Maternity Operational Manager

Blmk Icb; Luton; On-site; GBP 49,000 - 57,000; Full time

Job summary

Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is seeking a Maternity Operational Manager to provide clinical and operational midwifery leadership across the maternity unit, including night shifts, weekends and bank holidays. The post holder will maintain a visible professional presence and ensure safe, high-quality care with staff redeployment as needed.

The role requires coordinating staffing, data collection, and escalation planning, working with site teams to optimise patient flow and bed

Qualifications

• Registered Midwife with current registration and NMC validation.
• Post-Registration experience within relevant speciality at band 6 or above.
• Demonstrated management/leadership skills with autonomous practice.
• Commitment to ongoing professional development and research activities.

Responsibilities

• Develops a clear understanding of Workforce staffing.
• Gains in-depth understanding of processes supporting flow through maternity and Gynaecology to ensure appropriate patient placement and minimize service closures.
• Recognises trigger factors of the Maternity and Trust Escalation policy to minimise bed crisis and implement strategy.
• Liaises with the Main Trust Operations centre and attends Site Safety meetings to report staffing levels and quality issues.
• Coordinates escalation admissions/discharges and bed transfer planning with on-call teams and sister sites.

Skills

Effective communicator

Team leadership

Logical thinking

Diplomatic

Professional maturity

Reliability & adaptability

Education

Registered Midwife

Degree or Masters

Research qualification

Job description

Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Maternity Operational Manager

The closing date is 29 October 2026

The Maternity Operational Manager has a responsibility to provide clinical and operational midwifery leadership with support and direction from the Senior Leadership team, to ensure the effective and safe running of the maternity unit during the week, night shifts, weekends & Bank Holidays.

The post holder will maintain a visible professional presencewhere patients, carers and staff can turn for senior assistance, advice and support and upon whom they can rely to ensure that the fundamental and specialist aspects of care are met.

It includes the management of staff and being accountable for the quality of services (both clinical and non-clinical) delivered within the span of authority. This includes redeployment of staff to meet the needs of the service across the maternity and gynaecology setting.

Main duties of the job

Support data collection from Red Flag reporting, staff redeployments, emergency calls (working to aid improvement work to optimise safety and provide analytics to facilitate best redeployment for staff.

Participate in roster writing to ensure appropriate skill mix of staff across inpatient areas of maternity

To provide clinical support at times of escalation to maintain safety within the maternity service.

About us

Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust provides hospital services to a growing population of around 700,000 people living across Bedfordshire and the surrounding areas across two busy hospital sites in Bedford and Luton. Both hospital sites offer key services such as A&E, Obstetrics-led Maternity and Paediatrics. You will be joining a friendly, high performing Trust committed to ensuring the health and wellbeing of staff. As one of the largest NHS Trusts in our region you will have access to a programme of high quality training and development to help you grow your career. The Trust continues to be committed to delivering the best patient care using the best clinical knowledge and technology available.

Our values

We not only recruit based on qualifications and experience - we recruit individuals who demonstrate the behaviours which underpin our Trusts core values. We achieve this by using values based recruitment. We are dedicated to making our recruitment practices as inclusive as possible for everyone, we are committed to promoting equality and diversity, and creating a culture that values differences.

Please note that vacancies may close prior to the advertised closing date when sufficient number of applications have been received. All new staff will be subject to a probationary period covering first 6 months in post. Travel between hospital sites may be required. Please review all documents attached to ensure you familiarize yourself with all requirements of the job

Job responsibilities

Developing a clear understanding of Workforce staffing

Gaining an in-depth understanding of the processs supporting flow through maternity and Gynaecology to ensure appropriate placement of patients according to their clinical need and ensure best placement of birth and minimise service closure.

Recognising the trigger factors associated with the Maternity and Trust Escalation policy in order to minimise bed crisis through effective planning and how to implement the strategy when necessary.

Gaining an understanding, and liaising with our Main Trust Operations centre and regularly attending Site Safety meetings to report staffing levels and quality issues.

Recognising the need to escalation admission, discharge, safeguarding and patient flow issues, to the Midwifery Manager of on call or relevant specialist teams and becoming aware of the strategies that can be employed to address critical bed states/maximise staffing.

Developing working relationships with on call staff in order to co-ordinate the patient flow process at weekends.

Implementing the communication with our sister site at Luton & Dunstable, along with other Trusts & Health Care providers in the area regarding capacity to support when the Maternity unit is in escalation and when necessary co-ordinating the transfer of patients to other hospitals.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Registered Midwife
• Evidence of degree or masters qualification
• Research qualification

Experience

• Suitable Post-Registration experience within relevant speciality at band 6 or above
• Extensive clinical experience
• In depth knowledge of inpatient pathways
• Evidence of the application of management/leadership skills and autonomous practice
• Evidence of continued professional development
• Participation in Research
• Participation in roster management

Knowledge

• Organisational and negotiation skills
• Evidence of audit and change management ability
• Ability to motivate self and others

Skills

• Effective communicator both written and verbal
• Ability to take managerial and professional responsibility for team and staff.
• Ability to think logically, prioritise and use initiative
• Diplomatic
• Personal and professional maturity
• Reliable, Adaptable and Dependable

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.

Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

£49,387 to £56,515 a yearper annum pro rata