Labour Ward Manager

LEWISHAM AND GREENWICH NHS TRUST; London; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 53,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a leading NHS Trust as a Ward Manager in the maternity unit at University Hospital Lewisham. Lead an exceptional team, ensuring high-quality care and improving maternity services for women and birthing people. This role involves significant leadership responsibilities and requires a passion for enhancing patient experience.

Benefits

Supportive work culture and community engagement.

Access to various staff networks for professional development.

Commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion.

Qualifications

• Demonstrates knowledge of effective risk management.
• Experience in a senior clinical role with leadership responsibility.
• Evidence of ongoing professional development in midwifery.

Responsibilities

• Ensure safe and efficient running of the maternity unit.
• Manage daily running of the labour ward including resources.
• Liaise with multidisciplinary teams for patient care.

Skills

Decision Making

Communication

Leadership

Education

1st level Registered Midwife with current NMC Registration

Degree level qualification or equivalent experience

Job description

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Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, (LGT), is a community-focused provider of local and acute care, delivering high-quality services to over one million people living across the London boroughs of Lewisham, Greenwich, and Bexley. We provide whole-life care and are here to support our communities to live healthier lives as well as taking care of them when they need us the most.

Employing almost 7,500 colleagues, affectionately known as Team LGT, we provide services at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich, University Hospital Lewisham, and at over a dozen community settings in Lewisham. We also provide some services at Queen Mary's Hospital in Sidcup.

We have recently launched our new vision and values to mark the LGT10 - the tenth anniversary of our Trust forming in 2013. Our trust vision is to be exceptional. In the quality of our patient care; our support for colleagues; and in the difference we make through our partnerships and in our communities.

To achieve this we value Respect, Compassion, and Inclusion; Being accountable over staying comfortable; Listening over always knowing best; and Succeeding together over achieving alone. You can read more about our visions and values here

Our hospitals and community sites provide a wide range of inpatient and outpatient services, as well as emergency and planned care. The Trust is rated as "good" or "outstanding" in over three-quarters of the services inspected by the Care Quality Commission.

Every year our work includes performing 10,000 procedures in our theatres; bringing seven and a half thousand new lives into the world; carrying out 570,000 visits to patients in their homes or communities and providing emergency care for more than 300,000 patients arriving in our busy Urgent and Emergency Departments.

LGT is a centre for the education and training of medical students enrolled with King's College London's GKT School of Medical Education. We are a training centre for nurses, midwives and allied health professionals. We are pioneering new roles that will support the changing needs of our patients and are one of the largest employers of physician associates in the country.

We are committed to working with our partners to deliver the best outcomes for our local communities. This means playing an active role in the South East London Integrated Care System (ICS), and in formal partnerships including the South East London Acute Provider Collaborative, provider partnerships with our local mental health trusts and borough-based boards of the ICS in Bexley, Greenwich and Lewisham.

Job overview

We currently have an exciting opening for an experienced, enthusiastic leader to join our award winning maternity team at the University Hospital Lewisham site, part of Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust.

The ward manager position provides leadership for the busy, acute labour ward. You will work closely with the Labour Ward Matron to ensure the safe and efficient running of the maternity unit.

We currently have an exciting opening for an experienced, enthusiastic leader to join our award winning maternity team at the University Hospital Lewisham site, part of Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust.

The ward manager position provides leadership for the busy, acute labour ward. You will work closely with the Labour Ward Matron to ensure the safe and efficient running of the maternity unit.

You will be visionary with an excellent knowledge of caring for both high and low risk women/birthing people in labour, skilled in decision making and have a passion to lead the ward through change that will enhance and improve care for clients and their families.

You will demonstrate excellent decision making and communication skills with the ability to liaise and negotiate with other leaders throughout the maternity unit to facilitate patient flow. You will work closely with the Obstetric, Anaesthetic and Specialist Midwifery teams ensuring safety and enhancing women / birthing people's experience.

Main duties of the job

You will be responsible for the daily running of the labour ward, ensuring that resources are available to enable the smooth running of the ward, including staff off duty, stores and environmental maintenance.

Computer literacy is essential as you will be responsible for writing/amending guidelines, reports, complaint responses and regular ward audits. You will also be expected to write staff rotas, manage sickness absence, complete appraisals for staff and be part of the management on call system.

You will be expected to attend regular meetings that relate to the role and may be asked to attend external meetings as required.

If you have a passion for improving labour care and believe that women / birthing people should receive efficient, individualized and quality care at all stages of their maternity journey, we would love to hear from you.

Working for our organisation

Our people are our greatest asset. When we feel supported and happy at work, this positivity reaches those very people we are here for, the patients. Engaged employees perform at their best and our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) initiatives contribute to cultivate a culture of engagement. We have four staff networks, a corporate EDI Team and a suite of programmes and events which aim to insert the 5 aspirations:

1. Improving representation at senior levels of staff with disabilities, from black, Asian, and ethnic minorities background, identify as LGBTQ+ and women, through improved recruitment and leadership development
2. Widening access (anchor institution) and employability
3. Improving the experience of staff with disability
4. Improving the EDI literacy and confidence of trust staff through training and development
5. Making equalities mainstream

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The Delivery suite Manage focuses on the delivery of high quality, safe and effective care focused on improving outcomes and experiences for patients, families and carers. This role also holds delegated responsibility for the maternity triage department. This will include:

Being the key contact member for the multidisciplinary team

• Provide professional leadership and line management for a team of midwifery and support staff;
• Delegate work and supervise colleagues accordingly;
• Assess patients, plan, implement and evaluate evidence based care;
• Provide expert clinical advice;
• Ensure patient pathways are optimally managed;
• Manage budgets and resources efficiently and effectively;
• Be responsible for the safety of the clinical environment;
• Champion a culture of learning and quality improvement in the clinical area.
• Ensure his/her group of patients have a managed pathway and beds in the ward are optimally utilised, seeking expert support if required.

This is a senior midwifery role within the organisation and there is an expectation that the post-holder will fully participate in the clinical and professional leadership of the department.

Please see JD for full details

Person specification

Knowledge

Essential criteria

• Understands the concepts of Clinical Governance and shared governance including evidence based practice and critical appraisal of research findings.
• Demonstrates knowledge of effective risk management
• Knowledge of current NHS issues including performance targets, the modernisation agenda and patient experience
• Knowledge of professional issues including the NMC Code of Conduct, Compassion in Practice
• Understands and can demonstrate the principles of effective budgetary management
• Good knowledge of current Safeguarding practices

Desirable criteria

• Teaching and Assessing skills Research/Audit skills
• Demonstrate involvement in Clinical Supervision

Qualifications and Training

Essential criteria

• 1st level Registered Midwife with current NMC Registration
• Degree level qualification or equivalent demonstrable experience.
• Evidence of on-going professional development in a midwifery field of practice
• Practice Assessor /Sign off mentorship course

Desirable criteria

• Recognised leadership development training Educated to Masters level or equivalent
• Care of the critically ill course; or working towards it
• Examination of the newborn course; or working towards

Experience

Essential criteria

• Relevant post qualification experience
• Significant post registration experience with at Band 6, to include: - o specialist expertise underpinned by theory - o Teaching, mentoring and leadership experience within a clinical environment -o Experience of working within a multidisciplinary team - o Evidence of acting as a change agent and role model
• To have a broad experience of working at a senior clinical level and be able to demonstrate proven managerial and leadership skills.
• Evidence of involvement in the development of protocols and/or undertaking of clinical audit
• Significant specialist expertise underpinned by theory

Desirable criteria

• Experience of effectively managing rosters
• People management skills including appointing and managing staff
• Experience of managing timescales for a delegated piece of work/project

Personal Qualities

Essential criteria

• Understanding of role in relation to wider national regional and Trust pressures and Trust objectives
• Creative and innovative thinker, adaptable and flexible
• Able to foster positive relationships with co-workers and work across professional and organisational boundaries
• Able to deal with difficult and complex situations and people resistant to change

We reserve the right to close the post before the stated closing date, please apply early. We do not contact applicants with the outcome of the shortlisting. If you have been shortlisted, you will receive an invite to an assessment day or interview.

As a local employer and anchor institution we work closely with our community to recruit locally and we welcome applications from the widest variety of people to ensure our workforce are reflective of the local communities which we serve. We encourage all suitable candidates to apply including if you are Black, Asian or other ethnic minorities, live with a disability (visible or not) or are LGBT+. We have a number of active staff networks including Disability, LGBT+, Multicultural Inclusion and Women's staff networks to bring staff together and celebrate diversity across our whole workforce.

Please note, not all roles will meet the criteria for a skilled worker visa.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Documents to download

• JD (PDF, 384.6KB)
• Working at LGT (PDF, 4.2MB)
• Visa and Certificate of Sponsorship Information for Applicants (PDF, 3.8MB)