Deputy Clinical Director | North Bristol NHS Trust

The South West Burns Clinical Network ensures that everyone with a burn injury receives high‑quality, equitable care wherever they live. The SWBCN Deputy Clinical Director is a new role within the Network Management Team, hosted by North Bristol NHS Trust and covering five designated specialised burn services across five hospitals in the South West of England and South/Mid Wales.

Role Summary

Once appointed you will play a key supportive leadership role, working closely with and when required deputising for the Network Clinical Director. The post holder will help steer the strategic direction of the Network, particularly during times of operational pressure, service demand, or major incident response. You will also provide clinical governance leadership, performance monitoring, and support the delivery of an annual Network work programme, promoting multidisciplinary involvement, quality improvement, and collaboration across the provider organisations.

Supportive Clinical Leadership

• Support the Clinical Director in providing strategic clinical leadership across the Network.
• Deputise for the Network Clinical Director during periods of their unavailability, absence or leave (reciprocal arrangement).
• Support the Network Management Team and services during periods of increased operational pressure, surge events or major incident response.
• Contribute to the development and delivery of the annual Network work programme, showing leadership and responsibility for key deliverables as assigned by the Network Clinical Director and/or Network Management Team.
• Support the development, review and implementation of network‑wide pathways, standards and protocols.
• Promote clinical engagement and champion best practice and innovation.
• Support multidisciplinary involvement and foster collaboration across the Network.
• Represent the Network at meetings when required and support preparation for commissioner, governance or national forums.
• Provide clinical advice to the Network Manager regarding implementation of work streams.

Clinical Governance & Assurance (Primary Area of Focus)

• Lead the Network’s clinical governance function alongside the Network Clinical Director.
• Oversee network‑wide assurance activities including peer review, BBA standards compliance audits, mortality & morbidity (M&M) reviews, and annual audit programme.
• Lead and support investigations into clinical incidents or deviations from pathways.
• Ensure risks and quality issues are identified and escalated appropriately through the Network Clinical Director and Network Management Team in line with network regional and national processes.
• Promote use of data, dashboards and the Burns Registry to monitor outcomes and variation.
• Ensure mandatory data submissions across all provider sites are being met and that effective clinical care is maintained through the monitoring and evaluation of outcomes via the burns quality indicators as part of the Specialised Services Quality Dashboard (SSQD).
• Support the production of the Network Annual Report, providing governance and quality sections as guided by the Network Clinical Director.
• Maintain a clear vision for continued development of a robust clinical governance programme and regularly liaise with Burn Service Clinical Leads.
• Provide clinical governance intelligence gathered from across the Network via iBID and SSQD reporting and work with the Network Management Team to ensure the provision of high‑quality burn care across the region.

Quality, Service Improvement and Reducing Variation

• Lead and support initiatives to reduce unwarranted variation in burn care across the Network.
• Use national and regional benchmarking (including GIRFT) to identify improvement opportunities.
• Lead and support clinicians, managers and commissioners in implementing quality improvement projects.
• Contribute to strategies ensuring equitable, high‑quality service provision for all burns patients.
• Ensure that lessons learned are shared, and contribute to education and training initiatives to deliver safe and clinically effective services.
• Lead and support the monitoring, measurement and reporting of project, improvement and transformation impacts across the Network, ensuring all work delivers meaningful, evidence‑based benefits.
• Participate in the quarterly National Burns Clinical Network Oversight Group meetings and contribute to its work plan.
• Participate in the annual National Mortality and Morbidity review meetings for both adult and paediatric patients, ensuring all clinical services within the Network are contributing to this forum.

Supporting Network Operations and Resilience

• Assist the Network Clinical Director in planning for capacity management, operational resilience and mutual aid between burn services across the Network.
• Lead and support the implementation of agreed escalation triggers and action plans to ensure safe response to surge, major incidents and mass casualty events, in line with National and Regional Emergency Preparedness, Resilience and Response responsibilities and the Burns Clinical Network Specification.
• Deputise for the Network Clinical Director at operational or strategic meetings when required.

Patient and Family Involvement

• Ensure patient experience is central to governance and quality discussions.
• Work closely with the Network Manager to maintain meaningful service user involvement.
• Ensure that patient insight influences clinical pathway development.

Partnership and Cross‑Boundary Working

• Foster collaborative relationships across acute, community, primary care and rehabilitation services.
• Lead and support cross‑network collaboration where appropriate (e.g., trauma, critical care).
• Act as a Network representative, in the absence of the Network Clinical Director, at Network meetings and be available for enquiries from commissioners, Clinical Reference Groups and other regional/national bodies.
• Support the Network Clinical Director in managing contentious issues or disputes across providers, showing leadership when appropriate and practical.

Promoting Equality, Inclusion and Reducing Inequalities

• Lead and support Network governance, audit and service improvement activities, equity of access, better patient outcomes and equitable care.
• Ensure that the needs of vulnerable, disadvantaged or underserved groups are considered and addressed in governance work.

Using Insight and Evidence for Improvement

• Support analysis of complex data, audit results, pathways and performance information.
• Lead and support risk management processes including identification, mitigation and escalation.
• Support monitoring of protocol uptake and targeted engagement with providers.

Information Governance

• Ensure compliance with confidentiality requirements and Host Trust policies.
• Uphold professional codes of conduct relevant to the role.

Personal Attributes (Qualifications)

• You will not be the Clinical or Service Lead for the burn service in which you work if you are successful in obtaining this post.
• You are committed to equitable decision making, ensuring personal or service interests do not influence your judgments or actions.
• You are able to act impartially, putting Network‑wide interests above those of your own service when addressing issues or making decisions.
• You must have, and maintain, high levels of professional behaviour and integrity.
• You must be a proven leader in the specialty of burns and will be proactive in service development and improvement.
• You must be a respected member of your local multidisciplinary team.
• You must acknowledge and behave in accordance with the NHS Leadership Competency Framework for Board Members and the Government’s Seven Principles of Public Life.