Associate Director of Quality; Patient Safety

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Are you ready to shape patient safety and experience across what will become one of England’s largest Foundation Trusts? University Hospitals Bristol & Weston NHS Foundation Trust and North Bristol NHS Trust are working together as NHS Bristol Group, with the ambition to become a single Foundation Trust in Summer 2026. This transformation will enhance outcomes for patients, staff, and our wider communities.

We are seeking an Associate Director of Quality (Patient Safety & Experience) to provide strategic leadership across the Group. You will drive an integrated approach to human factors, patient safety, and patient experience—embedding safety science, improving experience, and generating insight that supports continuous improvement. In this highly influential role you will align people, policy, practice, and partnerships to strengthen how we work and amplify our impact.

You’ll join forward‑thinking, ambitious organisations that value innovation, curiosity, and learning. It’s a dynamic environment with real opportunity to shape our future direction. Are you ready to make a meaningful difference?

• Staffing:
  Responsible for approximately 42.0 WTE across the Group Quality patient safety and experience function.
• Budget:
  Direct budget responsibility for approximately £2.5 million, with wider influence over budgets linked to quality and governance programmes.
• Portfolio:
  Group-wide delivery leadership responsibility for Patient Safety investigation, learning response & action oversight, training and education, Human Factors strategic development and delivery, Complaints & PALS services, Patient & Carer Experience strategic planning & delivery, Sustaining and leading the development of patient and carer partners, supporting Digital safety practice – working collaboratively with CCIO, CNIO and digital safety leads.
• Impact:
  Critical to achieving and sustaining “Good” and “Outstanding” CQC ratings, enabling corporate and clinical teams to gain quality insight for assurance and improvement to enhance care delivery.

• Internal:
  Group Executive Team, Group Directors, Divisional Directors, Clinical Directors, senior nursing and medical leaders;
  Clinical and corporate functions:
  Microbiology, Infectious Diseases and Pharmacy Teams, Tissue Viability services, estates, risk, digital, data and analytics teams, Emergency Preparedness, Resilience & Response (EPRR);
  Patient and staff networks.
• External: NHS England, Care Quality Commission, Integrated Care Board, academic partners, Health Education England, professional regulators (NMC, GMC, HCPC), Health Innovation Network and other specialist networks, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO), patient partners (including patient safety partners), voluntary/community organisations, patients, and carers.

• Provide strategic leadership for the development and integration of Group-wide patient safety and experience strategic plans, policies and teams, ensuring alignment with organisational strategy and national priorities.
• Work with the Associate Director of Quality:
  Insight, Effectiveness & Regulation to lead the management and continuous improvement of digital systems for patient safety and other incident types, PALS, complaints, patient feedback systems (including the Friends and Family Test) and contribute to embedding the Trust’s Quality Management System.
• Translate complex patient safety and…