Job summary
- Main area
- Mental Health
- Grade
- Medical Leader Level 1
- Contract
- Fixed term: 12 months (until 31 March 2027 (dependant on start date) - Secondment only for current NHS employees)
- Hours
- Part time - 2 sessions per week (8 hours per week)
- Job ref
- 990-SW-18632-E
- Employer
- NHS England
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- South West House
- Town
- Taunton
- Salary
- £105,000 pro rata
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 06/01/2026 23:59
Employer heading
Regional Clinical Lead System Improvement
Medical Leader Level 1
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 Clinical Improvement and Transformation team are based within the Medical Directorate in NHS England South West Region. Our team comprises both clinical and operational leads and supports systems and providers across the South West to improve and transform services.
We are looking for a strategic medical lead with a clinical background in mental health to complement our team to provide clinical leadership across a wide portfolio of work, including for example, Learning and Improvement Networks for Urgent and Emergency care and mental health and our frailty improvement programme. The priority areas of work and deliverables require a team of teams approach across multiple directorates regionally and nationally.
As a Regional Clinical Lead for Improvement and Transformation, the post holder will work collaboratively with clinical and operational leaders across South West organisation, influencing and supporting work aligned to the 10 Year Health Plan for England, the medium-term planning framework to improve the quality of care for our populations. The post holder will be a clinical critical thinker and systems leader. They will have experience of working in a leadership position at system or place, with a proven track record of demonstrable delivery of quality improvements and improvement clinical outcomes.
Main duties of the job
- Act as a conduit for dissemination of information to all colleagues as appropriate.
- Provide strong clinical leadership and support across systems.
- To put in place an agreed clinical work plan that meets the directorates or programme objectives.
- Monitor clinical improvement performance against agreed national standards.
- To ensure links at strategic level to implement clinical change.
- Provide a healthy challenge across the Region with the common aim of improving patient care,
- experience and staff experience.
- Undertake clinical engagement with health professionals and relevant stakeholders to ensure wider clinical engagement.
- To support and provide leadership to STP/ICS clinical and operational leads across the region.
- Undertake where required, regular and appropriate mentoring and mentorship to ensure a strong individual performance and team relationship.
- To provide clinical leadership as part of any future re-procurement process.
- Chair meetings of clinical and operational leads as appropriate.
- Facilitate regional community of interest network.
- Work collaboratively with clinical Practitioner/s and operational managers as part of the end-to end pathway redesign national programme.
- To share best practise and innovation, supporting in improved outcomes across the region.
Working for our organisation
Our work supports the NHS to deliver high quality services for patients and best value for taxpayers.
Our staff bring expertise across hundreds of specialisms — including clinical, operational, commissioning, technology, data science, cyber security, software engineering, education, and commercial — enabling us to design and deliver high-quality NHS services.
We lead the NHS in England 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
Earlier this year, the Government announced that NHS England will gradually merge with the Department of Health and Social Care, leading to full integration. The aim is to create a smaller, more strategic centre that reduces duplication and eliminates waste.
If successful at interview, we will initiate an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR). This retrieves key data from your current or previous NHS employer to support onboarding, including competency status, Continuous Service Dates (CSD), and annual leave entitlement. You may opt out at any stage of the recruitment process.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
- Engaging the clinical leadership and other stakeholders across the region.
- Providing hands on support to local health systems to harmonise practice in accordance with best practice and reduce unwarranted variation in clinical outcomes, access and productivity e.g. using experience to provide expert advice, holding workshops, and supporting and challenging colleagues.
- Supporting engagement of key stakeholders including Royal Colleges and specialist societies, BMA, and Local Medical Committees, the South West Clinical Senate, Health Innovation Networks (HINs).
- Work collaboratively with HINs to enhance and amplify priority workstreams and support embedding of improvements.
- Lead clinical conversations on the development and implementation of new models of care to provide best practice outcomes to the population of the region.
- Support the evaluation of the programme and assist in the formulation of a plan for the future.
- Support the National Clinical Leads if needed and Regional Improvement and Improvement Managers by providing clinical insight into regional and system data.
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
Education and Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Fully qualified in respective profession
- Full registration with GMC and appropriate Specialist Register or NMC or HPC or other relevant professional body (without restrictions or warnings)
- Demonstrate the highest ethical and Professional standards
Experience
Essential criteria
- Minimum 10 years practicing as a fully qualified professional in the UK;
- Experience in senior leadership role within the NHS (preferably Medical Director or equivalent or Deputy or Clinical Director role within large organization
- Registered clinician who is currently practicing (or has practiced within the past 2 years) and who can maintain /revalidate their registration
Knowledge
Essential criteria
- Methods of developing quality assurance, quality improvement and evidence based clinical and/or public health practice
Skills
Essential criteria
- Negotiation and motivational skills
- Highly developed analytical skills including the ability to analyse and evaluate
Values and behaviours
Essential criteria
- Able to build and sustain relationships at all levels, actively involving stakeholders where appropriate
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Vinay Takwale
- Job title
- Medical Director
- Email address
- [email protected]
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