Area Sister / Charge Nurse - South Midlands

Job summary

As an Area Session Sister / Charge Nurse with NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT), you will play a vital role in helping to save and improve lives by leading blood donation teams across your area. You will provide expert clinical leadership, making sure donors receive safe, high-quality care while supporting your team to deliver excellent results. Working at the heart of the donation journey, you will oversee session performance, donor eligibility, regulatory compliance and service quality. You will be the clinical expert on session, supporting colleagues, managing risk and championing continuous improvement. This is an opportunity to contribute to a service that makes a real difference every day while continuing to develop your leadership, clinical and people management skills.

The working hours for this role are 75 hours per fortnight over 9.5-hour shifts worked Monday to Sunday including weekends and bank holidays, and you will be based at Oxford Donor Centre, covering the following areas: Northampton, Milton Keynes, and Luton.

Main duties of the job

• Lead donor-facing teams to deliver a safe, high-quality donation experience that puts donors and patients at the centre of everything you do.
• Use your clinical expertise to guide donor assessment, eligibility decisions and the management of adverse events, helping to ensure donor and product safety.
• Support and develop colleagues through coaching, mentoring, feedback and training, helping them learn, grow and succeed in their roles.
• Drive quality and regulatory compliance by promoting best practice, identifying improvements and supporting change across donor sessions.
• Analyse performance information, respond to emerging issues and take action to help teams achieve operational and quality objectives.
• Act as a visible clinical leader and role model, creating a positive culture that reflects NHSBT values of caring, expertise and quality.
• Build strong relationships with donors, colleagues and stakeholders, communicating clearly and confidently in a range of situations.
• Contribute to service improvement, clinical audit and innovation activities that help shape and strengthen future practice.

About us

It takes all types of people to deliver the kind of service that saves and improves lives. At NHS Blood and Transplant, you'll join a team of more than 6,000 people who are making a genuine difference to communities, families, friends, relatives and more across the UK. We play a unique and special role in the NHS by helping people do something extraordinary- donate blood, blood products, organs, tissues, or stem cells to save someone in need.

Our three core values are what set us apart. They guide and inspire everything we do. By being caring, expertly meeting the needs of our patients and our people, and accepting nothing less than the best quality, we can do extraordinary work and help our people to do something extraordinary in their career, too. Three small words, one big difference - Caring, Expert and Quality. Together we'll save and improve more lives than ever.

You will join us on our journey to create an inclusive workplace and aim to reflect the diverse communities we work with, and we positively encourage applications from all sectors of the community.

Details

• Date posted: 16 September 2026
• Pay scheme: Agenda for change
• Band: Band 6
• Salary: £39,959 to £48,117 a year
• Contract: Permanent
• Working pattern: Full-time
• Reference number: 009280
• Job locations: NHSBT, Headley Way, Oxford, OX3 9BQ, United Kingdom

Job responsibilities

What we offer:

• Hybrid working arrangements – because NHSBT works nationally, we’re able to offer hybrid working options that give you more flexibility to balance work with life.
• Flexible working options – we promote flexible working where the role allows. We’re happy to discuss what flexibility might look like for you.
• Generous annual leave - 27 days annual leave (pro rata for part-time) plus Bank Holidays, increasing to 29 days after 5 years’ service and to 33 days after 10 years.
• Inclusive pension scheme - the NHS Pension Scheme is a defined benefit scheme (not dependent on investment returns). Further details and outline of benefits can be found at: http://www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/information-about-nhs-pensions‎
• Supportive learning culture - we’ve fostered a culture of continuous learning where colleagues are well-led, engaged, and encouraged to grow. We support you in reaching your full potential, both in your current role and future career. Our Thrive program embodies our commitment to learning and development, offering a wide range of activities to support your personal and professional growth. It’s open to everyone at NHSBT, ensuring you have the resources to succeed and shine in your role.
• Health and wellbeing support – we offer confidential services including occupational health, employee assistance programme, and wellbeing resources. Our support is available to all colleagues and we endeavour to provide tailored workplace adjustments where possible.

As a Disability Confident Employer, we welcome applications from disabled candidates. We will talk with you to explore any adjustments that may help you during the recruitment process.

You can find more information about accessibility, our culture, and how we support applicants on the NHSBT Careers website:

• Read about our application process
• Learn more about our culture at NHSBT

To learn more, please see the job description and person specification. These can be accessed via the link below, or by clicking ‘Apply’ if you are viewing this advert on another site.