Assistant Director: Sponsorship Available

Job summary

The Assistant Director Nursing, Allied Health Professionals and Quality for secured services provides senior professional, operational and strategic leadership for nursing, Allied Health Professionals, quality governance, patient safety and learning across NHFT’s secured services. Reporting to the Group Chief Nurse, Executive Director Nursing, Allied Health Professionals and Quality, the post holder will be a key member of the senior leadership team and will work collaboratively with operational, medical, nursing, Allied Health Professionals, quality, safety and corporate colleagues to ensure services are safe, effective, compassionate and continuously improving. The role combines professional leadership for the nursing and Allied Health Professionals workforce with responsibility for strengthening quality assurance, patient safety systems, patient and carer experience, infection prevention and control, complaints learning, safeguarding interfaces and regulatory preparedness within a secured care environment. The post holder will provide visible leadership, promote a just and learning culture, ensure robust ward-to-board governance, and support the delivery of high-quality care that reflects NHFT’s vision, values and commitment to outstanding, compassionate care.

Main duties of the job

The main duties and responsibilities:

Provide inclusive leadership across secure services, ensuring safe, high-quality care through strong governance, an open learning culture and an effective nursing and Allied Health Professionals workforce.

Lead the delivery and continuous improvement of safe, high-quality, patient-centred care, ensuring effective patient safety, risk management and quality governance.

Deliver nursing, Allied Health Professionals, quality and patient safety priorities in line with Trust strategy, national policy, regulation and secure care requirements.

Promote an open learning culture, using insight from incidents, complaints, safeguarding, audits, inspections and feedback to improve practice.

Provide assurance through quality metrics, risk review, regulatory and CQC readiness, clear escalation and reporting to senior and Board-level forums.

Develop a safe, skilled and sustainable nursing and Allied Health Professionals workforce through effective recruitment, retention, development, establishments, rosters and skill mix.

Champion patient and carer involvement, complaints and PALS learning, ensuring experience and co-production shape service improvement.

Work with clinical, corporate, commissioner, regulatory and system partners; use data to identify priorities; manage budgets and resources effectively; and deputise for senior leaders as required.

The post holder may undertake other duties appropriate to the grade, hours and scope of the role.

Person Specification

Knowledge and experience

Essential

• Provide an example that demonstrates your senior clinical, operational or professional leadership experience within a complex healthcare organisation. Describe your role, the challenges you faced, the actions you took and the outcomes achieved.

Knowledge and experience

Desirable

• Describe your experience of working within secure, forensic, mental health, learning disability, neurodevelopmental or other specialist services. Explain the setting, your responsibilities and how your experience is relevant to this role.

Behaviours and values

Essential

• Provide an example of how you have demonstrated compassionate, inclusive and professional leadership in line with organisational values. Describe what you did and the impact this had on patients, carers, staff or services.

Behaviours and values

Desirable

• Provide an example of how you have involved patients, carers or families in co-production or service improvement. Describe their involvement, your contribution and the difference it made.

Skills and abilities

Essential

• Provide an example of a complex change, service improvement or transformation programme you have led within a healthcare environment. Describe your approach, how you managed challenges and the measurable outcomes achieved.

Skills and abilities

Desirable

• Provide an example of a dashboard, quality metric or assurance report you have designed or developed. Explain how you used data, how the information was presented and how it supported governance, assurance or improvement.

Closing Date: 22 November 2026