Job summary
- Main area
- Nursing
- Grade
- Band 8d
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 342-CS045-0926
- Employer
- Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Callington Road Hospital
- Town
- Bristol
- Salary
- £94,356 - £108,814 per annum
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 08/10/2026 23:59
- Interview date
- 22/10/2026
Employer heading
Band 8d Divisional Director of Nursing - BNSSG
Band 8d
Job overview
Shape the future of mental health nursing across BNSSG
Are you an experienced and visionary nursing leader looking for an opportunity to influence quality, safety and innovation at scale? Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust (AWP) is seeking an outstanding Divisional Director of Nursing to join our BNSSG Divisional Leadership Team. This is a pivotal senior leadership role where you will provide professional nursing leadership across a diverse portfolio of mental health services, ensuring the highest standards of patient care, clinical quality, safety and workforce development.
Main duties of the job
About you
We are looking for an exceptional senior nurse leader who combines professional credibility with strategic insight and a passion for improving patient care.
· A Registered Nurse with substantial senior leadership experience within mental health services.
· An experienced leader of quality, governance and clinical safety agendas.
· Passionate about developing nursing excellence and supporting staff to thrive.
· Experienced in leading large scale service improvement and transformation programmes.
· A compassionate, visible and inspiring leader who can engage colleagues at every level.
Working for our organisation
Ready to make a difference?
If you are a credible and compassionate senior nurse leader who wants to influence care, develop the nursing profession and help shape the future of mental health services across BNSSG, we would love to hear from you.
We are the lead provider of healthcare for people with serious mental illness, learning disabilities and autism across Bath and North East Somerset (BaNES), Swindon and Wiltshire, and Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.
We aim to provide High Quality, Compassionate Care everywhere, every day. This means our services will be safe, clinically effective and provide a positive all round experience for our patients, families and carers. And we believe passionately in treating everyone with kindness, respect and empathy.
Key to this is providing a supportive and safe environment for our 4,000 staff where we all feel welcome and able to do the best we can for those we support. Our staff and teams work incredibly hard delivering services across more than 90 locations, covering 2,200miles, to more than 1.8million people.
At AWP we actively encourage applicants from all backgrounds; we are particularly keen to encourage applications from people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, those with disabilities and from the LGBTQ+ community. We want people to bring their unique blend of experiences, backgrounds, perspectives and knowledge to AWP, as diversity makes us stronger.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
About the role
As the most senior nurse within the Division, you will play a critical role in shaping the future of services, driving continuous improvement, and ensuring that the voice of nursing remains at the heart of decision making. Working closely with the Divisional Clinical Director, Divisional Director of Operations and Executive Director of Nursing and Quality, you will help deliver strategic priorities whilst fostering a culture of compassion, innovation, accountability and excellence.
You will:
· Provide visible and inspirational leadership to nurses and multidisciplinary teams across inpatient and community services.
· Lead quality, governance, patient safety and professional standards across the Division.
· Champion evidence based practice, quality improvement and innovation.
· Support delivery of outstanding patient experiences and improved clinical outcomes.
· Lead divisional nursing workforce development, succession planning, recruitment and retention initiatives.
· Ensure effective systems are in place to maintain safe staffing and high quality care.
· Contribute to service redesign programmes and major transformational change.
· Represent the Division and Trust within regional and national professional forums.
Please see Job Description for full details
Person specification
Experience and Knowledge
Essential criteria
- Extensive experience working in a senior operational nursing role
- Extensive experience within a mental health service
- Able to demonstrate/provide extensive evidence of senior leadership ability and experience
- Extensive experience developing and leading strategic and operational plans across large and complex services
- Extensive understanding and experience of national and international best practice in specialist areas and nursing
- Evidence of commitment to evidence based practice; innovation and creation of change
- Experience of CQC inspection
Desirable criteria
- Able to demonstrate evidence of knowledge related to service change and QI methodology
Skills and Abilities
Essential criteria
- Ability to articulate a clear vision for nursing
- Ability to understand the challenges that face the nursing profession and identify possible solutions
- Fully understands the regulatory environment within which the Division / AWP operates
- Ability to manage highly complex priorities
- Ability to understand the complexities of business planning
- Clinically and operationally credible leadership skills
- Ability to work comfortably on the front line with staff, within your scope of practice
- Ability to present at national conferences and represent the AWP Director of Nursing at local and national events
- Ability to write and present concise Board/Committee reports
Other Requirements
Essential criteria
- Demonstrable passion for the profession of nursing and improving outcomes for patient care
- Ability to work within a team and independently
- Resilient to adversity
- Ability to adapt to changing needs of service
Education and Qualifications
Essential criteria
- NMC Registered
- First Degree
- Management qualification of equivalent
- Masters or extensive equivalent experience including specialist training in health, leadership or management
- Relevant management qualification or equivalent senior management experience
Desirable criteria
- Postgraduate masters/Doctorate in mental health core professional subject
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
- John Trevains
- Job title
- BNSSG Clinical Director
- Email address
- [email protected]
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