Senior Development Nurse

Job overview

An exciting opportunity has arisen within the Nursing Development Team (NDT) at South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust for the post of Senior Development Nurse (Pre-Registration Nursing Practice Lead). This is a great opportunity for an experienced senior nurse with a passion for workforce development, clinical education, and leadership to enhance and develop their career. The successful candidate will play a pivotal role in shaping the Trust’s pre-registration nursing workforce, driving professional excellence, and ensuring the delivery of high-quality care through strategic leadership and innovative training and development initiatives.

The Senior Development Nurse (Pre-Registration Nursing Practice Lead) will provide strategic and operational leadership for the pre-registration nursing workforce and early career development pipelines across the Trust. This role will oversee core programmes including Student Experience (SE) workstreams, Care Certificate Programme (CCP), HCA Development Programmes, Nursing Associate (NA) and Registered Nurse (RN) Top-Up Apprenticeships, and Newly Qualified Nurse (NQN) and Nursing Associate (NA) recruitment pathways.

Main duties of the job

South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust (SWLStG) is a leading provider of mental health services across South West London and is a beacon of excellence for many of the national mental health services. We serve over 1.1 million people across the London boroughs  of Kingston, Merton, Richmond, Sutton and Wandsworth and employ more than 2,5000 staff, providing care and treatment to around 20,000 people from South West London and beyond at  any given moment.

As a teaching trust, we also provide education, training and research in  partnership with a number of universities.

Our values are in keeping with the NHS Constitution and our Behaviours Framework set the standards for how we plan and make decisions; deliver quality care; behave with each other and service users and recruit, induct, appraise and develop our staff. We are looking for staff who will  help us live these values and help to make SWLStG a better place for everyone.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• The Senior Development Nurse (Pre-Registration Nursing Practice Lead) is a senior leadership role within the Nursing Development Team (NDT), providing strategic, professional and operational leadership for the Trust’s pre-registration nursing workforce and associated early career pipelines.
• The postholder is accountable for the development, delivery, governance and continuous improvement of all pre-registration nursing practice learning activity across the organisation, ensuring alignment with regulatory requirements, workforce strategy and Trust priorities. This includes strategic oversight and management of the Student Experience (SE) workstreams, Band 2–4 Nursing Workforce Development programmes, and Newly Qualified Nurse (NQN) and Nursing Associate (NA) recruitment pathways.
• The postholder holds overall responsibility and accountability for the leadership, performance and management of the Band 7 Development Nurses and their respective portfolios. The Senior Development Nurse will ensure that all work programmes relating to student experience, placement governance, practice assessor and supervisor preparation and training, nursing apprenticeship pathways, and recruitment pipelines are strategically aligned, outcome-focused and delivered to a high standard. Clear direction, performance oversight and governance assurance will be provided to ensure delivery against key performance indicators, contractual obligations and quality standards.
• A core focus of the role is to strategically develop, embed and quality assure a coherent professional development pathway from entry into the nursing workforce through pre-registration education and transition into registered practice. The role ensures that workforce pipeline development, recruitment, retention and sustainability are fully integrated within education planning and workforce strategy, using workforce intelligence, quality metrics and data to inform forecasting, placement capacity planning and service alignment.
• The postholder is responsible for ensuring that practice learning environments across the Trust are safe, inclusive, high-quality and fully compliant with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) Standards for Student Supervision and Assessment (SSSA), the Standards Framework for Nursing and Midwifery Education and NHS England Education Funding Agreement requirements, including the Education Quality Framework (EQF) and Safe Learning Environment Charter (SLEC).
• The Senior Development Nurse Pre-Registration Nursing Practice Lead) is responsible for ensuring that robust governance systems will be established and maintained to monitor placement capacity, supervision and assessment compliance, learner experience, audit activity, risk management and quality improvement outcomes, providing assurance to the Associate Director of Nursing Education, Development & Quality and the Chief Nurse.
• In collaboration with the Band 7 Development Nurses, the postholder is accountable for the design, implementation and evaluation of key workforce development programmes, including the Care Certificate Programme (CCP), HCA Development Programmes, Nursing Associate (NA) and Registered Nurse (RN) Top-Up apprenticeships, Student Experience (SE) workstreams and NQN/NA recruitment pathways.
• The role integrates education, clinical expertise, governance, quality improvement and system partnership working to uphold the highest standards of professional practice and patient care across the Trust. Working closely with Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), NHS England, South London Partnership providers and a wide range of internal stakeholders, the postholder will act as a senior professional representative for pre-registration nursing education, contributing to contract performance reviews, curriculum developments and system-wide workforce initiatives.
• Through visible professional leadership, strong governance oversight and the application of quality improvement methodologies, the Senior Development Nurse (Pre-Registration Nursing Practice Lead) will embed a culture of learning, psychological safety, professional accountability and continuous improvement across practice learning environments, directly contributing to improved patient safety, enhanced quality of care and long-term workforce sustainability within SWLStG Trust.