Job summary
You will be responsible for leading a team of Healthcare Assistants and Donor Care Supervisors, ensuring they are motivated, well-trained, and capable of delivering excellent care.

You will be expected to foster a positive working environment, provide ongoing training, and support, and address any team issues or concerns that arise. You will use your clinical expertise and judgment to assess whether potential donors meet the necessary health and safety criteria for blood donation. This includes considering the donor's medical history, current health status, and any other relevant factors.

This role requires strong leadership skills, clinical expertise, and a deep understanding of regulatory requirements.

You'll be responsible for ensuring that the team delivers exceptional care while making critical decisions that affect donor safety and the overall quality of the service.

Main duties of the job

• Taking clinical responsibility for ensuring the safe assessment and blood donation of our donors.
• Being accountable for the safe running of a blood donation session.
• Taking responsibility for ensuring an excellent donor experience.
• Maintaining the competency and skills of your team and yourself.
• Being able to adapt communication styles for difficult conversations.
• Maintaining your professional development to help us deliver improvements to our practice.

Your working hours will be on a shift basis; the normal hours for this role are 8 days per fortnight. Shifts can start as early as 08:00am and finish as late as 22:00pm, this will be over 9.5 hour days. Weekend and bank holiday working will be required. You can expect to work some long hours, but you wont be working more than five days a week.

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'll 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'll save and improve more lives than ever.

Details
Date posted: 15 July 2026
Pay scheme: Agenda for change
Band: Band 6
Salary: £39,959 to £48,117 a year
Contract: Fixed term
Duration: 12 months
Working pattern: Full-time
Reference number: 009118
Job locations: NHSBT, Basildon Wilbur House, Basildon, SS13 1EH

Job description
This role requires strong leadership skills, clinical expertise, and a deep understanding of regulatory requirements. You’ll be responsible for ensuring that the team delivers exceptional care while making critical decisions that affect donor safety and the overall quality of the service.

In return you will be part of a valued team who are integral to the life-saving services of NHS Blood and Transplant, as well as enjoying what you do you will receive the below NHS employee benefits.

What we offer:

• No night shifts.
• TOIL (Time off in Lieu)
• Opportunities to work in other areas/specialisms.
• Facilitating donation
• Flexible working options – we promote flexible working where the role allows. We’re happy to discuss what flexibility might look like for you.
• Generous annual leave - 27 days annual leave (pro rata for part-time) plus Bank Holidays, increasing to 29 days after 5 years’ service and to 33 days after 10 years.
• Inclusive pension scheme - the NHS Pension Scheme is a defined benefit scheme (not dependent on investment returns). Further details and outline of benefits can be found at: www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/information-about-nhs-pensions
• Supportive learning culture - we’ve fostered a culture of continuous learning where colleagues are well-led, engaged, and encouraged to grow. We support you in reaching your full potential, both in your current role and future career. Our Thrive program embodies our commitment to learning and development, offering a wide range of activities to support your personal and professional growth. It’s open to everyone at NHSBT, ensuring you have the resources to succeed and shine in your role.
• Health and wellbeing support – we offer confidential services including occupational health, employee assistance programme, and wellbeing resources. Our support is available to all colleagues and we endeavour to provide tailored workplace adjustments where possible.

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.

You can find more information about accessibility, our culture, and how we support applicants on the NHSBT Careers website: Read about our application process Learn more about our culture at NHSBT

To learn more, please see the job description and person specification. These can be accessed via the link below, or by clicking ‘Apply’ if you are viewing this advert on another site.

Person Specification
Qualifications

• Registered Nurse with current Nursing and Midwifery Council registration (which must be maintained) as Registered Nurse Adult
• Hold a full and valid UK driving licence with no more than 6 points

Experience

• Demonstrate leadership qualities and understand the principles of best practice to deliver high quality care.
• Have experience of supporting the professional development of others.
• Have an understanding of clinical audit and research.
• Have experience of supporting improvements and change in practice.
• Have an awareness of patient safety initiatives and risk management.
• Have experience of working with Information Technology such as hand-held devices and Microsoft Office packages (Word, Excel and PowerPoint).

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.