Job requirements
Essential
20 listedRequirements the employer expects applicants to meet.
- Skills
Provides credible, independent professional advice and speaks truthfully about risk under Executive, Board, regulatory and public scrutiny
- Skills
Exceptional strategic, analytical and systems-thinking skills, able to identify signals, unwarranted variation and interdependencies in complex and conflicting information across organisational boundaries
- Skills
Outstanding written communication, including Board assurance, strategy, regulatory responses and public-facing information
- Skills
Advanced influencing, negotiation, conflictresolution and political skills, including respectful challenge across professional hierarchies
- Skills
Strong financial, workforce, programme and performance-management capability.
- Values
Demonstrates compassion, integrity, openness, humility, fairness, inclusion and an unwavering commitment to women, babies and families
- Values
Challenges racism, discrimination, bullying, incivility and exclusion and demonstrates culturally safe leadership
- Values
Promotes multidisciplinary teamwork, fair accountability, learning and continuous improvement
- Knowledge
Expert contemporary knowledge of midwifery practice, integrated maternity and neonatal pathways, neonatal quality and safety, transitional care, perinatal optimisation, professional standards and evidence-based care.
- Knowledge
Expert knowledge of maternity quality governance, perinatal surveillance, PSIRF, Duty of Candour, PMRT, MBRRACE-UK and incident learning
- Knowledge
Detailed understanding of Ockenden, Kirkup, the Amos investigation, CQC maternity learning and current national maternity policy
- Knowledge
Expert knowledge of safe staffing, establishment review, acuity, e-rostering, workforce planning across organisational boundaries, education and professional standards
- Knowledge
Knowledge of equality, racial and socioeconomic disparities, cultural safety, personalised care and co-production with women and families
- Experience
Substantial experience as a Director, Deputy Director, Head of Midwifery or equivalent senior midwifery leader in a complex acute and community maternity service
- Experience
Proven track record of improving maternity safety, outcomes, experience, governance and culture at significant scale
- Experience
Experience providing direct professional advice and candid assurance to Executives, Board committees, regulators and commissioners
- Experience
Experience leading safe staffing, establishment review, recruitment, retention, education and professional workforce transformation
- Experience
Experience leading CQC, NHS England, MIS/CNST or equivalent regulatory and external assurance processes
- Qualifications
Registered Midwife with current NMC registration and no restriction incompatible with the role.
- Qualifications
Evidence of substantial continuing professional development and advanced leadership development.
Desirable
Not listed in the available specification.
Job overview
Director of Midwifery
Division: Corporate Nursing and Maternity / divisional maternity services
Band: NHS AfC Band 9
Salary: £112,782 - £129,783 per annum/pro rata
Interview date: Friday, 6th November 2026*
*Please note, if selected for interview, you will also be asked to attend a stakeholder panel on the day of the interview.
Main duties of the job
The Director of Midwifery is the Trust's most senior registered midwife and provides independent, authoritative professional leadership for midwifery and the maternity and neonatal pathway, working jointly with the Divisional Director of Nursing for Children and Young People. Reporting directly to the Chief Nursing Officer, the post holder is accountable for advising the Board and Executive team on safety, quality, experience, equity, workforce, professional standards and strategic development across hospital, community and system settings.
Working as an equal member of the perinatal quadrumvirate with the Divisional Medical Director, Divisional Director of Operations and Divisional Director of Nursing for Children and Young People, or designated senior neonatal leader, the post holder will work with the Chief Nursing Officer to set the strategic direction for integrated maternity and neonatal improvement. They will provide strategic professional leadership and assurance for midwifery services across the Trust and influence the wider system so that women, babies and families, receive safe, personalised, compassionate and equitable care and concerns raised by families and staff are heard, acted upon and never obscured by hierarchy, reputation or operational pressure.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Key Responsibilities:
- Provide Trust-wide professional leadership for midwifery and act as the principal adviser to the Chief Nursing Officer, Executive team, Maternity Board Non-Executive Director and Board.
- Lead delivery of an integrated maternity and neonatal strategy that aligns safety, outcomes, experience, equity, workforce, finance, operational performance, research and improvement across Trust and system pathways.
- Establish a single maternity and neonatal quality-governance and surveillance system with ward-to-Board and Trust-to-system traceability, clear early-warning thresholds and oversight of unwarranted variation.
- Ensure independent, compassionate and PSIRF-aligned responses to incidents, deaths, complaints and concerns, with effective Duty of Candour and family engagement.
- Lead safe midwifery staffing, establishment, skill mix, education, retention,professional standards, supervision and leadership succession.
- Through the quadrumvirate, provide leadership, constructive challenge and assurance on clinical standards, evidence-based pathways, escalation, multidisciplinary teamwork and sustained maternity and neonatal improvement, with shared accountability for outcomes.
- Lead delivery and truthful assurance for MIS/CNST, PMRT, MBRRACE-UK, Saving Babies Lives, CQC and applicable national maternity actions.
- Address inequalities, racism, discrimination and differential outcomes through data, listening, co-production and measurable action.
- Promote an open, inclusive and psychologically safe culture in which staff and families can speak up and receive timely response.
- Manage delegated people, budgets and programmes and contribute to Trust-wide executive leadership and on-call arrangements.
Please see job description for further principal duties and responsibilities.
Applicant requirements
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.
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Applying for this NHS job
This advert is for Director of Midwifery with Medway NHS Foundation Trust in Gillingham, England. It is listed as a Band 9 Director role. The advertised salary is £112782.00 to £129783.00. The contract type is Permanent. The application deadline is 01 Nov 2026.
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