Go back South West London and St Georges Mental Health NHS Trust
Interim Associate Director of Clinical Governance and Risk
The closing date is 29 March 2026
South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust are seeking an Interim Associate Director of Clinical Governance & Risk to provide strategic leadership across all aspects of quality governance, patient safety, and risk management.
This recruitment is to provide additional senior leadership capacity during a temporary period of absence within the team, whilst the existing post holder has additional caring responsibilities. We are committed to maintaining the continuity, stability, and quality of our governance functions, and this role will help ensure our services – and the staff who deliver them – continue to receive the support they need.
You will be an experienced senior leader with:
* Master's level education or equivalent expertise.
* Extensive experience in clinical governance, quality, and risk management within a complex healthcare environment.
* Strong working knowledge of CQC regulatory frameworks.
* A track record of delivering successful quality improvement and organisational learning.
* Highly developed leadership, communication, negotiation, and analytical skills.
* Experience working closely with patients, carers, and service user involvement groups.
* The ability to challenge, influence, and lead change at all levels.
* A clinical background, mental health experience, and training in LEAN/continuous improvement are desirable but not essential.
Main duties of the job
In this interim role you will support the following responsibilities:
* Oversee Trust compliance with regulatory standards, including the Care Quality Commission.
* Lead the development, delivery, and monitoring of the Quality Strategy and Quality Account.
* Manage and provide strategic direction to key teams including Patient Safety, Compliance, Risk Management, Safeguarding, Mental Health Act Office, and Patient Experience & Engagement.
* Ensure systems for incident reporting, serious incident investigations, and organisational learning are robust and drive quality improvement.
* Develop and oversee proactive patient experience, complaints, and carer engagement mechanisms.
* Work in close partnership with Executive Directors, Senior Leaders, clinicians, service users, and external stakeholders.
* Undertake a series of projects/audits related to clinical governance and risk.
About us
We are Proud to Belong at South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust.
We have expert services, a rich history and a clear commitment to providing the best quality care for those with mental ill-health. The Care Quality Commission already rates our services as 'good' - we aspire to be 'outstanding'.
This is a great time to join us. We are transforming the way we care for our communities to support our mission of Making Life Better Together. We have built two brand new mental health facilities at Springfield University Hospital, which are amongst the best in the world. More developments are planned across our sites and services as we invest a further £120m to upgrade and modernise our estate by 2027.
We are inclusive and diverse and strive to be actively anti racist. We want to attract people from all backgrounds and experiences to enrich the work we do together. We are proud to co-produce and involve our local communities in all that we do.
We offer flexible working, career development and a variety of benefits to enable a positive, welcoming environment in which our people and their careers can thrive.
Come and join our inclusive teams and help our patients on their recovery journey.
Kingston (Tolworth)
Unless expressly stated in the job advert the role is not subject to sponsorship, please be advised that all offers of employment are subject to evidence of right to work in the UK.
Job responsibilities
Please see job description for full details of main duties and responsibilities.
All public facing roles require a proportionate level of English language proficiency for written and verbal communication and the Trust is required to verify results of certain English language competency tests relied upon. When the fluency duty is met by the provision of a sign language interpreter, the interpreter should be registered with the National Registers of Communication Professionals working with Deaf and Deafblind People (NRCPD).
Person Specification
Training & Qualification
* Educated to masters level or equivalent level of experience in a relevant subject area
* Senior management training and substantial relevant experience
* Educated in a Clinical discipline and a current registration, with a Mental Health background
Experience
* Extensive knowledge of specialist areas, acquired through post graduate diploma or equivalent experience or training plus further specialist knowledge or experience to master's level equivalent
* Significant experience of working with CQC regulatory frameworks and within clinical governance
* Considerable understanding and experience of managing in a large complex service; including evidence of solving a range of complex operational and strategic problems
* Experience of developing systems and processes for measuring and managing quality improvements
Knowledge & Skills
* Track record of delivering against set objectives and achieving key organisational targets, demonstrating continuous improvement and taking remedial action to address deviances
* Good understanding of regulatory frameworks and requirements
* Ability to articulate an integrated approach to risk management and quality improvement
* Excellent communications skills (written and verbal), good interpersonal skills and the ability to communicate information to senior managers, staff and external agencies, translating complex data to inform
* Knowledge and experience of LEAN and/or Total Quality Management systems implementation
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.
£99,808 to £113,803 a yearper annum inclusive of outer London HCAS
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