Clinical Director

Lead differently. Care differently. Build what's next. At NHUC, we believe urgent and same day care can feel personal, connected, and exceptional, even at pace. We aren't a large, layered organisation where change takes years. We're a collaborative, values-driven team with the agility to innovate, improve, and respond quickly to the needs of our patients and communities - creating an exciting opportunity for a dynamic clinical leader to shape services, influence strategy, and stay close to frontline care.

We are seeking an inspiring, driven Clinical Director for Same Day Care to lead the next phase of our journey. This is a rare opportunity to combine executive leadership with clinical practice. Alongside your strategic role, you will continue working clinically, staying connected to patients, teams, and the realities of modern urgent care delivery. You will join a high-performing Executive Leadership Team and play a central role in shaping the future of healthcare across our communities.

Why NHUC? Because here, leadership is personal. You'll work with passionate colleagues who care about patients and each other. You'll influence strategy while staying clinically connected. You'll be trusted to innovate, encouraged to challenge thinking, and supported to grow. Most importantly, you'll help create services that make a meaningful difference every day.

Main duties of the job

• Lead and support our multidisciplinary clinical workforce
• Champion outstanding patient care, safety, and experience
• Drive continuous improvement, innovation, and service transformation
• Shape and deliver NHUC's clinical strategy and governance framework
• Foster an inclusive, compassionate, and high-performing culture aligned to NHUC values
• Build strong partnerships with healthcare organisations, commissioners, and system leaders
• Support recruitment, retention, development, and succession planning across clinical teams
• Use data, insight, and collaboration to improve outcomes and performance
• Provide expert clinical leadership and assurance to the Board and Executive Team

The role also holds regulatory responsibility as the CQC Registered Manager, ensuring compliance with all required standards and maintaining a strong culture of quality, accountability, and learning.

Who we're looking for

• An experienced and credible clinical leader
• Passionate about patient-centred urgent and same day care
• Curious, forward-thinking, and energised by improvement
• Collaborative and emotionally intelligent
• Comfortable leading through complexity and change
• Values-driven, visible, and approachable
• Motivated by developing people and building strong teams
• Excited by the opportunity to make a real impact within a smaller, agile organisation

About us

NHUC is a not-for-profit Community Benefit Society, working in partnership with the NHS. NHUC provides services through two divisions, Same Day Care (SDC) and TalkPlus. SDC provides services through the Integrated Urgent Care (IUC) contract which covers the in Hours Clinical Assessment Service (CAS) and Out of Hours (OOH) provision for North Hampshire, North East Hampshire and Farnham & Surrey Heath places which are part of the Hampshire and the Isle of Wight ICB and Surrey & Sussex ICB respectively. We also provide an Urgent Treatment Centre at the front door of Frimley Park Hospital whilst also holding some smaller contracts supporting Community Hospitals OOH and Flu response. Finally, SDC has a virtual care arm supporting patients at home. TalkPlus provides NHS Talking Therapies, supporting people with common mental health problems in Northeast Hampshire and Farnham place.

Job responsibilities

The role comprises approximately 22.5 hours per week dedicated to strategic and leadership responsibilities and 15 hours per week of clinical practice within NHUC Same Day Care services.

Role Summary: The Clinical Director for Same Day Care is the senior professional leader for the multidisciplinary clinical workforce within NHUC's Same Day Care portfolio and a key member of the Executive Leadership Team. The post holder provides strategic clinical leadership across urgent and same day care services, leading the development of a compassionate, inclusive, and high‑performing culture where patient safety, quality, innovation, and continuous improvement are embedded in everyday practice.

Working alongside the Medical Director, the Clinical Director provides executive leadership for the non‑medical clinical workforce, including Advanced Clinical Practitioners, nurses, paramedics, healthcare assistants, and other registered and non‑registered clinical colleagues. The role is responsible for quality, patient safety, safeguarding, clinical governance, workforce development, and regulatory compliance across the Same Day Care portfolio.

This is a unique opportunity to combine executive leadership with ongoing clinical practice, enabling the post holder to influence strategy, service development, workforce transformation, quality improvement, and system‑wide improvement while remaining connected to patients, colleagues, and frontline care delivery.

The post holder will act as one of NHUC's CQC Registered Managers and will provide executive leadership for regulatory compliance, inspection readiness, and quality assurance. They will provide assurance to the Board that Same Day Care services are safe, effective, caring, responsive, and well‑led.

As NHUC's Named Safeguarding Lead, the Clinical Director will provide strategic safeguarding leadership and assurance, ensuring robust arrangements are in place to protect adults, children, and vulnerable people using NHUC services. The Clinical Director will act as an ambassador for NHUC, building strong partnerships across the wider health and care system and championing innovative approaches that improve patient outcomes, workforce experience, and service sustainability.

Main Duties and Responsibilities:

Strategic and Executive Leadership

• Provide visible, inspirational, and values‑led leadership to the multidisciplinary clinical workforce.
• Contribute to the strategic direction and long‑term development of NHUC as a member of the Executive Leadership Team.
• Lead the development and delivery of NHUC's clinical strategy and quality agenda.
• Champion innovation, transformation, and service improvement across urgent and same day care services.
• Promote a culture of collaboration, accountability, compassion, learning, and continuous improvement.
• Provide expert clinical advice and assurance to the Board, Management Council, and Executive Team.
• Represent NHUC at local, regional, and national forums.
• Develop opportunities for service growth, partnership working, education, and workforce development.

Clinical Leadership and Workforce Development

• Provide professional leadership and support to Clinical Leads and the wider clinical workforce.
• Foster a positive, inclusive, and high‑performing culture aligned with NHUC values.
• Support workforce planning, recruitment, retention, succession planning, and professional development.
• Ensure effective systems are in place for supervision, appraisal, revalidation, and clinical competency assessment.
• Work collaboratively with operational and HR colleagues to support workforce sustainability and wellbeing.
• Maintain a visible clinical presence through regular clinical practice within NHUC services.
• Act as a role model for compassionate, patient‑centred care and professional excellence.

Quality, Safety and Improvement

• Lead the development and implementation of NHUC's Quality Strategy.
• Ensure robust systems are in place to deliver safe, effective, high‑quality care across all services.
• Provide executive oversight of quality governance arrangements and quality improvement programmes.
• Promote a culture of openness, transparency, and continuous learning.
• Ensure patient feedback, complaints, incidents, audits, and outcome measures are used to drive improvement.
• Maintain oversight of quality performance indicators and provide assurance reporting to the Board and commissioners.
• Lead organisational responses to emerging quality risks and concerns.
• Ensure effective systems exist to identify, monitor, and mitigate clinical risk.

Clinical Governance Delivery

• Lead the development and delivery of effective clinical governance arrangements across NHUC.
• Ensure compliance with relevant legislation, regulatory standards, and NHS requirements.
• Oversee the development, implementation, and review of clinical policies, procedures, and guidelines.
• Lead investigations on behalf of NHUC, working collaboratively with the Medical Director, Governance Lead, Clinical Leads, and operational teams.
• Ensure effective systems are in place for monitoring clinical effectiveness and service quality.
• Maintain oversight of clinical audit programmes and implementation of NICE guidance and national standards.
• Participate in Clinical Guardian Panel Reviews and other governance forums as required.
• Provide executive leadership for patient safety across NHUC.
• Lead implementation and ongoing development of the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF).
• Ensure robust arrangements are in place for incident reporting, investigation, learning, and improvement.
• Promote a proactive safety culture that encourages learning and continuous improvement.
• Ensure learning from incidents, complaints, claims, and audits is embedded into clinical practice.
• Maintain oversight of national patient safety priorities and ensure local implementation of best practice.

Safeguarding

Supported by NHUC's Safeguarding Leads, the Clinical Director will act as the organisation's Named Safeguarding Lead. The post holder will:

• Provide strategic leadership for safeguarding adults and children across NHUC.
• Ensure compliance with all statutory safeguarding responsibilities and regulatory requirements.
• Provide Board‑level assurance regarding safeguarding performance and compliance.
• Represent NHUC at local, regional, and system safeguarding forums.
• Ensure safeguarding policies, processes, training, and reporting arrangements remain effective and up to date.
• Maintain oversight of safeguarding incidents, themes, learning, and organisational responses.
• Ensure all staff receive appropriate safeguarding training and support.
• Maintain Level 4/5 safeguarding competence and ongoing professional development.

Complaints, Patient Experience and Engagement

• Lead NHUC's approach to complaints management and patient feedback.
• Ensure complaints are managed professionally, compassionately, and in accordance with national guidance.
• Work collaboratively with ICB quality teams and partner organisations when required.
• Promote meaningful patient involvement in service design and improvement.
• Embed a culture that values patient experience as a key driver of quality improvement.

Partnership Working and System leadership

NHUC is a vital partner within the wider health and care system. The Clinical Director will:

• Build and maintain effective relationships with commissioners, providers, regulators, and professional bodies.
• Act as an ambassador for NHUC and its contribution to integrated urgent and same day care.
• Work collaboratively with ICBs, NHS England, local authorities, ambulance services, acute providers, community providers, and primary care partners.
• Support the development of innovative pathways and integrated models of care.
• Contribute to local, regional, and national quality and clinical leadership networks.
• Actively support NHUC's contribution to Urgent Health UK and the wider social enterprise sector.

Regulatory Responsibilities

• Act as one of NHUC's CQC Registered Managers.
• Ensure ongoing compliance with Care Quality Commission standards and requirements.
• Maintain oversight of regulatory readiness, assurance processes, and inspection activity.
• Work collaboratively with operational leaders to ensure services remain safe, effective, caring, responsive, and well‑led.

Emergency Preparedness, Resilience and Response (EPRR)

• Contribute to NHUC's emergency preparedness, resilience, and response arrangements.
• Support business continuity planning and organisational response to major incidents and emergencies.

Key Working Relationships

Internal

• Medical Director
• Chief Executive Officer
• Operational Managers
• Governance Team
• Human Resources
• Clinical Workforce
• Stock Control Officer

External

• Integrated Care Boards
• Local Authority Safeguarding Teams
• Hampshire and Isle of Wight Safeguarding Teams
• Surrey Safeguarding Teams
• Primary Care Networks
• Community and Acute Providers
• Professional Bodies
• Patients, Carers, and Public Representatives

Additional Requirements

The post holder will:

• Maintain professional registration and clinical competence.
• Participate in continuing professional development and revalidation requirements.
• Complete all mandatory and statutory training requirements.
• Comply with information governance, confidentiality, and data protection requirements.
• Demonstrate a strong commitment to collaborative working and teamwork.
• Support NHUC's values and behaviours.
• Be willing to undergo an Enhanced DBS check.

Person Specification

Experience

• Significant senior clinical leadership experience within urgent care, primary care, community services or integrated care settings.
• Experience leading multidisciplinary clinical teams across multiple services or sites.
• Experience of leading quality improvement, patient safety and clinical governance programmes.
• Experience of strategic workforce planning, workforce transformation and organisational development.
• Experience of service redesign, transformation and pathway development.
• Experience of leading organisational change and delivering improvement programmes.
• Experience of safeguarding leadership and statutory safeguarding responsibilities.
• Experience of managing complex clinical incidents, complaints and investigations.
• Experience working across organisational and system boundaries.
• Experience of Board-level reporting, committee leadership and executive presentations.
• Experience as a CQC Registered Manager or equivalent regulated service leadership role.
• Experience of commissioning, contract management or provider collaboration arrangements.

Knowledge, Skills and Competencies

• Expert understanding of clinical governance, quality assurance and patient safety frameworks.
• Strong understanding of CQC regulations, NHS constitutional standards and regulatory requirements.
• Strong understanding of PSIRF and contemporary patient safety approaches.
• Strong understanding of safeguarding legislation, statutory guidance and best practice.
• Understanding of workforce planning, education and professional development frameworks.
• Ability to develop and implement organisational strategy.
• Ability to interpret complex clinical, operational and quality data to inform decision-making.
• Excellent verbal, written, presentation and communication skills.
• Ability to work collaboratively, manage time effectively, and maintain professionalism.
• Excellent negotiation, influencing and stakeholder management skills.
• Ability to build credibility and trust across professional groups and organisational boundaries.
• Financial awareness and understanding of healthcare performance metrics.
• Understanding of integrated care systems, urgent and emergency care pathways and NHS policy direction.

Leadership and Management

• Demonstrable experience of leading high-performing teams.
• Ability to inspire, motivate and develop others.
• Experience of leading through complexity, ambiguity and change.
• Evidence of coaching, mentoring and developing future leaders.
• Demonstrable experience of providing assurance to Boards, Committees or Executive Leadership Teams regarding quality, patient safety, safeguarding and organisational performance.
• Experience of succession planning and talent management.

Personal Attributes

• Visible, authentic and approachable leader.
• Passionate about delivering exceptional patient-centred care.
• Collaborative, inclusive and emotionally intelligent.
• Strategic thinker with the ability to translate vision into delivery.
• Innovative, curious and improvement-focused.
• Resilient and calm under pressure.
• Professional, credible and accountable.
• Demonstrates integrity, honesty and sound judgement.
• Understands and supports principles of equality, diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
• Acts as an ambassador for NHUC and its values.

Qualifications

• Current registration with NMC, HCPC or other relevant professional regulatory body.
• Master's degree in Advanced Clinical Practice or equivalent advanced clinical qualification.
• Postgraduate qualification in Leadership, Management, Healthcare Quality, Education or related field.

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.