Head of Midwifery - Perinatal Quality, Safety & Assurance in Cambridge

Job Summary

Head of Midwifery – Perinatal Quality, Safety & Assurance.

Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust seeks an exceptional senior midwifery leader to join our maternity leadership team. This key role provides strategic and operational leadership for quality, safety, governance, risk and assurance across maternity services. Working closely with the Director of Midwifery, Deputy Chief Nurse, multidisciplinary teams and service users, you will lead continuous improvement and ensure the delivery of safe, personalised and equitable care for women, babies and families.

You will oversee maternity governance and assurance processes, promote learning from incidents and investigations, and drive the delivery of national and local maternity safety priorities. A central part of the role is ensuring that the voices of women, families and staff shape service improvement and that learning results in meaningful, sustainable change.

We are looking for a compassionate, credible and visible leader with significant senior midwifery experience, a strong track record in quality improvement and patient safety, excellent communication and influencing skills, and a passion for improving outcomes and experiences for women, babies and families.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide leadership for maternity quality, safety and governance.
• Lead maternity assurance, risk management and compliance programmes.
• Drive quality improvement and patient safety initiatives.
• Support learning from incidents, complaints, reviews and investigations.
• Lead assurance reporting to Trust committees and senior leadership teams.
• Work in partnership with women, families and the Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership (MNVP).
• Support implementation of national maternity strategies, standards and recommendations.

Key Requirements

• Current registration as a Midwife with the NMC.
• Significant experience in a senior midwifery leadership role.
• Expertise in clinical governance, quality improvement and patient safety.
• Experience of leading organisational change and service improvement.
• Strong analytical, communication and leadership skills.
• A commitment to compassionate leadership and staff development.
• Eligibility for working in the UK (see immigration eligibility below).

Qualifications and Training – Essential

• Registered Midwife with current NMC registration.
• Master's degree or equivalent level of senior specialist knowledge and experience.
• Evidence of recent and relevant continuing professional development.
• PSIRF training or evidence of equivalent patient safety investigation/response training.
• Formal leadership/management qualification.
• Quality improvement, governance, risk management or patient safety training relevant to senior perinatal leadership.
• Leadership or management development relevant to a senior Band 8b role.

Qualifications and Training – Desirable

• Human Factors / SEIPS training.
• Digital Safety Officer training.
• Coaching, mentoring or teaching qualification.
• Project or programme management qualification.
• Research, audit or clinical academic training.

Experience – Essential

• Significant senior experience in maternity/perinatal governance, quality, patient safety or assurance.
• Experience of leading governance, risk, incident response and improvement functions in a complex healthcare setting.
• Experience of writing and presenting high-quality board-level, committee-level or external assurance reports.
• Experience of MIS Scheme, CQC or NHS England maternity assurance requirements.
• Experience of managing complex incidents, complaints, claims, inquests, PMRT, MNSI or external reviews.
• Experience of leading multidisciplinary improvement programmes and translating recommendations into measurable actions.

Experience – Desirable

• Experience in a tertiary, teaching hospital or complex perinatal service.
• Experience of working across maternity and neonatal services.
• Experience working with ICB, NHS England regional teams or other system partners.
• Experience supporting a CQC inspection or external regulatory response.
• Experience leading thematic reviews or deep dives.

Knowledge – Essential

• Advanced knowledge of NHS governance, quality assurance, clinical risk management and patient safety frameworks.
• Detailed knowledge of current maternity and neonatal safety policy, national standards and regulatory expectations.
• Understanding of PSIRF, Duty of Candour, Human Factors and systems-based learning.
• Understanding of CQC Single Assessment Framework and perinatal regulatory requirements.
• In-depth understanding of MIS, SBLCB, PMRT, MNSI and PQSM.
• Understanding of equality, inclusion, health inequalities and culturally safe perinatal care.

Knowledge – Desirable

• Knowledge of digital quality dashboards, data visualisation and safety intelligence systems.
• Knowledge of research, innovation and academic partnership opportunities in a teaching hospital setting.
• Knowledge of workforce, finance and operational drivers affecting perinatal services.

Skills and Abilities – Essential

• Able to analyse and interpret highly complex, sensitive or contentious information and present clear recommendations.
• Able to provide credible professional advice, assurance and constructive challenge to senior leaders.
• Excellent written communication, including board-level papers, briefings, action plans and assurance reports.
• Excellent verbal presentation, negotiation, influencing and facilitation skills.
• Able to chair complex meetings, manage competing views and support effective decision‑making.
• Able to lead change, manage ambiguity and deliver priorities under pressure.
• Able to translate national requirements into practical local actions and measurable outcomes.
• Able to work across professional, organisational and system boundaries.
• Act as delegated person for Director of midwifery at internal and external quality and safety forums and meetings, when requested.

Skills and Abilities – Desirable

• Advanced data analysis or dashboard development skills.
• Experience applying structured improvement methodology such as PDSA, Lean or Model for Improvement.
• Experience of coaching teams through complex change or safety improvement.

Personal Qualities – Essential

• Visible, compassionate and inclusive leader.
• Professionally credible, emotionally intelligent and able to act with integrity.
• Committed to improving safety, experience, equity and outcomes for women, birthing people, babies and families.
• Able to remain calm, balanced and effective in highly pressured or sensitive situations.
• Able to constructively challenge while maintaining respectful relationships; committed to openness, learning, staff support and a just and restorative culture. Demonstrates behaviours aligned to CUH values: Together - Safe, Kind, Excellent.

Personal Qualities – Desirable

• Experience acting as a senior role model across organisational boundaries.
• Evidence of influencing culture change in a complex clinical service.

Additional Requirements – Essential

• To work on site 80 %.
• Ability to work flexibly to meet the needs of the service.
• Ability to participate in senior escalation, operational or on‑call arrangements as required.
• Ability to travel across Trust sites and attend regional / system meetings as required.
• Enhanced DBS and occupational health clearance are appropriate to the role.
• Commitment to maintaining NMC registration and meeting revalidation requirements.

Additional Requirements – Desirable

• Ability to contribute to regional or national maternity/neonatal safety workstreams.

Immigration Eligibility

Due to Home Office immigration rules, a full‑time permanent vacancy cannot be filled by individuals on a Student visa unless they apply for a Graduate visa prior to the anticipated start date of employment.

Benefits

At Cambridge University Hospitals, we offer development opportunities and a wide range of benefits, including on-site leisure facilities, a shopping concourse and day nurseries. Our programme includes reduced‑cost Stagecoach bus travel, free park‑and‑ride journeys, subsidised parking on site, hot food 24/7 at reduced cost, staff pod break spaces, and flexible working arrangements such as part‑time, job‑share, term‑time and flexible start/finish times. We support a good work‑life balance irrespective of role or personal circumstances.

Employer Details

Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Cambridge University Hospitals – Addenbrookes

Hills Road, Cambridge, CB2 0QQ, United Kingdom