Job summary
As Lead Nurse Clinical and Professional Development, you will provide national leadership for clinical education and workforce development across Blood Donation. You will lead the quality and assurance of education and training for Registered Nurses and Donor Carers, helping colleagues deliver safe, evidence-based care. You will shape clinical education and workforce development, translate professional and regulatory requirements into effective learning, and use data, feedback and learning from incidents to continually improve programmes. You will also provide professional nursing leadership, support delivery of the NHSBT Nursing Strategy and lead key areas including professional development, revalidation, inclusion and staff-feedback action planning. This is an influential national role with the opportunity to strengthen workforce capability and make a direct contribution to clinical quality and donor safety.

Main duties of the job
You will:

• Provide national leadership for the design, development and quality assurance of clinical education across Blood Donation. Lead and develop the Education & Training Hub team, including recruitment, supervision, appraisal and talent development.
• Co-design and implement clinical education and workforce development strategy, ensuring programmes are effective, evidence based and continually improved.
• Provide specialist professional nursing leadership in areas including revalidation, practice development, competency assessment and professional investigations.
• Translate regulatory, professional and clinical requirements into safe, compliant and high-quality education and training.
• Monitor clinical and training data, KPIs, feedback, incidents and risks to identify improvements and provide assurance.
• Build effective partnerships with senior leaders, universities, regulators and other external organisations, representing clinical education at relevant forums.
• Lead or contribute to audit, research, evaluation and innovation to improve education and professional practice.
• Manage delegated budgets, contribute to cost improvement and support the development and procurement of digital learning solutions.
• Support delivery of the NHSBT Nursing Strategy across Blood Supply and lead key workforce initiatives including Our Voice and EDI action planning.

About us
It takes all types of people to deliver the kind of service that saves and improves lives. At NHS Blood and Transplant, you will join a team of more than 6,000 people who are making a genuine difference to communities, families, friends, relatives and more across the UK. We play a unique and special role in the NHS by helping people do something extraordinary - donate blood, blood products, organs, tissues, or stem cells to save someone in need. Our three core values are what set us apart. They guide and inspire everything we do. By being caring, expertly meeting the needs of our patients and our people, and accepting nothing less than the best quality, we can do extraordinary work and help our people to do something extraordinary in their career, too. Three small words, one big difference - Caring, Expert and Quality. Together we will save and improve more lives than ever. You will join us on our journey to create an inclusive workplace and aim to reflect the diverse communities we work with, and we positively encourage applications from all sectors of the community.

Details
Pay scheme: Agenda for change
Band: Band 8a
Contract: Permanent
Working pattern: Full-time
Reference number: 009462
Closing date: 01 November 2026

Qualifications (Essential)

• Registered Nurse (Adult/Child) with current NMC registration.
• Postgraduate qualification at Masters level or equivalent senior experience.
• Teaching, education or practice development qualification.
• Evidence of ongoing professional development.
• The role also requires the ability to travel nationally and a willingness to maintain clinical competence for Blood Donation sessions.

Experience (Essential)

• Significant senior nursing experience in complex clinical environments, with highly developed specialist clinical knowledge relevant to Blood Donation.
• Extensive experience of designing, delivering and evaluating clinical education, together with experience of leading teams across multiple sites.
• Strong leadership, performance management, planning and organisational skills, with the ability to coach, mentor and motivate others.
• Strong analytical and judgement skills, including experience of interpreting complex clinical and workforce data and using insight to drive improvement.
• Excellent communication, influencing and facilitation skills, with experience of working with senior leaders, multi-professional teams and external organisations and translating national policy into operational practice.

Employer details
Employer name: NHS Blood and Transplant
Employer's website: https://www.nhsbt.nhs.uk/

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.

Benefits

• Hybrid working arrangements, offering flexibility to balance work with life.
• Flexible working options where the role allows.
• 27 days annual leave (pro rata for part-time) plus Bank Holidays, increasing to 29 days after 5 years service and 33 days after 10 years.
• NHS Pension Scheme, a defined benefit scheme.
• Supportive learning culture, including the Thrive programme.
• Health and wellbeing support including occupational health, employee assistance programme and wellbeing resources.

For questions about the job, contact: Anthea Thorpe, Head of Clinical Support Service, anthea.thorpe@nhsbt.nhs.uk

As a Disability Confident Employer, we welcome applications from disabled candidates. We will talk with you to explore any adjustments that may help you during the recruitment process.