Deputy Director of Quality and Safety Governance (Patient Safety Specialist)

An exciting opportunity to join the senior leadership team for the Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has become available for the post of Deputy Director of Quality and Safety Governance; the post holder will also be the Patient Safety Specialist for the Trust.

We are looking to recruit an ambitious and experienced leader with extensive experience at a senior level in quality and safety governance delivery as well as the background, experience and credibility to lead the patient safety agenda for the Trust.

You should be committed to working with our leadership and governance teams in further progressing a culture of openness, learning and improvement. You should have an open and approachable style which emphasises the value of respect and psychological safety; and the ability to support clinical leadership teams in the delivery of both culture and processes for learning and improvement.

The merger of Bedford Hospital and Luton and Dunstable Hospital in 2020 afforded the opportunity to review and restructure our quality governance and patient safety teams so that we have a really valuable and robust resource to support the trust effectively in the delivery of the new Patient Safety Strategy. As the nominated Patient Safety Specialist for the Trust, you will be instrumental in ensuring that the national patient safety strategy is delivered for the organisation. Reporting to the Executive Director for Quality and Safety Governance, you have the support of the Executive Team and a Board who are highly committed to, and supportive of, the patient safety and quality agenda. We want to further a culture where patient safety and continual improvement is everybody''s business and you will be pivotal to that aim.

You will have in depth professional knowledge across a number of governance disciplines acquired through significant relevant experience. A clinical professional qualification is desirable. This is an interesting, varied and high profile post working across the whole organisation which is based on two main sites. You will be working with a committed team of individuals to help shape future ways of working which will help our Trust to become an outstanding organisation for our patients and staff. Our priority is to further progress a cohesive approach to organisational learning and quality improvement and to build the culture for excellence to flourish. We have recently developed our Trust values (THRIVE) and are looking out for someone who demonstrates a strong values-based approach with very strong leadership and people skills.

You will provide line management and leadership to the Head of Patient Safety and Clinical Improvement and the Head of Quality Governance who each operationally manage a range of functions and will therefore need to:

• Have oversight of our systems and processes for safety and continuous quality improvement
• Provide compliance assurance against a range of external and statutory regulatory requirements.
• Support clinical service lines to ensure delivery of safety and quality priorities throughout the organisation
• Support, encourage and develop innovation in the areas of safety and quality of clinical services, sharing and supporting learning and improvement

An excellent communicator and collaborator, you will be required to provide expert, high level advice and guidance to Trust Board, Executives and senior managers on complex safety, quality and clinical governance matters, ensuring that relevant statutory, consultation, polices and guidelines are adhered to. You will be developing and embracing opportunities for partnership working across the system, locally and nationally and will be a key contact for our quality colleagues in the CCGs as well as with the UCLP (Academic Health Science Network with whom we partner on Patient Safety Collaborative programmes). Most importantly you will be an inspirational