Associate Director of Quality and Safety

Job overview

Are you a senior leader passionate about delivering safe, high‑quality care? Do you thrive on driving learning, leading cultural change and raising standards in patient safety, experience, clinical effectiveness, safeguarding and risk? If so, we’d love to hear from you.

Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust (SCFT), the largest provider of community healthcare in Sussex, is seeking an exceptional Associate Director of Quality and Safety to offer strategic leadership, expert advice and oversight across our Quality and Safety portfolio.

About you

We’re looking for a values‑driven, collaborative leader with:

• Senior leadership experience in healthcare
• Expert knowledge of quality governance, patient safety, clinical effectiveness and regulation
• A track record of leading improvement and cultural change
• Strong communication, influencing and relationship‑building skills
• The ability to analyse complex data and advise at Executive and Board level
• A master’s‑level qualification or equivalent experience

You’ll be committed to equity, inclusion, patient partnership and fostering a culture where staff feel safe, valued and able to speak up.

Ready to make a difference?

This is a rare opportunity to shape the future of quality and safety across community services supporting over 9,000 staff and the people of Sussex. If you’re driven by improvement, excellence and making care safer, we’d love to hear from you.

Apply now and help us deliver excellent care at the heart of the community.

Main duties of the job

Reporting directly to the Chief Nurse, you will be the Trust’s senior lead for quality and safety, with responsibility for:

• Patient safety, incident response and learning
• Safeguarding adults and children
• Quality governance and assurance systems
• Patient experience, participation, and engagement
• Clinical effectiveness and audit
• Risk management and health & safety
• CQC oversight, readiness and regulatory compliance
• Freedom to Speak Up
• Leading delivery of the Trust’s Quality Improvement Plan and response to national patient safety strategies

You will act as the named contact for the CQC and ICB Quality, building highly effective relationships and ensuring the Trust meets its regulatory obligations. You will also play a pivotal role in embedding a culture of continuous quality improvement and learning across our services.

This is a highly visible, influential role at the heart of our senior leadership team, contributing to Trust strategy, leading key programmes, and deputising for the Chief Nurse when required.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for more details regarding this role.