Deputy Clinical Director, SW Burns Clinical Network

Job overview

The South West Burns Clinical Network ensures that everyone with a burn injury receives high‑quality, equitable care wherever they live. We:

• Improve outcomes, safety and patient experience
• Support seamless care pathways across the region
• Respond to local and major incidents
• Strengthen the long‑term sustainability and resilience of burns services

You will contribute to our seven key functions: service planning, resource stewardship, workforce development, quality improvement, collaboration, service transformation and population health.

Your work will influence improvements across the whole burns pathway - from prevention and first contact through specialist burn care, rehabilitation and long‑term recovery.

You will work closely with our small, dynamic team, including the Network Clinical Director, Network Manager, Network Lead Nurse and Network Allied Health Professional and Quality Improvement Lead.

We are a collaborative, supportive and purpose‑driven team who value each other’s expertise and enjoy solving problems together. Your ideas and initiative will be welcomed.

This role is ideal if you want to:

• Develop and grow your leadership skills with strong support
• Work with burns experts regionally and nationally
• Shape and improve care for a complex, diverse patient group
• Contribute to innovation, transformation and quality improvement

You will have real opportunities to influence system‑wide change and develop your strategic experience within a positive, encouraging team.

Main duties of the job

NHS England SW Clinical Networks exist to improve clinical care across the region within their scope of practice. The South West Burns Clinical Network (SWBCN) is hosted by North Bristol NHS Trust and encompasses five designated specialised burn services across five hospitals in the South West of England and South/Mid Wales.

The SWBCN Deputy Clinical Director position is a new role within the Network Management Team.  Once appointed you will play a key supportive leadership role, working closely with, and when required deputising for, the Network Clinical Director.  The post holder will help to steer the strategic direction of the Network, particularly during times of operational pressure, service demand, or major incident response. In particular, you will provide clinical governance leadership and performance monitoring (peer review) of services within the Network, ensuring consistent, safe and high quality burn care is aligned to national standards, including the NHS Burns Clinical Network Specification (2023) and British Burn Association (BBA) National Standards for Provision of Adult and Paediatric Burn Care (2023).

This role will support  the delivery of an annual Network work programme, promoting multidisciplinary involvement, driving quality improvement, and fostering collaborative working across the Network’s provider organisations.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Support the Clinical Director in providing strategic clinical leadership across the Network.
• Deputise for the Network Clinical Director during periods of their unavailability, absence or leave. (This will be a reciprocal arrangement).
• Support the Network Management Team and services during periods of increased operational pressure, surge events or major incident response.
• Contribute to the development and delivery of the annual Network work programme showing leadership and responsibility for key deliverables as assigned by the Network Clinical Director and/or Network Management Team.
• Support the development, review and implementation of Network wide pathways, standards and protocols.
• Promote clinical engagement and champion best practice and innovation.
• Support multidisciplinary involvement and foster collaboration across the Network.
• Represent the Network at meetings when required and support preparation for commissioner, governance or national forums.
• Provide clinical advice to the Network Manager regarding implementation of work streams.

• Lead the Network’s clinical governance function alongside the Network Clinical Director.
• Oversee Network wide assurance activities including: Peer review BBA standards compliance audits Mortality & Morbidity (M&M) reviews Annual audit programme
• Peer review
• BBA standards compliance audits
• Mortality & Morbidity (M&M) reviews
• Annual audit programme
• Lead and support investigations into clinical incidents or deviation from pathways.
• Ensure risks and quality issues are identified and escalated appropriately through the Network Clinical Director and Network Management Team in line with network regional and national processes.
• Promote use of data, dashboards and the Burns Registry to monitor outcomes and variation.
• Ensure mandatory data submissions across all provider sites are being met and that effective clinical care is maintained through the monitoring and evaluation of outcomes via the burns quality indicators as part of the Specialised Services Quality Dashboard (SSQD).
• Support the production of the Network Annual Report, providing governance and quality sections as guided by the Network Clinical Director.
• You must have a clear vision for continued development of a robust clinical governance programme and will need to regularly liaise and work with the Burn Service Clinical Leads
• You will provide clinical governance intelligence gathered from across the Network via iBID and SSQD reporting and will work with the Network Management Team to ensure the provision of high quality burn care across the region.

• Lead and support initiatives to reduce unwarranted variation in burn care across the Network.
• Use national and regional benchmarking (including GIRFT) to identify improvement opportunities.
• Lead and support clinicians, managers and commissioners in implementing quality improvement projects.
• Contribute to strategies ensuring equitable, high quality service provision for all burns patients.
• Ensure that lessons learned are shared, and contribute to education and training initiatives to deliver safe and clinically effective services.
• Lead and support the monitoring, measurement and reporting of project, improvement and transformation impacts across the Network, ensuring all work delivers meaningful, evidence based benefits.
• Participate in the quarterly National Burns Clinical Network Oversight Group meetings and contribute to its work plan.
• Participate in the annual National Mortality and Morbidity review meetings for both adult and paediatric patients, ensuring all clinical services within the Network are contributing to this forum.

• Assist the Network Clinical Director in planning for capacity management, operational resilience and mutual aid between burn services across the Network.
• Lead and support the implementation of agreed escalation triggers and action plans to ensure safe response to surge, major incidents and mass casualty events, in line with National and Regional Emergency Preparedness, Resilience and Response responsibilities and the Burns Clinical Network Specification.
• Deputise for the Network Clinical Director at operational or strategic meetings when required.

• Ensure patient experience is central to governance and quality discussions.
• Work closely with the Network Manager to maintain meaningful service user involvement.
• Ensure that patient insight influences clinical pathway development.

• Foster collaborative relationships across acute, community, primary care and rehabilitation services.
• Lead and support cross network collaboration where appropriate (e.g., trauma, critical care).
• Act as a Network representative, in the absence of the Network Clinical Director, at Network meetings and be available for enquiries from commissioners, Clinical Reference Groups and other regional/national bodies.
• Support the Network Clinical Director in managing contentious issues or disputes across providers showing leadership when determined to be appropriate and practical.

• Lead and support Network governance, audit and service improvement activities, equity of access, better patient outcomes and equitable care.
• Ensure that the needs of vulnerable, disadvantaged or under-served groups are considered and addressed in governance work.

• Support analysis of complex data, audit results, pathways and performance information.
• Lead and support risk management processes including identification, mitigation and escalation.
• Support monitoring of protocol uptake and targeted engagement with providers.

• Ensure compliance with confidentiality requirements and Host Trust policies.
• Uphold professional codes of conduct relevant to the role.

• You will not be the Clinical or Service Lead for the burn service in which you work if you are successful in obtaining this post.
• You are committed to equitable decision making, ensuring personal or service interests do not influence your judgements or actions.
• You are able to act impartially, putting Network wide interests above those of your own service when addressing issues or making decisions.
• You must have, and maintain, high levels of professional behaviour and integrity.
• You must be a proven leader in the specialty of burns and will be proactive in service development and improvement
• You must be a respected member of your local multidisciplinary team.
• You must acknowledge and behave in accordance with the NHS Leadership Competency Framework for Board Members and the Government’s Seven Principles of Public Life.

• Supportive Clinical Leadership
• Clinical Governance & Assurance (Primary Area of focus)
• Quality, Service Improvement and Reducing Variation
• Supporting Network Operations and Resilience
• Patient and Family Involvement
• Partnership and Cross Boundary Working
• Promoting Equality, Inclusion and Reducing Inequalities
• Using Insight and Evidence for Improvement
• Information Governance
• Personal attributes