Deputy Director of Midwifery

East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust; England; On-site; GBP 91,000 - 106,000; Full time

Job summary

A prominent healthcare provider in England is seeking a Deputy Director of Midwifery to oversee dynamic maternity services. In this role, you will lead governance, ensure compliance with CQC standards, and drive continuous quality improvement. The ideal candidate should have extensive NHS management experience, possess a Registered Midwife qualification, and show strong leadership capabilities. This permanent, full-time position offers a competitive salary between £91,342 to £105,337 per year.

Qualifications

• Registered Midwife with a strong clinical background essential.
• Experience in senior NHS management and leadership.
• Ability to manage complex services and budgets.

Responsibilities

• Lead governance across maternity and gynaecology.
• Oversee incident management and compliance.
• Drive continuous quality improvement across services.

Skills

Leadership

Communication

Change Management

Risk Management

Team Building

Education

Degree in relevant subject area

Registered Midwife

Management qualification or equivalent experience

Job description

Job Summary

We are seeking an inspiring, visible Deputy Director of Midwifery to help lead a dynamic, progressive maternity and gynaecology service. This senior role requires a confident clinical leader with deep knowledge of the national maternity and neonatal landscape, a commitment to evidence-based practice, and the ability to drive improvement across complex services. Working alongside the Director of Midwifery, you will shape the future of care for women, birthing people and families, ensuring safe, high-quality pathways across acute and community settings. You will lead innovation, champion inclusion, promote a culture of civility and professional excellence, and support our teams to deliver outstanding experiences. As part of one of England's largest hospital trusts, you will contribute to strategic planning, service redesign and improvement programmes, ensuring our maternity, neonatal and gynaecology services continue to move forward with compassion, ambition and integrity.

Main Duties

Reporting to the Director of Midwifery, you will hold operational responsibility for workforce, clinical quality, financial stewardship and delivery of Trust-wide objectives. You will lead governance across maternity and gynaecology, oversee incident management, strengthen learning systems and ensure compliance with CQC and regulatory standards. The role includes driving continuous quality improvement, embedding evidence-based practice, reducing variation and supporting safe staffing through robust workforce planning. You will provide visible leadership to midwives, gynaecology nurses and neonatal teams, manage senior staff, and support performance, recruitment, retention and culture initiatives. You will contribute to strategic planning, lead service transformation, ensure effective reporting to divisional and Trust committees, and deputise at internal and external meetings. On-call responsibilities will be required, and you will act as a key leader in building safe, compassionate, high-performing services.

About Us

We are one of the largest hospital trusts in England, with five hospitals and community clinics serving a local population of around 800,000 people. Our vision is 'great healthcare from great people'. Everything we do is guided by our values: 'People feel cared for, safe, respected and confident that we are making a difference'. We have a new way of working at East Kent Hospitals, called 'We care'. It's about empowering frontline staff to lead improvements day-to-day. We're looking for compassionate people to be part of our improvement journey for the patients, families and carers we care for every day.

Please note that if you require a Certificate of Sponsorship to work in the UK you must declare this on your application form, even if you currently have a certificate of sponsorship or a work permit for another role and are already working in the country. Please note we are only able to sponsor candidates on a Skilled Worker Visa applying for roles Band 5 and above.

Details

Date posted: 05 December 2025

Pay scheme: Agenda for change

Band: Band 8d

Salary: £91,342 to £105,337 a year per annum

Contract: Permanent

Working pattern: Full-time, Flexible working

Reference number: 344-2526WCY

Job locations: Trustwide, Canterbury, CT1 3NG

Job Responsibilities

Please scroll down to access the full Job Description and Person Specification located in Documents to download. If you have further queries please don't hesitate to contact the line manager using the contact details below.

Person Specification

Essential Qualifications and Training

• Registered Midwife
• Educated to degree level in relevant subject area
• Recognised management qualification or equivalent experience

Desirable Qualifications

• Registered Nurse
• Master's degree in a relevant subject area with evidence of further development following completion of MSc level study
• Professional Midwifery Advisor

Essential Clinical Skills and Experience

• Extensive Senior NHS management experience, with evidence of strong, positive and inclusive leadership behaviours
• Experience of working and delivering trust wide professional objectives, budgetary management and workforce development
• Experience of risk management and Quality assurance
• Substantial evidence of leading and delivering successful change and initiating developments
• Complaints handling
• Extensive experience in managing multi professional groups
• Experience of managing complex services
• Management of budgets
• Change management and team growth and building
• Experience in skill mix and establishment reviews

Essential Governance Knowledge

• Knowledge of quality, standard setting, and research based nursing and midwifery practice
• Knowledge of clinical governance and risk management processes, safeguarding and infection control

Essential Personal Qualities

• Self-awareness
• Cultural awareness and intelligence
• Commitment to team working
• Creative, lateral thinker and motivated
• Ability to lead and develop a large team
• Skilled at communicating and working with group of patients and users
• Organisation, management and strategic planning skills
• Negotiating skills
• Team building skills
• Excellent verbal, written and interpersonal communication skills. Able to communicate complex or sensitive information clearly and sensitively with a wide range of patients, in situations where there may be barriers to understanding (for example, families with language barriers, anxiety or under high distress).

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.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website.

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website.

Employer Details

East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust
Trustwide, Canterbury, CT1 3NG
Website: https://www.ekhuft.nhs.uk/patients-and-visitors/