Head of Clinical Standards - Armed Forces

Job Title:

Head of Clinical Standards - Armed Forces Recruitment
Salary: £60,000 per annum based on 37.5 hours per week
Contract Type:
Permanent, Home Based

Hours:

Full time or Part time 30 hours - 37.5 hours per week) mininum of 4 days per week between Monday - Friday. (7.5 hours per day between 8am-6pm)

Right to live and work in the UK is required for this role.
Successful candidates will be required to undergo BPSS security clearance.
Closing Date:
Friday 16th October 2026 @ 10:00am

Role Summary

Optima Health Medical Assessments is proud to partner with Serco, the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) and consortium partners in delivering critical clinical services that support recruitment into the UK Armed Forces. Through the Armed Forces Recruiting Service (AFRS), Optima Health is responsible for delivering high-quality medical assessment services that contribute to the safe, consistent and effective assessment of candidates seeking to join the Armed Forces.

The Head of Clinical Standards is a senior clinical governance leadership role, sitting within the governance and assurance framework rather than operational service delivery. The role provides strategic leadership and oversight of clinical quality, standards, safety, audit, training, risk and continuous improvement across the clinical assessment service.

The post holder will lead the clinical standards function, with Trainer/Auditors reporting directly to them, providing clear leadership and assurance across the clinical workforce. They will work closely with Optima Health clinical and operational leadership, consortium partners, single-service occupational teams and other key stakeholders to ensure that clinical practice is consistent, evidence-based, safe and aligned with the requirements of the Armed Forces recruitment environment.

A key focus of the role will be ensuring the clinical quality of delivery across the medical assessment pathway. This will include oversight of clinical audits, training and professional development, clinical policies and procedures, quality indicators, risk management and learning from incidents and complaints. The Head of Clinical Standards will ensure that audit findings and clinical outcomes are translated into meaningful improvements in practice, training and service quality.

The role will also provide senior clinical oversight of the clinical stages of the medical assessment process, including the management and assurance of appeals where candidates have been rejected following completion of their medical questionnaire. The post holder will ensure that these processes are clinically robust, consistently applied and appropriately governed.

Working collaboratively with the Senior Medical Governance Officer and wider governance structures, the Head of Clinical Standards will contribute to the development and continuous improvement of the Clinical Governance Framework. They will provide assurance to relevant governance boards and senior leaders, ensuring that clinical risks, quality issues, audit findings and improvement actions are appropriately identified, escalated and reported.

The role will also have responsibility for clinical complaints, ensuring that concerns are appropriately investigated, responded to and used as a source of learning and service improvement.

The successful candidate will be a Registered Adult Nurse with significant senior clinical leadership experience, ideally gained within a clinical governance, quality or patient safety environment. They will have a strong understanding of clinical governance, clinical risk, audit and regulatory requirements, together with a proven ability to design and deliver effective clinical training.

This is a highly collaborative role requiring an individual who can operate confidently across organisational boundaries, engage effectively with consortium partners and single-service occupational teams, and influence senior stakeholders while maintaining clear clinical independence and professional standards. The successful candidate will bring strong judgement, analytical ability and communication skills, together with a commitment to continuous improvement, candidate safety and high standards of clinical practice.

Main duties and Responsibilities:

• Lead the development, implementation, and continuous improvement of the Clinical Governance Framework.
• Provide expert strategic advice to senior leaders on clinical quality improvement, and regulatory matters.
• Ensure alignment of governance processes and…