Head Of Maternity Programmes

NHS North East London Integrated Care Board; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 88,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

NHS North East London Integrated Care Board is recruiting a Head of Maternity Programmes to lead the MNWHQIS and partner organisations in delivering transformational maternity, neonatal and women's health services across North East London. You will work with clinical leads, commissioners and finance teams to drive strategic improvements and ensure equitable involvement of all providers.

The role is a fixed-term, 3-month secondment with hybrid working (home + two days in the office weekly).

Qualifications

• Educated to degree level in relevant subject or equivalent level qualification or significant experience of working at a similar level in specialist area.
• Registered Clinical Midwifery practitioner with current NMC registration
• Evidence of continued professional development
• Experience of coordinating projects in complex and challenging environments
• Experience of managing risks and reporting
• Experience of drafting briefing papers and correspondence
• Understanding of the public sector
• Knowledge of financial systems e.g. monitoring budget management, processing invoices and procurement
• Ability to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of equality of opportunity and diversity
• Ability to prepare and produce concise yet insightful communications for dissemination to senior stakeholders and a broad range of stakeholders as required.

Responsibilities

• Provide leadership and management to develop and deliver key service transformation initiatives for North East London priorities.
• Establish and maintain close links with clinical leads and Directors of Maternity to enable improvement across services.
• Collaborate with commissioners to ensure sustainable services using local data on demand, capacity and workforce.
• Work with finance and informatics teams to support robust future planning for maternity and women's health services.
• Ensure equity of involvement and voices for all service providers and partners.

Skills

Leadership

Communication

Strategic planning

Project coordination

Risk management

Stakeholder engagement

Education

Degree level qualification in relevant subject

Qualified nurse or midwife with current registration

Post-graduate degree or equivalent (desirable)

Job description

Head of Maternity Programmes

Company: NHS North East London

Job ID: D9161-26-0015

Job summary

Following organisational changes across North East London (NEL) ICB, the Maternity, Neonatal and Women's Health Quality Improvement System (MNWHQIS) has been established to support transformation in maternity, neonatal and women's health services across NEL. It will provide strategic, quality-focused system leadership to:

• drive service improvement;
• reduce inequalities; and
• support delivery against NHS England assurance frameworks.

The MNWHQIS will help the ICB assure delivery against its contracts and service specifications by using intelligence, triangulating evidence and supporting escalation where required.

We are seeking an experienced nurse or midwife to work alongside the Clinical Head of Maternity and Women's Health Programmes, leading current programmes and the MNWHQIS team.

We are looking for an enthusiastic individual to join our friendly team. The successful candidate will build positive working relationships, solve problems, plan strategically and demonstrate strong leadership and management skills.

Please see the job description for further details. The ICB operates a hybrid working model, combining home working with at least two days in the office each week. This is a three-month secondment, with the possibility of extension. Please ensure you have your manager's agreement before applying.

Main duties of the job

• To provide management and leadership and support to the development and delivery of key service transformation/improvement initiatives required to ensure the achievement of the North East London priorities relating to the NHS Ten year Plan, Amos review, Ockenden review into Nottingham maternity hospitals, Ten point plan addressing the immediate actions and further outputs from the national maternity and neonatal taskforce.
• To establish and maintain a close relationship with relevant clinical leads and Directors of Maternity to enable maternity, neonatal and Women's Health improvement.
• To work in partnership with the maternity, neonatal Women's health lead commissioners within North East London to ensure local service providers develop sustainable services using local business intelligence on demand, capacity and workforce across maternity and neonatal services and deliver improvements in service user satisfaction across North East London.
• To work with NHS NEL finance and informatics teams to ensure robust future planning for maternity, neonatal and women's Health services across North East London.
• To ensure equity of service provider involvement and collaboration ensuring that all services providers and partners have their voices heard.

Please see attached Job Description and Person Specification for full duties and responsibilities.

About us

NHS North East London Integrated Care Board (ICB) was formed on 1 July 2022.

We are an exciting new organisation putting the needs of communities at the heart of our commissioning arrangements.

We are working with local people and partners across health, social care and the voluntary sector in innovative ways to improve health and wellbeing for all our communities. Our key priority in the next year will be to develop closer integrated and collaborative ways of working with all our partners to implement our Out of Hospital Strategy.

We can only do this with great staff who are encouraged and supported, which is why we invest in them, listen to them, make sure we are representative of our populations and that we foster their health and wellbeing.

Please note that all vacancies will be subject to a probation period in line with the Probation Policy.

Details

Date posted: 28 October 2026

Pay scheme: Agenda for change

Band: Band 8c

Salary: £88,250 to £100,355 a year per annum inc HCA

Contract: Fixed term

Duration: 3 months

Working pattern: Full-time

Reference number: 161-NELICB-425-A

Job location: 20 Churchill Place, Canary Wharf, London, E14 5HJ, United Kingdom

Essential qualifications and experience

• Educated to degree level in relevant subject or equivalent level qualification or significant experience of working at a similar level in specialist area
• Registered Clinical Midwifery practitioner with current NMC registration
• Evidence of continued professional development
• Experience of co-ordinating projects in complex and challenging environments
• Experience of managing risks and reporting
• Experience of drafting briefing papers and correspondence
• Understanding of the public sector
• Knowledge of financial systems e.g. monitoring budget management, processing invoices and procurement
• Ability to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of equality of opportunity and diversity. Being aware of how individual actions contribute to, and make a difference to, the equality agenda
• Ability to prepare and produce concise yet insightful communications for dissemination to senior stakeholders and a broad range of stakeholders as required.

Desirable

• Post-graduate degree or equivalent
• Experience of monitoring budgets and business planning processes
• Experience in a healthcare environment
• Knowledge of project principles, techniques and tools, such as Prince 2 Foundation and Microsoft Project

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.

UK Registration

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

Employer contact

Clinical Head of Maternity Programmes: Philippa Cox, [e-mail]

Closing date: 11 November 2026