Clinical Quality & Patient Safety Lead

Job responsibilities

Please review the job description and person specification attached for the detailed main duties of the role.

As a member of our system, you will actively demonstrate system values in all you do. You will be driven to address health inequalities and create an environment that is inclusive to all people.

In return NHS Cambridgeshire and Peterborough can offer you the opportunity to thrive and develop in a team that is supportive, ambitious, and inclusive. You will have plenty of opportunities to build your skills and experience.

Main duties of the job

Quality and Improvement

Provide highly developed specialist and expert analysis and advice and facilitative support to the ICB as an NHS body and major commissioner of health care services.

Lead on the monitoring, evaluation, and inspection of the quality aspects of commissioned services, including Clinical Quality Reviews, patient safety visits and in-depth reviews as required, and challenge providers as required.

Monitor the implementation of recommendations made through processes, reviews, and inspections for areas of concern highlighted by review of quality indicators, ensuring the process is carried through to completion to improve outcomes.

Lead the Quality Assurance meetings, to aid the identification of the lessons to be learnt and development of recommendations to embed learning from quality initiatives within health and partner agencies.

Lead on high-level analysis and review of provider quality assurance evidence, ensuring triangulation across a range of data, benchmarking/comparison across a range of options, decision making about compliance and raising and addressing concerns and risks in a timely manner.

Lead on synthesis of information from providers, ICB experts, ICB performance and contracting teams, national initiatives, and any other relevant source to provide high-level focused reports for the ICB and sub-committees, Nursing and Quality, and the wider ICB to inform discussion and highlight risks and concerns.

To promote quality, innovation, productivity, and prevention, acting as an expert resource in areas such as audit, implementing change, monitoring effectiveness, and ensuring improvements are sustained.

To promote the use of the model for improvement and outcome-based standards.

Use a wide range of software to design and develop a range of quality assurance systems, including databases and spreadsheets, to manage information, support high-level analysis and triangulation across the directorate, flag concerns and risks, and promote ease of location and retrieval of information by directorate staff.

Provide up to date reports and status information to enable commissioners to safely place patients in approved settings with approved providers.

Plan, develop and evaluate methods and processes for gathering, analysing, interpreting, and presenting data and information in the field of quality assurance.

Analyse a range of different information and reports submitted by Providers in relation to compliance with quality standards, key performance indicators and metrics as part of the contract monitoring processes and make highly complex decisions and challenge providers where there is a difference of opinion as to whether these have been achieved.

Patient safety

Work with system partners to gain assurance of the effective application of the NHS Patient Safety strategy.

Work with partners to gain support the implementation and embedding of the local patient safety incident response plans (PSORPs) and national patient safety investigation standards.

Provide patient safety expertise within the organisation, demonstrating compassionate leadership, visibility and supporting the continued development of the patient safety culture.

Support and enable co-ordination of cross-system reviews and investigations where activity cannot be managed at the provider level because the incident is unusually complex or costly to manage due to multiple providers and/or services being involved across a care pathway.

Lead and co-ordinate the sharing of learning across the system through system improvement work and patient safety learning events.

Oversee providing patient safety review and advice for Quality Impact Assessments (QIA) for new or changing services and other significant changes across the system.

Leadership and Management Responsibility

Develop excellent and trusted working relationships with partners and stakeholders to facilitate and promote a holistic approach to quality assurance.

Ensure national and regional guidance and recommendations relating to the quality agenda are interpreted and developed into local policies and disseminated to lead commissioners within the ICB and appropriate leads within provider organisations and contribute to any service redesign commissioning of new services as a result.

Ensure local policies are effectively implemented across the health economy working with performance and quality leads to develop associated key performance indicators and quality metrics as appropriate.

Be responsible for planning, delivery, and evaluation of training on the quality agenda and related topics as required by the ICB Training Needs Analysis.

To be responsible for the direct line management of teams in the Nursing and Quality directorate including professional leadership and supervision.

Budget responsibility for the teams the post holder directly line manages and other funding aligned to projects the post holder is leading.

Deputising as required for the Head of Quality & Patient Safety.

Qualifications

Essential

• Registered Clinician
• eg: Nurse, Midwife with UK NMC/Allied Healthcare Professional
• First degree in relevant subject area or equivalent level of experience of working at a similar level in specialist experience
• Highly developed knowledge of the care sector and Quality Assurance processes underpinned by theory and experience
• Evidence of ongoing professional development through maintenance of professional portfolio and registration revalidation
• Evidence of continuing professional development

Desirable

• Postgraduate degree in relevant subject or equivalent
• Leadership qualification
• Project management skills
• Experience of change management
• Teaching / Mentoring/ Coaching qualification
• Quality Improvement experience and training

Skills & Knowledge

Essential

• Positive and effective communicator, orally and in writing
• Ability to lead and secure engagement in auditing and monitoring programmes and the resulting action plans
• Ability to design and develop systems to manage information across a system, including retrieval and triangulation
• Ability to lead and implement change in practice in quality assurance
• Evidence of effective working successfully across disciplines and agency boundaries
• Time management and prioritisation skills
• High level knowledge across the range of the quality and patient safety agenda, underpinned by theoretical knowledge and relevant practical experience
• Ability to critically appraise research evidence and use when revising policies
• Ability to apply expert analytical skills to highly complex issues
• Ability to make judgements involving highly complex facts or situations which require analysis, interpretation and comparison of a range of options
• Ability to write and present reports based on highly complex information that give relevant and appropriate information targeted at the intended audience
• Experience of assessing training needs and planning and delivering training in quality and patient safety

Desirable

• Understanding of needs of culturally diverse communities and other hard to reach groups
• Ability to influence at all levels across the health economy
• Undertaken & published research
• Political astuteness
• Drive for results
• Effective and strategic influencing
• Evidence of collaborative working
• Critical appraisal and analytical skills

Experience

Essential

• Experience in leading Quality & Patient Safety
• Experience of the care sector
• Experience of quality assurance systems to manage high level analysis and to write reports and plan services accordingly
• Experience of quality improvement design, managing and completing projects
• Experience of developing and delivering training.
• Experience of working across agency and organisational boundaries.
• Experience in multi-agency assessment processes and multi-agency working.
• Experience of developing and implementing quality related policies and procedures.
• Experience of leading quality assurance programmes, driving forward development and implementation.
• Experience of presenting complex information to a large group at conferences etc.
• Evidence of promoting a clinical culture of enquiry and learning

Desirable

• Previous strategic experience
• Leading change through empowering people
• Evidence of organisational leadership development

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.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).