JOB SUMMARY

Applications are invited from suitably qualified nursing and midwifery professionals, fully registered in the UK with the Nursing and Midwifery Council for this 5-year secondment opportunity or fixed term appointment for 23 months as Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) for the Scottish Government.
We welcome applications from those working in the NHS, academia or the independent sector.
The CNO is the senior nurse in Scotland. This is a challenging, high-profile role with significant levels of Ministerial and external interest, personal accountability and exposure. You will be expected to provide inspirational leadership to the nursing and midwifery profession of over 77,000, representing the profession at the highest level, including in the media. You will also be responsible for the provision of clinical advice on strategies and policies to Ministers and for working with senior leaders to ensure the implementation and delivery of those strategies and policies.
As a Director of the Scottish Government, the CNO role is accountable to the Director General Health and Social Care and Chief Executive NHS Scotland. As a member of the Health and Social Care Management Board, the CNO will participate fully in the corporate management of the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorates. The postholder will also collaborate with colleagues across DG Health & Social Care and the rest of Scottish Government to provide professional advice and support in relation to the government’s priorities.

JOB DESCRIPTION

The demand challenges for health and social care services are well understood and developing a sustainable health and social care system is urgent work. It also presents enormous opportunity to reform.
As Chief Nursing Officer:
You will be responsible for supporting policy and delivery officials within the DG to provide advice to Ministers. You will work closely with the Chief Medical Officer, the Chief Social Worker and other clinical advisors to provide cohesive clinical and professional advice to support officials and Ministers.
You will be responsible for providing leadership for system leaders, Nurse Directors and nurses, midwives and other healthcare professionals working across the health and social care and education systems to support the implementation of Ministerial policy and priorities. This will involve having close links into local and national operational challenges and being able to work constructively with partners to develop solutions and to implement those solutions.

You will have responsibility with regard to finance, efficiency and best value derived from the budget responsibility delegated from the DG Health and Social Care. Details of the role and responsibilities are set out in the Scottish Public Finance Manual and the Scheme of Delegation. You must ensure:

• The highest standards of financial management are met and deliver value for money from Scottish Government funds. This includes the promoting of early surrender of underspends and proactive addressing of overspends.
• Compliance with governance and control requirements as outlined in detail within the Scottish Public finance Manual.
• A wide range of financial information is utilised to underpin sound and transparent decision making.
• That the full implications of managing public money are considered within your area of budget responsibility.

• Financial management skills and capability are in place across directorates/DG area and promotion of strong financial management.

  As part of the leadership cohort in Health and Social Care Directorates, you will work to deliver improvements in support of the wider strategic priorities of the DG-family (DG). This will include:

• Effective collaboration and engagement across DG to ensure coherence in planning and delivery.

• Continual improvement of systems and processes within the Directorate and across the DG to ensure efficiency and effectiveness.
• Continual improvement of data quality and availability across the whole health and social care system to drive insight and improvements.

You will play a full role as part of the senior leadership cohort of Health and Social Care Directorates, and across Scottish Government. This wider leadership role in government will reflect the contribution that the nursing, midwifery and wider healthcare workforce can make to supporting Ministerial priorities that address the wider determinants of ill health.
You will engage regularly with the Cabinet Secretary for Health, the First Minister and other Ministers out with the Health and Social Care portfolio to provide advice and to support the delivery of government priorities.

You will undertake specific actions to drive, build and nurture advancements in equality by actively role modelling inclusive behaviours across your directorate and more widely across Scottish Government, and NHS Scotland, championing an inclusive culture. In particular:

• Building relationships through allyship and mutual mentoring – understanding barriers in the workplace from individuals that are impacted by them and supporting individuals career development.
• Policy and planning approach – working closely with NHS Chief Executives, NHS Executive Nurse Directors and the Chief People Officer to ensure that NHS Scotland is a diverse and inclusive employer.

You will lead your Directorate to work collaboratively with other Directors in the DG-family, particularly the Director of Health Workforce to support policy development and to develop solutions to challenges. In particular you will:

• Provide strategic insight into all areas of health and social care workforce, particularly in relation to workforce planning, training pathways, culture and workforce development.
• Work collaboratively with other Chief Professional Officers to ensure the delivery of safe and effective person-centred care.
• Provide leadership and oversight of HCAI and AMR systems to improve outcomes with regard to reducing infections and anti-microbial resistance.

You will also champion the identification, planning and delivery of opportunities for transformational reform. You will achieve this through:

• Building close and collaborative relationships with NHS Board Chairs and Chief Executives, Chief Officers and directors in the DG-family.
• Building trusting relationships with Ministers.
• Ensuring that the DG has in place strong and productive sponsorship and performance management arrangements with all NHS Boards.
• Working constructively with the Deans of the Schools of Nursing, NHS Education for Scotland, the NMC, RCN, RCM and others to ensure that education pathways and career development opportunities reflect and respond to the needs of the service.

QUALIFICATIONS

You must be a nurse or midwife, fully registered in the UK with the Nursing and Midwifery Council. You should also be able to demonstrate achievement of post graduate qualifications or equivalent.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:

You will be able to demonstrate:

• Vision, with a track record of highly effective leadership and delivery at a senior level in a complex organisation or a health-related environment.
• Strategic insight, systems thinking, working across organisational boundaries
• Ability to build a strong team, with an inspirational and collaborative leadership style, enabling the management of completing priorities.
• Highly developed relationship management skills, honed in a complex environment where you have managed multiple stakeholder interests in order to achieve a common goal.
• An understanding of financial management and governance processes and procedures.
• Able to effectively manage and influence high-profile stakeholder groups, including senior professionals
• Personal resilience
• The ability to build credibility with Ministers, at Board level and among senior NHS, educational and social care stakeholders

Behaviours: Level 6

• Leadership
• Developing Self and Others
• See the Big Picture
• Managing a Quality Service

You can find out more about Success Profiles Behaviours, here: Success Profiles - Civil Service Behaviours
You will be a role model for the culture, values and behaviours of the health and care system.

ABOUT US

The Scottish Government is the devolved government for Scotland. We have responsibility for a wide range of key policy areas including education, health, the economy, justice, housing and transport. We offer rewarding careers and employ people across Scotland in a wide range of professions and roles.
Our staff are part of the UK Civil Service, working for Ministers and senior stakeholders to deliver vital public services which improve the lives of the people of Scotland.
We offer a supportive and inclusive working environment along with a wide range of employee benefits. Find out more about what we offer.
As part of the UK Civil Service, we uphold the Civil Service Nationality Rules.

NATIONALITY REQUIREMENTS

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements

You will have responsibility with regard to finance, efficiency and best value derived from the budget responsibility delegated from the DG Health and Social Care. Details of the role and responsibilities are set out in the Scottish Public Finance Manual and the Scheme of Delegation. You must ensure:

• The highest standards of financial management are met and deliver value for money from Scottish Government funds. This includes the promoting of early surrender of underspends and proactive addressing of overspends.
• Compliance with governance and control requirements as outlined in detail within the Scottish Public finance Manual.
• A wide range of financial information is utilised to underpin sound and transparent decision making.
• That the full implications of managing public money are considered within your area of budget responsibility.
• Financial management skills and capability are in place across directorates/DG area and promotion of strong financial management

You will undertake specific actions to drive, build and nurture advancements in equality by actively role modelling inclusive behaviours across your directorate and more widely across Scottish Government, and NHS Scotland, championing an inclusive culture. In particular:

• Building relationships through allyship and mutual mentoring – understanding barriers in the workplace from individuals that are impacted by them and supporting individuals career development.
• Policy and planning approach – working closely with NHS Chief Executives, NHS Executive Nurse Directors and the Chief People Officer to ensure that NHS Scotland is a diverse and inclusive employer