Associate Director of Quality Governance

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Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Strategic Leadership of Quality Governance

• Develop and deliver a comprehensive quality governance strategy for the Trust, aligned with national standards and best practices.
• Act as a key advisor to the Trust Board and senior leadership team on matters related to quality governance, including patient safety, risk, health and safety, and patient experience and legal (Claims and Coroners) ensuring compliance with local and national regulatory standards and statutory requirements.
• Role model leadership in the creation of a culture that encourages reporting, learning, and continuous quality improvement across the organisation.
• Develop a framework of systems and processes to deliver and performance. manage effective governance across the Trust.
• Ensure the adequate functioning of governance committees responsible for delivery and oversight of quality governance agenda.
• Facilitate and support the local implementation of the current and future national. Strategies that apply to governance agenda
• Maintain evidence required for external assessments and ensure timely completion. and implementation of action plans in respect of regulatory and corporate requirements.
• Responsible for monitoring information about the quality of complaints, incidents, risk, claims, and inquest outcomes demonstrating a positive response to learning and improvement.

Patient Safety and Risk Management

• Lead the development and implementation of the Trusts Patient Safety Strategy and Incident Response Framework (PSIRF), ensuring alignment with the NHS Patient Safety Strategy 2020.
• Embed the principles of PSIRF ensuring robust assurance is provided to board identifying any areas for improvement and implementing strategies that directly address poor performance, holding people to account where necessary.
• Responsible for the systems and process of oversight of clinical and non-clinical risks, including maintaining and monitoring the Trust risk registers.
• Ensure systems are in place for investigating, managing, and learning from patient safety events / incidents, delivering improvements to safety priorities as described in the Trust PSIRF policy and plan.

Learning from Patient Safety Events (LFPSE)

• Lead the implementation and operationalisation of the Learning from Patient Safety Events (LFPSE) framework across the Trust, ensuring alignment with national standards and reporting requirements.
• Promote a culture of openness and learning through timely reporting, investigation, and analysis of patient safety events.
• Ensure lessons learned from patient safety events are shared and embedded across the organisation to improve care quality and safety.
• Utilise LFPSE data to identify trends, themes, and areas for improvement, providing regular reports to the Board and clinical teams.

Duty of Candour / Compassionate Engagement

• Act as the Trust's strategic lead for the Duty of Candour, ensuring compliance with statutory requirements and embedding the principles of openness and transparency across the organisation.
• Develop and oversee policies, training, and guidance to ensure all staff understand and fulfil their responsibilities under the Duty of Candour.
• Provide assurance to the Board and regulators on the Trust's compliance with Duty of Candour requirements through robust monitoring and reporting systems.
• Ensure that patients, families, and carers are provided with clear, honest information following incidents of harm, including timely, heartfelt apologies and updates on investigations and remedial actions.
• Promote a culture of accountability and learning to improve patient outcomes and foster public trust, developing mechanisms of compassionate engagement to support resolution of adverse outcomes, complaints, or claims.

Freedom to Speak Up (FTSU)

• Work closely with the Freedom to Speak Up Guardian to embed an open and transparent culture.

Health and Safety

• Line management of Trust Head of Health & Safety responsible for the strategic and operational delivery of the Trust's health and safety agenda, ensuring compliance with statutory requirements such as the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
• Supervise Head of Health & Safety to oversee the development, implementation, and monitoring of the Trusts health and safety policies and risk assessments.
• Ensure the Trust has effective systems to identify, assess, and control health and safety risks, including those related to staff, patients, and visitors.
• Provide regular reports to the Board and senior leadership on health and safety performance, compliance, and improvement plans.

Legal

• Leadership and oversight for the management of clinical and non-clinical claims, ensuring compliance with NHS Resolution requirements; liaising with Trust Solicitors as required.
• Oversee the Trust's response to coronial inquests, ensuring thorough preparation, support for staff, and learning from outcomes aligned to PSIRF.

Governance and Compliance

• Ensure the Trust meets all statutory and regulatory requirements, including those set by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), NHS England, NHS Resolution, and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
• Provide assurance to the Board on governance processes, patient safety, health and safety, and risk management.
• Lead the preparation of reports, self-assessments, and submissions for external inspections / audit across portfolio of the role.

Leadership and Team Management

• Provide leadership to teams responsible for patient safety, risk management, complaints, PALS, FTSU, LFPSE, health and safety, claims, and inquests.
• Ensure staff have access to appropriate training, support, and development opportunities.
• Foster and role model a culture of collaboration, professionalism, and continuous improvement.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Act as a key liaison with external stakeholders, including regulators, commissioners, and patient advocacy groups and ICB.
• Promote patient and public involvement in governance and service improvement initiatives.

Finance

• Ensure value for money and best use of resources when planning and initiating.
• Quality improvement activities in dispensing allocated budgets.
• Responsible for management of managed employees and directorate budget and monitoring the budget position within the department to ensure spending is reasonable, of the best value and accurately recorded.
• Seek out opportunities for value improvement / efficiencies within budgets.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Master's degree in a relevant field (e.g., healthcare management, risk management, or clinical governance) or equivalent experience.
• Evidence of continued professional development.

Desirable criteria

• Risk Management / Governance Qualification.
• Relevant Management Qualification.
• Understanding of research methodology
• Experience of working directly with NHS Boards inc. Governors and NEDs

Experience

Essential criteria

• Significant experience in governance leadership within the NHS or a comparable healthcare Setting.
• Experience at a senior level of managing healthcare delivery systems
• Experience of concurrently managing a wide variety of projects
• Experience of working in partnership with the public and independent sector
• Relationship management of internal and external stakeholders.
• Significant experience of engaging clinicians in service improvement
• Significant professional leadership of governance

Desirable criteria

• Experience of effective redesign and improvement methodologies
• Experience of negotiation and managing organisational change
• Demonstrable track record of service improvement
• Demonstrable commitment to patient-centred care, learning, and improvement.

Skills

Essential criteria

• Strong knowledge of NHS governance frameworks, patient safety standards, health and safety legislation, and regulatory requirements.
• Excellent leadership and communication skills, with the ability to influence at all levels.
• Strategic thinker with the ability to manage complex priorities and deliver results.
• Ability to draft board level reports providing succinct analysis of data and assurance of organisational response to risks or issues impacting quality governance, patient care, or experience.
• Politically astute.

Desirable criteria

• Mentor / Coaching.
• Financial management in NHS.
• Information Governance.
• Restorative practice.

Knowledge

Essential criteria

• Political awareness of and sensitiveness to the interactions and interdependencies between the NHS and non-NHS organisations
• Ability to interpret and manage complex policy and assimilate into organisational delivery.
• Effective influencing, communication and negotiating skills.
• Excellent analytical and critical thinking skills.
• Performance management tools and techniques and the application to NHS organisational standards and targets
• Able to communicate with and engage front line clinical staff and clinical leaders in service strategy/redesign.
• Able to build redesign processes and systems that are simple, and which engage front-line staff and clinical and non-clinical leaders.

Desirable criteria

• Natural partnership worker - supports and challenges people to work together to develop pathways that enhance service quality.
• Understanding of a broad range of professional standards and codes of practice.
• Knowledge of legal processes pertinent to clinical negligence / personal injury / NHS resolution.
• Just & Fair blame culture tools

Values

Essential criteria

• Ability to work autonomously with minimal supervision to meet deadlines in a high-pressure environment.
• Approachable, helpful, and encouraging
• Initiative-taking approach to problem solving.
• Excellent people skills and emotional intelligence.
• Ability to work as a team member and individually.
• Senior level experience of managing in a complex organisation.
• Ability to utilise and implement governance strategies and push their application to improve patient care and experience.
• Strongly held commitment to openness, honesty, inclusiveness, and standards.
• Demonstrates resilience & determination to achieve results

Desirable criteria

• Ability to translate strategic intent into operational reality.
• Self-awareness of own strengths & weaknesses and impact on others.

Other

Essential criteria

• Frequent exposure to highly sensitive and distressing circumstances including delivering unwelcome news to staff and patients, resolving conflict, dealing with challenging behaviour.
• Investigation and management of complaints and incidents
• Attendance / representation at coroner's courts
• Contributes to strategy and operational developments / functions outside of core role as a member of the senior leadership team

Desirable criteria

• Willingness to travel across GM and Nationally as required for the role

The closing date for this post may be extended if there are insufficient applicants or brought forward if there is a high volume of applicants.

We want to ensure that everyone who works at the Christie or uses our services is welcomed, valued and treated with dignity and respect. The Christie values diversity and is committed to ensuring equal opportunities for all and fair representation across the organisation at all levels. In support of these commitments, we particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and other ethnic minority people and people with disabilities for this post. Appointment will be only on merit.

We are committed to creating a balanced and diverse workforce. As such we welcome and encourage applications from people of all backgrounds. Together we will foster inclusion and tackle inequity and health inequalities in cancer care.

As users of the disability confident scheme, we guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the vacancy

All positions within the Christie are subject to the receipt of satisfactory written references, medical clearance and evidence of your Right to Work in the UK. Some roles will require a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check. Please note if you are successfully appointed to a post with this Trust, you will be required to pay for your own DBS Disclosure.

By applying for this post you are agreeing to The Christie NHS Foundation Trust transferring the information contained in this application to its preferred applicant management system. If you are offered a job information will also be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system. Please note, all communication regarding your application will be made via email, please ensure you check your junk/spam folders as emails are sometimes filtered there.

If you have not heard from us within four weeks of the closing date, I regret that on this occasion your application will have been unsuccessful.

The Inter-Authority Transfer (IAT) process is a critical and beneficial component of ESR and will form part of the recruitment process. In the event that you are successful following interview your previous NHS employment data, if applicable will be transferred from your current / most recent employer.

Overseas candidates wishing to apply for this position and who would require immigration sponsorship, may wish to self-assess the likelihood of obtaining a Certificate of Sponsorship for the post on the UKVI website.

You should be aware the Trust operates a No Smoking Policy and therefore employees are not permitted to smoke at work.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 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.

Documents to download

• Job Description and Person Specification (PDF, 203.7KB)
• The Christie Values and Behaviours (PDF, 919.5KB)
• Strategy Brochure (PDF, 1.0MB)
• Travel to The Christie (PDF, 3.8MB)