Job summary
Here at Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust, we are proud to provide expert, compassionate care for our local population. We are ranked as the third in the country for research, embedding education and training across the organisation. Our main hub is the Queen Alexandra Hospital, which is one of the largest hospitals on the south coast employing over 8,700 staff.

Our patients come from all walks of life and so do we. We hire great people from a wide variety of backgrounds because it makes our hospital stronger. If you share our values and our enthusiasm for getting it right for patients, colleagues, and our community, you will find a home at Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust.

Main duties of the job
Salary: NHS Band 8a, £57,528 - £64,750 per annum
Hours Per Week: Full time 37.5
Contract Type: Permanent

Are you a passionate and experienced midwifery leader with a strong commitment to patient safety, clinical governance, quality and continuous improvement?

We would love you to join our Senior Midwifery Leadership Team as Maternity Governance Matron, Band 8a.

This is a pivotal senior leadership role, providing professional leadership and oversight of maternity governance, quality, risk and patient safety. You will play a key role in ensuring that robust systems of assurance are embedded across maternity services and that learning leads to demonstrable and sustainable improvement in the safety, quality and experience of care.

As Maternity Governance Matron, you will hold significant senior responsibility for quality and safety, clinical governance, professional standards, complaints and learning, regulatory compliance and service improvement. Bringing these responsibilities together through a strong, visible and compassionate approach to governance leadership.

Working collaboratively across the organisation and with system partners, you will also work closely with colleagues on the Isle of Wight through established collaborative arrangements, supporting cross-site learning, alignment and shared improvement.

About us
The health and wellbeing of our staff is at the forefront of everything we do. We are proud to be able to offer our staff some fantastic benefits including our on-site Nursery, access to our free Beach Hut for those long summer days, our on-site Wellness Centre including a gym and a swimming pool, access to our fantastic staff networks including LGBTQ, Race Equality and DisAbility, and awards ceremonies to recognise your achievements. We believe we can offer support to all of our staff when they need it the most.

We welcome the unique contributions that you can bring in terms of your education, opinions, culture, ethnicity, race, sex, gender identity and expression, nation of origin, age, languages spoken, veterans status, colour, religion, disability, sexual orientation, and beliefs.

Smoke Free Policy
All of our hospitals operate a strict no smoking policy. Smoking cigarettes or tobacco products is not allowed on any of the grounds or in any of the buildings run by us. This applies to patients, staff, carers and visitors to Trust premises.

Our goal is to improve the health and wellbeing of everyone we care for and, by making sure that our NHS services are smoke-free, we benefit the health of people who use our services as well as the health of the people who work for us.

Details
Closing date: 19 November 2026
Pay scheme: Agenda for change
Band: Band 8a
Salary: £57,528 to £64,750 a year
Contract: Permanent
Working pattern: Full-time
Reference number: REF2754F

Job description
Job Purpose
The role of Maternity Governance Lead is to work closely and on behalf of the maternity senior leadership team providing leadership and co-ordination of patient safety and clinical quality governance within the Maternity and in doing so support the Maternitys delivery of high quality, safe services and in compliance with regulations.

To support the maternity team to provide integrated governance agenda to ensure that the maternity meet the requirements of the trust's framework and to work closely and report as required and to be accountable to the Director of Midwifery, reports to the Head of the Midwifery and works closely with the corporate Associate Director of Governance regarding governance, compliance quality, and safety.

Collaborate with the Governance lead on the IWT to align processes and reporting.

Provide senior clinical leadership in the maternity and participate on the Senior Manager on Call for Maternity services.

Key Responsibilities
Working closely with the Director and Head of Midwifery, obstetric and neonatal colleagues, patient safety teams and the wider multidisciplinary team, you will:

• Provide senior leadership and oversight of maternity governance, risk, quality and patient safety systems, supporting effective assurance and escalation.
• Provide oversight of the review and management of patient safety incidents, ensuring themes, trends, risks and opportunities for improvement are identified and acted upon.
• Ensure learning from incidents, complaints, audits, patient feedback and external reviews is translated into measurable and sustainable improvements in practice.
• Support assurance against local and national maternity standards, regulatory requirements and organisational quality priorities, identifying and escalating areas of concern.
• Lead and support the preparation and presentation of high-quality governance, safety and assurance reports to relevant committees and forums.
• Strengthen systems for audit, action planning, monitoring and evidence of impact, ensuring actions are completed effectively and improvements are sustained.
• Promote a culture of openness, learning, professional curiosity, psychological safety and continuous improvement.
• Champion a just and learning culture, supporting teams to learn from excellence as well as when care does not go as planned.
• Ensure the voices and experiences of women, birthing people and families inform maternity governance, learning and improvement.
• Work collaboratively across professional, organisational and geographical boundaries to strengthen maternity and neonatal safety and improve outcomes and experience.
• Provide visible senior professional leadership, supporting colleagues to understand their responsibilities for quality, safety, governance and escalation.

The interview will involve a stakeholder presentation session followed by a panel interview. Interviews will be held on Monday 30th November 2026.

Following shortlisting, the successful candidates will be provided this information.

Person Specification
Skills and Knowledge (Essential)

• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal
• Strong relationship development and management skills with senior management, peers, and direct reports
• Excellent analytical skills
• Keyboard skills
• Staff management and development
• Conflict resolution skills
• Strong customer service skills
• Ability to work on own initiative
• Clinically competent
• Clinical decision-making skills
• Effective leadership skills
• Organisational skills and forward planning
• Flexibility
• Able to support development of others
• Coaching and mentoring skills

Personal Qualities (Essential)

• Calmness and focus under pressure
• Inclusive, responsive, and flexible attitude and approach

Qualifications (Essential)

• Nursing and Midwifery, AHP, Pharmacy or Healthcare Sciences and current registration
• First degree or equivalent experience in a health-related subject

Experience (Essential)

• Professional clinical knowledge and experience of clinical governance, risk management and quality improvement acquired through training to postgraduate level or equivalent applied learning
• Experience of engaging and influencing clinicians and practitioners at all levels within the Trust
• Experience of operating successfully at a senior level in a complex organisation
• Experience in managing an aspect of governance on a Trust or Division wide basis
• Experience of working across multi-professional boundaries to enhance knowledge of governance processes and cross-professional learning for improved patient experience

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.

UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website.

Employer details
Employer name: Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust
Address: Queen Alexandra Hospital, Southwick Hill Road, Cosham, PO6 3LY, United Kingdom
Employer's website: https://www.porthosp.nhs.uk/work-for-us/

Employer contact details
For questions about the job, contact: Head of Maternity services and Midwifery, Alison Werfalli, alison.werfalli@nhs.net

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