Job summary
- Main area
- Nursing & Midwifery
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 9
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 216-SI-A7471503
- Employer
- University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust
- Town
- Plymouth
- Salary
- £109,179 - £125,637 per annum
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 24/09/2025 23:59
Employer heading
Director of Midwifery
NHS AfC: Band 9
Job overview
University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust is seeking an exceptional and visionary Director of Midwifery to lead and shape the future of maternity services across the Trust. This is a pivotal leadership role, responsible for ensuring the delivery of safe, high-quality, and compassionate care for women, babies, and families.
As a key member of the senior leadership team, you will work closely with the Chief Nursing Officer, Chief Medical Officer, and divisional teams to drive strategic improvements, foster innovation, and champion the voice of midwifery across the organisation.
***Preference will be given to internal Trust staff, as well as ‘Priority’ and 'At Risk' status including NHS At Risk staff throughout Devon who are able to display recent relevant experience as dictated by the Person Specification.***
Main duties of the job
As a Director of Midwifery you would need to provide strategic leadership and professional accountability for midwifery services.
Leading the development and implementation of maternity transformation programmes aligned with national policy and local priorities.
Ensuring compliance with regulatory standards and drive continuous quality improvement.
Promote a culture of safety, learning, and excellence in care.
Support workforce development, retention, and wellbeing of midwifery staff.
Collaborate with system partners to improve outcomes and reduce inequalities in maternity care.
As an individual we are looking for a dynamic and experienced midwifery leader who:
- Is a registered midwife with significant senior leadership experience.
- Has a proven track record of delivering service improvement and innovation.
- Demonstrates excellent communication, influencing, and partnership-building skills.
- Is passionate about equity, safety, and person-centred care.
- Can inspire and lead teams through change with compassion and clarity.
Working for our organisation
University Hospitals Plymouth is the largest hospital in the South West Peninsula and a major trauma centre, offering a diverse and complex clinical environment. You’ll be joining a Trust committed to excellence, inclusion, and innovation, with strong links to education and research through our partnership with the University of Plymouth. The Trust has great opportunities for career development in a highly progressive working environment. We offer all of this in a vibrant, modern city with a historic reputation for adventure. PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL COMMUNICATION WILL BE ELECTRONIC, PLEASE CHECK YOUR EMAIL ACCOUNT REGULARLY. If you have any issues with applying online and need additional support including reasonable adjustments with the application process please contact the recruitment manager for this post who will put you in touch with the recruitment team. We recognise that work life balance is important for our colleagues and so we invite requests from applicants around less than full time/flexible working for our advertised roles. Please contact the recruiting manager to discuss this prior to your application submission. We commit to giving this full consideration in each case. We encourage people from diverse backgrounds to apply for our roles, as diversity strengthens our teams. It is sometimes necessary to close vacancies before the closing date. If you have not heard from us within 4 weeks of the closing date, please assume that you have not been shortlisted.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
The Director of Midwifery is a high-impact leadership role focused on clinical excellence, strategic transformation, and workforce development. It blends operational oversight with professional advocacy, ensuring that midwifery and integrated care services are safe, effective, and continuously improving. The role demands vision, resilience, and a deep commitment to patient-centred care.
The postholder is responsible for:
- Develop and implement divisional midwifery strategy aligned with Trust-wide goals.
- Lead transformation initiatives, workforce planning, and service redesign.
- Represent the Division in system-level planning and external networks.
- Drive research, innovation, and academic excellence in clinical practice.
- Accountable for care standards, safety, and effectiveness across the Division.
- Lead quality assurance, planning, monitoring, and improvement efforts.
- Oversee complaints, incident investigations, and risk mitigation.
- Occasionally work clinical shifts to maintain credibility and visibility.
- Line manage senior clinical leaders and oversee performance management.
- Lead recruitment, retention, and professional development initiatives.
- Conduct disciplinary and grievance procedures when necessary.
- Manage budgets and contribute to financial improvement programmes.
- Authorised signatory for staffing and operational expenditures.
- Ensure delivery of high-quality clinical services across midwifery and nursing.
- Hold directorates accountable for performance and standards.
- Lead divisional performance reviews and improvement plans.
- Work across divisions and with external stakeholders to enhance care models.
- Lead corporate projects and transformation programmes.
- Foster collaboration among midwives, nurses, and allied health professionals.
Person specification
Knowledge & Experience
Essential criteria
- • Significant demonstrable experience of working at a senior manager level and relevant clinical and management experience at Divisional/Care Group level
- • Demonstrable experience of working and influencing at a very senior level and leading a group of teams and services
- • Demonstrable experience of developing staff and teams
- • Senior operational management experience in complex services
- • Highly effective communication skills - able to communicate effectively, verbally and in writing, to large groups of staff, patients and relatives, ensuring that communication is tailored to the person being addressed
- • Ability to lead, motivate and empower others and lead change through people
- • Demonstrable experience of implementing and managing change effectively
- • Thorough and up-to-date proven knowledge of nursing theory and best practice and application in practice
- • Understanding of NMC/HCPC code of practice and requirements for the practice and behaviour of staff and self
- • Significant experience of effective budgetary management
- • Demonstrable experience of developing business cases/business planning
- • Demonstrable experience of involvement in clinical governance
- • Demonstrable experience of involvement in service users’ advocacy and complaints resolution
- • Demonstrable project management experience
Desirable criteria
- • Demonstrable project management experience
Aptitude & Abilities
Essential criteria
- • Highly effective communication skills - able to communicate effectively, verbally and in writing, to large groups of staff, patients and relatives, ensuring that communication is tailored to the person being addressed
- • Ability to lead, motivate and empower others and lead change through people
- • Able to deal with conflict within any of the teams for which this post is responsible, which also may include service users
- • Ability to interpret and analyse highly complex data and adapt national and local policy from several sources into Trust standards
- • Ability to apply research-based practice and advocate it to improve the quality and efficiency of wards/units and services
- • Able to gain credibility with and influence fellow clinicians, managers and specialty leads
- • Demonstrates commitment to an empathetic and caring approach to patients and relatives and ability to motivate staff to demonstrate this ensuring that all patients’ dignity and respect are maintained at all times
- • Appropriate skills for professional clinical practice
- • Resilient, comfortable in giving and receiving professional challenge/ conveying unwelcome news where progress or outcomes are not yet as expected.
- • Strong organisational skills-able to organise own workload and take responsibility for clinical actions and systems/ standards across area of responsibility
Disposition & Attitude/Motivation
Essential criteria
- • Positive and effective team worker
- • Understands and able to lead by example within the Trust values
- • Willingness to work anywhere in the Trust and to travel, on occasions, within the region and nationally
- • To be self-aware, have personal integrity and the ability to self-manage.
Desirable criteria
- • Ability to work flexibly and undertake on call duties as required.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
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.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Darryn Allcorn
- Job title
- Chief Nurse & Director of Integrated Professions
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 01752 439084
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