Associate Director of Quality Governance

at  The Christie NHS Foundation Trust

We are seeking an experienced, knowledgeable, and driven clinical governance leader for the role of Associate Director of Governance at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust. The right person will have an ambitious approach to leading the patient safety and quality governance agenda to drive the very best patient outcomes and experience. Supporting the Executive Chief Nurse and Medical Director, this role will play an important part in continuing to drive forward and provide leadership to the Trust’s patient safety, and experience functions. They will provide visible professional leadership for patient safety which inspires, motivates, and engages teams across the organisation.
The right candidate will be highly literate and able to provide effective analysis of data and clear assurance on the organisational response to risks, incidents and issues impacting quality governance. They will act as a subject matter expert on NHS governance frameworks, patient safety standards, health and Safety legislation and regulatory requirements. They will be a confident communicator who models civility and compassion and able to engage a wide range of stakeholders. The post holder should be resilient, self-motivated, politically astute, and able to negotiate challenging situations and interactions.
The Associate Director of Governance, in collaboration with the Chief Nurse and Medical Director, will provide strategic and operational leadership to ensure robust systems and processes are in place for effective governance across The Christie NHS Foundation Trust.
Provide senior level leadership and direction to the Quality and Clinical Governance, Health Safety and Risk. Provide expert advice to the Executive Team/Board on all matters relating to Quality Governance, Health, Safety and Risk.
Lead the continual development and evolution of the Trust Local Risk Management System.
The postholder will have specific responsibility for Patient Safety, Risk Management, Learning from Patient Safety Events (LFPSE), Complaints, Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS), Claims, Inquests, and Health and Safety. They will work collaboratively to promote a culture of transparency, learning, and continuous improvement, ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements and delivering high standards of care.
The Christie is one of Europe’s leading cancer centres and an international leader in cancer research. We are a performance-driven, high-achieving organisation, with the patient at the heart of everything we do. Our ambition is to be one of the leading comprehensive cancer centres in the world.
A Foundation Trust since 2007 we are one of Europe’s leading comprehensive cancer centres, treating over 44,000 patients a year and with a turnover in excess of £220m. Based in Manchester we serve a population of 3.2 million across Greater Manchester & Cheshire, and as a national specialist around 26% of patients are referred to us from other areas of the country.
Our combination of service, research and education provides opportunities for innovation, and we use a strong business approach to develop our services. Our ambitious strategy includes delivering services closer to patients’ homes for example through our network of Christie radiotherapy centres and developing new treatments for patients in our early phase trials unit which is the largest in the world.
If you think you could be the person we are looking for and wish to arrange an informal discussion, please contact Laura O’Brien, PA to Vicky Sharples, Chief Nurse and Executive Director of Quality: laura.obrien3@nhs.net
Strategic Leadership of Quality Governance
Develop and deliver a comprehensive quality governance strategy for the Trust, aligned with national standards and best practices.
Act as a key advisor to the Trust Board and senior leadership team on matters related to quality governance, including patient safety, risk, health and safety, and patient experience and legal (Claims and Coroners) ensuring compliance with local and national regulatory standards and statutory requirements.
Role model leadership in the creation of a culture that encourages reporting, learning, and continuous quality improvement across the organisation.
Develop a framework of systems and processes to deliver and performance. manage effective governance across the Trust.
Ensure the adequate functioning of governance committees responsible for delivery and oversight of quality governance agenda.
Facilitate and support the local implementation of the current and future national. Strategies that apply to governance agenda
Maintain evidence required for external assessments and ensure timely completion. and implementation of action plans in respect of regulatory and corporate requirements.
Responsible for monitoring information about the quality of complaints, incidents, risk, claims, and inquest outcomes demonstrating a positive response to learning and improvement.
Patient Safety and Risk Management
Lead the development and implementation of the Trusts Patient Safety Strategy and Incident Response Framework (PSIRF), ensuring alignment with the NHS Patient Safety Strategy 2020.
Embed the principles of PSIRF ensuring robust assurance is provided to board identifying any areas for improvement and implementing strategies that directly address poor performance, holding people to account where necessary.
Responsible for the systems and process of oversight of clinical and non-clinical risks, including maintaining and monitoring the Trust risk registers.
Ensure systems are in place for investigating, managing, and learning from patient safety events / incidents, delivering improvements to safety priorities as described in the Trust PSIRF policy and plan.
Learning from Patient Safety Events (LFPSE)
Lead the implementation and operationalisation of the Learning from Patient Safety Events (LFPSE) framework across the Trust, ensuring alignment with national standards and reporting requirements.
Promote a culture of openness and learning through timely reporting, investigation, and analysis of patient safety events.
Ensure lessons learned from patient safety events are shared and embedded across the organisation to improve care quality and safety.
Utilise LFPSE data to identify trends, themes, and areas for improvement, providing regular reports to the Board and clinical teams.
Duty of Candour / Compassionate Engagement
Act as the Trust’s strategic lead for the Duty of Candour, ensuring compliance with statutory requirements and embedding the principles of openness and transparency across the organisation.
Develop and oversee policies, training, and guidance to ensure all staff understand and fulfil their responsibilities under the Duty of Candour.
Provide assurance to the Board and regulators on the Trust’s compliance with Duty of Candour requirements through robust monitoring and reporting systems.
Ensure that patients, families, and carers are provided with clear, honest information following incidents of harm, including timely, heartfelt apologies and updates on investigations and remedial actions.
Promote a culture of accountability and learning to improve patient outcomes and foster public trust, developing mechanisms of compassionate engagement to support resolution of adverse outcomes, complaints, or claims.
Freedom to Speak Up (FTSU)
Work closely with the Freedom to Speak Up Guardian to embed an open and transparent culture.
Health and Safety
Line management of Trust Head of Health & Safety responsible for the strategic and operational delivery of the Trust’s health and safety agenda, ensuring compliance with statutory requirements such as the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
Supervise Head of Health & Safety to oversee the development, implementation, and monitoring of the Trusts health and safety policies and risk assessments.
Ensure the Trust has effective systems to identify, assess, and control health and safety risks, including those related to staff, patients, and visitors.
Provide regular reports to the Board and senior leadership on health and safety performance, compliance, and improvement plans.
Legal
Leadership and oversight for the management of clinical and non-clinical claims, ensuring compliance with NHS Resolution requirements; liaising with Trust Solicitors as required.
Oversee the Trust’s response to coronial inquests, ensuring thorough preparation, support for staff, and learning from outcomes aligned to PSIRF.
Governance and Compliance
Ensure the Trust meets all statutory and regulatory requirements, including those set by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), NHS England, NHS Resolution, and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).
Provide assurance to the Board on governance processes, patient safety, health and safety, and risk management.
Lead the preparation of reports, self-assessments, and submissions for external inspections / audit across portfolio of the role.
Leadership and Team Management
Provide leadership to teams responsible for patient safety, risk management, complaints, PALS, FTSU, LFPSE, health and safety, claims, and inquests.
Ensure staff have access to appropriate training, support, and development opportunities.
Foster and role model a culture of collaboration, professionalism, and continuous improvement.
Stakeholder Engagement
Act as a key liaison with external stakeholders, including regulators, commissioners, and patient advocacy groups and ICB.
Promote patient and public involvement in governance and service improvement initiatives.
Finance
Ensure value for money and best use of resources when planning and initiating.
Quality improvement activities in dispensing allocated budgets.
Responsible for management of managed employees and directorate budget and monitoring the budget position within the department to ensure spending is reasonable, of the best value and accurately recorded.
Seek out opportunities for value improvement / efficiencies within budgets

Please refer the Job description for details