Group Chief Nursing Officer

Barts Health NHS Trust; London; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Group Chief Nursing Officer at a leading NHS Trust in London. This pivotal role involves shaping the Trust’s clinical strategy, ensuring high standards of care, and providing professional leadership to nursing and allied health professionals. The ideal candidate will have a proven track record in clinical leadership, quality governance, and the ability to drive transformational change in a complex healthcare environment. Join a dynamic team committed to delivering equitable, safe, and high-quality care to a diverse population. If you are an innovative leader passionate about improving healthcare delivery, we want to hear from you.

Qualifications

• Substantial experience as a senior nurse leader in a system role or as a Chief Nursing Officer.
• Expertise in quality governance and assurance from a group/system perspective.

Responsibilities

• Lead the development and implementation of clinical strategies to improve care outcomes.
• Drive a culture of excellence, compassion, and innovation in healthcare delivery.

Skills

Leadership

Quality Governance

Strategic Planning

Collaboration

Innovation

Education

Registered Nurse

Post Graduate Qualifications

Job description

All our hospitals have their own unique identities while sharing the same standards and values

You can shape your story with us

Whether you’re looking to gain experience in a large, fast-paced hospital or get out into the community, we have a range of opportunities that allows you to build your entire career in one trust.

For us, every day is different. We provide care to a diverse population of 2.5 million across east London – that’s 6,000 people every day, speaking over 60 different languages. Our patients are at the heart of everything we do, and we are committed to ensuring that people living in east London live healthy lives.

Barts Health is one of the largest NHS trusts in the country, and one of Britain’s leading healthcare providers.

The Barts Health group of NHS hospitals is entering an exciting new era on our improvement journey to becoming an outstanding organisation with a world-class clinical reputation. Having lifted ourselves out of special measures, we now have the impetus and breathing space to chart a fresh course in which we are continually striving to improve all our services for patients.

Our vision is to be a high-performing group of NHS hospitals, renowned for excellence and innovation, and providing safe and compassionate care to our patients in east London and beyond. That means being a provider of excellent patient safety, known for delivering consistently high standards of harm-free care and always caring for patients in the right place at the right time. It also means being an outstanding place to work, in which our WeCare values and behaviours are visible to all and guide us in how we work together.

Barts Health supports the Pregnancy Loss Pledge and commits to supporting their staff through the distress of miscarriage.

Job overview

Group Chief Nursing Officer

Barts Health NHS Trust is one of the largest and most respected healthcare providers in the NHS, employing over 21,000 people with a budget of £2.4bn, delivering care to more than 2.5 million people across London. Recognised for its excellence in clinical services, including the largest cardiovascular centre in the UK and the second largest cancer centre in London, Barts Health also has an internationally renowned trauma team and cutting edge research programmes. Our Trust operates from four major hospitals: Newham, The Royal London, St Bartholomew’s, and Whipps Cross, each providing a unique range of services and playing a pivotal role in our healthcare strategy and offering a dynamic, inclusive, and rewarding environment for all staff.

Following the recently announced retirement of Caroline Alexander, an exciting opportunity has arisen for an exceptional individual to join the Trust as Group Chief Nursing Officer (CNO). As part of the Group Executive leadership team and a voting member of the Trust Board, the CNO plays a pivotal role in shaping the Trust’s clinical strategy, ensuring the highest standards of care, and providing professional leadership for nursing, midwifery, and allied health professionals. Reporting directly to the Group Chief Executive, the CNO will lead on critical areas including patient engagement, quality governance, safeguarding, and infection prevention and control across all hospitals within the group.

Main duties of the job

The CNO is responsible for driving a culture of excellence, compassion, and innovation, ensuring the delivery of equitable, safe, and high-quality care. Working in partnership with the Group Chief Medical Officer, the CNO will foster a multidisciplinary approach to clinical care and governance, prioritising patient safety and experience.

This role will lead the development and implementation of clinical strategies to improve care outcomes, tackle health inequalities, and ensure alignment with national priorities and regional healthcare needs. The CNO will provide professional leadership to the Hospital Directors of Nursing and executive leadership for maternity services and AHP colleagues, act as the Trust’s executive lead for safeguarding and infection prevention, and ensure robust governance frameworks are in place to maintain the highest professional standards.

Externally, the CNO will work collaboratively with ICS partners and other system CNOs to address shared challenges and deliver transformative improvements in population health outcomes across north-east London. Given the scale of Barts Health, our new CNO will also build relationships and influence regional and national nursing colleagues.

Working for our organisation

Barts Health is one of the largest NHS trusts in the country, and one of Britain’s leading healthcare providers.

We strive to live by our WeCare values and are committed to promoting inclusion, where every staff member has a sense of belonging. We value our differences and fully advocate, cultivate and support an inclusive working environment.

We particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and minority ethnic candidates as they are underrepresented within Barts Health at this band.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

We are seeking an inspirational and experienced nursing leader who has a track record of delivering excellence in clinical leadership at Board or senior system level. The ideal candidate will bring significant experience in a complex organisation or healthcare system alongside a demonstrable ability to lead multidisciplinary teams, drive quality improvement, and deliver transformational change.

An expert in quality governance, clinical assurance, and workforce development, as our new CNO you will have a dynamic, compassionate, inclusive leadership style with a strong commitment to reducing health inequalities and championing diversity. A relationship former, you will bring the ability to influence and collaborate with a wide range of stakeholders while inspiring, motivating and engaging clinical teams across the Trust.

This is a rare opportunity for an innovative leader to make a significant impact on the future of healthcare delivery across north east London and beyond. If you are a visionary leader driven to shape the future of nursing, midwifery, and allied health professions in one of the largest providers in the country, then we look forward to hearing from you.

Minimum Requirements

• Substantial experience as a very senior nurse leader in a system role and/or as a Chief Nursing Officer in a large teaching NHS Trust
• Extensive experience of quality governance and quality assurance, desirably from a group/system lens

Skills

• Ability to lead a multi-professional team, both when directly managed and in a matrix management model
• Ability to identify innovation and transformational opportunities and deliver these in a large, complex organisation
• Ability to think and plan strategically, tactically and creatively and translate strategies into delivery plans

Knowledge

• Understanding of how a group model operates, and the ability to lead within a group

Qualifications

• Be a registered nurse, with appropriate post graduate qualifications

Other

• Compassionate and inclusive leadership style with ability to develop a culture in which all individuals can thrive and feel a sense of belonging
• Able to work collaboratively with the Chief Medical Officer, ensuring that both directorates operate as one in the setting of clinical strategy, standards and assurance of quality

As an Equal Opportunities Employer we actively support applications from individuals who apply under the Guaranteed Interview Scheme and will process your application as appropriate.

Barts Health is committed to safeguarding the welfare of children and to child protection. The Trust aims to ensure as far as is possible that anyone, paid or unpaid, who seeks to work in our organisation and who gains access to children, is safe to do so. As such, you may be required to undertake a Disclosure and Barring Check as part of the recruitment process if appointed to a post with direct access to children or vulnerable adults.