Lead Nurse Manager South Shields

Job summary

Marsden Medical Group is seeking an experienced registered nurse and confident people leader to become our Lead Nurse Manager.

This is our most senior nursing post, leading around 17 registered nurses, nursing associates and healthcare assistants across two sites, serving approximately 23,000 patients.

The role combines visible clinical and managerial leadership with a regular patient-facing workload. It is not a desk-based post, and leadership duties will not be expected to sit alongside a full clinical week. Protected leadership and management time will be agreed through a clear job plan.

We are looking for someone who can develop and support staff, set clear standards and address problems promptly and fairly. You will need the confidence to challenge poor performance, inappropriate behaviour or unsafe practice, and the judgement to know when to act or seek senior support.

General practice or community experience would be helpful but is not essential. We welcome strong nurse leaders from other settings with experience of clinical governance, people management and service improvement who can adapt quickly to primary care.

You may already be a Lead Nurse or Nurse Manager, or a senior nurse ready for broader responsibility. You must remain clinically credible, enjoy leading people and be willing to take ownership rather than allow problems to drift.

Main duties of the job

• provide visible clinical and managerial leadership across both sites;
• line manage nursing staff, including deployment, rotas, leave, attendance, appraisals, supervision and performance;
• maintain an appropriate patient-facing clinical workload;
• ensure safe, effective, evidence-based care meeting professional and organisational standards;
• provide senior nursing advice and act on patient safety or competence concerns;
• develop staff, support succession planning and delegate leadership to senior nurses;
• oversee nursing governance, including audit, quality improvement, incidents, complaints, IPC, medicines/vaccines, safeguarding and equipment safety;
• use workforce, activity and quality data to improve access, capacity, LTC management, vaccination uptake, QOF and agreed priorities;
• lead improvements to roles, skill mix, pathways, systems and ways of working;
• contribute to workforce planning, recruitment, policies, protocols and organisational decisions;
• work with the Group Practice Manager and Nurse Lead GP Partner, escalating significant staffing, financial, contractual or clinical risks;
• build effective relationships with partners, managers, MDT, PCN, community and external services.

You have day-to-day authority to lead the nursing service within agreed policies and delegated limits. Significant organisational, staffing, contractual, financial and formal HR decisions remain subject to senior management arrangements.

About us

Marsden Medical Group is a large and well-established GP practice serving approximately 23,000 patients from two sites in South Shields.

We have a stable and supportive Partnership and Leadership Team, an experienced nursing workforce and a broad multidisciplinary team. We are a training practice and are committed to developing our staff, improving our services and providing high-quality care to our local community.

We are large enough to offer the scale, variety and influence of a substantial organisation, while remaining local enough for colleagues to know one another and work together closely. Our culture is friendly and supportive, with clear expectations, shared accountability and a willingness to address things that could be better.

For the successful candidate, this is an opportunity to take on a genuinely influential role: leading an established team, developing future nurse leaders and helping shape how nursing services are delivered across the practice.

Job responsibilities

The Lead Nurse Manager is Marsden Medical Groups most senior nursing role, providing visible clinical and managerial leadership to the nursing workforce across both practice sites and supporting the delivery of safe, effective and modern nursing services to approximately 23,000 patients.

The postholder will lead a team of registered nurses, nursing associates and healthcare assistants while maintaining a regular patient-facing clinical workload. The role includes protected leadership and management time, with the balance between clinical and leadership responsibilities agreed through a clear job plan.

As a senior member of the practice leadership team, the Lead Nurse Manager will be the principal nursing voice within organisational discussions and will work closely with the Group Practice Manager and Nurse Lead GP Partner.

Key responsibilities include:

• providing visible, credible and consistent leadership to the nursing team;
• setting clear expectations for professional conduct, performance, accountability and patient care;
• line managing nursing staff, including supervision, appraisal, attendance, wellbeing, performance and day-to-day employment matters;
• managing nursing rotas, annual leave, deployment and safe staffing across both sites;
• supporting workforce planning, recruitment, induction, retention, succession planning and development of the nursing skill mix;
• developing senior nursing staff and delegating appropriate leadership, supervision and appraisal responsibilities;
• maintaining a regular clinical workload and providing senior nursing advice and professional support;
• ensuring staff work safely within their competence and scope of practice;
• taking prompt and proportionate action where there are concerns about clinical competence, unsafe practice, poor performance or inappropriate behaviour;
• overseeing nursing clinical governance, including incidents, complaints, safeguarding, infection prevention and control, medicines and vaccine governance, record keeping, clinical equipment safety, audit and quality improvement;
• contributing nursing assurance to CQC requirements, contractual standards and internal and external reviews;
• monitoring and improving the nursing teams contribution to patient access, capacity, QOF, long-term-condition management, vaccination uptake and other organisational priorities;
• using workforce, activity, quality and outcome information to identify variation, capacity pressures, competency gaps and opportunities for improvement;
• leading agreed service improvement and modernisation, including changes to nursing roles, skill mix, rotas, pathways, technology and ways of working;
• supporting education, competency assurance, mandatory learning, continuing professional development, preceptorship, clinical supervision and student placements;
• overseeing nursing resources, including staffing, stock, vaccines, cold-chain systems, consumables and clinical equipment;
• contributing to nursing policies, protocols, pathways and standard operating procedures and ensuring agreed changes are implemented effectively;
• maintaining effective communication within the nursing team and building constructive relationships with GP partners, managers, the wider multidisciplinary team, the PCN, ICB, community services, training organisations and other external partners.

The Lead Nurse Manager is expected to balance supportive leadership with clear accountability, addressing concerns promptly and fairly while maintaining patient safety, service continuity and the wider needs of the organisation.

The postholder will exercise independent professional judgement within the NMC Code, agreed objectives, organisational policies and delegated limits. They will have authority to organise and lead the nursing service day to day, deploy staff, manage leave, allocate work, address routine performance matters and take immediate proportionate action where required to protect patient safety.

Significant organisational, staffing, contractual, financial and formal HR decisions will be made through the practices established senior management arrangements and will not be taken by the Lead Nurse Manager in isolation.

The post is full time, 37.5 hours over five days, working across both practice sites. Occasional evening or weekend working may be required by agreement to meet service needs.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Registered Adult Nurse (RGN) with current NMC registration and no restriction incompatible with the role.
• Educated to degree level or able to demonstrate equivalent specialist knowledge gained through postgraduate development and substantial relevant experience.
• Evidence of current continuing professional development, reflective practice and ability to meet NMC revalidation requirements.

Desirable

• Relevant postgraduate qualification.
• Formal leadership or management development; recognised coaching, teaching, assessing or practice-education qualification.
• Independent or supplementary prescribing qualification relevant to the postholders scope of practice.

Experience

Essential

• Substantial post-registration nursing experience demonstrating sound clinical judgement, autonomous practice within competence and current clinical credibility.
• Demonstrable experience of leading people, a service or significant workstream: setting expectations, securing delivery, handling challenge and taking responsibility for outcomes. A previous Nurse Manager title is not required.
• Experience of supervising or developing staff and of addressing concerns about standards, behaviour, attendance, capability or performance fairly and directly.
• Evidence of leading or making a material contribution to service improvement, modernisation, workforce development or implementation of changed practice.
• Experience of clinical governance, audit, evidence-based practice, risk management or quality improvement and of converting findings into sustained action.
• Experience of supporting learning, competency development or clinical supervision within a team.

Desirable

• Experience in general practice, community care or a comparable setting; experience across more than one clinical service.
• Substantial formal line-management responsibility for a large or multidisciplinary clinical team.
• Experience of appraisals, absence management, recruitment and formal HR processes in partnership with an HR or senior-management lead.
• Experience of role redesign, skill-mix review, succession planning or organisational change.
• Experience contributing to CQC assurance, incident or complaint investigation, medicines/vaccine governance or infection-prevention assurance.
• Experience of preceptorship, student placements, trainee nursing associates or development of other clinical leaders.

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.

Applicants must have current UK professional registration.

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