Ward Manager

County Durham & Darlington NHS Foundation Trust

The closing date is 30 September 2026

An exciting opportunity hasarisen to join our Critical Care team as a Ward Manager at Darlington Memorial Hospital. This key leadership role has responsibility for the day-to-day management and professional leadership of the nursing team, ensuring the delivery of safe, effective and high-quality patient care.

We are looking for an experienced and highly motivated Critical Care Nurse with strong leadership and communication skills and a passion for developing people and services. Working with the wider Critical Care leadership and multidisciplinary teams, the Ward Manager will provide visible and compassionate leadership, support workforce development and safe staffing, and lead improvements in quality, governance and clinical practice.

The successful candidate will provide visible, professional and clinical leadership to the Critical Care nursing team, with responsibility for the safe and effective day-to-day management of the unit. They will provide specialist clinical expertise and ensure the assessment, planning,implementation and evaluation of care reflects current evidence and delivers consistently high standards of safe, patient-focused critical care.

Working closely with the Matron and wider multidisciplinary team, the Ward Manager will lead and develop the nursing workforce, promoting apositive and inclusive culture where staff are supported to develop their knowledge, skills and professional practice. They will have responsibility forsafe staffing and skill mix, workforce planning and development, quality and governance, performance and the effective use of resources.

You must be able to produce ALL certificates stated essential in the person specification or you will not be able to complete pre-employment checks.

We provide hospital services from two acute sites - Darlington Memorial Hospital and University Hospital of North Durham. We have a centre for planned care in Bishop Auckland and provide care from community hospitals in Chester-le-Street, Shotley Bridge, Barnard Castle, Sedgefield and Weardale as well as over 80 other community based settings and providing care in patients' homes.

We particularly welcome applications from disabled and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) candidates as BAME and disabled people are currently under-represented.

Full Job Description s can be found in the adverts supporting documents.

Over reliance onAI-generated content is discouraged and may diminish the applicant's chances ofsuccess.

The post holder will contribute to the development and implementation of specialist protocols, standards and services within Critical Care, using evidence, audit, incidents, patient feedback and clinical outcomes to drive continuous improvement. As a senior clinical leader, they will work collaboratively across professional and organisational boundaries, representing

Critical Care at relevant meetings and providing assurance regarding the quality, safety and performance of the service.

• Registered Nurse (adult) on part 1 of the NMC register
• Valid UK NMC PIN

• Able to travel across Trust sites to meet the requirements of the post

• Experience with in a leadership role
• Clinical expertise in the area of practice
• Awareness / experience of budget and resource management
• Experience of staff line management
• Experience of Risk Management
• Experience of managing challenging situations

• Effective communication and interpersonal skills
• Effective organisational skills
• Management of budgets
• Experience of change management, Quality / service improvement.
• Ability to…