Director of Clinical Services

NHS Jobs; Workington; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Hospice at Home West Cumbria is seeking a Director of Clinical Services to provide strong clinical leadership across our hospice and community services. The post holder will act as the Registered Manager with the CQC, ensuring equitable, professional, and excellent patient care and supporting families and carers.

You will lead strategic planning, governance, workforce development, external relationships, and budget management while ensuring GDPR compliance and data protection in a role focused

Qualifications

• Educated to degree level or equivalent in clinical/healthcare management.
• Evidence of continued professional development relevant to the role.
• CMI/ILM Level 5 or above (desirable).
• Up to date knowledge of relevant clinical legislation and guidance.
• Demonstrable clinical competence in palliative care.
• Proven management experience in a comparable organisation.

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic leadership for clinical services and CQC compliance.
• Lead service development and ensure quality and safety.
• Act as Registered Manager with the CQC.
• Set budget and monitor financial performance.
• Lead workforce strategy including recruitment and development.
• Foster an inclusive, supportive workplace culture.

Skills

Communication

Reporting

Leadership

Change management

Diplomacy

Travel flexibility

Education

Degree in healthcare management

Continued professional development

Management qualification

Job description

JOB SUMMARY

Hospice at Home West Cumbria provides an expert and comprehensive service to enhance the experience of patients requiring palliative and end of life care. The service also supports families and carers providing care predominately in the home or within the local community. Clinical services covers the delivery of home nursing, Support at Home, family and bereavement support and specialist lymphoedema services, providing quality care for patients, their families and carers across West Cumbria. The role of Director of Clinical Services is to provide strong clinical leadership and management for all clinical services across the Hospice, ensuring that care received is equitable, professional and of an excellent standard. The post holder will contribute to the overall senior leadership of the Hospice, acting as the Registered Manager with the CQC.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE POST

Strategic Leadership

• Develops an ambitious strategic plan for the delivery of clinical services based on the needs and feedback from stakeholders.
• Identifies and leads on new opportunities for service development whilst maintaining and improving the quality of care in existing services.
• As a member of the Senior Management Team, contributes to corporate leadership, development and business planning.
• Leads and participates in appropriate operational groups and initiatives to ensure delivery of the Strategy.
• Leads the strategic direction of the organisation on clinical service delivery and performance outcomes and clinical effectiveness and prepares information and reports to help inform Committee and Board decisions.

Clinical Governance and Risk

• Responsibility to ensure that clinical policies and procedures comply with current legislation and regulatory requirements.
• Keeps up to date with best practices within palliative and end of life care to ensure that essential standards of quality and safety are met and any incidents are managed effectively.
• Regularly reviews the strategic an operational risk registers and alert the board to any new and emerging risks.
• As the Registered Manger, leads the monitoring and inspection activity with the CQC and ensures that all regulatory standards are met.
• Provides oversight and assurance for all clinical activity, auditing and reporting.

Workforce Leadership and Development

• Provide visible, values-led leadership across multidisciplinary teams.
• Support team leaders and Heads of to deliver high standards of care.
• Leads workforce strategy including recruitment, retention, succession planning and organisational development.
• Promotes a positive, inclusive, and supportive workplace culture which focusses on continuous improvement.

External relationships

• Collaborates, negotiates and maintains positive relationships with local stakeholders and commissioners in order to improve quality standards aligned to patient care and service delivery outcomes.
• Ensures that commissioned services meet the grant agreement specification and service level agreement standards of performance.
• As the data controller and Caldicott Guardian for clinical services, ensures that all information held complies with GDPR and other regulations, and the clinical database systems are active, up to date and fit for purpose.
• Sets, manages and monitors the budget for clinical services.

Personal Development

• To be committed to personal and professional development and complete mandatory and statutory training as required.
• To set challenging goals through the appraisal process to ensure the effective delivery of organisational, team and personal objectives.
• To keep updated with current policies and procedures, as well as external trends and developments.

General

• To ensure that personal conduct, ways of working and work activities are aligned to the Hospices purpose and values at all times.
• In accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulations, to ensure the maintenance of confidentiality in respect of staff, volunteer and client records and all privileged information relating to the services of the Charity, its patients, staff and volunteers and particularly of the area for which directly responsible.
• To promote and foster the Hospices reputation and standing within the community and with private, statutory and voluntary sector agencies and organisations.
• To adhere to the Health and Safety policy and report all accidents, incidents or near misses promptly and when requested to co-operate with any investigations undertaken.
• To be aware of obligations and to abide by the spirit and nature of the Equal Opportunities policy to avoid direct and indirect discrimination.
• To undertake any other duties which may be reasonably required.

Person Specification

Director of Clinical Services

Qualities Required

Essential (E) / Desirable (D)

Practical Knowledge and Qualifications

• Educated to degree level or equivalent professional qualification in a clinical or healthcare management discipline (E)
• Evidence of continued professional development relevant to the role (E)
• Level 5 or above Management qualification CMI / ILM or equivalent (D)
• Up to date knowledge of relevant clinical legislation and guidance (E)
• Demonstrable clinical competence and expertise in palliative care (D)
• Successful, significant and relevant achievement at management level in a comparable organisation (D)

Skills and Competencies

• Exceptionally convincing and persuasive written and oral skills with the ability to present and convey complex ideas and issues clearly and coherently (E)
• Ability to prepare and present clear and concise reports to Board, Committee and management teams (E)
• Ability to deal diplomatically with challenging situations, work under pressure, and meet deadlines (E)
• Excellent leadership and team building skills (E)
• Be flexible during times of change to support new ways of working (E)
• Must be prepared to travel and attend meetings and training as required (E)

Experience

• Experience of service-user needs and involvement in service delivery and evaluation, leading to effective improvements (E)
• Experience of working with multidisciplinary teams at varying levels of seniority (E)
• Experience of developing and implementing strategic and operational plans (E)
• Proven ability to build, manage and develop key external relationships (E)
• Track record of bringing innovative creative thinking and fresh ideas to an organisation and/or its services (E)
• Experience of managing and maintaining budgets (E)

Please refer to job description for full details of the role and responsibilities.

Applicants must meet all essential criteria as detailed in the person specification section

Closing Date: 10:00a.m. Monday 2nd November 2026 Preliminary Interview Date: Monday 9th November Second Interview Round: Tuesday 10th November 2026 Registered Charity number 1086387