Quality Assurance Business Partner - North of England

Brainkind is a charity that aims to improve the lives of people with brain injuries in the UK. Our assessment centres, rehabilitation units and hospitals use expert neurorehabilitation to support people to regain the skills they have lost. We treat people with a range of brain injuries – sustained through trauma, illness, substance abuse and more – to recover and meet their personal goals. Our employees are incredibly passionate about the jobs they do – you will find a strong team spirit across our services and amazing colleagues who always pull together and look out for each other.

MAIN PURPOSE: Quality Partners will work closely with Regional Managers to provide an effective and pro-active QA service driving our Services towards outstanding quality. This will be achieved through updates, oversight and analysis of the services within the Region for reporting on service compliance. Ongoing analysis and planned quality review visits will identify areas for quality improvement and highlight good practice. From these visits, Quality Partners will produce reports outlining key areas for improvement, collaborate with the service managers in delivering those areas for improvement and in devising ways of working to continuously improve quality. Our approach to personalisation will be at the centre of any improvements. Quality Partners will support the delivery of the quality strategy within the overarching governance frameworks within Brainkind.

MAIN TASKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Use the agreed structure to provide regular timely oversight and analysis of quality within all services across your designated region; using a range of methodologies assess and identify risk, develop agreed priorities and plan to assess the quality of designated services within Brainkind.
• Use the agreed structure to monitor the services across the region, visit services and assess the quality of designated services within Brainkind, identifying opportunities for learning and improvement and providing early warning information to the governance framework.
• Visit all the designated services to ensure standards are maintained on a schedule to be agreed with the Regional Manager.
• Produce timely reports outlining levels of compliance and key areas for managers to focus on following a quality assurance visit.
• Provide practical guidance and assistance to improve quality in areas visited and in own areas of expertise to the operational managers in services.
• Collaborate with the operational managers in devising updated ways of working to improve quality – singly and in an agreed defined group.
• Gather, evaluate and analyse data relating to quality measures using Datix and other sources across Brainkind with the purpose of improving quality.
• Generate intelligence regarding a service to identify assurance and any threats to reaching an outstanding level of quality.
• Ensure that any identified risks to the statutory requirements of our services are actively managed in collaboration with the appropriate stakeholders.
• Work closely with Regional Managers to develop a pre-visit plan in order to target any specific areas of identified risk to the quality of the service and carry these out on an agreed schedule.
• Plan quality review visits in liaison with key stakeholders utilising the intelligence that has been gathered about a service.
• Adopt a ‘critical friend’ and ‘coaching’ approach to foster a continuing, productive relationship with Managers of Services.
• Monitor and support the consolidation of change towards an outstanding level of quality.
• Encourage services to innovate, ensuring their good practice is shared and success is celebrated throughout Brainkind.
• Assess and monitor the delivery of outstanding practice using an objective standards framework and highlight points of risk of this not being achieved.
• Analyse information regarding incidents in order to learn lessons and share this learning both with the appropriate operational managers and the QA team where appropriate.
• Drive the use of Quality Improvement Plans to effect positive change through services.
• Champion the involvement of service users throughout the quality improvement process and maximise service user involvement.
• Use the perspectives of service users and their carers to inform the understanding of ‘quality’ across all the organisation’s operational and support services.

ABOUT YOU:

• Qualification in a quality improvement related field or equivalent skills within another qualification.
• Educated to level 5 NVQ or equivalent in a Health & Social-care related subject.
• Level 5 Diploma in Management or equivalent management experience including quality improvement.
• Registered Managers Award (Level 4) Health & Social Care - Professional qualification Nursing/Social Work or allied field.
• Expertise in measuring improvements in complex systems.
• In depth knowledge of statutory requirements for the Care sector, healthcare regulations and guidance.
• Ability to analyse complex data and investigate problems to develop a range of solutions.
• Experience of being Registered Care Home Manager with one of the UK regulators (CQC/CIW/CIS).
• Experience of operating at a senior level with other senior managers across numerous functions.
• Full driving licence and or with the ability to meet the travelling requirements of the post via public transport.
• Willing and able to drive to any of our service users around the UK and stay away overnight when required.
• Willing to visit services including evenings and weekend when agreed.

Benefits include:

• Competitive salary up to £44,395.06 DOE per annum.
• 33 days annual leave inclusive of bank holidays.
• Buy and sell up to 5 days annual leave.
• Health Cash Plan (available from June 2025).
• Access to our Employee Assistance Programme (EAP).
• Excellent training and support.
• Group life assurance.
• Free parking.
• Company Pension.
• Long Service and Staff Awards.

We also put a big focus on employee wellbeing and support. It matters to us that you feel at your best. Career development is a priority. We will ensure you get all the training and learning opportunities you need to achieve your goals.

To join our friendly team, click the Apply Now button.

Please note we will be shortlisting and interviewing candidates on a rolling basis until the role is filled therefore, we recommend applying as soon as possible.

All successful candidates are subject to compliance checks including 3 years of checkable references and DBS/PVG checks.

Brainkind are a Disability Confident Employer. As users of the disability confident scheme, we guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the vacancy. Brainkind is committed to promoting a diverse and inclusive organisation. It is a place where we recognise, celebrate, and live our values which includes offering a range of inclusive employment policies and staff engagement forums to support employees from all backgrounds.