About this role
Job summary
Provides clinical leadership and specialist expertise in Patient Safety and Quality Assurance (QA) to support the development, delivery, and oversight of planning, assurance, and improvement across the ICB.
The post holder is the ICB's principal specialist for patient safety assurance, responsible for developing, maintaining, and applying robust quality assurance frameworks that give the ICB confidence that commissioned providers are meeting their statutory patient safety obligations.
Supports translation of system priorities into operational patient safety and quality assurance frameworks, ensuring alignment with national policy, regulatory standards, and evidence-based practice.
Leads and contributes to programmes that strengthen patient safety, quality assurance, and continuous improvement, reducing harm and improving patient outcomes and triangulation of experience and quality intelligence.
Main duties of the job
- Provide clinical leadership for patient safety and quality assurance across planning, commissioning, and improvement activity
- Support implementation of robust quality assurance frameworks to monitor safety, effectiveness, and quality of services
- Ensure patient safety principles, risk management, and quality governance processes are embedded within commissioning and service specifications
- Support oversight of provider safety performance, including incidents, never events, serious incidents, and learning from deaths
- Lead and contribute to patient safety assurance processes, including reviews, deep dives, thematic analysis, and quality visits
- Analyse safety and quality data to identify risks, trends, and improvement opportunities
- Support development of high-quality assurance reports for committees, providing clinical insight and recommendations
- Escalate patient safety risks through governance structures and support mitigation planning
- Contribute to incident investigation, learning, and assurance processes, ensuring learning is embedded into practice
- Promote a culture of safety, openness, learning, and continuous improvement
About us
Working for our Integrated Care Boards will require you contributing to a shared purpose of improving outcomes for the communities we serve as part of a wider health and social care system. The organisation's ethos is rooted in integrity, collaboration and accountability, with a strong focus on putting its patient population at the centre of everything it does and delivering services to improve patient outcomes, patient experience and added years of optimised health. As part of the newly formed cluster bringing together NHS Northamptonshire ICB and NHS Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland ICB, staff are expected to work flexibly and collaboratively across organisational boundaries to support a joined-up approach to strategic commissioning and service improvement. There is an expectation of 40% on patch working, with office bases at County Hall, Glenfield, Leicester and Haylock House, Kettering. Staff can choose which office is their primary base for contractual purposes and travel claims.
This role will require a minimum of 2 days 'on patch' working in Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Rutland in our 2 main offices or partner sites
Job description
Job responsibilities
Please refer to the attached Job Description and Person Specification for detailed information on requirements of post.
Person Specification
Knowledge, Training and Experience
Essential
- Educated to degree level in relevant subject or equivalent level of experience of working at a similar level in specialist area
- Relevant clinical qualification; NMC, HCPC
- Extensive knowledge of and expertise in specialisms relevant to function and role
- Proven and significant leadership experience
- Evidence of post qualifying continuing professional development
- Must have an understanding of the background to and aims of current healthcare policy and appreciate the implications of this on engagement
- Should have an appreciation of the relationship between the Department of Health, NHS England and individual provider and commissioning organisations
Communication Skills
Essential
- Developed communication skills for delivering key messages to a range of stakeholders both internal and external (including outside the NHS) to the organisation, some at very senior level
- Good presentational skills for conveying complex concepts
- Ability to use informed persuasion to influence others
Analytical
Essential
- Ability to identify risks, anticipate issues, create solutions and resolve problems in relation to project or service delivery
- Ability to understand a broad range of complex information quickly and make decisions where opinions differ/no obvious solution
Planning Skills
Essential
- Evidence of planning and delivering programmes and projects and services on time
Autonomy
Essential
- Ability to work without supervision, providing specialist advice to the organisation, working to tight and often changing timescales
- Interpreting national policy for implementation
Management Skills
Essential
- Skills for direct line management and job management
- Skills for delivering results through managing others and using a range of levers in the absence of direct line management responsibility
- Skills for managing relationships with a range of different stakeholders
Physical Skills
Essential
- Working knowledge of Microsoft Office with intermediate keyboard skills
Equality and Diversity
Essential
- Demonstrates knowledge and understanding of equality of opportunity and diversity taking into account and being aware of how individual actions contribute to and make a difference to the equality agenda
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
NHS Northamptonshire Integrated Care Board
Address
County Hall
Glenfield
Leicester
LE3 8TB
United Kingdom
Employer's website
https://www.icnorthamptonshire.org.uk/icb (Opens in a new tab)