Deputy Hospital Director of Nursing

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Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, (LGT), is a community-focused provider of local and acute care, delivering high-quality services to over one million people living across the London boroughs of Lewisham, Greenwich, and Bexley. We provide whole-life care and are here to support our communities to live healthier lives as well as taking care of them when they need us the most.

Employing almost 7,500 colleagues, affectionately known as Team LGT, we provide services at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich, University Hospital Lewisham, and at over a dozen community settings in Lewisham. We also provide some services at Queen Mary's Hospital in Sidcup.

We have recently launched our new vision and values to mark the LGT10 - the tenth anniversary of our Trust forming in 2013. Our trust vision is to be exceptional. In the quality of our patient care; our support for colleagues; and in the difference we make through our partnerships and in our communities.

To achieve this we value Respect, Compassion, and Inclusion; Being accountable over staying comfortable; Listening over always knowing best; and Succeeding together over achieving alone. You can read more about our visions and values here

Our hospitals and community sites provide a wide range of inpatient and outpatient services, as well as emergency and planned care. The Trust is rated as "good" or "outstanding" in over three-quarters of the services inspected by the Care Quality Commission.

Every year our work includes performing 10,000 procedures in our theatres; bringing seven and a half thousand new lives into the world; carrying out 570,000 visits to patients in their homes or communities and providing emergency care for more than 300,000 patients arriving in our busy Urgent and Emergency Departments.

LGT is a centre for the education and training of medical students enrolled with King's College London's GKT School of Medical Education. We are a training centre for nurses, midwives and allied health professionals. We are pioneering new roles that will support the changing needs of our patients and are one of the largest employers of physician associates in the country.

We are committed to working with our partners to deliver the best outcomes for our local communities. This means playing an active role in the South East London Integrated Care System (ICS), and in formal partnerships including the South East London Acute Provider Collaborative, provider partnerships with our local mental health trusts and borough-based boards of the ICS in Bexley, Greenwich and Lewisham.

Job overview

We are seeking a dynamic and experienced Deputy Hospital Director of Nursing to join our leadership team at Queen Elizabeth Hospital. This pivotal role provides professional nursing leadership and strategic direction, working closely with the Hospital Triumvirate to drive excellence in patient care.

As a key member of the hospital's senior leadership team, you will lead on urgent and emergency care transformation, champion nursing leadership development, and oversee initiatives to improve quality, safety, and patient outcomes. Your role will be instrumental in shaping nursing practice, ensuring workforce development, and leading improvements in patient flow, discharge processes, and clinical governance.

This is an exciting opportunity to make a real impact in a high-profile leadership position, ensuring our patients receive outstanding care while driving innovation and best practice in nursing across the hospital.

Main duties of the job

• Deputise for the Hospital Director of Nursing, providing strategic leadership and professional nursing advice while ensuring high standards of care across all services.
• Lead and oversee urgent and emergency care (UEC) transformation, improving key performance metrics such as waiting times and patient flow.
• Drive nursing leadership development, coaching and mentoring divisional nursing teams to enhance clinical leadership and workforce capabilities.
• Ensure patient safety and quality improvement, using data-driven decision-making to lead interventions that enhance care outcomes.
• Work collaboratively with senior stakeholders, including the Deputy Chief Operating Officer and Medical Director, to deliver Trust objectives and hospital-wide improvements.
• Oversee nurse staffing and workforce planning, ensuring safe staffing levels and effective escalation processes.
• Represent the Hospital Director of Nursing in strategic discussions, governance meetings, and external collaborations to support hospital-wide initiatives.

This role is ideal for a strong nursing leader with a passion for transformation, clinical excellence, and staff development. If you are ready to take on a high-impact leadership position, we would love to hear from you!

Working for our organisation

Our people are our greatest asset. When we feel supported and happy at work, this positivity reaches those very people we are here for, the patients. Engaged employees perform at their best and our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) initiatives contribute to cultivate a culture of engagement. We have four staff networks, a corporate EDI Team and a suite of programmes and events which aim to insert the 5 aspirations:

1. Improving representation at senior levels of staff with disabilities, from black, Asian, and ethnic minorities background, identify as LGBTQ+ and women, through improved recruitment and leadership development
2. Widening access (anchor institution) and employability
3. Improving the experience of staff with disability
4. Improving the EDI literacy and confidence of trust staff through training and development
5. Making equalities mainstream

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Details of the full job description and person specification are available to view when you click on apply for the vacancy.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Registered Nurse (with current NMC registration)
• Evidence of Continuous Professional Development
• Master's Degree in a relevant field
• Recognised Management/Leadership qualifications

Desirable criteria

• Registered Midwife
• Registered Children's Nurse

Experience

Essential criteria

• Extensive post registration experience working effectively in an acute MDT environment
• Significant experience at a senior level in a large acute setting including effectively managing staff, budgets, and high-quality patient-centred services
• Previous experience of managing nursing in a complex environment including understanding and applying relevant national standards.
• Experience contributing to Trust-wide decision making in a complex organisation
• Evidence of leading change, transformation, and developing effective internal controls.
• An expert awareness of the national and local context affecting nursing services and the delivery of care.
• An expert understanding of the statutory frameworks governing nurses and midwives
• A detailed awareness and an understanding of the clinical and corporate governance agenda

Desirable criteria

• Experience at Divisional Director of Nursing level in an acute setting
• Evidence of delivery of strategic programmes across a hospital or community setting
• Evidence of leading transformation/change leading to improvement in clinical care or practice.

We reserve the right to close the post before the stated closing date, please apply early. We do not contact applicants with the outcome of the shortlisting. If you have been shortlisted, you will receive an invite to an assessment day or interview.

As a local employer and anchor institution we work closely with our community to recruit locally and we welcome applications from the widest variety of people to ensure our workforce are reflective of the local communities which we serve. We encourage all suitable candidates to apply including if you are Black, Asian or other ethnic minorities, live with a disability (visible or not) or are LGBT+. We have a number of active staff networks including Disability, LGBT+, Multicultural Inclusion and Women's staff networks to bring staff together and celebrate diversity across our whole workforce.

Please note, not all roles will meet the criteria for a skilled worker visa.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

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

• Deputy Hospital Director of Nursing JD (PDF, 264.7KB)
• Working at LGT (PDF, 4.2MB)