Chief Medical Officer

Job overview

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust (CPFT) is seeking an exceptional Chief Medical Officer (CMO) to join its Board and provide dynamic, visible leadership for the next stage of its journey. This is a pivotal opportunity for a senior clinician who combines professional credibility with compassion and can translate ambitious clinical strategy into meaningful delivery through transformation, innovation, and a relentless focus on quality, outcomes, and experience.

CPFT delivers a broad range of mental health, learning disability, autism, and community services across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. The Trust is proud of both the care it provides and the people who provide it, and is focused on redesigning pathways, improving access and flow, strengthening safety and governance, and making care more personalised, integrated, and equitable. As CMO, you will help set this direction and lead the work that turns strategy into impact.

Recognised nationally and internationally for award-winning research, CPFT is a University Teaching Hospital and a member of the University Hospital Association. Partnerships with the University of Cambridge and Anglia Ruskin University create a unique environment for shaping the future of healthcare and developing innovation with world-class research capability.

Please note online applications are not required for this post. For an application pack and details on how to apply please email [email protected]

Main duties of the job

This role requires a highly visible and engaging leader: present in services, connected to teams, and able to build momentum with clarity and purpose. You will set the tone for medical leadership across CPFT by modelling behaviours that sustain a learning culture that is open, inclusive, accountable, and kind. You will build confidence in change and enable high-performing teams to deliver at pace while maintaining compassion at the heart of care.

You will lead an ambitious clinical strategy aligned to system priorities and population need, ensuring it delivers improved care across community and inpatient settings. You will sponsor clinically led transformation and service redesign, improve pathways, champion innovation, and use data and improvement methods to secure measurable gains in quality, safety, access, and productivity through digital enablement, new care models, and evidence-based practice that strengthen prevention, recovery, and independence.

The post provides executive leadership for medical governance, patient safety, and quality improvement, with robust assurance and a just, learning approach to risk. We are seeking an executive-ready clinician with full GMC registration and a proven track record in large-scale transformation. You will bring sound board-level judgement, influence in complex environments, and a clear commitment to visible leadership across diverse teams representing over 50 nationalities

https://www.cpft.nhs.uk/equalityanddiversity/

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please see attached job description and person specification for full details

• Provide strategic leadership to the Trust Board on clinical strategy, quality, safety, outcomes, and transformation.
• Be the Executive Lead for clinical governance including audit and clinical effectiveness, ensuring robust assurance frameworks and effective oversight of clinical governance, risk management, incident response and regulatory engagement.
• Lead major transformation programmes across mental health and community care, including: o    Neighbourhood/community models and integrated teams o    Crisis and urgent care pathways o    Inpatient care redesign and therapeutic environments o    Long-term condition management and rehabilitation
• Provide professional leadership to the medical workforce, including consultants, SAS doctors, resident Drs and wider clinical leaders.
• Lead medical excellence, through oversight of medical education and training governance, including relationships with deaneries, universities and placement providers.
• Embed statutory Mental Health Act and Mental Capacity Act compliance into pathway redesign and quality improvement.
• Ensure sound governance over budgets, productivity and resource use within the medical directorate.
• As Executive Lead for Mental Health Legislation, oversee all organisational duties relating to the Mental Health Act 1983 and Mental Capacity Act 2005.