Job summary
Are you an experienced Children's Nurse with a passion for leadership, innovation and service improvement?

We are seeking an enthusiastic, motivated and forward-thinking Senior Children's Nurse to lead and support our Children's Outpatient Department and Investigations Unit(CDCU).

This is an exciting opportunity to play a pivotal role in transforming services and developing new models of care to meet the changing needs of children, young people and their families. Working alongside consultants, specialist nurses, allied health professionals and the wider multidisciplinary team, you will provide expert clinical leadership across both areas, ensuring the delivery of safe, effective and compassionate care while driving innovation and continuous improvement.

This is fixed term/secondment role for 18 months, 26.25 hours per week.

Main duties of the job

• Accountable for own professional actions and provides clear professional leadership to the team
• Acts as an effective role model and expert clinician
• Ensures that safe, effective patient care is always delivered
• Assess, plan and implement care according to individual needs;
• Promotes and maintains accurate and contemporaneous clinical records
• Facilitates optimal patient journey and effective and timely discharge
• Provides effective communication between ward team and all members of the multidisciplinary team
• Accountable for own professional actions and provides clear professional leadership to the team
• Acts as an effective role model and expert clinician
• Ensures that safe, effective patient care is always delivered
• Assess, plan and implement care according to individual needs;

About us
We are ESNEFT and we provide hospital and community health services to almost one million people across east Suffolk and north Essex. Our dedicated staff deliver care from acute hospitals in Colchester and Ipswich, community hospitals, surgeries, community clinics and in patients' own homes.

We are one of the largest NHS organisations in England, employing more than 12,000 staff.

We pride ourselves on supporting our staff. We offer a wide range of training and development opportunities, as well as flexible working options.

Along with supporting you to achieve your career goals we offer a generous pension scheme, unsocial hours payments (where applicable), 27 days annual leave on commencement (pro rata) and access to a range of NHS discounts. Our Staff Health and Wellbeing programme offer a variety of services.

Our philosophy is that Time Matters to everyone. Across the Trust, we concentrate on improving the things we do and removing those which cause time delays for our staff and patients.

We are investing in our commitment to Time Matters with a partnership with leading electronic patient record (EPR) supplier Epic. This digital transformation will bring what's widely regarded as the world's best EPR system to ESNEFT, transforming life in hospital for staff and patients.

Find out about living and working here - Apply through our website

Details
Date posted: 12 August 2026
Pay scheme: Agenda for change
Band: Band 7
Salary: £49,387 to £56,515 a year per annum pro rata
Contract: Fixed term
Duration: 18 months
Working pattern: Part-time
Reference number: 432-HR635-26
Job locations: Ipswich Hospital, Heath Road, Ipswich, IP4 5PD, United Kingdom

Job responsibilities
For full details of the responsibilities and duties of this role please see the attached job description.

Person Specification
Experience
Essential

• Proven Band 6 experience in acute clinical setting
• Previous ward management experience
• Evidence of working in a variety of clinical settings relevant to specialty
• Participation in MDT meetings
• Evidence of working on Division or Trust Groups to improve the delivery and standards of care

Desirable

• Experience of Service Development
• Budget monitoring
• Experience of report writing
• Acting up for Band 7
• Evidence of managing complex HR issues

Qualifications
Essential

• RN/RN Child
• Achievement of or actively working towards a health-related degree
• Teaching and Assessing Qualification
• Clinical leadership course

Desirable

• Supervision/debrief Training
• Health and Safety Level 4 Certificate

Knowledge
Essential

• Good knowledge and understanding of legislation relevant to paediatrics and elective care
• Developing and promoting services
• Research and evidence-based practice
• Audit
• Safeguarding Children and vulnerable adults
• Leadership

Desirable

• Demonstration of Quality improvement intiatives/CIP schemes

Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer details
Employer name: East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust
Address: Ipswich Hospital, Heath Road, Ipswich, IP4 5PD, United Kingdom
Employer's website: Apply through our website

Employer contact details
For questions about the job, contact:
Matron
Faye Button
faye.button@esneft.nhs.uk

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Applicants must have current UK professional registration.