Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please see Job description and person specification for details of the role role and  responsibilities.  

Main Duties: 

Provide effective clinical and professional leadership acting as a role model for all staff within the maternity service. 
• Actively work to support and empower all staff to develop and utilise clinical leadership, audit and risk reporting skills, ensuring they are supported in appropriate levels 
of authority to undertake their role effectively in an accountable manner 
• Ensure effective communication systems, written, verbal and the use of Information Technology is embedded in the maternity service.

Liaise with all clinical areas to ensure the organisational cultures are meeting the needs of women and their families. 
• Facilitate and negotiate change and new ways of working where necessary to support new care delivery process within the service. 
• In conjunction with the Divisional Midwifery and Nursing Director (DMND) and deputy DMND develop a prioritised action plan for the implementation of identified  Maternity safety standards, building on current skills, expertise, and practice within the department. 
• Represent the department or service at professional and academic forums. 
• Holds overarching responsibility for oversight and monitoring of guidelines and audits for the maternity department, advising the midwifery team on policies, which influence or may impact on the departmental/care group services. 
• Ensure that national guidance, which as a minimum is required at external assessment, is considered by the multidisciplinary team with appropriate actions to achieve 
compliance. 
• Engage in clinical effectiveness reviews to support the work of the service in ensuring that the criteria from the maternity safety standards are implemented. 
• Work in close collaboration with the Divisional governance lead and multidisciplinary team to deliver a safe and effective service. 
• Take responsibility for co-ordination and completion of national and local quality and safety audits across the service and system at regional and national levels in liaison with the governance team as required. (PMRT MBBRACE, MNSI) 
• To co-ordinate, lead or delegate investigations and provide leadership and support for staff during the PSIRF process 
• Assist the DMND and Deputy DMND in the development of the strategic direction and vision for the service in line with corporate vision, objectives and nursing and 
midwifery strategy. 
• Develop and maintain innovative communication channels, engaging all roles within the service and ensure regular quality and safety updates and learning from local incident briefs are provided 

Clinical and Professional responsibilities: 
 
• Maintain Professional Registration. Adhere to the NMC Code Maintain own clinical/professional competence and credibility. 
• Influence maternity care to be the highest standard whilst exercising professional and personal autonomy. 
• Provide a visible presence in clinical areas and be accessible to service users and staff, thus providing the opportunity to seek information, help and support work closely with the multidisciplinary maternity team to ensure robust audit, action planning and change management to minimise, strengthen measures to prevent and control risk 
• Benchmark against national best practice to develop and deliver evidenced base practice for women and families. 
• Involvement in the complaints and legal services process, working with the teams to set the standards and drive improvements across the trust. 
• Participates with internal and external stakeholders in the development of policy, processes, and business plans at business unit level.

Line management/supervisory responsibilities: 

• Provide direct line management for the safety and quality team and the specialist midwives within the post holders portfolio. 
• Rosters are approved through the e-rostering system ensuring that managers have created rosters that are efficient, safe and fair with adequate staffing and skill mix to ensure that the midwifery teams are adequately resourced and organised to deliver excellent care with compassion 
• Monitor sickness and absence of the safety and quality team and relevant specialist midwives ensuring appropriate action is taken with the Trust’s policy and guidelines. 
• Participate in the senior midwives’ bleep holder rota and take the ‘helicopter view’ of the maternity service. 
• Provide service focused leadership, in partnership with the DMND and deputy DMND in the delivery of continuous improvement in clinical performance of the maternity services with a specific focus on: 
o Ensuring high quality clinical care, continuous improvement of clinical practice and positive patient experience, maintaining a quality safe, effective maternity service and patient safety. 
o Support the embedding of cultural changes where required in clinical practice. 
o Provide professional advice and leadership within the maternity service. 
• Provide operational day to day support to senior staff within the clinical areas and support teams. 
• Work with the wider matron team to ensure staff are compliant with corporate and clinical mandatory training 
days including those elements identified in the training needs analysis 
• Be the lead for facilitating the completion of action plans and ensuring actions identified are implemented accurately and in a timely manner to meet the Trust time frames. 
• Work collaboratively with the Trust clinical audit department. 
• Ensure appraisals are undertaken for all maternity staff responsible to this post-holder by providing forums for objective setting, performance review and Continuing Professional Development and promoting development through knowledge and skills framework. meet the needs of the service and in 
accordance with the roster policy. 
• Prioritises workload 
• Communicates effectively with staff and service users 
• Manages difficult conversations effectively 
• Provides information to service users to support informed choice and personalisation of care 
• Contribute to and promote a culture that values all staff recognising and acknowledging achievement and success whilst positively addressing poor performance. 
• Ensure that staff development enables career progression and succession planning. 
• Ensure all midwives comply with NMC regulations and work within their scope of practice. 
• Validate changes in roles and practice within the safety and quality team ensuring changes are in line with key policy initiatives and care group business plans. 

Administrative responsibilities: 

• Maintain effective systems to ensure accurate records of all incidents claims and complaints received, and information is triangulated to ensure lessons are learnt and cascaded. 
• Ensure systems and processes in place for responding to national guidance and recommendations from maternity service reviews 
• Ensure the policies are reviewed regularly and are up to date, reflecting best practice and national regulations. 
• Ensure standards of record keeping and documentation are monitored and systems for storage of notes are in place in accordance with Caldicott Guardian and Trust policy. 
• To participate in clinical or other levels of audit to aid in service evaluation and development 
• To ensure clinical incident reporting takes place and facilitate changes to reduce risk.
 

Research and Audit: 

• Contribute to clinical audit and research projects ensuring compliance with research governance 
• Ensure that wherever possible clinical practice is evidence based and auditable. 
• Ensure that all actions identified as an outcome of audits are monitored implemented and embedded. 
• Ensuring where appropriate evidence is available.