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NHS England

About
NHS England leads the NHS in England to deliver high quality care for all. We support NHS organisations to deliver better outcomes for our patients and communities, work to get the best possible value for taxpayers, and drive improvement across the NHS.
Through our seven regional teams, NHS England supports local integrated care systems, made up of public services that provide health and care – NHS organisations, primary care professionals, local councils, social care providers and the community, voluntary and social enterprise sector – to improve the health of the population, improve the quality of care, tackle inequalities and deliver care more efficiently.
Contact
- Address
- Wellington House
- 133-155 Waterloo Road
- London
- SE1 8UG
- Contact Number
- 0300 330 1369
Head of Patient Safety Advice & Guidance
Accepting applications until: 28-Sep-2025 23:59
Vacancy status: Open
Accepting applications until: 28-Sep-2025 23:59
Key details
Location
- Gwefan
- Any NHS England base
- Tref
- Nationally
- Cod post
- SE1 8UG
- Major / Minor Region
- West Yorkshire
Contract type & working pattern
- Contract
- Fixed term: 10 months (until 1st October 2026 - Secondment only for current NHS employees)
- Oriau
- Full time
- Flexible working
Salary
- Cyflog
- £91,342 - £105,337 per annum (Exclusive of London Weighting)
- Cyfnod cyflog
- Yearly
- Gradd
- (NHS AfC: Band 8d)
Specialty
- Prif leoliad
- Head of Patient Safety Advice & Guidance
Our Organisation
The NHS is building a culture that is positive, compassionate and inclusive – and we all have our part to play.
As employers we are committed to protecting and promoting the physical and mental health and wellbeing of all our colleagues. This underpins our values as set out in the NHS Constitution and supports us to be an Employer of Choice, while helping our colleagues to deliver high quality services for our patients and communities.
As a flexible employer, we want to support you to work in a way that is best for the NHS, our patients and you. Talk to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that’s a job share, part time, hybrid working or another flexible pattern. In addition, although the role advertised may have a ‘home’ office base indicated, we remain committed to supporting flexibility around workplace locations. If it works for the service, we will do our best to make it work for you.
We are an accredited Living Wage Employer which means that every colleague working for our organisation and third-party contractors will earn a real Living Wage. We are one of over 15,000 organisations, who voluntarily chose to pay the real Living Wage.
Trosolwg o'r swydd
The National Patient Safety Team is searching for an exceptional individual to lead the Advice and Guidance team at a national level on a fixed term/ secondment basis starting in December 2025 until 1 October 2026. This is a unique opportunity to lead a team of clinical subject experts developing advice and guidance, including National Patient Safety Alerts, in order to meet NHS England’s statutory obligations in relation to sharing safety information in England.
As the Head of Advice and Guidance the post holder will work as part of a dynamic team, under the direction of the Deputy Director of Patient Safety (Insight), who engage with a wide range of stakeholders from within the NHS and across industry, Royal Colleges and regulatory bodies. This engagement supports the delivery of an effective service supporting staff and stakeholders in the health and social care and those supporting patient safety.
The role calls for an experienced clinician, registered with an appropriate UK regulator, who has extensive senior leadership experience. The right candidate will preferably have wide operational and governance experience and the knowledge and skills to bring information together from wide ranging clinical settings to create cogent and actionable advice and guidance.
Advert
You will have a good understanding of regional/national patient safety issues and be able to offer and develop solutions through the provision of clinically driven advice and guidance. You will lead, develop and deploy the team to deliver high quality and timely information in line with business plan priorities and statutory duties.
On a day to day basis you will manage a team of clinically skilled staff as they utilise insight and knowledge of patient safety risks to recommend suitable actions that address new, under recognised or emerging risks to patient safety. We are looking for a leader who will support the team through relationship building, knowledge sharing and experience of working with others. The ability to approach problems with positive attitude to resolution is a key aspect of the role. You will lead on the development and implementation of the system to ensure information is properly shared across the team, Directorate and the wider NHS organisations as appropriate.
Gweithio i'n sefydliad
Our work supports the NHS to deliver high quality services for patients and best value for taxpayers.
Our staff bring expertise across hundreds of specialisms — including clinical, operational, commissioning, technology, data science, cyber security, software engineering, education, and commercial — enabling us to design and deliver high-quality NHS services.
We lead the NHS in England by:
- Enabling local systems and providers to improve the health of their people and patients and reduce health inequalities
- Making the NHS a great place to work, where our people can make a difference and achieve their potential
- Working collaboratively to ensure our healthcare workforce has the right knowledge, skills, values and behaviours to deliver accessible, compassionate care
- Optimising the use of digital technology, research, and innovation
- Delivering value for money
Earlier this year, the Government announced that NHS England will gradually merge with the Department of Health and Social Care, leading to full integration. The aim is to create a smaller, more strategic centre that reduces duplication and eliminates waste.
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 recruitment process.
Swydd-ddisgrifiad a phrif gyfrifoldebau manwl
Essential criteria includes:
- Experience of working in either a patient safety or senior leadership role within healthcare.
- Effective stakeholder management at all levels, maintaining relationships with key and high-profile stakeholders, such as key strategic regional and national policy makers.
- Experience of working with information, interpreting, presenting and publishing potentially challenging information that will lead to improved patient safety.
- Significant experience of leading, managing and motivating teams of multi-skilled people to deliver corporate business objectives and through periods of change.
- Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to work with and through others. Excellent communication skills, verbal and written including report writing.
Skills and experience we are looking for include:
- Excellent communication skills and ability to provide complex information
to a wide range of internal and external stakeholders. - Ability to build and nurture key relationships and maintain networks internally and externally, on a local, regional and national level.
- There will be occasional travel across England with the need for overnight stays (where relevant), some of which maybe consecutive. Hybrid working is supported for this role.
You can find further details about the role, including key responsibilities and accountabilities, alongside the organisational structure and person specification in the attached Job Description and other supporting documents.
Secondments
Applicants from within the NHS will be offered on a secondment basis only, agreement should be obtained from their employer prior to submitting the application.
Our commitments to you
We are passionate about creating an inclusive workplace that promotes and values diversity. We know that different ideas, perspectives and backgrounds create a stronger and more creative work environment that delivers better patient outcomes. We strive to ensure our people feel trusted, valued and empowered. We’re passionate about nurturing and developing people. When you join us, we want you to grow and excel, and we offer many opportunities for you to do that. We welcome your talent and enthusiasm irrespective of age, disability, neuro-divergence, sex, gender identity and gender expression, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, sexual orientation, or other personal circumstances. We have policies and procedures to ensure that all applicants are treated fairly and consistently at every stage of the recruitment process, including the consideration of reasonable adjustments for people who have a disability and/or who are neuro-divergent.
We welcome applications from disabled candidates. If you meet all the essential criteria, you will be guaranteed an interview.
Your application is your opportunity to demonstrate to us how you meet the requirements of the role. Whilst we appreciate that you may have had support with your application (e.g., using AI technology or guidance from a trusted individual), it’s important that the information contained within your application reflects your own knowledge, skill, and experience and we trust that you apply on that basis.
If applying for this role on a secondment basis, please make sure you have obtained prior agreement from your current line manager to apply for this position.
Please note that we currently do not accept applications via recruitment agencies.
To comply with the HM Government Functional Standard GovS 007, and specifically the Personnel Security Standards 2024, individuals employed or contracted by NHS England may be required to undergo a Baseline Personnel Security Standards check, dependent on the role.
The NHS Business Services Authority is responsible for the processing of your application; a privacy notice is attached to advise you on how we will process your personal data.
If you have applied via NHS Jobs, your submitted application will be imported into our preferred third-party recruitment system. All subsequent information regarding your application will be generated from apps.trac.jobs. If you are appointed to a post, information will also be transferred into the NHS Electronic Staff Records system.
You will not be able to track the progress of your application or receive messages through NHS Jobs, and furthermore, as an employer, we will not be able to respond to any emails sent to us via NHS Jobs. If you have a query relating to your application, please contact the recruitment team on [email protected] or 0300 330 1369. You can view our Privacy Notice here.
NHS England
Applicant requirements
Person specification
Qualifications
Meini prawf hanfodol
- Healthcare professional with relevant clinical qualification and registration.
- Extensive and senior experience in patient safety investigation, clinical governance and/or clinical risk management.
Knowledge and experience
Meini prawf hanfodol
- Proven and significant experience of working across a wide range of clinical specialties/environments.
- Proven and significant clinical knowledge, supported by evidence of post qualifying and continuing professional development.
Meini prawf dymunol
- Proven and significant knowledge and experience of national-level patient safety policy and strategy development and delivery
Skills Capabilities & Attributes
Meini prawf hanfodol
- Well developed communication skills with the ability to communicate on highly complex matters and difficult situations.
- High level analytical skills and the ability to draw qualitative and quantitative data from a wide range of sources and present in a clear concise manner.
values and behaviours
Meini prawf hanfodol
- Values diversity and difference; operates with integrity and openness.
- Personal resilience and ability to provide emotional support to direct reports and colleagues when developing advice and guidance in response to incidents of a distressing nature,
Documents
- Job description and Person specification (PDF, 456.6KB)
- Occupational Functional Requirements Form (PDF, 69.8KB)
- NHSE - Verification of ID and RTW Guide (PDF, 306.6KB)
- Guide to Completing Your Application (DOCX, 42.7KB)
- Note for Existing NHS Employees applying for Fixed Term vacancies (DOCX, 26.2KB)
- Redundancy Clawback (PDF, 16.7KB)
Further details / informal visits contact
- Enw
- Gina Winter-Bates
- Teitl y swydd
- Deputy Director Patient Safety (Insight)
- Cyfeiriad ebost
- [email protected]
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