Regional Chief Midwife @ NHS England

Job summary

We are seeking an experienced and inspirational midwifery leader to join the South West Clinical Directorate as the Regional Chief Midwife.

This is a high-profile strategic leadership role, providing professional leadership, expert advice and oversight for maternity and neonatal services across the South West. Working closely with the Chief Midwifery Officer, NHS England national and regional teams, Integrated Care Boards, provider organisations and key stakeholders, the postholder will support the delivery of national priorities and drive improvement across maternity and neonatal care.

As the senior midwifery professional within the region, the Regional Chief Midwife will lead programmes that improve quality, safety and outcomes for women, babies and families. The role will champion personalised care, support the reduction of health inequalities and promote evidence-based practice across maternity and neonatal services.

The successful candidate will be an influential system leader with substantial senior maternity experience and a proven track record of delivering improvement through collaboration and partnership working. They will work across organisational boundaries to reduce unwarranted variation, strengthen clinical leadership and support the delivery of safe, effective and sustainable services.

This is an excellent opportunity to shape the future of maternity and neonatal services across the South West and make a lasting difference to women, babies and families.

Main duties of the job

The Regional Chief Midwife will

• Provide strategic and professional leadership for maternity and neonatal services across the South West region.
• Act as a regional ambassador and advocate for women, babies and families, promoting safe, personalised and equitable care.
• Lead the development and delivery of regional maternity and neonatal strategies, improvement programmes and delivery plans.
• Work collaboratively with Integrated Care Boards, provider organisations, Local Maternity and Neonatal Systems and wider partners to drive quality improvement and service transformation.
• Provide expert clinical and professional advice to senior leaders across the health and care system.
• Support delivery of national maternity and neonatal priorities, including safety, quality, workforce and health inequalities programmes.
• Lead regional oversight and assurance of maternity and neonatal services, identifying opportunities for improvement and sharing best practice.
• Build strong relationships with national, regional and local stakeholders to support innovation, collaboration and improvement.
• Represent the South West region at national and regional meetings, forums and professional networks.
• Promote a culture of continuous learning, safety, improvement and compassionate leadership across maternity and neonatal services.

About us

NHS England has a wide range of statutory functions, responsibilities and regulatory powers. These are focused on supporting the wider NHS to deliver high quality care, as well as doing those things that are best done once for the whole NHS.

Our staff bring expertise across clinical, operational, commissioning, technology, data science, cyber security, software engineering, education, and commercial specialisms -- enabling us to design and deliver high-quality NHS services.

In March 2025, the Government announced that NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care will increasingly merge functions, ultimately leading to NHS England being fully integrated into the department.

If you currently work within the NHS and if successful at interview, we will initiate an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR).This retrieves key data from your current or previous NHS employer to support onboarding, including competency status, Continuous Service Dates (CSD), and annual leave entitlement. You may opt out at any stage of the process.

Colleagues with a contractual office base are expected to spend, on average, at least 40% of their time working in our offices.

Staff recruited from outside the NHS will usually be appointed at the bottom of the pay band.

We cannot offer visa sponsorship for external candidates.

Job description

Job responsibilities

The Regional Chief Midwife is the senior midwifery professional within the South West region, providing strategic and professional leadership for maternity and neonatal services and acting as the principal source of expert midwifery advice to the Regional Chief Nurse, Executive Team, Integrated Care Boards, provider organisations and wider system partners.

The postholder will lead the delivery of regional maternity priorities, supporting systems to improve quality, safety and outcomes for women, babies and families, while driving the implementation of national maternity policy and transformation programmes.

Strategic Leadership

• Provide strategic and professional leadership for maternity and neonatal services across the South West region.
• Act as the regional champion for women, babies and families, promoting safe, personalised and equitable maternity care.
• Advise the Regional Chief Nurse, Regional Executive Team and national colleagues on maternity and neonatal policy, strategy and service delivery.
• Lead the development and implementation of regional maternity strategies and delivery plans aligned to national priorities.
• Represent the South West region at national, regional and system-level forums, influencing policy and service development.

Maternity Transformation and System Improvement

• Lead the regional delivery of the Maternity Transformation Programme and wider maternity and neonatal improvement priorities.
• Work collaboratively with Integrated Care Boards, Local Maternity and Neonatal Systems, provider organisations and clinical networks to drive service transformation and improve outcomes.
• Support systems to reduce unwarranted variation, tackle inequalities and improve access, experience and outcomes for women and families.
• Promote innovation, evidence-based practice and the adoption of best practice across maternity and neonatal services.

Quality, Safety and Assurance

• Provide regional oversight and assurance of maternity and neonatal quality, safety and performance.
• Support the delivery of the national maternity safety ambition and improvement programmes.
• Work with providers, regulators and system partners to identify risks, share learning and support sustainable improvement.
• Provide expert input into quality assurance processes, governance reviews, risk summits and improvement interventions where required.
• Support organisations requiring targeted improvement support to strengthen leadership, culture, governance and clinical outcomes.

Professional Midwifery Leadership

• Provide professional leadership and support to Heads of Midwifery, Directors of Midwifery and Chief Nurses across the South West.
• Develop and nurture a strong network of maternity leaders, promoting collaboration, shared learning and leadership development.
• Champion workforce development, succession planning and the future sustainability of the maternity workforce.
• Maintain strong relationships with professional bodies, higher education institutions and national partners to support professional standards and service improvement.

Partnership Working and Stakeholder Engagement

• Build and maintain effective relationships with national, regional and local stakeholders across health, social care, academia, professional bodies and the voluntary sector.
• Ensure the voices of women, families and communities are reflected in service improvement and decision-making through effective engagement and partnership working.
• Use influencing, negotiation and collaborative leadership skills to achieve regional priorities and support system-wide improvement.

Corporate and Operational Responsibilities

• Lead designated programmes, projects and workstreams, ensuring delivery against agreed objectives, timescales and budgets.
• Ensure robust governance, performance management and risk management arrangements are in place across areas of responsibility.
• Prepare and present reports, briefings and recommendations to senior leaders, boards and committees.
• Contribute to the delivery of NHS England's wider strategic objectives and organisational priorities.

You can find further details about the role, including key responsibilities and accountabilities, alongsideperson specification in the attached Job Description and other supporting documents.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Registered Midwife
• Educated to Masters level or equivalent academic level

Desirable

• Experience of project and programme management techniques and tools including for example, Prince 2 or Managing Successful Projects

Knowledge and experience

Essential

• In depth additional expert knowledge acquired over a significant period of time in Contemporary leadership and knowledge of clinical maternity services that has delivered clear and measurable improvements for service users and the teams that support them
• In-depth specialist knowledge and expertise acquired through significant experience in maternity services, with subject matter expertise across key areas of maternity care, including national policy, strategy, service transformation, quality improvement, safety and professional leadership.
• A senior midwife with expertise in driving maternity service quality improvement and transformation across both local trusts and the wider health economy
• Ability to influence senior leaders (e.g., LMS and ICS chairs, CEO's or other board-level colleagues. This may include, board level experience of leading and delivering complex change and strategy development programmes in a politically sensitive and complex environment
• Significant management experience at senior level in the NHS or other public healthcare related industry

Skills Capabilities & Attributes

Essential

• Have an understanding of the background to and aims of current healthcare policy and appreciate the implications of this on engagement with stakeholders
• Have an appreciation of the relationship between the Department of Health, NHS England, CQC, NHSR, HEE, PHE and individual provider and commissioning organisations
• Commissioning expertise in commissioning of safe maternity services Extensive knowledge of quality assurance processes locally, regionally and nationally
• Extensive knowledge of clinical governance processes and how they contribute to safe maternity services
• Excellent professional strategic networks and an understanding of how these can be used to improve maternity care

Values and Behaviours

Essential

• Commitment to and focused on quality, promotes high standards in all they do. Able to make a connection between their work and the benefit to patients and the public
• Will consider the most effective way to promote equality of opportunity and good working relationships in employment and service delivery and has the ability to take actions which support and promote this agenda
• Consistently looks to improve what they do, looks for successful tried and tested ways of working, and also seeks out innovation
• Knowledge of social inclusion & health inequalities and can articulate the benefits of the WRES standards
• Values diversity and difference operates with integrity and openness Self-awareness in terms of emotional intelligence, biases and personal triggers with cultural sensitivity and awareness

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.

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

NHS England

Address

South West Base - Bristol, Taunton and Plymouth

TA1 2PX

United Kingdom

Employer's website

https://www.england.nhs.uk/about/working-for/ (Opens in a new tab)