Job summary
- Main area
- Clinical
- Grade
- ESM1
- Contract
- Fixed term: 12 months (Secondment only for NHS employees only) (This role is on an interim basis whilst a substantive post holder is recruited. NHS England reserves the right to end the secondment early if the role is recruited to substantively before the end date of 31/07/2026)
- Hours
- Part time - 22.5 hours per week (Negotiable 15 hours - 22.5 hours)
- Job ref
- 990-MED-16651-E
- Employer
- NHS England
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Wellington House
- Town
- London
- Salary
- £100,000 pro rata
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 11/08/2025 23:59
Employer heading
Interim National Medical Examiner
ESM1
Our Organisation
The NHS is building a culture that is positive, compassionate and inclusive – and we all have our part to play.
As employers we are committed to protecting and promoting the physical and mental health and wellbeing of all our colleagues. This underpins our values as set out in the NHS Constitution and supports us to be an Employer of Choice, while helping our colleagues to deliver high quality services for our patients and communities.
As a flexible employer, we want to support you to work in a way that is best for the NHS, our patients and you. Talk to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that’s a job share, part time, hybrid working or another flexible pattern. In addition, although the role advertised may have a ‘home’ office base indicated, we remain committed to supporting flexibility around workplace locations. If it works for the service, we will do our best to make it work for you.
We are an accredited Living Wage Employer which means that every colleague working for our organisation and third-party contractors will earn a real Living Wage. We are one of over 15,000 organisations, who voluntarily chose to pay the real Living Wage.
Job overview
The National Medical Examiner (NME) is a statutory role set out in section 21 of the Coroners and Justice Act 2009, appointed by the Secretary of State for Health.
Please note this is an interim role.
Main duties of the job
As the National Medical Examiner, you will provide professional and strategic leadership to Medical Examiners (MEs), across England and Wales, in their role of independent scrutiny and confirmation of cause(s) of death and other related functions. You will lead by example and set quality standards of best practice behaviours to improve death certification processes. This will support better safeguards for the public, monitor and improve patient safety and inform learning from deaths initiatives.
Working for our organisation
The NHS England board have set out the top-level purpose for the new organisation to lead the NHS in England to deliver high-quality services for all, which will inform the detailed design work and we will achieve this purpose by:
- Enabling local systems and providers to improve the health of their people and patients and reduce health inequalities.
- Making the NHS a great place to work, where our people can make a difference and achieve their potential.
- Working collaboratively to ensure our healthcare workforce has the right knowledge, skills, values and behaviours to deliver accessible, compassionate care
- Optimising the use of digital technology, research, and innovation
- Delivering value for money.
If you would like to know more or require further information, please visit https://www.england.nhs.uk/.
Colleagues with a contractual office base are expected to spend, on average, at least 40% of their time working in-person.
If you are successful at interview, we will run an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) in the Electronic Staff Record system (ESR). This transfer gathers valuable information from a previous or current NHS employer to support the onboarding process, including; statutory and mandatory competency status, Continuous Service Dates (CSD), and annual leave entitlement. You will have the opportunity throughout the recruitment process to inform us if you do not consent.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
- Be a credible figurehead for the statutory ME system by having experience in a national clinical based speciality, which has required representing and leading a reputable organisation as necessary.
- Act as a positive role model providing inspirational leadership for medical examiners and other key partners including DHSC and NHSE.
- Continuously striving to build trust and achieve successful outcomes.
- Be required to summarise deaths that have been scrutinised and provide an analysis in respect of public health surveillance to inform national health policies.
- Provide practical and legislative knowledge of the death certification process and the legislative reforms that commenced on 9th September 2024.
- Contribute to the consolidation of national policy on medical scrutiny of the circumstances and confirmation of causes of death, including the completion of Medical Certificates of Cause of Death (MCCDs), contingency planning and long-term evaluation of the ME system.
- Introduce learning, clinical governance and benchmarking processes to maximise the benefits of the statutory ME system.
- Provide input, as required, to the proposed MCCD and ME Manage my caseload (MMC) digital system development.
- Set standards for quality frameworks which are achievable and relatable for both providers and users of the ME system.
- Extensive knowledge of the training and skills required for Medical Examiners. This will require routinely ensuring that materials and content are current and fit for purpose.
- Issuing guidance to English and Welsh NHS bodies regarding the qualification requirements and functions of MEs.
- Ensure the ME system is responsive to the needs of the bereaved, communities, and faith groups.
- Work as part of a team within the Patient Safety team of the Medical Directorate, ensuring collaborative working with clinical colleagues, Nursing Directorate, Improvement Directorate and NHS Regional Teams and for matters relating to the Welsh ME service with the DCMO (Health Services) for Wales.
- Provide, collate and assure clinical and professional advice as required.
- The National Medical Examiner has a high media profile and will occasionally be required to deliver briefings to government ministers and respond to enquiries from the media.
You can find further details about the role, including key responsibilities and accountabilities, alongside the organisational structure and person specification in the attached Job Description and other supporting documents.
Secondments
Applicants from within the NHS will be offered on a secondment basis only, agreement should be obtained from their employer prior to submitting the application.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Medical degree
- Membership or fellowship of relevant Royal College
- Must be a registered and practising medical practitioner at the time of appointment and has been throughout the previous 5 years
Experience & Knowledge
Essential criteria
- Deep subject matter expertise and nationally recognised credentials in the relevant field
- Experience of leading people on multi-disciplinary change to deliver service improvements in a clinically effective and efficient way
Skills, Abilities and Attributes
Essential criteria
- Excellent interpersonal and presentation skills to engage and influence a range of stakeholder groups
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- National Medical Examiner Team
- Job title
- National Medical Examiner Team
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Additional information
If you would like to discuss the role please contact the National Medical Examiner team to arrange a suitable time
List jobs with NHS England in Administrative Services or all sectors