# Director of Nursing & Midwifery

> NHS job listing from Job Clerk for Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust.

## Canonical URLs

- **HTML:** https://www.jobclerk.com/job/director-of-nursing-and-midwifery/e1e4fb55-cccb-4b69-a6f4-17dd3a7495b0
- **Markdown:** https://www.jobclerk.com/job/director-of-nursing-and-midwifery/e1e4fb55-cccb-4b69-a6f4-17dd3a7495b0.md

## Summary

- **Status:** Live
- **Employer:** Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust
- **Town:** Manchester
- **Region:** North West
- **Country:** England
- **Profession:** Manager and corporate
- **Grade:** Band 7
- **Salary:** Attractive Remuneration Package
- **Contract type:** Permanent
- **Employment type:** Full time - 37.5 hours per week
- **Closing date:** 2026-06-21T23:59:00.000Z
- **Posted:** 2026-05-28T07:01:50.101Z
- **Source information URL:** https://www.healthjobsuk.com/job/UK/Manchester/Manchester/Manchester_University_NHS_Foundation_Trust/Director_Nursing/Director_Nursing-v7964204
- **Application URL:** https://apps.trac.jobs/job-advert/7964204?ShowJobAdvert=&feedid=9002
- **Employer website:** https://www.mft.nhs.uk

## Job Content

### Job overview

Lead one of the largest and most high-profile maternity and neonatal services in England, within a nationally significant specialist hospital group.

Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT) is one of the largest and most complex NHS organisations in the country, with over 30,000 staff and a turnover exceeding £3bn. We are seeking an exceptional nurse and midwife leader to join our Specialist Hospitals Clinical Group as Director of Nursing & Midwifery, providing professional leadership across Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, Saint Mary’s Hospital and Manchester Royal Eye Hospital.

At the heart of this role is Saint Mary’s Hospital, one of the UK’s largest and most renowned maternity providers, supporting around 16,000 births each year and delivering regional and national specialist services, including one of the country’s largest neonatal intensive care units.

This is a rare opportunity to lead at scale and at pace — shaping services that have local impact and national reach. You will champion outstanding, women and family centred care, influence practice from ward to Board, and play a key role indriving quality, safety and innovation across one of the most complex and dynamic clinical portfolios in the NHS.

### Main duties of the job

As Director of Nursing & Midwifery, you will be a core member of the Clinical Group Senior Leadership Team, working in close partnership within the clinical-operational triumvirate to lead a large and complex portfolio of services. You will hold professional accountability for nursing and midwifery practice across maternity, neonatal, gynaecology and specialist services, ensuring the highest standards of clinical quality, safety and patient experience.

You will be the most senior midwife in MFT, providing visible, credible and values-led leadership to a workforce delivering care at significant scale. From overseeing one of the UK’s largest maternity units to leading specialist regional and national services, you will ensure robust governance, regulatory compliance and a relentless focus on improvement and equity of outcomes.

Beyond organisational boundaries, you will act as a key system leader, shaping strategy and influencing across Greater Manchester and nationally. You will work with NHS England, the Integrated Care Board and the Local Maternity and Neonatal System to drive transformation, embed innovation and ensure services meet the needs of diverse communities now and in the future.

### Detailed job description and main responsibilities

On this page you will find a Role Profile which provides information about MFT and full details of the role. We recommend that you review this and refer to it as you complete your application. In order to apply, please submit a comprehensive CV along with a covering letter which sets out your interest in the role and encapsulates the aspects of your experience relevant to the required criteria. For more information, including details of how to apply, please visit www.odgers.com/96203

## Job Details

Lead one of the largest and most high-profile maternity and neonatal services in England, within a nationally significant specialist hospital group.

Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT) is one of the largest and most complex NHS organisations in the country, with over 30,000 staff and a turnover exceeding £3bn. We are seeking an exceptional nurse and midwife leader to join our Specialist Hospitals Clinical Group as Director of Nursing & Midwifery, providing professional leadership across Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital, Saint Mary’s Hospital and Manchester Royal Eye Hospital.

At the heart of this role is Saint Mary’s Hospital, one of the UK’s largest and most renowned maternity providers, supporting around 16,000 births each year and delivering regional and national specialist services, including one of the country’s largest neonatal intensive care units.

This is a rare opportunity to lead at scale and at pace — shaping services that have local impact and national reach. You will champion outstanding, women and family centred care, influence practice from ward to Board, and play a key role indriving quality, safety and innovation across one of the most complex and dynamic clinical portfolios in the NHS.

## Job Description

As Director of Nursing & Midwifery, you will be a core member of the Clinical Group Senior Leadership Team, working in close partnership within the clinical-operational triumvirate to lead a large and complex portfolio of services. You will hold professional accountability for nursing and midwifery practice across maternity, neonatal, gynaecology and specialist services, ensuring the highest standards of clinical quality, safety and patient experience.

You will be the most senior midwife in MFT, providing visible, credible and values-led leadership to a workforce delivering care at significant scale. From overseeing one of the UK’s largest maternity units to leading specialist regional and national services, you will ensure robust governance, regulatory compliance and a relentless focus on improvement and equity of outcomes.

Beyond organisational boundaries, you will act as a key system leader, shaping strategy and influencing across Greater Manchester and nationally. You will work with NHS England, the Integrated Care Board and the Local Maternity and Neonatal System to drive transformation, embed innovation and ensure services meet the needs of diverse communities now and in the future.

## Responsibilities

On this page you will find a Role Profile which provides information about MFT and full details of the role. We recommend that you review this and refer to it as you complete your application. In order to apply, please submit a comprehensive CV along with a covering letter which sets out your interest in the role and encapsulates the aspects of your experience relevant to the required criteria. For more information, including details of how to apply, please visit www.odgers.com/96203

## Person Specification

### Skills & Abilities

**Essential**

- Outstanding personal impact. Highly developed interpersonal, networking, advocacy, written and presentation skills that are persuasive and inﬂuential and develop relationships that inspire respect, trust and conﬁdence.
- Ability to lead and work in a multi-disciplinary team, motivating others to secure continuous service improvement and successful outcomes.
- Highly developed analytical skills with the ability to think and act strategically, tactically and creatively, while maintaining a clear view of the issues aﬀecting the Clinical Group and MFT.
- Ability to translate a strategic vision into operation action, to communicate those objectives and ensure they are adhered to.
- Ability to deal positively and promptly with colleagues’ concerns and personal problems, challenge colleagues on any inappropriate behaviours or poor performance and investigate and deal with complaints as required.
- Ability to encourage multi-disciplinary professional working and problem solving.
- A high level of political awareness.

### Personal Attributes

**Essential**

- Highly motivated, hard-working and self-conﬁdent individual with a drive to deliver and commitment to excellence across all areas. Inspires others and leads by example.
- Aligned to MFT’s values of ‘Everyone Matters’, ‘Working Together’, ‘Dignity and Care’, and ‘Open and Honest’.
- Able to communicate openly, eﬀectively listen and is consistently approachable to colleagues.
- Works in a highly collaborative manner with colleagues across MFT and other system partners to ensure eﬀective partnership work.
- Able to actively engage with front-line staﬀ in order to innovate clinical practice, and improve both workforce and patient care experience.
- Able to manage diﬀerent projects simultaneously with a high degree of autonomy in terms of decision-making and management of deadlines.
- Able to adapt to changing priorities, problem solve and re-focus the work of self and others on new priority areas that may require urgent action.
- Can constructively challenge and eﬀectively manage conﬂict to reach a positive conclusion.
- High level of personal resilience and ability to work and remain calm in a high-pressure and/or challenging environment.
- A commitment to personal development and the development of colleagues, with the ability to develop a culture in which all individuals can thrive and feel a sense of belonging.
- A commitment to the ethical standards expected of public sector leaders in the UK.
- Passionate commitment to embedding equality, diversity and inclusivity, internally and externally.
- Willingness and ability to travel between MFT’s sites as required.

### Knowledge & Experience

**Essential**

- Extensive senior level nursing and midwifery leadership and managerial experience within an acute NHS Trust (or comparatively large and complex multi-disciplinary organisation).
- Extensive senior level midwifery experience as a clinical practitioner.
- A clear appreciation of the context of acute healthcare provision within the modern NHS and understanding of the NHS Operating Framework.
- A strong understanding of national NHS policy and strategy as it relates to nursing staﬀ, AHPs, midwifery and broader clinical workforce, as well as current professional challenges.
- Extensive knowledge of both acute Trust and maternity speciﬁc clinical governance systems and risk management.
- Extensive knowledge and understanding of the Maternity Incentive Scheme.
- Understanding and evidence of implantation and monitoring against the Ockenden IEAS.
- Understanding of integrated health and social care models.
- Extensive experience of leading and directing change and quality improvement in clinical practice, with evidence of successful outcomes and improvements in patient experience.
- Experience of developing and implementing transformation programmes, including the management of service change, operational process improvement and cost reduction.
- A successful track record of delivering a long-term vision whilst responding to short-term challenges and opportunities, and deﬁning clinical strategies in a senior level nursing and midwifery role.
- A successful track record of developing an organisational culture committed to high quality, people, ﬁnancial and performance standards.
- Demonstrable success in building, developing and inspiring high performing multi-disciplinary teams, increasing staﬀ engagement and innovation, and motivation to improve performance.
- Evidence of communicating successfully and working eﬀectively in co-operation with a wide range of internal and external bodies, including statutory and non-statutory organisations, senior managers, colleagues and their representatives.
- Evidence of undertaking clinical audit and contributing to research programmes / studies and quality improvement.
- Understanding of regulation and preparedness.

**Desirable**

- A strong understanding of how MFT ﬁts into the wider health and social care system.
- Evidence of inﬂuence and presence at the Greater Manchester LMNS.
- Experience working on national programmes or contributing to national policy development.
- Evidence of developing or implementing high proﬁle initiatives underpinned by the national research and innovation agenda.

### Qualifications - Academic / Professional

**Essential**

- First-level Registered Nurse and Midwife.
- Educated to degree level or equivalent.
- Masters-level degree in health-related subject or equivalent.
- Evidence of recent and relevant continuous professional development.

**Desirable**

- Doctorate-level degree in health-related subject.
- Formal management or leadership qualiﬁcation.

## Documents

- [functional requirements (pdf, 848.3kb)](https://www.healthjobsuk.com/documents?vdoc=10246008)
- [job description & person specification (pdf, 884.5kb)](https://www.healthjobsuk.com/documents?vdoc=10329691)

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