Job summary
As Deputy Chief Nurse, you will play a pivotal strategic and professional leadership role within Blood Supply, supporting the Chief Nurse to ensure the delivery of safe, effective, high-quality donor care services across NHS Blood and Transplant's blood and apheresis operations. You will lead on clinical governance, professional standards, education and workforce development, while ensuring regulatory compliance and excellence in donor experience. This is an exceptional opportunity for an experienced senior nursing leader to influence national strategy, drive service improvement, champion innovation and contribute to the delivery of life-saving services across England.
Main duties of the job
You will be responsible for:
- Provide strategic clinical and professional leadership across Blood Supply services.
- Deputise for the Chief Nurse and represent the function at senior leadership forums both within NHSBT and externally.
- Lead the development and implementation of nursing strategy, education programmes and workforce development initiatives.
- Ensure robust clinical governance frameworks are in place, promoting donor safety, regulatory compliance and high-quality care.
- Lead on safeguarding, clinical risk management, incident review and quality improvement programmes.
- Drive continuous improvement and transformational change across donor care services.
- Provide expert clinical advice on donor care, patient safety and professional nursing practice.
- Lead major strategic projects, research programmes, service developments and clinical innovations.
- Build effective partnerships with internal and external stakeholders, including national and international healthcare organisations.
- Inspire, develop and support a geographically dispersed nursing and multidisciplinary workforce
About us
It takes all types of people to deliver the kind of service that saves and improves lives. At NHS Blood and Transplant, youll 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: 17 August 2026
- Pay scheme: Agenda for change
- Band: Band 8c
- Salary: £79,504 to £91,609 a year
- Contract: Fixed term
- Duration: 2 years
- Working pattern: Full-time
- Reference number: 009271
- Job locations: England, England, Bristol, BS34 7QH, United Kingdom
Job responsibilities
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.
Person specification
Experience
Essential
- We are seeking an inspirational and credible senior nursing leader who can demonstrate:
- Substantial senior nursing leadership and management experience within a complex healthcare environment.
- Experience of leading multidisciplinary teams and services at a strategic level.
- A proven track record of delivering service improvement, transformation and organisational change.
- Extensive experience of clinical governance, patient safety, risk management and regulatory compliance.
- Experience of developing, motivating and leading teams to deliver organisational objectives.
- Experience of managing budgets and resources effectively.
- Knowledge of clinical audit, research, professional practice development and quality improvement methodologies.
- Experience of working collaboratively across organisational boundaries and influencing senior stakeholders.
- Strong analytical, decision-making, communication, negotiation and report-writing skills.
- Experience of delivering services within regulated healthcare environments and an understanding of relevant quality and compliance frameworks.
- A commitment to maintaining excellent standards of donor and patient care and experience
Qualifications
Essential
- Current registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (Part 1 Adult/General Nurse, Level 1 or 2).
- Master's degree or equivalent master's-level experience with a commitment to complete a Master's qualification if not already held.
- Evidence of ongoing professional development, including leadership and management development.
- A commitment to continuous learning and improving professional practice.
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Applying for this NHS job
This advert is for Deputy Chief Nurse - Blood Supply with NHS Blood and Transplant in England, Bristol, BS34 7QH, United Kingdom, United Kingdom. It is listed as a Band 8 Nurse (adult and children) role. The advertised salary is £79504.00 to £91609.00. The contract type is Fixed-Term. The application deadline is 31 Aug 2026.
Before you apply, compare the job description with the person specification and mirror the employer's essential criteria in your supporting information. Use the vacancy title, employer, location, salary, contract type, closing date and posted date (17 Aug 2026) to decide whether this role fits your current NHS job search. If the employer can close applications early, prepare the application before the stated deadline rather than waiting for the final day.
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