Lead Matron - Maternity Services

University Hospital Southampton NHS FT

Southampton

On-site

GBP 70,000 - 90,000

Full time

2 days ago

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Job summary

University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust seeks a Lead Matron for Maternity Services to provide professional and operational leadership across the maternity workforce. You will drive safety, quality and patient experience while supporting staff wellbeing and budget management.

The post requires a senior midwifery leader with national framework knowledge, strong clinical credibility, and a passion for service improvement and strategic development within the LMNS across SHIP.

Qualifications

1st Level registered midwife on relevant part of the NMC Register.
Masters or equivalent education, specialist qualification desirable.
Proven leadership and management training with track record.

Responsibilities

Provide professional, managerial, and clinical leadership across Maternity workforce.
Support divisional leadership, ensure performance targets are met.
Lead on complaints handling and learning from responses.
Manage budgets and staffing within Maternity Services.

Skills

Excellent communication

Negotiation

Facilitation

Mediation

Influencing and coaching

Flexible and adaptable

Professional integrity

Education

First degree or equivalent

Master’s or equivalent education

Specialist qualification

1st Level registered midwife

Leadership training

Management training

Extensive acute healthcare leadership experience

Job description

Job Overview

University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust is delighted to offer a fantastic opportunity to work with us. Please see below for detailed job description of the role. We are seeking an exceptional and inspirational maternity leader to join our senior leadership team as Lead Matron for Maternity Services at Southampton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced senior midwifery leader who is passionate about delivering outstanding care, improving outcomes for women, birthing people, babies and families, and leading high‑performing multidisciplinary teams. Serving a diverse population and providing a full range of specialist and tertiary maternity services, our maternity unit delivers approximately 5000 births annually and is committed to excellence, innovation and continuous improvement. As Lead Matron, you will play a pivotal role in providing visible, compassionate and inclusive leadership across Maternity Services, ensuring the highest standards of safety, quality, patient experience and staff wellbeing. The successful candidate will be actively involved in operational leadership and will be a key influencer to ensure the provision of evidence‑based midwifery care for service users and families. Working in close partnership with the Director of Midwifery, Senior Midwifery Leadership Team and Maternity Operational Team, this individual will contribute to the development of the framework for the maternity strategy and lead on the operational implementation of the maternity strategic vision both at UHS and within the wider LMNS across SHIP.

Working for our organisation

As one of the largest acute teaching Trusts in England, we offer learning and development opportunities to help you achieve the career you aspire to. UHS is rated ‘Good’ by the CQC and in the latest national NHS Staff Survey, we were in the top 10 acute trusts for staff engagement and for staff recommending the hospital as a place to work or receive care. We support flexible working and will consider requests taking into account the needs of the service. UHS employees are able to access a range of NHS discounts, are entitled to a minimum of 35 days paid holiday (pro rata), and we offer a generous pension scheme. Southampton is an attractive place to live and work situated on the south coast, with an international airport and direct trains to London. The New Forest National Park and beaches of the Jurassic coast are also right on our doorstep. The city offers living costs 30% lower than London and 17 schools rated outstanding by Ofsted. We believe that using technology wisely shows strong time management and commitment to innovation. However, personalising your recruitment application to highlight your unique skills and experiences is crucial. Relying too heavily on generic, AI‑generated content instead of drawing from your own strengths and accomplishments may lead to your application being rejected if multiple candidates present identical or similar information.

Detailed Job Description And Main Responsibilities

The post holder will provide professional, managerial, and clinical leadership across the Maternity workforce. As an integral member of the midwifery leadership team, the candidate will take an active role in supporting Maternity Services on a divisional level, ensuring that we are achieving agreed performance targets, specifically in relation to issues pertinent to operational workstreams. The post holder will lead on and monitor incoming complaints across the Maternity Service, monitor outgoing responses and ensure that any opportunities for learning are progressed, communicated, and implemented across the team. This role also requires effective and accountable budget management skills with an oversight around the processes for temporary staffing within Maternity Services.

Your Responsibilities

Provide professional leadership and line management to an existing team of midwifery matrons and managers within designated areas and through them, ensure that all members of the clinical teams are managed in accordance with Trust policies and procedures.

To participate and facilitate workforce redesign and modernisation of the midwifery workforce, working in partnership with key stakeholders internally and externally.

To exhibit leadership behaviours that demonstrate respect, resilience, trust, enthusiasm, and energy, positively impacting on the culture of the workforce leading to a happy and healthy workforce.

Take a leadership role, maintaining a high level of visibility across the team, whilst remaining responsive and flexible to the ever‑changing priorities of the Maternity Service.

Participate in the duty manager rota assuming full responsibilities for this role in and out of hours, including on‑calls.

The successful candidate will be required to have experience in working within a senior midwifery role and have a good framework of knowledge around national strategic drivers for maternity services, specifically in relation to the safety agenda.

Key Core Leadership Skills To Include

Excellent communication skills, including a high level of self‑awareness and emotional intelligence.

Negotiation, facilitation, mediation, influencing and coaching skills.

Flexible, responsive, adaptable, and resourceful in terms of an ever‑changing clinical environment.

Professional integrity and judgement.

Person specification

For an overview of the position, please refer to the attached Job Description and Person Specification document. This includes a detailed breakdown of the key responsibilities, role expectations, and the qualifications we are looking for.

Qualifications, Knowledge And Experience

Essential criteria