Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Job Summary
The Maternity Operational Manager plays a pivotal role in delivering high-quality, safe, and responsive maternity services. Working closely with the Senior Leadership Team, the post holder provides strong clinical and operational midwifery leadership to ensure the smooth and effective running of the maternity unit across weekdays, nights, weekends, and Bank Holidays. The role includes maintaining a highly visible presence, acting as a senior point of contact for patients, families and staff, fostering a culture of excellence and ensuring both fundamental and specialist care needs are consistently met.
Responsibilities
* Understand and support the flow of patients through maternity and gynaecology, ensuring appropriate placement based on clinical need and minimising service closure.
* Recognise trigger factors associated with the Maternity and Trust Escalation policy, minimising bed crisis through effective planning and strategy implementation.
* Liaise with the Main Trust Operations centre and attend Site Safety meetings to report staffing levels and quality issues.
* Escalate admission, discharge, safeguarding and patient flow issues to the Midwifery Manager or relevant specialist teams and apply strategies to address critical bed states, maximising staffing.
* Communicate with sister site Luton & Dunstable and other Trusts & Health Care providers regarding capacity, coordinating transfer of patients to other hospitals when necessary.
* Support data collection from Red Flag reporting, staff redeployments and emergency calls, aiding improvement work to optimise safety and provide analytics for staff redeployment.
* Participate in roster writing to ensure appropriate skill mix of staff across inpatient areas of maternity.
Qualifications
* Registered Midwife
* Evidence of Degree or Master’s qualification
* Desirable: Research qualification
Experience
* Suitable post‑registration experience within the relevant speciality at band 6 or above
* In‑depth knowledge of inpatient pathways
* Evidence of the application of management/leadership skills and autonomous practice
* Evidence of continued professional development
* Desirable: Involvement in audit, participation in research, participation in roster management
Knowledge
* Organisational and negotiation skills
* Effective communication
* Leadership and motivation skills
* Evidence of audit and change management ability
Personal Skills
* Effective communication (written and verbal)
* Ability to take managerial and professional responsibility for team and staff
* Logical thinking, prioritisation and initiative
* Diplomatic, assertive and confident
* Reliable, adaptable and dependable
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and a Disclosure and Barring Service check will be required to verify any previous convictions.
Location
Luton & Dunstable Hospital, Lewsey Road, Luton, LU4 0DZ, United Kingdom.
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