Location
Brighton, England
Salary
£66,582 - £77,368 per annum / pro rata
Profession
Nurse (adult and children)
Grade
Band 8
Deadline
25 Oct 2026
Contract Type
Secondment: 9 months
Posted Date
16 Oct 2026
Medical Protection — the side of locally employed doctors from £83

Job requirements

Essential

35 listed

Requirements the employer expects applicants to meet.

  • Experience

    Substantial experience in a leadership role including contributing to operational management of services.

  • Experience

    Experience in management of health services

  • Experience

    Experience of monitoring, analysing and assessing clinical operational performance across multiple services.

  • Experience

    Experience of managing performance across multiple services, including the drafting, implementation and monitoring of remedial action plans.

  • Experience

    Experience of managing budgets across multiple services and working in liaison with management

  • Skills and knowledge

    Knowledge of NHS Human Resource Policies and Procedures.

  • Skills and knowledge

    Knowledge of clinical and operational governance and its application to services.

  • Skills and knowledge

    Knowledge of multidisciplinary team working and an understanding of differing professional roles boundaries.

  • Skills and knowledge

    Advanced knowledge of clinical operational processes, including budget management, target setting, and action planning and performance management.

  • Skills and knowledge

    Knowledge NHS targets and regulatory requirements.

  • Skills and knowledge

    Ability to monitor and maintain standards of care across a range of clinical services.

  • Skills and knowledge

    Ability to identify, assess and manage Clinical and Operational Risks

  • Skills and knowledge

    Able to translate complex information make it meaningful to staff at all levels and across all professions both verbally and in writing.

  • Skills and knowledge

    Ability to occasionally manage distressing and emotional circumstances with staff, patients and their carer’s.

  • Skills and knowledge

    Ability to deal with competing demands, priorities and deadlines whilst managing operational imperatives and frequent interruptions.

  • Skills and knowledge

    Ability to engage stakeholders through discussion, presentation and direct liaison.

  • Skills and knowledge

    Well-developed presentation skills.

  • Skills and knowledge

    Word-processing and keyboard skills and ability to use Microsoft Office packages including Word, PowerPoint and Excel.

  • Skills and knowledge

    A natural curiosity backed by excellent critical analytical skills.

  • Skills and knowledge

    Able to effectively challenge poor conduct and behaviours.

  • Skills and knowledge

    Strong patient focus.

  • Skills and knowledge

    Excellent time management, prioritisation and organisational skills and ability to manage and deliver to agreed deadlines.

  • Skills and knowledge

    Skilled in writing clear and coherent operational business cases, reports, and service plans.

  • Skills and knowledge

    Demonstrate understanding of the unique qualities and needs of a team and ability to provide a caring, safe environment to enable everyone to do their jobs effectively

  • Skills and knowledge

    Use and interpret varied information to generate new ideas and make effective plans for improvement or change

  • Skills and knowledge

    Demonstrate understanding of how health and social care services fit together and how different people, teams or organisations interconnect and interact

  • Skills and knowledge

    Able to communicate a compelling and credible vision of the future in a way that makes it feel achievable and exciting

  • Skills and knowledge

    Ability to involve individuals and demonstrate that their contributions and ideas are valued and important for delivering outcomes and improvements

  • Skills and knowledge

    Able to agree clear performance goals and quality indicators for services, supporting individuals and teams to take responsibility for results and providing balanced feedback

  • Skills and knowledge

    Able to build capability within the workforce to enable people to meet future challenges. Using a range of experiences as a vehicle for individual and organisational learning

  • Skills and knowledge

    Able to use interpersonal and organisational understanding to persuade and build collaboration

  • Skills and knowledge

    Able to work as part of a team, using own and others skills and adopting a coaching style to drive individual and organisational performance

  • Qualifications and/or professional registration

    Registered Nurse or Allied Health Professional

  • Qualifications and/or professional registration

    Postgraduate qualification in Management or equivalent level of knowledge acquired through experience.

  • Qualifications and/or professional registration

    Evidence of continuous professional/leadership/management development.

Desirable

Not listed in the available specification.

Job overview

We have an exciting new role as Nursing Head of Service in which the postholder will demonstrate strong professional clinical leadership and provide specialist clinical advice across the services within their portfolio. Acting in support of the Divisional and Deputy Divisional Nurse/AHP Directors, the post holder will be a key member of the divisional leadership team and work as a triumvirate with the Medical/Dental Head of Service and Head of Service.

The post holder will support the Divisional and Deputy Divisional Nurse/AHP Directors to continually improve equitable patient care, experience, access and outcomes and assist with the implementation of national and Trust initiatives working closely with the Head of Service and Medical Head of Service.

The postholder will play a key role in developing the service to meet the population's needs at locality and regional level and will have a service development portfolio and clinical leadership role. They will ensure services provide safe, effective, personalised and evidence based clinical interventions and holistic care.

Main duties of the job

Main tasks a) Work with the divisional management team and Heads of Service to provide professional and clinical leadership to the Division, ensuring that a framework is in place to ensure all clinical staff are appropriately managed and are clinically and professionally developed so that they are, therefore, efficient, effective, engaged and highly motivated.

b) In partnership with the relevant clinical executive director and the clinical divisional leadership team and other clinical Heads of Services, lead and implement the Trust’s clinical priorities and strategies ensuring clinical staff are engaged and connected to the objectives and plans.

c) Maintain a highly visible leadership profile, undertaking quality rounds and being proactive about engaging with service areas where required to ensure that they continuously meet the health needs of patients.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The post holder will be a role model for leadership, training, coaching, and facilitating staff development at all levels. The post holder will be expected to provide a clinical perspective to divisional planning and decision-making, interpreting national guidance in relation to all aspects of clinical care delivered by the Trust and advise on the implementation within the modernisation and changing environment of all service areas.

The post holder will role model leadership behaviours for improvement, supporting the building of Quality Improvement capability and capacity in the division and leading improvement programmes.

The postholder will, with the relevant management team, be responsible for clinical governance including the identification, reporting, management and mitigation of risk and patient safety.

Please see job description and person specification for further information.

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 Nursing Head of Service with Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust in Brighton, England. It is listed as a Band 8 Nurse (adult and children) role. The advertised salary is £66,582 - £77,368 per annum / pro rata. The contract type is Secondment: 9 months. The application deadline is 25 Oct 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 (16 Oct 2026) to decide whether this role fits your current NHSjob 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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