Job summary
We are looking for an experienced senior leader with expertise in patient safety, clinical governance, PSIRF methodologies, systems thinking and healthcare risk management. Candidates should be educated to Master's level or equivalent experience and hold a relevant professional registration. You will have excellent leadership, communication and influencing skills with experience of working across organisational boundaries to improve patient safety and quality.

We are seeking a self-motivated professional to join our Clinical Governance Team to lead the Patient Safety agenda. You will be a registered clinician (Nurse, Occupational Therapist, Social Worker, Psychologist etc) with the experience and motivation to provide strategic leadership for patient safety across Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.

As the Trust's designated Patient Safety Specialist, you will lead the NHS Patient Safety Strategy and Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF), ensuring robust systems are in place for incident management, learning, improvement and assurance. You will support the Trust to deliver safe, high-quality care by embedding a positive patient safety culture and ensuring learning from incidents leads to measurable improvements.

Working closely with senior clinical and operational leaders, you will provide expert advice on patient safety matters, oversee incident response and learning and act as a key contact with NHS England, the Integrated Care Board and other stakeholders

Main duties of the job
The Head of Patient Safety will provide Trust-wide leadership for patient safety and quality improvement, ensuring compliance with national patient safety policy and best practice.

Responsibilities include:

• Leading the NHS Patient Safety Strategy and Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF)
• Providing expert patient safety leadership and advice to the Trust Board, Executive Team, clinical services and external partners
• Leading arrangements for learning from patient safety incidents and ensuring learning translates into measurable improvements in patient care
• Overseeing patient safety investigations, learning responses, Duty of Candour compliance and incident management processes
• Leading the development and delivery of the Trust's Patient Safety Incident Response Plan (PSIRP)
• Supporting analysis of patient safety data to identify trends, risks and opportunities
• Ensuring effective systems respond to National Patient Safety Alerts and meet reporting requirements, including Learn from Patient Safety Events (LFPSE)
• Promoting a culture of safety, openness, learning and continuous improvement
• Developing productive relationships with patients, carers, Patient Safety Partners and external organisations
• Providing leadership and support to Patient Safety Learning Response Leads and contributing to wider Clinical Governance and Quality Assurance objectives.

About us
We provide mental health and learning disability care for children, young people and adults across Sussex and for children and young people in Hampshire.

Working in Sussex & Hampshire:

Travel easily between coast and countryside, with a blend of picturesque villages and seaside towns.

Enjoy a range of beautiful rural settings and bustling city locations.

With easy access to Gatwick and Heathrow and excellent railway links across the UK there is plenty of opportunity for adventure.

Job responsibilities
Please see attached job description and person specification for more details on the main duties of the role.

Qualifications
Essential

• Educated to master's level or equivalent level or equivalent experience of working at a senior level.
• Professional registration such as Nurse, OT, psychologist.

Desirable

• Post-graduate patient safety qualification or previous experience.

Knowledge and Experience
Essential

• Experience of working in a patient safety-related role with an understanding of the principles that underpin approaches to improving patient safety in health systems.
• Experience and knowledge of the components of clinical governance, incident response, risk management and assurance function; current NHS national policies, standards, requirements and directions that relate to measuring and improving the quality and safety of patient care.
• Knowledge of the NHS patient safety strategy and how it can be implemented.
• Knowledge of systems thinking, human factors understanding and just culture principles.

Skills, capabilities and attributes
Essential

• Ability to interpret complex information (including patient safety incident data, administrative data, mortality data) that may conflict and where expert opinion may differ.
• Ability to communicate effectively with clinical, academic and all levels of staff.
• Ability to provide senior leadership and work with senior leaders.
• Ability to make decisions autonomously, when required, on difficult issues.
• Ability to manage time effectively and to prioritise.
• Able to negotiate and influence at an organisational level and externally with a range of stakeholders.
• High quality presentation skills and ability to provide and effectively communicate highly complex, sensitive and contentious information to staff, patients and relatives / carers, particularly where a potentially antagonistic or highly emotive atmosphere may present significant barriers to acceptance.
• Ability to travel across sites.

Values and behaviours
Essential

• Ability to operate in a value-driven style consistent with the values of the public services and specifically with the organisational values.

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.

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 (Opens in a new tab).

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 (Opens in a new tab).

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).