Job summary
- Main area
- Acute
- Grade
- Band 6
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 380-AC0790
- Employer
- Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Priority House
- Town
- Maidstone
- Salary
- £38,682 - £46,580 per annum
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 07/04/2026 23:59
Employer heading
Deputy Ward Manager
Band 6
We are the Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust. We offer a range of ongoing benefits to our valued workforce. From an active health and wellbeing programme to regular recognition events, we work hard to provide varied benefits that make a difference to your work-life balance.
Here are some clips of our Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust staff, speaking about their role and why they enjoy working for us
Would you like to work flexibly? In the NHS, we are reminded every day of how important life is. As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us, for our patients and for you.
Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement.
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Job overview
As a Deputy Ward Manager, you will provide senior clinical leadership and support the Ward Manager and across site in the 24-hour management of the acute inpatient environment.
You will act as a role model for the nursing team, ensuring that patients in the most acute phase of their mental illness receive safe, compassionate, and evidence-based care.
When the Ward Manager is away, you are the clinical lead on the ground, making pivotal decisions to ensure ward safety and flow.
Main duties of the job
- Clinical Leadership: Lead the nursing teams in delivering high-quality care, overseeing complex admissions and discharges, and ensuring Care Programme Approach (CPA) standards are met, this may be across site.
- Operational Management: Assist in the management of rosters, recruitment, InPhase and safeguarding reviews, and the supervision of Band 5 Nurses and Healthcare Assistants.
- Risk & Safety: Lead on risk assessments and safety plans. You will be a key figure in managing incidents, conducting debriefs, and ensuring the ward remains a therapeutic environment.
- Quality Improvement: Participate in audits (i.e. IPC audits, Risk Assessment and Care Plan Audits, MRSA audits etc. ) and drive clinical excellence through the implementation of "Safety Culture Bundle".
- Mentorship: Act as a Practice Supervisor/Assessor for student nurses and a preceptor for newly qualified staff, fostering a culture of continuous learning.
Working for our organisation
We are the Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust. We care for the mental health and wellbeing of people across Kent and Medway. Our teams support adults with a wide range of mental health needs. Because we cover the whole county and both hospital and community settings, we can make care more joined up and easier to access for the 1.8 million people of Kent and Medway. Rated ‘Good’ by the CQC, we care for over 2,000 people in our hospitals and 54,000 in the community each year.
Our vision is simple: We are here to help communities not just live with mental illness, but live well. It’s why we’re passionate about working with communities to make mental health care better for everyone. And everything we do is guided by our values caring, inclusive, curious and confident.
Join us - if you share our passion for better mental health care and want to be part of a team that's doing well together.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Please refer to the attached job description for the full details on the responsibilities and person specification
We are serious about diversity and inclusion, and we are working hard to build this into our DNA. We warmly welcome applications for any of our roles from people from diverse backgrounds, and we are proactively encouraging applications from under-represented communities for our more senior roles, like this one.
Person specification
Knowledge and Skills
Essential criteria
- Good working knowledge of and ability to apply relevant legislative frameworks and policies relating to care e.g. Mental Capacity Act, Safeguarding, Consent to Treatment.
- Good Organisational and Time Management Skills
- Excellent verbal, interpersonal and written communication skills
- Computer/IT skills
- Ability to provide, undertake and use supervision effectively
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- RMN completion of Preceptorship programme
- Leadership Experience
- Experience working in an inpatient environment
Desirable criteria
- Training/Courses in Leadership
- Evidence of continuing professional development
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.
Application numbers
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Shanice Lott
- Job title
- Ward Manager
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 01622722131
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