National Clinical Lead

National Clinical Lead () National Hub for Reviewing and Learning from the deaths of Children and Young People

One year secondment until April 2026

Commensurate with existing salary

2 sessions per week (0.2 WTE)

Edinburgh/Glasgow:
Hybrid Working will apply for the foreseeable future

Healthcare Improvement Scotland supports healthcare providers to deliver high quality, evidence-based, safe, effective and person-centred care; and to provide public assurance about the quality and safety of that care. Visible, active clinical assurance is central to the success of our work and will support the delivery of clinically effective care to patients.

A system has been established for reviewing and learning from the circumstances surrounding the death of all children and young people in Scotland, based on a National Hub. Healthcare Improvement Scotland and the Care Inspectorate lead the National Hub. The programme uses a multidisciplinary approach, focused on using evidence to deliver change, and ultimately aiming to reduce deaths and harm to children and young people.

Funding has been agreed to digitally connect National Records Scotland with the National Hub’s portal to streamline and enhance the current data systems.

The death of every child and young person in Scotland should be reviewed through a high quality and consistent review process. Reviews should be conducted on the deaths of all live born children up to the age of 18, or 26 for care leavers who are in receipt of aftercare or continuing care at the time of their death.

The National Hub operates in the context of existing review arrangements, rather than replacing or duplicating them. The landscape is complex with a range of processes currently in place, including:

• clinical reviews including Perinatal Mortality Review, Significant Adverse Events (SAEs) etc
• reviews of deaths of looked after children undertaken by the Care Inspectorate
• Learning Reviews (of which approximately half follow the death of a child), and
• fatal accident inquiry.

The National Hub aims to:

• Ensure that the death of every child in Scotland is subject to a quality review
• Improve the experience and engagement with families and carers.
• Channel learning from current review processes across Scotland that could direct action to help reduce preventable deaths.

The National Clinical Lead will provide clinical assurance, visible clinical leadership and improvement expertise and build the organisation’s clinical capability and capacity to improve the quality of health care and inform the content and aims of the National Hub.

The postholder will be accountable for maintaining close liaison with the HIS Strategic National Clinical Lead (Child Health), to ensure opportunities for strategic alignment, collaboration and learning are maximised.