Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust
Chief Nursing Officer
The closing date is 31 May 2026
Mid and South Essex Foundation Trust seeks an exceptional clinical leader to join our Group Executive Team as Chief Nursing Officer.
This is a significant opportunity to provide professional leadership for nursing, midwifery and allied health professionals and to inspire a workforce whose commitment, skill and compassion are central to the service provided to our patients and communities everyday.
As Chief Nursing Officer you will lead and support a large and diverse workforce, offering clear and compassionate leadership, inspiring colleagues to be their very best and continuing to build on the organisation’s shared commitment to outstanding care for every patient.
Main duties of the job
The Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) provides visionary leadership to nursing, midwifery and allied health professional staff; being responsible for professional practice and for leading the strategic planning and delivery of high quality, innovative and evidence‑based practice across these professional groups.
Placing quality of care at the centre of practice, the CNO will work in partnership with the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) to deliver the quality agenda, with specific responsibility for the following portfolios: patient engagement and experience, safeguarding, harm‑free care, clinical legal services and relationship management with the Care Quality Commission (CQC). Working with the Chief Medical Officer, the CNO will ensure we take a multi‑disciplinary approach to our clinical care and that we have a robust quality and safety governance framework in place to learn and improve our quality.
As a highly visible, compassionate and professional leader, the CNO will set an inspiring strategic direction for clinical compliance and governance across our three main hospitals and their satellite sites, working with and through the directors of nursing, the Managing Directors and their senior leadership teams. The CNO will ensure the patient voice is at the heart of care delivery, and that the learning and improvement response to clinical incidents, harms and complaints is of a consistently high standard across MSEFT.
Job responsibilities
The post holder will lead the development and delivery of aligned workstreams within the integrated quality improvement plan, ensuring that a culture of quality, performance and sustainability is embedded within frontline teams and with their local leaders.
As a member of an integrated executive team, the CNO will take the lead role for strategic and corporate issues within his/her corporate portfolio and also collective responsibility across the wider executive portfolios. The CNO will foster good relationships across system partners and lead transformation work across our health and care system to deliver better care and outcomes to the population of Mid and South Essex.
As a member of the Trust Board, the post holder will role model our values and behaviours, promoting diversity and inclusion in all forms, and a culture of learning and continuous improvement through actively leading and embodying our Leadership and Management Behaviours Framework across all our care settings.
The post holder is an executive, voting member of the Board of Directors and reports to the Chief Executive.
Person Specification
Qualifications
* Evidence of continuous professional and personal development
Knowledge and Experience
* Significant board level experience in an NHS Acute Trust
* Demonstrable record of achieving high quality outcomes for patients
* Substantial experience of managing change in a complex multi‑professional, unionised environment
* Experience of senior leadership to nurses and midwives and optimising their contribution to patient care
* Track record of strategy and policy development & implementation
* Direct experience of business planning and robust financial management
* Understanding of the regulatory framework and experience of working closely with regulator
* Understands the strategic direction of the local and regional health economy.
* Knows how to make effective use of a board environment
* Ability to achieve credibility, lead and stimulate change through clinicians and other professionals.
* Experience of working in a group or large multi‑site organisation
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 to check for any previous criminal convictions.
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