Job responsibilities
Job Purpose:
This role sits under the direction of the Head of Quality, Education and Safeguarding (QES)
and is responsible for overseeing the development of quality and assurance by the Public
Health Nursing Service to positively effect and impact the outcomes for children, young
people and families in Devon.
Have responsibility for the successful implementation of the PHN Quality and Assurance
Framework to create a culture of continuous improvement, which leads to improved
quality of practice and creates good outcomes for children.
Work closely with Service Leads and Team Leaders from across the Service, so that
Quality Assurance work becomes an integrated part of the PHN service.
Support the active involvement of children and families in quality assurance, so that their
voice has influence and contributes to the way services are shaped and developed.
Promote continual professional development across the service, working in partnership
with the education and safeguarding team to create a continual loop between quality
assurance, learning and development.
Support the Head of QES to develop a comprehensive quality assurance programme
and reporting cycle, which brings together multiple sources of quality assurance
information such as data, monthly audits, thematic audits, rapid reviews, feedback from
Children, Young People and their families, complaints ,to provide a clear overview of
strengths, weakness, and areas for development. Write regular reports providing an
overview of this analysis and manage the progress of associated action plans.
Develop and embed a dynamic approach to quality assurance work, so that every
contact by the service becomes an opportunity to quality assure that practice standards
are met.
The post holder will also be required to Deputise on behalf of the Head of Quality, Education
and Safeguarding with regard to leading on Infection, Prevention and Control for the Devon
Public Health Nursing Service. They will be required to work strategically with colleagues in
Public Health. This will likely be time pressured and require re-prioritisation of workload at
short notice.
Main duties and responsibilities:
Leadership:
Use influencing skills and clear and effective communication to convey information to
teams and across the whole of the PHN workforce. Negotiate that information from
teams is received in the appropriate timescale to enable learning and the reduction of
risk as well as to be processed for internal and external reporting deadlines.
Communicate effectively with internal and external stakeholders as required to gain or
disseminate information. For example:-
o Customer Relations Team
o Information Security Team
o Health & Safety Team
o Human Resources
o Senior Leadership Team
o DCC Public Health Team
Raise the profile of the Quality and Assurance Team by attending and presenting at
Devon wide Governance meetings and Team Leader meetings at regular intervals and
taking the opportunity to support staff face to face and to respond to Quality and
Assurance issues which may be raised through PHN communication channels.
Create a positive culture in which teams can learn from incidents and are
enthusiastic to improve, enabling, monitoring and measuring changes to practice.
To offer supervision as required to the whole of the PHN workforce related to any quality
and safety issues to establish any potential risks to the service or to escalate an
operational issue.
Chair Quality in Practice Meetings and work with leadership colleagues to ensure
Quality Assurance work becomes an integrated part of their role.
Lead and organise bi-monthly Audits to be undertaken as part of the Quality in Practice
Meetings.
Maintain knowledge and understanding for the relevant area of organisational practice
and maintain continuous professional development to ensure that practice is up to date
and commensurate with regulatory and service standards.
Day to day Operations:
Receive initial information into the team and ensure processed appropriately, examples
include, Alerts; Incidents, Feedback, Risk Assessments.
Support, provide training and troubleshoot the Oshens incident reporting system, liaising
with the Health and Safety Team to adapt the system to meet PHN need as required.
Understand clinical record systems, design and assist with reviews / audits.
Analyse information and data for reporting purposes and support the Head of Quality,
Education and Safeguarding in the development of Quality and Performance Reports.
Identify training needs through data analysis such as investigation action plans or
Oshens reports.
Extract thematic learning from incidents and share with the service in order to improve
outcomes.
Develop creative ways of embedding learning and quality improvement within teams in
collaboration with colleagues in the QES Team.
Lead and participate in activities to provide assurance that learning is embedded in
practice.
Develop or guide others to develop policies and procedures, ensure they are in place,
up-to-date and tracked.
This document outlines the duties for the time being to indicate the level of responsibility. It
is not a comprehensive or exclusive list and the duties may be varied from time to time which
do not change the general character to the job or the level of responsibility entailed.
Please refer to the full Job Description / Person Specification on right hand side when completing your application.
