Clinical Governance Lead in Cranbrook

Join us and help shape the future of exceptional patient care. Are you passionate about driving high standards in clinical quality, safety, and governance? Do you thrive in a role where your work leads to meaningful improvements for patients, carers, and clinical teams? We are looking for an inspiring and proactive Clinical Governance Lead to manage our dynamic team and help shape a culture of excellence across the hospital.

In this pivotal position, you will play a central role in developing and delivering a proactive, robust approach to clinical governance, quality improvement, and infection prevention. Working closely with senior leaders, you'll ensure our clinical services not only meet regulatory requirements but consistently deliver safe, high-quality care that patients can rely on.

You will also provide direct line management to the IPC Lead Nurse/Practitioner and Governance Coordinators, leading by example to ensure excellence across our governance functions.

Main duties of the job

• Champion the delivery of impactful quality improvement initiatives that enhance patient outcomes and service experience.
• Guide clinical teams in embedding learning from incidents, patient feedback, and emerging trends to drive safer, smarter practice.
• Oversee the implementation of the hospital-wide Infection Prevention & Control programme, ensuring compliance, efficiency, and clear progress reporting to the DIPC.
• Lead and support Governance Coordinators and the IPC Lead Nurse/Practitioner to ensure key operational functions run smoothly and effectively.
• Maintain sharp awareness of all relevant regulatory requirements ensuring actions are taken, compliance is upheld, and standards are consistently exceeded.
• Oversee the Patient Experience function, ensuring complaints are expertly managed and progressed in line with policy.
• Manage clinical claims processes, promoting organisational learning and embedding improvements.
• Support the development, review, and rollout of clinical policies, procedures, and best practice guidelines.
• Play a key role in investigating incidents, themes, and feedback helping ensure that lessons are learned, shared, and actively implemented.

About us

At Benenden Hospital we put patients at the heart of everything we do. We attract kind, compassionate, and talented people to our ultra-modern private hospital, which opened in 1907 and has been rated as Outstanding by the CQC. We hold JAG accreditation for Endoscopy and have a beautiful setting in the middle of the Kent countryside. Benenden Hospital offers excellent working conditions and facilities. We promote flexible working and a healthy work/life balance. We are committed to professional development and have excellent training and education facilities.

Job responsibilities

Purpose: To work with and support the Head of Governance, Compliance and Risk in delivering the ongoing development of a proactive and robust clinical quality, safety, IPC, compliance, and governance framework that enables the Hospital to measure and continuously improve the quality of the clinical services.

The post holder will:

• Be responsible for supporting the identification and the delivery of a wide variety of quality improvements that will improve outcomes for patients and their carers.
• Provide quality improvement guidance and support the clinical services directorate in embedding changes to practice because of the identification of incidents and patient feedback trends.
• Be responsible for overseeing the implementation of the hospital's IPC programme, supporting the IPC Lead Nurse/Practitioner and providing assurance to the DIPC that all milestones are being met and that processes are efficient and effective.
• Be responsible for the day-to-day line management of the Governance Coordinators and IPC Lead Nurse/Practitioner, ensuring all key delegated functions are undertaken effectively.
• Demonstrate sound awareness of all relevant regulatory requirements for the hospital, implementing key actions appropriately to ensure that these are fully adhered to, and compliance is maintained.
• Be responsible for the Patient Experience functions, ensuring that complaints are managed and move through process as per policy.
• Be responsible for claims management processes and embedding associated learning.
• Actively support the development and review of related clinical policies, procedures, and best practice guidelines.
• Actively support in the investigation and sharing lessons learned from incidents, complaints, and feedback.

Key Result Areas

• The role will provide leadership supporting a culture of continuous improvement and excellence.
• Undertake a wide range of work procedures using complex information requiring the use of initiative, accuracy, and analysis.
• Review reported clinical and IPC incidents, identifying the severity and actions taken to resolve. Support hospital staff when undertaking incident reviews.
• Ensuring lessons learned are identified. Monitor and analyse for trends. Ensuring change to practice has been implemented and measured to ensure embedded.
• Responsible for the Patient Experience function ensuring that Friends & Family is collated and reported on, in a comprehensive way and feedback is gathered from our patients.
• Monitor and ensure feedback/complaints are managed in accordance with policy, ensure learning is carried forward and embedded within the hospital.
• Manage PROMS and the Patient Information Group and process within the organisation.
• Responsible for Claims Management and liaising with Hospital insurers.
• Support the HoG with a wide range of compliance in relation to relevant national and local standards ensuring all supporting evidence is always prepared and is readily available.
• Work with the IPC Lead Nurse/Practitioner to ensure the hospital's IPC work programme, outcome measures, and audit schedule is adhered to and evidence of compliance available to the hospital DIPC.
• Collate reports in relation to Clinical Governance that provide a comprehensive and informed approach for the hospital for Q&S, HE, MAC, Commissioners, and BoD.
• Participate in the on-call rota.

Person Specification

• Registered Nurse or Registered Allied Health professional.
• Educated to relevant degree level.
• Ability to negotiate, influence, and liaise effectively with staff at all levels.
• Ability to manipulate, challenge, and interpret complex data.
• Ability to drive and implement processes of improvement.
• Ability to provide specialist knowledge to risk assessments and support appropriate controls.
• Ability to keep abreast of and interpret national policy developments.
• Clear understanding of risk management principles.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills including clear report writing and attention to detail.
• Methodical and well organised with a high level of attention to detail.
• Strong patient-centred approach.
• Self-motivated with the ability to progress multiple tasks simultaneously, accurately and effectively.

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.