Ward Leader: Sponsorship Available

Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust

Job summary

Are you an exceptional nurse leader ready for your next challenge?

As Ward Leader, you will provide visible, compassionate, and effective leadership to a multidisciplinary team, ensuring the delivery of safe, high-quality, patient-centred care within a busy inpatient environment. You will be professionally accountable for the operational management of the ward, leading on quality, patient safety, workforce development, patient flow, and service improvement.

You will work closely with the Clinical Matron, medical colleagues, and the wider multidisciplinary team to create a positive culture that promotes excellence, continuous learning, and innovation. As a role model for professional practice, you will inspire and support staff to deliver outstanding care, ensuring patients and their families receive the best possible experience.

The successful candidate will be an experienced registered nurse with strong leadership skills, a passion for developing others, and a commitment to driving quality improvement. They will be responsible for maintaining high standards of clinical care, ensuring compliance with governance and regulatory requirements, and leading the team to achieve key performance, safety, and quality objectives.

This is an exciting opportunity for an enthusiastic and forward-thinking leader who is committed to making a lasting difference to patient outcomes, staff wellbeing, and the future development of the service.

Main duties of the job

The Ward Leader provides clinical, operational, and professional leadership to ensure the delivery of safe, effective, and compassionate patient care.

Key responsibilities include:

Leading the day-to-day management of the ward and maintaining safe staffing levels.

Providing visible leadership and support to nursing and multidisciplinary teams.

Promoting high standards of patient safety, quality, and patient experience.

Managing incidents, complaints, risks, and safeguarding concerns, ensuring learning is embedded into practice.

Supporting patient flow, bed management, and effective discharge planning.

Leading staff recruitment, appraisal, performance management, wellbeing, and professional development.

Ensuring compliance with Trust policies, clinical governance, and professional standards.

Managing ward resources effectively, including workforce, equipment, and budgets.

Leading audits, quality improvement, and service development initiatives.

Working collaboratively with the Clinical Matron and multidisciplinary teams to deliver operational and strategic objectives.

Acting as a role model for Trust values through compassionate, inclusive leadership.

Supporting service transformation and continuous improvement to enhance patient outcomes.

The post holder will maintain clinical credibility and contribute to direct patient care when required.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

  • Registered Nurse with current NMC registration
  • Degree in Nursing or equivalent professional qualification
  • Evidence of ongoing professional development relevant to leadership and clinical practice
  • Compassionate, visible, and approachable leader

Desirable

  • Knowledge of workforce planning and e-rostering systems
  • Experience analysing and using performance data to drive improvement
  • Acts as a positive role model for Trust values and behaviours

Experience

Essential

  • Experience of leading and managing teams
  • Knowledge of governance, risk management, and patient safety frameworks
  • Resilient and adaptable under pressure

Desirable

  • Practice Assessor/Mentorship qualification
  • Experience of managing budgets and resources
  • Ability to influence and lead change

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Closing Date: 29 November 2026

To apply for this job please visit apps.trac.jobs.