Director of Children's Nursing & Quality

The Director of Children's Nursing and Quality post sits within one of three Accountable Care Groups at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, leading nursing and quality across the group. The role covers patient safety, safeguarding, infection prevention and control, and regulatory assurance, working with the Managing Director and senior colleagues. The post sits on the senior leadership team with a 12-week probation for starts from 1 October 2026.

Student visa holders can only be offered full-time permanent contracts if they hold or have applied for a Graduate visa.

• Provide professional nursing leadership across the ACG
• Lead the nursing, quality and patient safety agenda across the ACG
• Lead quality, patient experience, safeguarding, infection prevention and control, regulatory assurance and clinical governance
• Ensure the highest standards of nursing practice, quality, safety and patient experience
• Drive continuous quality improvement and innovation
• Lead safe staffing, workforce planning and professional development
• Champion a culture that puts patients, families and staff at the heart of care
• Work with the Managing Director and senior clinical, operational and corporate leaders to deliver care and strategic objectives

• Master's degree in a relevant subject, or equivalent senior professional knowledge and experience in nursing leadership, quality governance, patient safety, regulatory assurance and service improvement
• Recent, relevant CPD in nursing, quality, patient safety, leadership and management

• Current NMC registration as a First Level Registered Children's Nurse

• Senior children's nursing leadership in a large, complex NHS organisation, including responsibility for quality, safety and workforce
• Leading quality, safety, patient experience and clinical governance, including improvement after incidents, complaints, audits or inspections
• Senior team working on quality, performance, workforce and finance, including delegated budgets and productivity
• Leading nursing workforce planning, safe staffing reviews, skill mix, recruitment and retention
• Leading service transformation, redesign and improvement across complex clinical services

• NMC professional standards, revalidation, NHS quality governance, PSIRF, risk management and CQC requirements
• Safeguarding, infection prevention and control, patient experience and clinical effectiveness in complex services
• Wider NHS context, including integrated care systems, national policy, workforce challenges and financial constraints
• Equality, diversity and inclusion, and digital, data and information governance requirements
• Building relationships and influencing across professional, organisational and system boundaries to reach consensus
• Analysing complex information and making sound judgements; directing evidence-based programmes; chairing senior meetings and writing clear reports

• Committed to improving patient and staff experience, with personal resilience and visible, compassionate leadership under pressure
• Able to work flexibly, travel between Trust sites and external meetings, and join senior on-call arrangements

• Formal leadership, management, quality improvement or patient safety qualification, or equivalent applied experience
• Post-graduate study or advanced professional development in nursing, quality, safety or organisational leadership
• Experience in a large acute teaching hospital or specialist tertiary provider
• Experience in a clinical group, care group, divisional or similarly devolved operating model
• Experience of research, innovation, academic partnerships or education leadership
• Knowledge of CUH services, specialist tertiary care, or digital, education, research and innovation opportunities in nursing
• Applying recognised quality improvement, transformation or programme management methods
• Active participation in regional or national professional networks

• On-site leisure facilities, shopping concourse and day nurseries
• Reduced-cost Stagecoach bus travel, and free Park and Ride and train-station routes
• Subsidised on-site parking for eligible staff
• Reduced-cost hot food available 24/7, and free tea and coffee in staff pod break spaces
• Development opportunities
• Flexible working options, including part-time, job-share, term-time and flexible start and finish times