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Job overview
Head of Midwifery – Perinatal Quality, Safety & Assurance
Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is seeking an exceptional senior midwifery leader to join our maternity leadership team.
This key role provides strategic and operational leadership for quality, safety, governance, risk and assurance across maternity services. Working closely with the Director of Midwifery, Deputy Chief Nurse, multidisciplinary teams and service users, you will lead continuous improvement and ensure the delivery of safe, personalised and equitable care for women, babies and families.
You will oversee maternity governance and assurance processes, promote learning from incidents and investigations, and drive the delivery of national and local maternity safety priorities. A central part of the role is ensuring that the voices of women, families and staff shape service improvement and that learning results in meaningful, sustainable change.
We are looking for a compassionate, credible and visible leader with significant senior midwifery experience, a strong track record in quality improvement and patient safety, excellent communication and influencing skills, and a passion for improving outcomes and experiences for women, babies and families.
Main duties of the job
You will:
- Provide leadership for maternity quality, safety and governance.
- Lead maternity assurance, risk management and compliance programmes.
- Drive quality improvement and patient safety initiatives.
- Support learning from incidents, complaints, reviews and investigations.
- Lead assurance reporting to Trust committees and senior leadership teams.
- Work in partnership with women, families and the Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership (MNVP).
- Support implementation of national maternity strategies, standards and recommendations.
You will have:
- Current registration as a Midwife with the NMC.
- Significant experience in a senior midwifery leadership role.
- Expertise in clinical governance, quality improvement and patient safety.
- Experience of leading organisational change and service improvement.
- Strong analytical, communication and leadership skills.
- A commitment to compassionate leadership and staff development.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Person Specification) for key duties and responsibilities.
Due to Home Office immigration rules, a full time permanent vacancy cannot be filled by individuals on a Student visa. Therefore, please be advised that if you are a Student visa holder, we will not be able to offer you a full time permanent contract unless you have: - applied for a Graduate visa - or you will have successfully completed your course and have applied for a Graduate visa before the anticipated start date of your employment
For NHS Cambridgeshire and Peterborough based roles, all applicants from NHS Cambridgeshire and Peterborough who have identified that they are at risk of redundancy will be prioritised over those not at risk. However, interviews cannot be guaranteed.
This vacancy will close at midnight on 05 Aug 2026
Interviews are due to be held on 26 Aug 2026
Benefits to you
At Cambridge University Hospitals, we want to do all we can to support good working days. We offer development opportunities and a wide range of benefits, including on-site leisure facilities, shopping concourse and day nurseries. Our good work programme currently includes providing reduced cost Stagecoach bus travel to and from Cambridge University Hospital site. Park and Ride bus journeys between Babraham Road and Trumpington sites are free, as is the route to and from Cambridge train station and our hospitals. We also subsidise the cost of parking on site for eligible staff.
On CUH campus, hot food is available 24/7 and at a reduced cost for colleagues. Recently we launched the first of our staff pod break spaces. Located in the Deakin Centre, we have a purpose-created colleague-only café, with free tea and coffee, a break space and private outside area for colleagues to rest, refuel and recharge. Just one of the ways we are working hard to support good working days at CUH.
CUH is committed to assisting employees in achieving a good work-life balance irrespective of role or personal circumstances. Flexible arrangements may include, but are not limited to, part-time working, job-share, term-time working and flexible start and finish times.
Please note if you would like to discuss the required hours of this role further, you should approach the contact given. In some cases, alternative working hours will be considered.
We welcome applications from the Armed Forces.
Person specification
Knowledge
Essential
- • Advanced knowledge of NHS governance, quality assurance, clinical risk management and patient safety frameworks.
- • Detailed knowledge of current maternity and neonatal safety policy, national standards and regulatory expectations.
- • Understanding of PSIRF, Duty of Candour, Human Factors and systems-based learning.
- • Understanding of CQC Single Assessment Framework and perinatal regulatory requirements.
- • In depth understanding of MIS, SBLCB, PMRT, MNSI and PQSM.
- • Understanding of equality, inclusion, health inequalities and culturally safe perinatal care.
Desirable
- • Knowledge of digital quality dashboards, data visualisation and safety intelligence systems.
- • Knowledge of research, innovation and academic partnership opportunities in a teaching hospital setting.
- • Knowledge of workforce, finance and operational drivers affecting perinatal services.
Experience
Essential
- • Significant senior experience in maternity / perinatal governance, quality, patient safety or assurance.
- • Experience of leading governance, risk, incident response and improvement functions in a complex healthcare setting.
- • Experience of writing and presenting high-quality Board-level, committee-level or external assurance reports.
- • Experience of MIS Scheme, CQC or NHS England maternity assurance requirements.
- • Experience of managing complex incidents, complaints, claims, inquests, PMRT, MNSI or external reviews.
- • Experience of leading multidisciplinary improvement programmes and translating recommendations into measurable actions.
Desirable
- • Experience in a tertiary, teaching hospital or complex perinatal service.
- • Experience of working across maternity and neonatal services.
- • Experience working with ICB, NHS England regional teams or other system partners.
- • Experience supporting a CQC inspection or external regulatory response.
- • Experience leading thematic reviews or deep dives.
Personal Qualities
Essential
- • Visible, compassionate and inclusive leader.
- • Professionally credible, emotionally intelligent and able to act with integrity.
- • Committed to improving safety, experience, equity and outcomes for women, birthing people, babies and families.
- • Able to remain calm, balanced and effective in highly pressured or sensitive situations.
- • Able to constructively challenge while maintaining respectful relationships. Committed to openness, learning, staff support and a just and restorative culture. Demonstrates behaviours aligned to CUH values: Together – Safe, Kind, Excellent.
Desirable
- • Experience acting as a senior role model across organisational boundaries.
- • Evidence of influencing culture change in a complex clinical service.
Skills and Abilities
Essential
- • Able to analyse and interpret highly complex, sensitive or contentious information and present clear recommendations.
- • Able to provide credible professional advice, assurance and constructive challenge to senior leaders
- • Excellent written communication, including Board-level papers, briefings, action plans and assurance reports.
- • Excellent verbal presentation, negotiation, influencing and facilitation skills.
- • Able to chair complex meetings, manage competing views and support effective decision-making.
- • Able to lead change, manage ambiguity and deliver priorities under pressure.
- • Able to translate national requirements into practical local actions and measurable outcomes.
- • Able to work across professional, organisational and system boundaries.
- • Act as delegated person for Director of midwifery at internal and external Quality and Safety Forums and meetings, when requested.
Desirable
- • Advanced data analysis or dashboard development skills.
- • Experience applying structured improvement methodology such as PDSA, Lean or Model for Improvement.
- • Experience of coaching teams through complex change or safety improvement.
Additional Requirements
Essential
- • To work on site 80%
- • Ability to work flexibly to meet the needs of the service.
- • Ability to participate in senior escalation, operational or on-call arrangements as required.
- • Ability to travel across Trust sites and attend regional / system meetings as required.
- • Enhanced DBS and occupational health clearance are appropriate to the role.
- • Commitment to maintaining NMC registration and meeting revalidation requirements.
Desirable
- • Ability to contribute to regional or national maternity / neonatal safety workstreams.
Qualifications and training
Essential
- • Registered Midwife with current NMC registration.
- • Master’s degree or equivalent level of senior specialist knowledge and experience
- • Evidence of recent and relevant continuing professional development.
- • PSIRF training or evidence of equivalent patient safety investigation / response training.
- • Formal leadership / management qualification.
- • Quality improvement, governance, risk management or patient safety training relevant to senior perinatal leadership.
- • Leadership or management development relevant to a senior Band 8b role.
Desirable
- • Human Factors / SEIPS training.
- • Digital Safety Officer training
- • Coaching, mentoring or teaching qualification.
- • Project or programme management qualification.
- • Research, audit or clinical academic training.
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Applying for this NHS job
This advert is for Head of Midwifery – Perinatal Quality, Safety & Assurance with Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in Cambridge, East of England, England. It is listed as a Midwife role. The advertised salary is £79,504 - £91,609 per annum, pro-rata. The contract type is Fixed term: 12 months (Secondment). The application deadline is 05 Aug 2026.
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