Governance Lead Midwife

NHS; Taunton; Hybrid; GBP 45,000 - 65,000; Full time

Job summary

A healthcare service provider in Taunton is seeking an experienced Governance Lead Midwife to support Maternity and Neonatal services. You will work collaboratively across sites, ensuring compliance with governance and patient safety standards. The ideal candidate will possess a degree in midwifery and have strong leadership and analytical skills. This full-time role offers opportunities for career development and attractive benefits including flexible working and an NHS pension scheme.

Benefits

Flexible working options

NHS pension scheme

Generous annual leave allowance

Career development support

Qualifications

• Degree or equivalent level in midwifery.
• Further specialist training to master's level.
• Trained in patient safety and information governance.

Responsibilities

• Act as a key resource for governance and patient safety.
• Lead incident management and safety reviews.
• Oversee risk management processes and ensure compliance.

Skills

Governance expertise

Incident management

Analytical skills

Patient safety knowledge

Education

Degree in Midwifery

Masters or equivalent level training

Tools

Statistical software

Data visualization tools

Job description

We are seeking an experienced and motivated Governance Lead Midwife to join our Maternity and Neonatal services within the CYP and Families Service Group at Somerset NHS Foundation Trust.

This is a cross site role forming part of our Quality and Safety Team. While your base will be Musgrove Park Hospital, you will work collaboratively across both Musgrove Park and Yeovil District Hospital, supporting colleagues and driving high standards of governance, patient safety and clinical effectiveness across our maternity and neonatal pathways.

You will act as a professional lead for governance matters, ensuring services comply with statutory, regulatory and best practice requirements. This role is integral in supporting safe, high quality care for women, babies and families.

Main duties of the job

Act as a key link between maternity and neonatal services, providing expert governance and patient safety advice.

Lead and support incident management, safety reviews and learning from events, ensuring compliance with statutory and national requirements.

Oversee risk management processes, including maintaining risk registers and escalating concerns appropriately.

Analyse governance and safety data, identifying themes and producing clear reports for senior teams and assurance groups.

Support the development, implementation and review of policies, guidelines, audits and best practice standards.

Deliver training and promote a strong governance culture across the maternity and neonatal teams.

Work collaboratively with cross site colleagues in Quality, Safety, QI, Patient Experience, Claims, and Incident Teams to improve service quality.

Contribute to national and regional maternity safety programmes and support preparation for external inspections.

Line manage members of the governance team, providing supervision, appraisal and professional support.

About us

At Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, we're committed to supporting our employees with a range of benefits designed to enhance your professional and personal life. We offer:

• Flexible working options to help you balance work and life
• NHS pension scheme for long-term financial security
• Generous annual leave allowance to recharge and relax
• A strong focus on career development to help you grow and achieve your potential

Additionally, you'll gain access to our Blue Light Card, unlocking exclusive discounts on shopping, dining, and leisure activities, as well as NHS-specific perks to support you both inside and outside of work.

We are proud to foster a diverse, skilled, and inclusive workforce, and we encourage applications from all backgrounds.

Why Somerset? Somerset offers the perfect blend of idyllic countryside, outstanding areas of natural beauty, and breathtaking coastlines, with vibrant cities like Bristol, Bath, and Exeter just a short drive away - and only two hours to London.

The region is home to excellent educational facilities, and with affordable housing compared to other parts of the country, it's a great place to build both your career and your future.

Somerset truly has it all - the peaceful countryside and cosmopolitan city life, with something for everyone to enjoy.

Job responsibilities

In this role, you will:

• Act as an expert resource for governance, risk and patient safety, supporting clinical teams with incident management and the implementation of improvement initiatives.
• Provide specialist guidance on clinical effectiveness, audits, best practice standards, and compliance with NICE, MBRRACE and other national bodies.
• Build strong working relationships with Quality Improvement, Patient Experience, Claims, Inquests and Incident Teams to ensure a joinedup approach to governance activities.
• Lead and support the development of policies, guidelines and SOPs to maintain safe systems of care.
• Use data indicators to highlight areas requiring audit or review, collaborating with the clinical audit team.
• Contribute to the development and delivery of maternity governance strategy and support the wider service's clinical strategy and business planning.
• Line manage members of the maternity governance team, ensuring effective supervision, appraisal and performance management.
• Uphold Trust values of Kindness, Respect and Teamwork, and demonstrate best practice in confidentiality, safeguarding, infection prevention and information governance.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Professional/clinical knowledge acquired through midwifery to degree or equivalent level
• Further specialist training to masters or equivalent level
• Requirement to be trained in patient safety where needs are identified and training is available. Where possible and appropriate, this training will be with staff within NHS Somerset. Mandatory training may also be necessary, including in one or more of the following:
• information governance
• equality and diversity
• safeguarding level 1

Experience

• Experience of formal, multi-disciplinary meetings
• Experience of working in partnership with healthcare organisations
• Experience in an information-related role in an NHS setting

Additional Criteria

• Understanding of patient safety
• Knowledge of statistical, analytical and visualisation techniques and software
• Knowledge of data management in line with current information governance / data protection legislation and principles

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.