Service Lead Neighbourhood Nursing Service

Job overview

The Service Lead for Neighbourhood Nursing provides senior clinical and operational leadership across the service, working jointly with a second Service Lead and the Directorate Management Team to ensure the delivery of high‑quality, safe and effective patient care. The postholder is jointly responsible for meeting key performance indicators, managing resources, and ensuring the service operates within financial and clinical governance frameworks. They will maintain a visible clinical presence, offering senior expertise, supervision and support to teams, while upholding the highest professional standards.

The role includes accountability for staff management, appraisal systems, workforce development, recruitment, induction and professional supervision. The Service Lead promotes a culture of learning and continuous improvement, ensuring robust investigation of incidents and complaints, while driving quality assurance, infection prevention and control, and evidence‑based practice.

The postholder will contribute to strategic planning, service redesign and the implementation of Integrated Neighbourhood Team (INT) working. They also support research, education and training initiatives, uphold excellent patient experience, and represent the Trust across internal and external forums. The role requires strong leadership,  performance management, and the ability to foster collaborative working to deliver integrated, patient‑centred neighbourhood nursing services

Closing date: 17th April 2026

Interview date: 15th May 2026

Main duties of the job

The Service Lead for Neighbourhood Nursing provides senior leadership, ensuring delivery of high‑quality, safe and effective patient care. The role includes overseeing the deployment of resources, monitoring performance against clinical, financial and operational targets, and taking timely action where standards fall or risks arise. The postholder holds managerial accountability for supporting, supervising and developing staff, ensuring robust appraisal, job planning, induction, professional supervision, and competency development across the service.

The Service Lead maintains a senior presence, contributing to patient‑facing care and offering expert guidance. They ensure full compliance with clinical governance requirements, leading on incident investigation, Duty of Candour, complaints handling, and the implementation of learning and improvement plans. The role provides clinical leadership for infection prevention and control, guideline implementation, antibiotic stewardship, FP10 prescribing and alignment with agreed standards.

They drive quality assurance through audit, risk management, performance monitoring, and delivery on KPI,  The postholder leads service improvement, contributes to strategic planning, and supports the development of research, education and training. Additional responsibilities include representing the Trust in internal and external forums, acting as investigating or hearing officer, and maintaining their own clinical practice and registration.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Leadership & Management

• Provide senior clinical and operational leadership for the Neighbourhood Nursing service.
• Deliver agreed clinical, financial and operational performance targets.
• Ensure effective resource deployment and escalate risks where necessary.
• Maintain a visible presence across teams and support MDT working.
• Hold managers and teams to account through regular performance reviews.

Clinical Governance & Quality

• Lead investigations, Duty of Candour and complaints management.
• Ensure compliance with Trust policies, national standards and IPC requirements.
• Oversee guideline updates, audit activity, KPIs and risk management processes.
• Promote learning from incidents, near misses and patient feedback.
• Uphold high standards of infection prevention, antibiotic stewardship and safety.

Workforce & Professional Standards

• Manage staff performance, supervision, enhanced appraisal and job planning.
• Lead induction, recruitment, retention and workforce development.
• Ensure robust professional supervision, revalidation readiness and competency assessment.
• Support clinical placements and ensure environments are suitable for learners.

Service Improvement & Strategy

• Lead service improvement initiatives and contribute to organisational strategy.
• Support integrated working with partners across health, social care and voluntary sectors.
• Represent the Trust at internal and external forums as required.

Education, Training & Clinical Role

• Maintain own clinical practice and deliver senior clinical input via a job plan.
• Support research, education and ongoing training across the service