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Job summary

Main area
Midwifery
Grade
Band 9
Contract
Permanent
Hours
Full time - 37.5 hours per week
Job ref
275-1026-DoM
Employer
Medway NHS Foundation Trust
Employer type
NHS
Site
Medway Maritime Hospital
Town
Gillingham
Salary
£112,782 - £129,783 per annum
Salary period
Yearly
Closing
01/11/2026 23:59
Interview date
06/11/2026

Employer heading

Medway NHS Foundation Trust logo

Director of Midwifery

Band 9

Do you have the ambition and vision to deliver the Best of Care by the Best People?

Here at Medway, we pride ourselves on working together as one to ensure that our shared vision of Better, Best, Brilliant is achieved

Our Trust is a great choice for people who want to develop their career in an ambitious and dynamic environment; our employees are able to choose the coverage and supplemental benefits that best fit their needs and those of their families. This includes the promotion of flexible working opportunities across the Trust, we are able to give our employees flexibility on where, when and the hours they work.

Our culture and values are what drives Medway NHS Foundation Trust and is the heartbeat of who we are as an organisation. It is important that you understand and to refer to our values when you are completing your application and always reflect our values throughout your employment with the Trust.

Job overview

Director of Midwifery

Division: Corporate Nursing and Maternity / divisional maternity services

Band: NHS AfC Band 9 

Salary: £112,782 - £129,783 per annum/pro rata

Interview date: Friday, 6th November 2026*

*Please note, if selected for interview, you will also be asked to attend a stakeholder panel on the day of the interview.

 

 

Main duties of the job

The Director of Midwifery is the Trust's most senior registered midwife and provides independent, authoritative professional leadership for midwifery and the maternity and neonatal pathway, working jointly with the Divisional Director of Nursing for Children and Young People. Reporting directly to the Chief Nursing Officer, the post holder is accountable for advising the Board and Executive team on safety, quality, experience, equity, workforce, professional standards and strategic development across hospital, community and system settings.

Working as an equal member of the perinatal quadrumvirate with the Divisional Medical Director, Divisional Director of Operations and Divisional Director of Nursing for Children and Young People, or designated senior neonatal leader, the post holder will work with the Chief Nursing Officer to set the strategic direction for integrated maternity and neonatal improvement. They will provide strategic professional leadership and assurance for midwifery services across the Trust and influence the wider system so that women, babies and families, receive safe, personalised, compassionate and equitable care and concerns raised by families and staff are heard, acted upon and never obscured by hierarchy, reputation or operational pressure.

Working for our organisation

Do you have the ambition and vision to deliver our mission of the Best of Care by the Best of People providing excellent care, every time?

Here at Medway, we pride ourselves on working together as one to ensure that our shared vision is achieved for our patients.

As a key partner in the healthcare of our local population, we are keen to deliver this as an outcome of our Trust-wide strategy – Patient First. Using an Operational Excellence approach to align our priorities and operational management structures, we are just over a year and half into our Patient First deployment. We are looking for creative, skilled people to join our Transformation Team and further support us on this journey.

Our culture and values define us here at Medway NHS Foundation Trust and are the heartbeat of who we are as an organisation.

Our BEST values underpin Patient First and are at the core of the care we give to our patients, the support we offer to our staff and our overall leadership approach:

B – Bold

E – Every person counts

S – Sharing and open

T - Together

Our Trust is a great choice for people who want to develop their career in an ambitious and dynamic environment; our employees are able to choose the coverage and supplemental benefits that best fit their needs and those of their families. This includes the promotion of flexible working opportunities across the Trust.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Key Responsibilities:

  • Provide Trust-wide professional leadership for midwifery and act as the principal adviser to the Chief Nursing Officer, Executive team, Maternity Board Non-Executive Director and Board.
  • Lead delivery of an integrated maternity and neonatal strategy that aligns safety, outcomes, experience, equity, workforce, finance, operational performance, research and improvement across Trust and system pathways.
  • Establish a single maternity and neonatal quality-governance and surveillance system with ward-to-Board and Trust-to-system traceability, clear early-warning thresholds and oversight of unwarranted variation.
  • Ensure independent, compassionate and PSIRF-aligned responses to incidents, deaths, complaints and concerns, with effective Duty of Candour and family engagement.
  • Lead safe midwifery staffing, establishment, skill mix, education, retention,
    professional standards, supervision and leadership succession.
  • Through the quadrumvirate, provide leadership, constructive challenge and assurance on clinical standards, evidence-based pathways, escalation, multidisciplinary teamwork and sustained maternity and neonatal improvement, with shared accountability for outcomes.
  • Lead delivery and truthful assurance for MIS/CNST, PMRT, MBRRACE-UK, Saving Babies Lives, CQC and applicable national maternity actions.
  • Address inequalities, racism, discrimination and differential outcomes through data, listening, co-production and measurable action.
  • Promote an open, inclusive and psychologically safe culture in which staff and families can speak up and receive timely response.
  • Manage delegated people, budgets and programmes and contribute to Trust-wide executive leadership and on-call arrangements.

 

Please see job description for further principal duties and responsibilities. 

 

 

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria
  • Registered Midwife with current NMC registration and no restriction incompatible with the role.
  • Evidence of substantial continuing professional development and advanced leadership development.

Knowledge

Essential criteria
  • Expert contemporary knowledge of midwifery practice, integrated maternity and neonatal pathways, neonatal quality and safety, transitional care, perinatal optimisation, professional standards and evidence-based care.
  • Expert knowledge of maternity quality governance, perinatal surveillance, PSIRF, Duty of Candour, PMRT, MBRRACE-UK and incident learning
  • Detailed understanding of Ockenden, Kirkup, the Amos investigation, CQC maternity learning and current national maternity policy
  • Expert knowledge of safe staffing, establishment review, acuity, e-rostering, workforce planning across organisational boundaries, education and professional standards
  • Knowledge of equality, racial and socioeconomic disparities, cultural safety, personalised care and co-production with women and families

Experience

Essential criteria
  • Substantial experience as a Director, Deputy Director, Head of Midwifery or equivalent senior midwifery leader in a complex acute and community maternity service
  • Proven track record of improving maternity safety, outcomes, experience, governance and culture at significant scale
  • Experience providing direct professional advice and candid assurance to Executives, Board committees, regulators and commissioners
  • Experience leading safe staffing, establishment review, recruitment, retention, education and professional workforce transformation
  • Experience leading CQC, NHS England, MIS/CNST or equivalent regulatory and external assurance processes

Skills

Essential criteria
  • Provides credible, independent professional advice and speaks truthfully about risk under Executive, Board, regulatory and public scrutiny
  • Exceptional strategic, analytical and systems-thinking skills, able to identify signals, unwarranted variation and interdependencies in complex and conflicting information across organisational boundaries
  • Outstanding written communication, including Board assurance, strategy, regulatory responses and public-facing information
  • Advanced influencing, negotiation, conflictresolution and political skills, including respectful challenge across professional hierarchies
  • Strong financial, workforce, programme and performance-management capability.

Values

Essential criteria
  • Demonstrates compassion, integrity, openness, humility, fairness, inclusion and an unwavering commitment to women, babies and families
  • Challenges racism, discrimination, bullying, incivility and exclusion and demonstrates culturally safe leadership
  • Promotes multidisciplinary teamwork, fair accountability, learning and continuous improvement

Employer certification / accreditation badges

No smoking policyPositive about disabled peopleAge positiveDefence Employer Recognition Scheme (ERS) - BronzeDefence Employer Recognition Scheme (ERS) - SilverDisability confident employerNHS Rainbow badgeStep into health

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.

Application numbers

Please note this vacancy may close early if the number of applications is met.

Documents to download

Apply online now

Further details / informal visits contact

Name
Evonne Hunt
Job title
Chief Nursing Officer
Email address
[email protected]
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