Lead Midwife for Professional Practice

NHS; London; On-site; GBP 64,000 - 72,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading healthcare organization in London is seeking a Lead Midwife for Professional Practice. This role involves providing clinical leadership, developing education strategies, and managing teams to ensure high-quality care. Candidates should have a registered midwifery degree and significant experience in clinical settings. This fixed-term position offers a competitive salary of £64,156 to £71,148 per annum.

Qualifications

• Experience in advanced midwifery skills across clinical settings.
• Evidence of multidisciplinary working and service development.
• Formal teaching practice in HEI setting and within clinical settings.

Responsibilities

• Provide clinical leadership and ensure high standards of care.
• Develop and implement maternity education strategies.
• Maintain a training database and support practice development.

Skills

Leadership skills

Presenting and teaching skills

Problem-solving skills

Education

First level degree in related healthcare discipline

Registered Midwife

Post-graduate qualification or equivalent

Job description

Overview

Lead Midwife for Professional Practice – Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

The closing date is 30 September 2025

We have the opportunity for an enthusiastic midwife to cover this position for 9 months.

The post holder will act as an expert practitioner, resource and role model in order to develop and maintain an effective clinical learning environment, using clinical evidence to facilitate 'best practice'. They will provide line management, leadership and support to the practice development teams across the Trust to ensure women, birthing people and their families receive quality care at all times.

Interview date TBC

Main duties of the job

The post holder will work closely with the senior midwifery team and the lead obstetricians for education to ensure all standards are achieved, and a robust process is in place to meet all governance agendas. Supporting the leadership strategy to ensure that the needs of women and birthing people are placed at the centre of care and service delivery. This will include the review/development of clinical guidelines, implementing midwifery practice development plans and actions in response to risk case reviews and clinical supervision reviews. They will action and implement national and local recommendations in relation to clinical practice updates and training. The post holder will maintain a training data base recording all statutory and mandatory training and act as the main point of contact for HEI providers in relation to student commissioning and any issues in clinical practice. As a member of the senior midwifery team the post holder will form part of the senior midwifery on-call service and undertake directorate and trust wide projects as required.

About us

Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is one of England's top-performing and safest trusts. We operate two main acute hospital sites--Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and West Middlesex University Hospital--along with award-winning clinics across North West London.

Our nearly 7,500 staff care for a diverse population of 1.5 million, providing full clinical services, including maternity, A&E, and children's services, plus specialist HIV and sexual health clinics. The Care Quality Commission rates us 'Good' in safety, effectiveness, care, and responsiveness, and 'Outstanding' in leadership and resource use.

We continually invest in our facilities, including a £30m expansion of critical care at Chelsea and Westminster and an £80m Ambulatory Diagnostic Centre at West Middlesex.

We are committed to equal opportunities and believe that diversity drives innovation and excellence. As part of our dedication to equity, we actively welcome applications from individuals from the global majority, veterans and underrepresented communities. We value the unique perspectives and experiences that diverse teams bring and are committed to creating an environment where all voices are heard, respected, and empowered to succeed.

If you haven't heard from us within three weeks of the closing date, your application was likely unsuccessful. Employment is subject to a six-month probationary period.

Some roles may require weekend shifts at multiple sites.

Job responsibilities

SEE JOB DESCRIPTION ATTACHED FOR FULL INFORMATION.

• Promote and lead respective activity e.g. clinical supervision, journal clubs etc., to enhance development.
• Delegate tasks and activities to a range of team members ensuring that the staff has the appropriate support to take on projects.
• Provide clinical leadership, ensuring that action is taken at all levels to empower midwives and nurses in providing demonstrably high standards of care in a clean and safe environment.
• Uphold a high clinical profile and take responsibility for maintaining own clinical competence with a relevant knowledge base.
• Be responsive to changing needs within the practice area in relation to local and national strategic requirements within the Maternity Service.
• Provide line management to the Maternity Education team, practice development support workers, international educated midwives support team and administrators ensuring women, birthing people and their families receive high quality care.
• Ensure training is up to date and each team member receives a high quality performance and development review each year.
• In conjunction with the recruitment and retention lead midwife and wider leadership team support the development of the recruitment and retention strategy.
• Develop and implement a directorate wide maternity education strategy that links to the workforce strategy and the divisional strategic plan.
• Undertake a thorough Training Needs Analysis within the division in line with Mandatory training and to organise the delivery of training to meet the Trust minimum standards of training.
• Provide excellent visible clinical leadership and develop support mechanisms for sharing good practice across the maternity service
• Is accountable for ensuring that all education, training, research and development provision and opportunities are regularly audited and to facilitate the development of action plans as required
• Will facilitate education audits to maintain a clinical environment that is conducive to learning and staff development.
• Is required to produce an annual education report for Maternity Services
• Plan and lead projects relating to local policy

Person Specification

Education & Qualifications

• Registered Midwife
• First level degree in related healthcare discipline or substantial experiential equivalence
• Evidence of continuing professional development
• Post-graduate qualification and / or equivalent level of knowledge gained through extensive experience
• PMA
• Leadership qualifications and or experience

Experience

• Practised advanced midwifery skills in all aspects of clinical midwifery
• Experience of NLS training
• Evidence of multidisciplinary working
• Service development experience, delivering clinical quality improvements and successful service change
• Experience in both hospital and community setting.
• Formal teaching practice in an HEI setting, mandatory maternity training programmes and within clinical settings

Skills and knowledge

• Up to date and evidence based knowledge of current clinical and professional issues
• Proven leadership skills
• Presenting and teaching skills
• Ability to plan and organise a broad range of complex activities , formulate and adjust plans and present to a multidisciplinary staff group
• Plan, teach/ deliver core training to multidisciplinary team
• Problem solving and analytical skills relating to the identification and assessment of evidence required to support decision making

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.

Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

£64,156 to £71,148 a yearPer annum including HCLA.

Contract

Fixed term

Duration

9 months

Working pattern

Full-time,Flexible working,Home or remote working,Compressed hours