Patient Safety Partner Lead

Tees Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust; North East; On-site; GBP 49,000 - 57,000; Full time

Job summary

Tees Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust is seeking a Patient Safety Partner Lead to provide strategic leadership, implement PSIRF, and strengthen the involvement of people with lived experience in patient safety governance, learning and improvement.

The post holder will work across the Trust to ensure patient, carer and family voices influence how we learn from incidents, improve services and create a positive safety culture.

Qualifications

• Educated to degree level or equivalent in a relevant field or substantial comparable experience.
• Evidence of continuing professional development relevant to patient safety or co-production.
• Teaching, training or education qualification.
• Knowledge of quality improvement methodologies relevant to NHS contexts.
• Knowledge of information governance and data protection legislation in NHS contexts.

Responsibilities

• Lead the development, implementation and evaluation of the Trust's Patient Safety Partner programme.
• Support delivery of the PSIRF and the Trust's patient safety strategy.
• Ensure lived experience informs patient safety governance and improvement activity.
• Provide expert advice and challenge to support service improvement and learning.
• Facilitate workshops, engagement events and co-production with patients, carers, families and staff.
• Represent TEWV in patient safety partner development locally and nationally.

Skills

Trauma-informed practice

Lived experience leadership

Co-production leadership

Governance and reporting

Engagement and facilitation

Data and metrics for programme

Stakeholder engagement

Presentation to governance audiences

Interpersonal collaboration

Education

Degree or equivalent in a relevant field

CPD in patient safety / lived experience / co-production

Teaching / training qualification

Knowledge of quality improvement methodologies

Knowledge of information governance & data protection in NHS

Tools

Microsoft Word

Outlook

PowerPoint

Teams

Job description

Tees Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust

Patient Safety Partner Lead

The closing date is 04 November 2026

Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust (TEWV) is committed to delivering safe, compassionate and personalised care. Central to this commitment is ensuring that the experiences and perspectives of patients, carers and families inform how we learn, improve and make decisions about patient safety.

We are seeking an innovative and passionate Patient Safety Partner Lead, to provide strategic leadership, support the implementation of the NHS Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) and strengthen the involvement of people with lived experience in patient safety governance, learning and improvement.

The post holder will work across the Trust to ensure that patient, carer and family voices influence how we learn from incidents, improve services and create a positive safety culture.

This is a unique opportunity to shape a nationally important area of patient safety practice within one of England's largest providers of mental health, learning disability and autism services.

Main duties of the job

The Patient Safety Partner Lead will:

• Lead the development, implementation and evaluation of the Trust's Patient Safety Partner programme.
• Lead, supervise and develop the PSP cohort, ensuring effective deployment.
• Support delivery of the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) and the Trust's patient safety strategy.
• Ensure lived experience informs patient safety governance, learning and improvement activity.
• Provide expert advice and constructive challenge to support service improvement and organisational learning.
• Facilitate workshops, engagement events and co-production activities involving patients, carers, families and staff.
• Support Patient Safety Partner involvement in patient safety committees, governance forums and improvement programmes.
• Analyse feedback, insights and themes to identify opportunities for improvement and influence decision-making.
• Develop mechanisms to evaluate and demonstrate the impact of Patient Safety Partner involvement on quality and safety outcomes.
• Build effective relationships with community organisations, voluntary sector partners and national patient safety networks.
• Represent TEWV internally and externally in relation to Patient Safety Partner development and lived experience leadership.

About us

We are the Mental Health & Learning Disability NHS Trust for County Durham and Darlington, Teesside, North Yorkshire, York and Selby.

From education and prevention, to crisis and specialist care --our talented and compassionate teams work in partnership with our patients, communities and partners to help the people of our region feel safe, understood, believed in and cared for.

We nurture the recovery journey of anyone in need of our help. In Our Trust, everyone has a say in how they are supported and treated because we listen to every person in our care until they feel understood. Our patients, their families and carers work together with us towards better mental health.

We're committed to new thinking that improves the wellbeing of our region. We connect with our communities and partners to get mental health care right, in areas that really need it.

We won't rest until everyone in our region has the mental health care they need, to lead their best possible life.

Job responsibilities

At TEWV, we are committed to improving the lives of the people we serve through high-quality care, continuous learning and meaningful partnership working.

Our values of Respect, Compassion and Responsibility underpin everything we do. We are committed to co-production and believe that people with lived experience have a unique and valuable contribution to make to patient safety, service improvement and organisational learning.

We recognise that expertise comes from a range of experiences and welcome applications from people whose lived experience has been gained through:

• Using mental health, learning disability or autism services.
• Supporting family members or caring for others.
• Peer support, advocacy or community leadership.
• Voluntary or third-sector organisations.
• Service user, carer or involvement networks.
• Local, regional or national lived experience programmes.

We are committed to creating an inclusive workplace where everyone feels valued, respected and able to contribute.

Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for further detailed information to ensure that you meet the role criteria before applying.

You must have the Right to Work in the UK in order to be successfully appointed to this role. Please note, this role does not meet the required eligibility criteria for sponsorship under the Skilled Worker visa and therefore the Trust is unable to offer sponsorship for this particular role.

This job advert may close early if a high volume of applications have been received. If interested, please apply for this post as soon as possible.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Educated to degree level or equivalent in a relevant field, OR substantial demonstrable experience at a comparable level.
• Evidence of continuing professional development relevant to patient safety, lived experience or co-production.
• Teaching, training or education qualification.
• Knowledge of quality improvement methodologies.
• Knowledge of information governance and data protection legislation in NHS contexts.

Experience

• Personal lived experience as a service user, patient or carer within mental health, learning disability or autism services.
• Substantial knowledge of co-production and lived experience models in health and social care.

Skills and Knowledge

• Knowledge of trauma-informed practice and its application in governance and workforce contexts.
• Demonstrable experience of leading or contributing to co-production or lived experience initiatives
• Knowledge of safeguarding legislation across mental health, learning disability and autism services.
• Advanced written and verbal communication skills, including ability to present complex, sensitive information to audiences from ward level to Trust Board.
• Ability to lead, coordinate and develop a group of workers with lived experience, applying appropriate supervision and support frameworks.
• Ability to design and deliver training, workshops and engagement events to a high professional standard.
• Ability to write high-quality reports and briefing papers for governance and executive audiences
• IT literacy - proficient in Microsoft Office suite including Word, Outlook, PowerPoint and Teams.
• Significant experience of leading or coordinating a programme, project or service in a health, social care or public sector context at senior level.
• Experience of working in or with NHS patient safety, quality or incident management functions
• Ability to develop and use data and metrics to monitor programme effectiveness.

Personal Attributes

• Demonstrable personal commitment to co-production and the value of lived experience as a form of expertise
• Ability to maintain professional objectivity and appropriate boundaries while drawing on personal experience purposefully.
• Resilience and clear personal strategies for managing own wellbeing when working with complex, sensitive or distressing material.
• Collaborative, inclusive and compassionate leadership style.
• Commitment to equity, diversity and the reduction of health inequalities.

Other requirements

• Willingness and ability to travel across multiple Trust sites across the TEWV geography. Ability to work flexibly, including occasional evenings and weekends, to meet the needs of the PSP programme.

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.

Tees Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust

£49,387 to £56,515 a yearpro rata per annum