scheme, please indicate this on the online application form.

The Trust operates anonymous shortlisting where no personal information about you, including your name or personal details are shared with the recruiting manager. No equality information is shared at any time during the recruitment process with the recruiting manager or other people involved in the decision‑making process.

The equality monitoring information you provide is used in the following situations: to review our recruitment practices; where a job is limited to a specific person to verify their eligibility to apply; and to offer disability reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Following the recent update on UK immigration policy for those on a Health and Care Visa or Skilled Worker Visa, please click here to check your eligibility before applying for this post as we may be unable to provide sponsorship.

eVisa Update

For successful candidates on selected work and study visa routes, who have completed and paid for their applications will no longer receive a visa vignette in passport as evidence of their permission to enter the UK.

Instead, you will be issued with an eVisa only, which is accessed by creating a UKVI account.

Before travelling to the UK, we advise applicants to:

• Understand how to generate an eVisa share code

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

If this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 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.

Please note if applicable, applicants will be required to pay for their DBS check. Costs are deducted from salary following appointment.

If you have not already done so, you are therefore encouraged to enrol for the DBS Update Service to which a small annual fee of £13 per year applies.

Flexible Working

We actively support flexible working patterns throughout MWL. Changes made to the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook mean that:

• All employees have the right to request flexible working from day one of employment.
• There is no limit on the number of requests they can make.
• Employees have the right to make requests, have them considered, regardless of the reason.

At Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, we will consider requests for flexible working. We would also encourage you to also discuss flexible working options at interview stage.

Working for Team MWL

Staff recognition is especially important to us; as well as performance reviews and appraisals, we recognise staff through Employee of the month. Along with supporting you to achieve your career goals we offer a generous pension scheme, unsocial hours payments (where applicable), 27 days annual leave on commencement (pro rata) and access to a range of NHS discounts. Our Staff Health and Wellbeing programme offer a variety of services.

The Trust is a non‑smoking across all our sites. Failure to follow this rule could lead to disciplinary action. For more information, see the Smoke Free NHS website.

You will be expected to undertake the Trusts' commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults.

You must ensure that your application, including personal statements and behaviour examples, are truthful and factually accurate. Please note plagiarism can include presenting the ideas and experience of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own.

The Trust will not accept applications which are found to be AI generated and will check all applications against AI detection software.

Additional Information

Before applying, we encourage you to review the Trusts Values and Behaviours which are We are KIND, We are OPEN, We are INCLUSIVE, which can be found here .

An applicant guide to help and support you with your application and what to expect during your recruitment journey can be accessed in the supporting documents.

Good luck with your application. We hope to welcome you to Team MWL very soon.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.