About this role
Job summary
Working Full time: 37.5 hours per week
We are seeking an enthusiastic and experienced Practice Development Midwife to lead the education, training and professional development agenda within our maternity service. This is an exciting opportunity for a motivated midwife with a passion for learning, quality improvement and patient safety to influence and support the development of a highly skilled maternity workforce.
The successful candidate will work closely with the multidisciplinary team to design, deliver and evaluate education programmes, ensuring staff maintain the skills, knowledge and competencies required to provide safe, effective and evidence-based care. You will play a key role in supporting mandatory training, induction, preceptorship, clinical competency assessment, implementation of national guidance and learning from incidents, complaints and audits.
This role offers the opportunity to drive innovation, support workforce development and contribute to service improvements that positively impact women, babies and families.
If you are an experienced midwife with excellent communication, teaching and leadership skills and are passionate about developing others, we would love to hear from you.
Main duties of the job Lead the planning, delivery and evaluation of mandatory and specialist maternity education programmes. Develop and maintain clinical competencies and skills assessments for maternity staff. Support staff induction, preceptorship and ongoing professional development. Monitor and improve compliance with mandatory training and professional requirements. Facilitate training needs analyses and develop annual education plans aligned to service priorities. Design and deliver teaching programmes, study days and simulation training. Support implementation of national maternity safety initiatives, guidelines and best practice. Lead educational responses to incidents, complaints, audits and quality improvement programmes. Work collaboratively with ward managers and clinical leaders to improve standards of care. Support policy, guideline and pathway development across maternity services. Promote evidence-based practice, research, audit and service improvement activities. Provide expert advice and professional leadership on workforce development issues. Evaluate education programmes and produce reports demonstrating outcomes and impact. Support workforce planning and contribute to maternity service objectives and business planning. Ensure compliance with NMC standards, CQC requirements and Trust policies
About us
The Trust's services are provided from three locations:
o The Countess of Chester Hospital: providing 473 general and acute beds.o Ellesmere Port Hospital: providing 60 beds as a rehabilitation, intermediate and outpatient facility.o Tarporley War Memorial Hospital: a base for community services which serve the local rural population.
The Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust employs 5,964 staff (headcount) to provide care and treatment to a population of over 400,000 people living in Chester and West Cheshire which includes Ellesmere Port and Neston as well as the Deeside area of Flintshire.
The Trust works collaboratively within the wider Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care System. Due to its location on the border with North Wales, the Trust also works closely with the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.
The Trust treats patients from England and some parts of Wales. During 2024/2025, there were approximately 643,000 patient attendances (inpatient, A&E, outpatient and diagnostic) ranging from a simple outpatient appointment to major cancer surgery
Job description Job responsibilities
See Job Description for further details.
Recruitment selection processes are based on competence (see Person specification) and values. An applicant guide to help and support you through your recruitment journey can be accessed at the bottom of this page.
If you have a disability that meets the definition set out in the Equality Act 2010, and you can show that you meet the essential criteria described in the person specification for an available position, please answer YES to the question: Do you wish to be considered under the Guaranteed Interview Scheme?
Please inform the team if you have any special support needs to be considered as part of the interview and selection processes.
The trust offers a Guaranteed Interview Scheme to any armed forces community applicants who meet the essential criteria for the post.
If a DBS is required for your role, you are encouraged to enrol for the DBS Update Service. A small annual fee applies which is payable to the DBS Service.Please note applicants will be required to pay for their DBS check. Costswill be deducted from their salary over the first three months of employment.
New entrants to the NHS will commence on the minimum of the scale stated above.
Applicants requiring sponsorship may wish to determine the likelihood of obtaining sponsorship for this position by assessing themselves against the criteria on the gov.uk website - https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa.
The Trust will not sponsor where the starting salary does not meet immigration rules
Applicants are advised to apply early as if a large number of applications are received for this post, we reserve the right to close the vacancy prior to the advertised date.
Good luck with your application.
Person Specification
Qualifications Essential
Registered Midwife Degree in Midwifery Teaching and assessing qualification (e.g. Mentorship, Practice Assessor/Supervisor or equivalent) Evidence of ongoing professional development and continuous learning
Desirable
Relevant speciality Master's module Evidence of advanced midwifery studies NLS Course PROMPT Provider Course
Knowledge Essential
5 years post registration training Experience of teaching & assessing in clinical practice Evidence of participating in service development and implementing change Evidence of designing teaching packages & competency programmes
Desirable
Change management experience Demonstrates a working knowledge of CQC Core Standards and maternity Transformation
Skills Essential
Evidence of multi- disciplinary working and can demonstrate principles of effective team working Ability to co-ordinate own workload Evidence of developing and delivering training programmes
Desirable
Experience of research and audit and implementing change as a result of findings Experience of problem solving, analysing complex information and interrupting data
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).
Employer details Employer name Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Address Countess of Chester Hospital
Liverpool Road
Chester
CH2 1UL
United Kingdom
Employer's website https://www.coch.nhs.uk/working-with-us.aspx (Opens in a new tab)