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

Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust; City Of London; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading NHS foundation trust in London is seeking an enthusiastic midwife for a 9-month interim position. The role involves providing clinical leadership, supporting midwives and nurses, and ensuring high-quality care in maternity services. Candidates will have the chance to implement educational strategies and foster an effective learning environment. Commitment to diversity and equal opportunities is essential. The position closes on September 30, 2025.

Responsibilities

• Promote and lead respective activity to enhance development.
• Delegate tasks ensuring appropriate support is provided.
• Provide clinical leadership to empower midwives and nurses.
• Maintain own clinical competence and knowledge base.
• Respond to changing needs within the practice area.

Job description

Overview

We have the opportunity for an enthusiastic midwife to cover this position for 09 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

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.

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.

SEE JOB DESCRIPTION ATTACHED FOR FULL INFORMATION.

Responsibilities

• 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.

This advert closes on Tuesday 30 Sep 2025