Director of Midwifery
Company: Medway NHS Foundation Trust
Job ID: C9275-26-0224

Closing date: 01 November 2026

Division: Corporate Nursing and Maternity / divisional maternity services
Band: NHS AfC Band 9
Salary: £112,782 - £119,583 per annum/pro rata
Interview date: Friday, 6th November 2026*

*Please note, if selected for interview, you will also be asked to attend a stakeholder panel on the day of the interview.

Main duties of the job
The Director of Midwifery is the Trust's most senior registered midwife and provides independent, authoritative professional leadership for midwifery and the maternity and neonatal pathway, working jointly with the Divisional Director of Nursing for Children and Young People. Reporting directly to the Chief Nursing Officer, the post holder is accountable for advising the Board and Executive team on safety, quality, experience, equity, workforce, professional standards and strategic development across hospital, community and system settings.

Working as an equal member of the perinatal quadrumvirate with the Divisional Medical Director, Divisional Director of Operations and Divisional Director of Nursing for Children and Young People, or designated senior neonatal leader, the post holder will work with the Chief Nursing Officer to set the strategic direction for integrated maternity and neonatal improvement. They will provide strategic professional leadership and assurance for midwifery services across the Trust and influence the wider system so that women, babies and families receive safe, personalised, compassionate and equitable care and concerns raised by families and staff are heard, acted upon and never obscured by hierarchy, reputation or operational pressure.

About us
Do you have the ambition and vision to deliver our mission of the Best of Care by the Best of People providing excellent care, every time?

Here at Medway, we pride ourselves on working together as one to ensure that our shared vision is achieved for our patients.

As a key partner in the healthcare of our local population, we are keen to deliver this as an outcome of our Trust-wide strategy - Patient First. Using an Operational Excellence approach to align our priorities and operational management structures, we are just over a year and half into our Patient First deployment. We are looking for creative, skilled people to join our Transformation Team and further support us on this journey.

Our culture and values define us here at Medway NHS Foundation Trust and are the heartbeat of who we are as an organisation.

Our BEST values underpin Patient First and are at the core of the care we give to our patients, the support we offer to our staff and our overall leadership approach:

• B - Bold
• E - Every person counts
• S - Sharing and open
• T - Together

Details
Date posted: 16 October 2026
Pay scheme: Agenda for change
Band: Band 9
Salary: £112,782 to £129,783 a year per annum
Contract: Permanent
Working pattern: Full-time
Reference number: 275-1026-DoM
Job locations: Medway Maritime Hospital, Windmill Road, Gillingham, ME7 5NY, United Kingdom

Job responsibilities
Key Responsibilities:

• Provide Trust-wide professional leadership for midwifery and act as the principal adviser to the Chief Nursing Officer, Executive team, Maternity Board Non-Executive Director and Board.
• Lead delivery of an integrated maternity and neonatal strategy that aligns safety, outcomes, experience, equity, workforce, finance, operational performance, research and improvement across Trust and system pathways.
• Establish a single maternity and neonatal quality-governance and surveillance system with ward-to-Board and Trust-to-system traceability, clear early-warning thresholds and oversight of unwarranted variation.
• Ensure independent, compassionate and PSIRF-aligned responses to incidents, deaths, complaints and concerns, with effective Duty of Candour and family engagement.
• Lead safe midwifery staffing, establishment, skill mix, education, retention, professional standards, supervision and leadership succession.
• Through the quadrumvirate, provide leadership, constructive challenge and assurance on clinical standards, evidence-based pathways, escalation, multidisciplinary teamwork and sustained maternity and neonatal improvement, with shared accountability for outcomes.
• Lead delivery and truthful assurance for MIS/CNST, PMRT, MBRRACE-UK, Saving Babies Lives, CQC and applicable national maternity actions.
• Address inequalities, racism, discrimination and differential outcomes through data, listening, co-production and measurable action.
• Promote an open, inclusive and psychologically safe culture in which staff and families can speak up and receive timely response.
• Manage delegated people, budgets and programmes and contribute to Trust-wide executive leadership and on-call arrangements.

Please see job description for further principal duties and responsibilities.

Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential

• Registered Midwife with current NMC registration and no restriction incompatible with the role.
• Evidence of substantial continuing professional development and advanced leadership development.

Knowledge
Essential

• Expert contemporary knowledge of midwifery practice, integrated maternity and neonatal pathways, neonatal quality and safety, transitional care, perinatal optimisation, professional standards and evidence-based care.
• Expert knowledge of maternity quality governance, perinatal surveillance, PSIRF, Duty of Candour, PMRT, MBRRACE-UK and incident learning.
• Detailed understanding of Ockenden, Kirkup, the Amos investigation, CQC maternity learning and current national maternity policy.
• Expert knowledge of safe staffing, establishment review, acuity, e-rostering, workforce planning across organisational boundaries, education and professional standards.
• Knowledge of equality, racial and socioeconomic disparities, cultural safety, personalised care and co-production with women and families.

Experience
Essential

• Substantial experience as a Director, Deputy Director, Head of Midwifery or equivalent senior midwifery leader in a complex acute and community maternity service.
• Proven track record of improving maternity safety, outcomes, experience, governance and culture at significant scale.
• Experience providing direct professional advice and candid assurance to Executives, Board committees, regulators and commissioners.
• Experience leading safe staffing, establishment review, recruitment, retention, education and professional workforce transformation.
• Experience leading CQC, NHS England, MIS/CNST or equivalent regulatory and external assurance processes.

Skills
Essential

• Provides credible, independent professional advice and speaks truthfully about risk under Executive, Board, regulatory and public scrutiny.
• Exceptional strategic, analytical and systems-thinking skills, able to identify signals, unwarranted variation and interdependencies in complex and conflicting information across organisational boundaries.
• Outstanding written communication, including Board assurance, strategy, regulatory responses and public-facing information.
• Advanced influencing, negotiation, conflict resolution and political skills, including respectful challenge across professional hierarchies.
• Strong financial, workforce, programme and performance-management capability.

Values
Essential

• Demonstrates compassion, integrity, openness, humility, fairness, inclusion and an unwavering commitment to women, babies and families.
• Challenges racism, discrimination, bullying, incivility and exclusion and demonstrates culturally safe leadership.
• Promotes multidisciplinary teamwork, fair accountability, learning and continuous improvement.

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.

Certificate of Sponsorship
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website.

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants.

Employer details
Employer name: Medway NHS Foundation Trust
Address: Medway Maritime Hospital, Windmill Road, Gillingham, ME7 5NY, United Kingdom
Employer's website: https://www.medway.nhs.uk/

Employer contact details
For questions about the job, contact: Chief Nursing Officer, Evonne Hunt, evonne.hunt1@nhs.net