Job Title: Head of Clinical Standards - Armed Forces Recruitment
Salary: £60,000 per annum based on 37.5 hours per week
Contract Type: Permanent, Home Based
Hours: Full time or Part time 30 hours - 37.5 hours per week) mininum of 4 days per week between Monday - Friday. (7.5 hours per day between 8am-6pm)
Right to live and work in the UK is required for this role. Successful candidates will be required to undergo BPSS security clearance.
Closing Date: Friday 16th October 2026 @ 10:00am

Role Summary
Optima Health Medical Assessments is proud to partner with Serco, the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) and consortium partners in delivering critical clinical services that support recruitment into the UK Armed Forces. Through the Armed Forces Recruiting Service (AFRS), Optima Health is responsible for delivering high-quality medical assessment services that contribute to the safe, consistent and effective assessment of candidates seeking to join the Armed Forces.

The Head of Clinical Standards is a senior clinical governance leadership role, sitting within the governance and assurance framework rather than operational service delivery. The role provides strategic leadership and oversight of clinical quality, standards, safety, audit, training, risk and continuous improvement across the clinical assessment service.

The post holder will lead the clinical standards function, with Trainer/Auditors reporting directly to them, providing clear leadership and assurance across the clinical workforce. They will work closely with Optima Health clinical and operational leadership, consortium partners, single-service occupational teams and other key stakeholders to ensure that clinical practice is consistent, evidence-based, safe and aligned with the requirements of the Armed Forces recruitment environment.

A key focus of the role will be ensuring the clinical quality of delivery across the medical assessment pathway. This will include oversight of clinical audits, training and professional development, clinical policies and procedures, quality indicators, risk management and learning from incidents and complaints. The Head of Clinical Standards will ensure that audit findings and clinical outcomes are translated into meaningful improvements in practice, training and service quality.

The role will also provide senior clinical oversight of the clinical stages of the medical assessment process, including the management and assurance of appeals where candidates have been rejected following completion of their medical questionnaire. The post holder will ensure that these processes are clinically robust, consistently applied and appropriately governed.

Working collaboratively with the Senior Medical Governance Officer and wider governance structures, the Head of Clinical Standards will contribute to the development and continuous improvement of the Clinical Governance Framework. They will provide assurance to relevant governance boards and senior leaders, ensuring that clinical risks, quality issues, audit findings and improvement actions are appropriately identified, escalated and reported.

The role will also have responsibility for clinical complaints, ensuring that concerns are appropriately investigated, responded to and used as a source of learning and service improvement.

The successful candidate will be a Registered Adult Nurse with significant senior clinical leadership experience, ideally gained within a clinical governance, quality or patient safety environment. They will have a strong understanding of clinical governance, clinical risk, audit and regulatory requirements, together with a proven ability to design and deliver effective clinical training.

This is a highly collaborative role requiring an individual who can operate confidently across organisational boundaries, engage effectively with consortium partners and single-service occupational teams, and influence senior stakeholders while maintaining clear clinical independence and professional standards. The successful candidate will bring strong judgement, analytical ability and communication skills, together with a commitment to continuous improvement, candidate safety and high standards of clinical practice.

Main duties and Responsibilities:

• Lead the development, implementation, and continuous improvement of the Clinical Governance Framework.
• Provide expert strategic advice to senior leaders on clinical quality improvement, and regulatory matters.
• Ensure alignment of governance processes and policies with Optima Health Medical Assessments and Consortium priorities and The Authority policy.
• Oversee systems for monitoring clinical quality indicators, learning from incidents, and reducing harm.
• Effective oversight of serious incident investigation, reporting, action planning, and learning dissemination.
• Under the Appeals for the OMQ and PHCR stages of the medical assessment.
• Maintain a robust clinical risk management system, including risk registers.
• Ensure compliance with The Authority policies, statutory and regulatory bodies.
• Lead preparation for inspections and support the development of improvement plans.
• Oversee the clinical audit programme, ensuring learning informs service improvement.
• Promote evidence-based practice, supporting the application of the JSP 950 Leaflet 6-7-7 clinical process.
• Ensure systematic review of clinical outcomes and benchmarking driving a review of clinical training when indicated.
• Support the Joint Governance Board and Optima Health Governance Board and any other clinical quality boards.
• Ensure clinical governance reporting to the Board is accurate, timely, and insightful.
• Strengthen escalation pathways and assurance systems.
• Proactively manage and implement a continuous professional development plan.
• Ensure the induction programme is effectively planned, implemented, and maintained.
• Provide visible leadership to the governance and quality teams.
• Support the development of a skilled workforce through coaching, training, and capability-building.
• Model professional behaviours and promote a positive, learning-focused culture.
• Conduct line management tasks as required.
• Conduct appraisals, set objectives, performance management, absence management and deal with conduct, capability and grievance issues as required.
• Occasional Travel is required which will include overnight stays.
• Conduct other ad hoc tasks commensurate with level of responsibility as requested.

You can view the full job description at the bottom of this advert when viewing this role via our website

Experience, Skills, and Knowledge Required for the Role:

• Registered Adult Nurse (NMC).
• Significant senior leadership experience within a clinical governance framework.
• Strong clinical leadership experience within a clinical setting.
• Significant experience working within clinical governance, quality or patient safety.
• Strong understanding of clinical governance, candidate safety, and regulatory frameworks.
• Strong audit skills and experience leading clinical audit programmes.
• Experience of using clinical audit, quality indicators and clinical outcomes to drive continuous improvement.
• Demonstrated ability to deliver clinical training and support the development of a skilled clinical workforce.
• Experience of developing, implementing and maintaining clinical policies and procedures.
• Experience leading serious incident investigations, reporting, action planning and learning dissemination.
• Experience of clinical risk management, including the maintenance and management of risk registers.
• Experience of regulatory compliance and preparing for inspections.
• Experience working with senior leaders, regulators, external partners and clinical stakeholders.
• Experience of leading change and managing complexity within a clinical environment.
• Strong communication, influencing and stakeholder management skills.
• Excellent analytical, judgement and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to interpret and present complex clinical and quality data.
• Evidence of continuous professional development.
• Ability to provide visible leadership to clinical governance and quality teams.

What Can We Offer You?

• 25 Days Annual Leave + Bank Holidays
• Buy and Sell Holiday Scheme
• Life Assurance
• Pension Scheme
• Health Cash Plan
• Volunteer Days
• YuLife Employee Benefits Platform
• Save As You Earn Scheme
• Eye Test Vouchers
• Flu Vaccination Scheme
• Cycle to work scheme
• Clinical Training Academy
• Paid CPD Days
• Professional Registration Fees Paid
• RAVE Awards
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Right to Request Flexible Working From Day 1

About Us:
Optima Health is the UK's largest provider of Occupational Health and wellbeing services, supporting organisations across both the public and private sectors. With a heritage dating back to 1947, we have been helping employers create healthier, high-performing workplaces for generations, and we continue to evolve with innovative, practical solutions that make a real difference.

At the heart of our story are our people. We bring together like-minded professionals who are passionate about improving workplace health and wellbeing and delivering meaningful support to the organisations we work with across the UK.

When you join Optima Health, you become part of something bigger. We invest in our people/you through structured induction, ongoing training and tailored career development, helping you build the skills and experience to grow your career.

Together, we live our values:
One Team – There are no barriers in our business. We trust each other and work together as one team to deliver what our clients need. We all have a part to play in our future, and everyone's contribution is important and valued.
Doing the Right Thing – We operate to the highest standards. Success is underpinned by honesty and integrity, and by doing what we say we will do. We care about the impact of our work on our people, our clients, their employees, society, and the world we live in. Caring for our colleagues' wellbeing and respecting their time, energy and balance is fundamental to this value.
Shaping Tomorrow – We are always looking for ways to improve and innovate. We train, support and empower future leaders, invest in market-leading propositions and use technology to advance service and clinical outcomes. We evolve how we work - embracing smarter, more flexible approaches that help our people thrive both professionally and personally.
Never Too Big to Care – We always retain a client-first approach. Every client, and every one of their employees that we support, matters. We work in partnership to optimise workplace health and wellbeing, sharing in the benefits of growing together.

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All salaries are displayed as Full Time Equivalent (FTE)