Matron, Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity in Bishop Auckland

County Durham & Darlington NHS Foundation Trust

Matron, Equality, Diversity and Inclusivity

The closing date is 04 August 2026

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an experienced andcompassionate leader to join our Maternity Services as Matron for Equality,Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). This is a pivotal role that will drive ourcommitment to reducing health inequalities, improving outcomes for women,babies and families, and creating a truly inclusive culture for both those whouse our services and our workforce. Working across County Durham and Darlington, you will leadthe delivery of local, regional and national priorities to address inequalitiesin maternity care, ensuring that every woman, baby and family receives safe,personalised and equitable care. You will champion initiatives that improveoutcomes for those most at risk of health inequalities, including familiesexperiencing deprivation, complex social circumstances and those from Black,Asian and minority ethnic communities, recognising the evidence of persistentdisparities in maternal and neonatal outcomes. As a senior clinical leader, you will work collaborativelyacross multidisciplinary teams and partner organisations to deliver innovativeprogrammes that support prevention, personalised care, population healthmanagement and continuous quality improvement. You will play a key role indriving service transformation, using data and intelligence to identifyinequalities, develop targeted interventions and ensure maternity servicescontinue to meet the ambitions set out in national maternity strategies and qualitystandards.

Main duties of the job

This role focuses on reducing health inequalities andimproving equity, inclusion, and outcomes within maternity services acrossCounty Durham and Darlington. The postholder will work collaboratively withservice users, community organisations, commissioners, and multidisciplinaryteams to ensure maternity services are inclusive, accessible, and responsive tothe needs of diverse and marginalised communities.

Providing senior midwifery leadership in servicedevelopment, quality improvement, staff education, audit, and implementation ofnational maternity transformation programmes, including Better Births.

Contributing to integrated working across health and socialcare systems, supporting Family Hubs, service redesign, and collaborativeimprovement projects to enhance care for women, babies, and families.

Overall, the role combines clinical leadership, publichealth, service improvement, partnership working, and advocacy to ensurematernity services are equitable, inclusive, safe, and person-centred.

About us

We provide hospital services from two acute sites - Darlington Memorial Hospital and University Hospital of North Durham. We have a centre for planned care in Bishop Auckland and provide care from community hospitals in Chester-le-Street, Shotley Bridge, Barnard Castle, Sedgefield and Weardale as well as over 80 other community based settings and providing care in patients' homes.

We particularly welcome applications from disabled and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) candidates as BAME and disabled people are currently under-represented.

Full Job Descriptions can be found in the adverts supporting documents.

Over reliance onAI-generated content is discouraged and may diminish the applicant's chances ofsuccess.

Job responsibilities

Understand the local demographics and outcomes for thediverse demographics of all our users and workforce.

Establish key links in the community and workcollaboratively with stakeholders and the Durham and Darlington MNVPrepresenting the trust as the professional link / lead for the MNVP.

Assist in ensuring that the MNVP have an inclusive andrepresentative group of service users ensuring members, where possible, arerepresentative of women using local maternity services.

Raise awareness of key health and maternity issues withinthe community and work with CDDFT colleagues and external agencies to improveoutcomes.

Review all clinical care pathways and highlight servicegaps addressing the risk of perinatal morbidity and mortality for service usersfrom Black, Asian and Minority Ethnics, LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual,transgender, queer/questioning, and other diverse sexual and genderidentities), disabled and marginalised backgrounds.

Utilise information technology for the benefit of caredelivery to mothers and babies within this identified group.

Make recommendations for service development anddemonstrate a commitment of learning from incidents, complaints, PALS and fromfeedback via the MNVP.

Drive inclusivity by actively encouraging service usersfrom Black, Asian and Minority Ethnics, LGBTQ+ and marginalised communities toparticipate in the improvement of local maternity services through co-designand co-production.

Work with the senior midwifery team to assist in theimplementation and operationalization of the Maternity Transformation BetterBirths agenda specifically focused on deprivation, health inequalities, Black,Asian and Minority Ethnics, LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender,queer/questioning, and other diverse sexual and gender identities) andmarginalised service users.

The postholder will have a remit in supporting thematernity unit to understand the experiences of marginalised staff groups andliaise with the senior teams and equality, diversity and inclusion team in thewider Trust to help develop strategies to improve this.

The postholder will surface patient experience issuesrelevant to health inequalities for childbearing women and birthingpeople. This will involve establishingeffective and trusted channels of communication with childbearing women,pregnant people and their families.

Ensure midwives and support workers are aware of theservices and pathways being developed and offered to offer families the beststart in life.

Accessing local data and service user feedback to supportdevelopment of an action plan for effective ongoing care of those whoexperience health inequalities to ensure safety, well-being and positive birthexperience.

Liaise appropriately with services to ensure safe andeffective care is provided to women at the right place, and at the right time.Act as an advocate for women, whilst safeguarding wider family and social groupwhere appropriate.

Have an in depth understanding of barriers which may impactor inhibit women/birthing people from accessing timely and regular antenatalcare.

Have a sound knowledge of safeguarding issues, domesticabuse, substance misuse, learning disability, female genital mutilation,cultural implications associated to members of the global majority communities,asylum seekers, mental health illness and housing issues.

Be a lead advocate for vulnerable families and ensureco-ordinated specialist support is delivered in conjunction with otherSpecialist Midwives.

Take part in debriefing for families and staff followingevents found to be emotionally or clinically challenging

Support a culture of consciousness to deliver financialbalance and achievement of efficiencies.

Embed and maintain high clinical standards, auditcompliance and to ensure the delivery of the public health agenda andassociated KPIs is achieved.

Provide senior midwifery input into supporting theestablishment of Family Hubs in County Durham and Darlington, to support keyareas such as parent-infant mental health, development of Family Hubs to improve access to a wide range of integrated support services, breastfeedingsupport services and evidence-based parenting programmes.

Work with commissioners and partners on integrated pathwaysand ways of working across the system including the priorities in the BestStart in Life work plan and the Pre-Birth and Under Ones group.

Work with commissioners and bordering Trusts (and otherpartners) to support a review of the provision of maternity services inEasington and make recommendations for improvements, jointly with the CommunityMidwifery Matron for CDDFT.

In conjunction with the Community Midwifery Matron, supportthe NHS Stop Smoking Service within CDDFT, ensuring alignment with tobaccodependency in pregnancy agenda/strategic action plan.

Supporting the poverty agenda, e.g., increasing awarenessof the Healthy Start Voucher schemes particularly for vulnerable families.

Act as the senior midwifery lead in the team for publichealth related issues and develop a training needs analysis and plan aroundhealth inequalities and diversity.

Work closely with the Harrogate 0-25 Transformation Manageron agreed service improvement priorities

Be a key member of the Best Start in Life Group and FamilyHubs Programme Board

Lead on the touch point pathway for CDDFT in relation toInfant Feeding ensuring this is embed, and that UNICEF accreditation ismaintained.

Represent thematernity service within corporate workforce equality, diversity and inclusionforums and support service in reviewing the people matters action plan, staffsurvey and feedback from local WDES and WRES agendas incorporating the currentcampaigns such as See Me First and Inspiring Inclusion @ #teamcddft.Campaign.

Person Specification

Special Requirements

• Commitment to drive service improvement
• Creative and innovative thinker, objective with high level of integrity
• Adaptable and flexible approach to work
• Able to foster positive relationships with co-workers and work across professional and organisational boundaries
• Able to motivate others
• Able to deal with difficult and complex situations

Statutory Registration

• Registered Midwife on the NMC Register
• Valid UK NMC Pin

Experience

• Relevant experience and recent community experience at the appropriate level.
• Proven track record of in-service training.
• Ability to manage budget
• Awareness of Public Health agenda.
• Higher level awareness of safeguarding children and adults policies and procedures.
• Experience of leading and driving clinical governance.

Qualifications

• Professional knowledge acquired through degree
• Master or working towards and completion of Master Level (or equivalent experience)
• Management or Leadership qualification and /or experience
• Recognised teaching qualification.
• Evidence of continued professional development.
• Working towards completion of masters degree.
• Eligible to be Professional Midwifery Advocate

Special Skills & Knowledge

• Literate and articulate.
• Able to present information and represent the Care Group multidisciplinary meetings.
• Current knowledge of midwifery developments, nationally, regionally and locally
• Evidence of strategic partnership working
• Previous experience at developing guidelines and protocols on a multidisciplinary level.
• Industrious and versatile able to work on a diverse range of projects at one time.
• Understand the importance of working with other professionals.
• Able to work under own initiative.
• Commitment to the organisations success
• Ability to work to deadlines
• Experience dealing with conflict management
• Experience with dealing the public and outside agencies.
• Commitment to the trust wide development strategy for success.
• Management experience of dealing with change
• Working knowledge of CQC
• Knowledge of Trust wide policies.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

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.

County Durham & Darlington NHS Foundation Trust

£57,528 to £64,750 a yearper annum, pro rata