Director of Midwifery and Maternity Services

at  Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust

Company Description
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
Job Description
We have an exciting opportunity to join our Trust as Director of Midwifery and Maternity. We are seeking an experienced, dynamic and high-calibre individual to strategically lead and champion our midwifery and maternity workforce. Our Trusts first formed a strategic partnership in 2019 and in 2023 we deepened this partnership further, appointing a single Chief Executive and single Executive team. We have big ambition, and by working in partnership we can continue to provide high quality clinical outcomes and deliver outstanding patient experience to those we serve.
The Director of Midwifery and Maternity is a key leadership role with our Trusts, focused on the strategic delivery of high standards of midwifery and maternity services. We know that maternity services are in the spotlight at a national level and there are significant challenges to tackle, but you will be joining a service that is in a very strong place. We are proud of the improvements our maternity services have made in the past three years, and we now need a strong, compassionate and experienced leader to help support and focus our efforts to go from ‘Good’ to ‘Outstanding’.
As Director of Midwifery, you will be responsible for the professional, strategic, and clinical leadership of the midwifery workforce across the Trust. Reporting to the Chief Nurse, you will work as part of the senior leadership team, with internal accountability and autonomy to lead, drive and coordinate programmes on improved outcomes for women and their babies.
We are looking to speak with collaborative midwifery leaders to join us on our journey. We are looking for an inspirational leader and an outstanding role model who can support and drive improvements as a strong maternity advocate for babies and their families.
We value and promote diversity and are committed to equality of opportunity for all. We believe that the best organisations are those that reflect the communities they serve. We want to increase the diversity of our NHS leadership and particularly encourage applications from candidates from black and minority ethnic backgrounds, women, LGBTQ+ communities, and from people with lived experience of disability.
For further information on this role and how to apply please contact our search partners at Hunter Healthcare via Finn McNulty, Head of Executive Search on fmcnulty@hunter-healthcare.com or 07966006091
Please see enclosed Candidate Brief for further details.
Qualifications

Essential

• Registered Midwife
• Master’s Degree or post-registration qualification

Desirable

• Evidence of study to Master’s level
• Project Management qualification/ experience
• Evidence of utilisation of evidence-based practice
• Research awareness skills

EXPERIENCE

Essential

• Leadership Development
• Teaching and assessing
• Substantial experience of Maternity Governance processes and structures; with evidence of achievement
• Substantial leadership and managerial experience with evidence of achievement acquired through significant practice at a senior level
• Experience of financial/ budgetary management
• Record of achievement in managing performance
• Evidence of risk management and quality assurance
• Public speaking
• Network involvement

SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE

Essential

• Well-developed communication and presentation skills
• Up to date knowledge of key issues pertaining to midwifery and maternity services
• Ability to lead and develop midwifery /maternity excellence in clinical practice
• Able to coach and develop others
• Thorough understanding of the current national policy agenda
• High level of interpersonal skills
• Commitment to transformation and development services
• Ability to communicate unpleasant and sensitive information
• Able to present written information in a logical manner
• Able to manage own workload, plan the work of others and work autonomously
• Effective delegation skills
• Experience in staff management, able to persuade and influence and handle conflict
• Knowledge of professional and NHS issues
• Assertive, confident and effective
• Ability to develop effective interpersonal relationships with colleagues in the health care setting
• Ability to develop plan, and implement short and long-range goals
• Ability to make administrative/ procedural decisions and judgments
• Critical appraisal skills
• Negotiation and influencing skills
• Excellent customer service skills

Additional Information
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, veteran’s status, colour, religion, disability, sexual orientation, and beliefs

Please refer the Job description for details