Job summary
- Main area
- Executives
- Grade
- Executive (VSM)
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 214-CEN-7721706
- Employer
- Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- King's Mill Hospital
- Town
- Sutton in Ashfield
- Salary
- £124,000 - £150,000 per annum
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 08/02/2026 23:59
- Interview date
- 24/02/2026
Employer heading
Director of Improvement
Executive (VSM)
Thank you for your interest in this role, we would be delighted to welcome you to Sherwood Forest Hospitals.
Sherwood is nationally recognised as being an excellent place to work and deliver care. We are rightly proud of the 5,500 colleagues who work here and know that happy colleagues deliver better care.
Our teams work in a supportive, inclusive environment, which nurtures wellbeing and has opportunities for development and progression. We do not just care for our patients, we also care for you.
At Sherwood Forest Hospitals, we are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace. As such, we particularly welcome applications from people who identify as Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic, or Disabled. We believe that a diverse team better represents the communities we serve and brings a wealth of perspectives and experiences to our work.
Job overview
A message from Jon Melbourne, Chief Executive.
Thank you for taking the time to consider this opportunity to work with us in this exciting role.
We are looking for a Director of Improvement to join Sherwood Forest Hospitals and join us on an exciting journey to realise our ambition of outstanding care, compassionate people and healthier communities.
The post holder will be responsible to the Chief Executive and Trust Board for leading the improvement, digital and strategy agendas across Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. We must leverage the potential of digital, improvement and our strategic opportunities to improve the working lives of colleagues, patient experience and outcomes.
I am looking for someone who can show that they lead in the right way and that can evidence what they deliver. We will work together as a team across Sherwood Forest to drive improvements in care and to create an environment in which individuals and teams can excel. We want Sherwood Forest to have one of the best cultures in the NHS because an inclusive and empowering culture delivers safe care.
As Director of Improvement, I will offer you my full trust, support and the opportunity to work with fantastic colleagues and partners here at Sherwood Forest. I will support your personal development and growth, and you will have great opportunities to lead change and to influence our journey.
Please get in touch with me directly if the role interests you – [email protected]
Thank you.
Jon
Main duties of the job
The Director of Improvement will apply expert insight to understand services provided not only from an organisational perspective but also through the lens of patients and service users. The post holder will be expected to drive innovation, digital change and strategic improvement.
Establishing direct links between delivery of the strategy, digital, improvement strategies, performance, quality and safety, efficiency and productivity is a key feature of the role.
The Director of Improvement will also act as a role model, providing expertise on the appropriate skills, methods and tools leaders and clinicians require to improve services and outcomes for patients. The role will build Trust digital and improvement capability and expertise, and will ensure a strategy which delivers lasting change for colleagues and patients.
The Director of Improvement is expected to foster productive relationships with stakeholders to ensure the strategy, digital and improvement agendas are contemporary and future proof.
Working for our organisation
We are an award-winning NHS Foundation Trust working alongside health and social care colleagues across the county to provide acute and community healthcare services to more than 420,000 people across Mansfield, Ashfield, Newark, Sherwood and parts of Derbyshire and Lincolnshire.
We put the patient at the heart of everything that we do, and it is our aim to make sure that every patient is treated as we would want a member of our own family to be treated. At the same time, we expect our staff to be caring, kind and courteous to each other and to look out for each other. We believe that we are truly a clinically led organisation.
We are proud that our Trust colleagues have voted us the best acute Trust to work for anywhere in the Midlands for six years running in the National NHS Staff Survey, while the Care Quality Commission has rated our Trust as ‘outstanding’ for care and our King’s Mill Hospital as the only ‘outstanding’ NHSrun hospital in the East Midlands.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
To understand the role in more detail, please read the attached job description and person specification document.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Educated to master’s level or equivalent experience in a relevant professional qualification.
- Extensive demonstratable experience in digital innovation, implementation and change.
Desirable criteria
- Relevant clinical qualification and registration with relevant professional body
Knowledge
Essential criteria
- Demonstratable knowledge of improvement methods with appropriate professional credentials.
- Knowledge of the NHS and social care agenda, ideally with a patient facing clinical background
- An understanding of healthcare planning process and key national healthcare issues
Experience
Essential criteria
- Significant management and leadership experience at a senior level in the NHS or other complex organisation / system
- Experience of leading complex large scale improvement / transformation projects / programmes
- Experience of developing and delivering improvement / transformation models at scale
- Significant experience in delivering clinical change programs and projects
- Experience of staff engagement initiatives that have led to sustainable cultural change, driving transformation, generated by staff, owned by staff, to improve care reduce variance and improve productivity
- Proven experience and ability in managing operational performance with tight financial constraints demonstrating effective budget management
- Evidence of successfully formulating improvement plans to deliver an agreed strategy
- Track record of delivering projects on time, under budget. These may be physical builds or digital platforms
- Experience of building, maintaining and utilising successful relationships with all staff especially clinicians or other professional qualified experts within complex organisations
- Significant experience of directing successful financial recovery improvement delivery programmes, both qualitative and quantitative, across an organisation
Desirable criteria
- Significant experience of directing successful financial recovery improvement delivery programmes, both qualitative and quantitative, across an organisation
- Experience of delivering transformation across a system, with a track record of negotiation prowess leading to collaborative working across multiple providers to meet the ICS strategy
- NHS Board-level Executive experience
Contractual Requirements
Essential criteria
- Participate in the Gold on call rota
- Ability to attend multiple sites
- Must participate, pass and maintain a Fit and Proper Person Test
Employer certification / accreditation badges
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Applicant requirements
The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Laura Webster
- Job title
- PA to the Chief Executive
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 01623 622515
- Additional information
ext 3259
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