Practice Development Midwife

Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust; Chester; On-site; GBP 42,000 - 52,000; Full time

Job summary

Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust is seeking a Practice Development Midwife to lead education, training and professional development within the maternity service. The post involves designing, delivering and evaluating programmes to ensure staff maintain skills, knowledge and competencies for safe, evidence-based care.

You will collaborate with the multidisciplinary team, support mandatory training, induction, preceptorship, clinical competency assessment and uptake of national

Qualifications

• Registered midwife with current practice registration.
• Degree in Midwifery plus ongoing professional development.
• Teaching/assessing qualification (Mentorship/Practice Assessor or equivalent).
• Evidence of ongoing professional development and continuous learning.
• Advanced midwifery studies or relevant Master's module.
• NLS course and PROMPT Provider course.

Responsibilities

• Lead planning, delivery and evaluation of maternity education programmes.
• Develop and maintain clinical competencies and skills assessments for maternity staff.
• Support staff induction, preceptorship and ongoing professional development.
• Monitor and improve compliance with mandatory training and professional requirements.
• Facilitate training needs analyses and annual education plans.
• Design and deliver teaching programmes, study days and simulation training.
• Support implementation of national maternity safety initiatives and guidelines.
• Lead educational responses to incidents, audits and quality improvement programmes.
• Work with ward managers to improve standards of care.
• Support policy and pathway development across maternity services.
• Promote evidence-based practice, research, audit and service improvement.

Skills

Multi-disciplinary teamwork

Workload coordination

Training programme delivery

Research & audit

Data interpretation

Education

Registered Midwife

Degree in Midwifery

Teaching/Assessor qualification

Job description

Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Practice Development Midwife

The closing date is 25 October 2026

We are seeking an enthusiastic and experiencedPractice Development Midwife to lead the education, training and professional development agenda within our maternity service. This is an exciting opportunity for a motivated midwife with a passion for learning, quality improvement and patient safety to influence and support the development of a highly skilled maternity workforce.

The successful candidate will work closely with the multidisciplinary team to design, deliver and evaluate education programmes, ensuring staff maintain the skills, knowledge and competencies required to provide safe, effective and evidence-based care. You will play a key role in supporting mandatory training, induction, preceptorship, clinical competency assessment, implementation of national guidance and learning from incidents, complaints and audits.

This role offers the opportunity to drive innovation, support workforce development and contribute to service improvements that positively impact women, babies and families.

If you are an experienced midwife with excellent communication, teaching and leadership skills and are passionate about developing others, we would love to hear from you.

Main duties of the job

Lead the planning, delivery and evaluation of mandatory and specialist maternity education programmes. Develop and maintain clinical competencies and skills assessments for maternity staff. Support staff induction, preceptorship and ongoing professional development. Monitor and improve compliance with mandatory training and professional requirements. Facilitate training needs analyses and develop annual education plans aligned to service priorities. Design and deliver teaching programmes, study days and simulation training. Support implementation of national maternity safety initiatives, guidelines and best practice. Lead educational responses to incidents, complaints, audits and quality improvement programmes. Work collaboratively with ward managers and clinical leaders to improve standards of care. Support policy, guideline and pathway development across maternity services. Promote evidence-based practice, research, audit and service improvement activities. Provide expert advice and professional leadership on workforce development issues. Evaluate education programmes and produce reports demonstrating outcomes and impact. Support workforce planning and contribute to maternity service objectives and business planning. Ensure compliance with NMC standards, CQC requirements and Trust policies

About us

The Trust's services are provided from three locations:

• o The Countess of Chester Hospital: providing 473 general and acute beds.
• o Ellesmere Port Hospital: providing 60 beds as a rehabilitation, intermediate and outpatient facility.
• o Tarporley War Memorial Hospital: a base for community services which serve the local rural population.

The Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust employs 5,964 staff (headcount) to provide care and treatment to a population of over 400,000 people living in Chester and West Cheshire which includes Ellesmere Port and Neston as well as the Deeside area of Flintshire.

The Trust works collaboratively within the wider Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care System. Due to its location on the border with North Wales, the Trust also works closely with the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.

The Trust treats patients from England and some parts of Wales. During 2024/2025, there were approximately 643,000 patient attendances (inpatient, A&E, outpatient and diagnostic) ranging from a simple outpatient appointment to major cancer surgery

Job responsibilities

See Job Description for further details.

Recruitment selection processes are based on competence (see Person specification) and values. An applicant guide to help and support you through your recruitment journey can be accessed at the bottom of this page.

If you have a disability that meets the definition set out in the Equality Act 2010, and you can show that you meet the essential criteria described in the person specification for an available position, please answer YES to the question: Do you wish to be considered under the Guaranteed Interview Scheme?

Please inform the team if you have any special support needs to be considered as part of the interview and selection processes.

The trust offers a Guaranteed Interview Scheme to any armed forces community applicants who meet the essential criteria for the post.

If a DBS is required for your role, you are encouraged to enrol for the DBS Update Service. A small annual fee applies which is payable to the DBS Service.Please note applicants will be required to pay for their DBS check. Costswill be deducted from their salary over the first three months of employment.

New entrants to the NHS will commence on the minimum of the scale stated above.

Applicants requiring sponsorship may wish to determine the likelihood of obtaining sponsorship for this position by assessing themselves against the criteria on the gov.uk website - https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa.

The Trust will not sponsor where the starting salary does not meet immigration rules

Applicants are advised to apply early as if a large number of applications are received for this post, we reserve the right to close the vacancy prior to the advertised date.

Good luck with your application.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Registered Midwife
• Degree in Midwifery
• Teaching and assessing qualification (e.g. Mentorship, Practice Assessor/Supervisor or equivalent)
• Evidence of ongoing professional development and continuous learning
• Relevant speciality Master's module
• Evidence of advanced midwifery studies
• NLS Course
• PROMPT Provider Course

Knowledge

• 5 years post registration training
• Experience of teaching & assessing in clinical practice
• Evidence of participating in service development and implementing change
• Evidence of designing teaching packages & competency programmes
• Demonstrates a working knowledge of CQC Core Standards and maternity Transformation

Skills

• Evidence of multi- disciplinary working and can demonstrate principles of effective team working
• Ability to co-ordinate own workload
• Evidence of developing and delivering training programmes
• Experience of research and audit and implementing change as a result of findings
• Experience of problem solving, analysing complex information and interrupting data

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.

Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust