Neonatal Senior Sister – Hospital to Team Lead

Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

The closing date is 06 March 2026

Join our team and play a leading role in shaping and delivering an exceptional community neonatal service. We are seeking a committed professional to lead the development of the local MDT community pathway, supporting early identification, safe discharge planning and effective cross-site working. You will oversee the creation and maintenance of community policies, SOPs, escalation frameworks and treatment guidance, ensuring alignment with national outreach standards and evidence-based practice.

You will drive service improvement through innovative projects and by evaluating pathway performance using audit and outcome data. A core part of the role involves facilitating the safe discharge of neonates and providing early support to families in their homes. You will work closely with the multidisciplinary team and liaise with Social Services when concerns arise.

You will continue to develop your clinical skills, represent the Neonatal Unit at case conferences and deliver resuscitation training for parents. You will also lead the RSV immunisation programme. As a senior practitioner, you will supervise students and junior staff, maintaining the highest standards of care in line with the NMC Code and Trust policies. You will assess, plan, implement and evaluate care for infants in the community, always advocating for babies and their families.

The post holder will shape an integrated vision for the development of neonatal outreach care, ensuring the service delivers safe, compassionate, and holistic support for babies and their families y will lead innovative, family-integrated care practices and promote a culture of excellence across all outreach and hospital-at-home activities.

Central to the role is maintaining strong and effective communication with all stakeholders, including families, the neonatal unit, community teams, and wider partner services. The post holder will ensure that all outreach practice follows evidence-based standards and aligns with neonatal unit governance protocols and relevant network guidance.

They will act as a key link between the service and allied health professionals, as well as other multidisciplinary colleagues within the community. Responsibilities include documenting all relevant clinical information in patient records, ensuring robust handovers, and maintaining communication with GPs and any other professionals involved in the infant's ongoing care. The post holder will also support optimal data quality and collaborate closely with regional or network outreach leads to ensure accurate reporting and service continuity.

Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust provides hospital services to a growing population of around 700,000 people living across Bedfordshire and the surrounding areas across two busy hospital sites in Bedford and Luton. Both hospital sites offer key services such as A&E, Obstetrics‑led Maternity and Paediatrics. You will be joining a friendly, high performing Trust committed to ensuring the health and wellbeing of staff.

As one of the largest NHS Trusts in our region you will have access to a programme of high quality training and development to help you grow your career. The Trust continues to be committed to delivering the best patient care using the best clinical knowledge and technology available.

Our values

We not only recruit based on qualifications and experience - we recruit individuals who demonstrate the behaviours which underpin our Trusts core values. We achieve this by using values based recruitment. We are dedicated to making our recruitment practices as inclusive as possible for everyone, we are committed to promoting equality and diversity, and creating a culture that values differences.

Please note that vacancies may close prior to the advertised closing date when sufficient number of applications have been received. All new staff will be subject to a probationary period covering first 6 months in post. Travel between hospital sites may be required. Please review all documents attached to ensure you familiarise yourself with all requirements of the job

Other Clinical Responsibilities:

Act as an effective role model and demonstrate effective organisational and leadership skills

Listen appropriately and take into account any sensitive issues and communicate these to the appropriate persons/agencies ensuring that children are protected and that disclosures are acted upon appropriately commence referrals, early health assessment as required

Feedback the views and needs of the infant/family to the Community Sister as necessary to enable appropriate interventions to be implemented

Participate in planning and implementation of quality initiatives and targets, in conjunction with the Operational Lead/ Head of Nursing

To be conversant with Child Protection policies and procedures and…