Safety Investigator

Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB); Poole; Hybrid; GBP 35,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

A government safety investigations body in Poole is seeking a Safety Investigator to conduct inquiries that enhance patient safety across healthcare. You will engage with healthcare staff and patients, producing detailed reports based on your findings. Ideal candidates will have a postgraduate diploma and significant experience in safety investigations, with a strong understanding of human factors principles. Flexible working arrangements available.

Benefits

Flexible working arrangements

Inclusive workplace

Qualifications

• Demonstrable postgraduate experience as a safety investigator, clinician, or in a human factors role.
• Clear understanding of human factors principles.

Responsibilities

• Conducting investigations to improve patient safety.
• Producing clear and thorough reports.
• Engaging with patients and healthcare staff respectfully.

Skills

Excellent planning and organisation skills

Ability to translate patient safety information

Values diversity and operates with integrity

Education

Post-graduate diploma or equivalent experience

Job description

Overview

Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) is a fully independent arm's length body (ALB) of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). The closing date is 05 November 2025.

HSSIB operates within the Health & Care Act 2022. Its aim is to improve patient safety across healthcare by carrying out expert investigations to determine the causes of serious systemic patient safety, without blame or liability. We make safety recommendations and share learning to improve patient safety.

You will work within a team of Investigators to deliver robust and timely investigations that drive improvements in patient safety across England. Our investigators have diverse experience of healthcare and other safety-critical industries, bringing new perspectives and a unique mix of clinical and non-clinical input to every investigation.

Your core functions would be to:

• Conduct investigations and produce reports that patients, families, carers and staff value, trust and respect.
• Generate investigation findings and recommendations which improve patient safety.
• Gather and distil insights and intelligence to identify investigation topics.
• Act as an exemplar for high quality investigations across healthcare provision in England.

HSSIB are looking for investigators with safety investigation experience. To ensure we maintain a multidisciplinary investigation team, it would be advantageous to have a background in healthcare and an understanding of human factors principles.

Main duties of the job

Essential functions include:

• Provide expertise to healthcare safety investigations to improve patient safety.
• Collect and analyse patient safety data from a wide variety of sources, including research literature, and integrate this with investigation findings.
• Support the development of system level safety recommendations to relevant bodies in healthcare and wider safety learning.
• Prepare accurate, thorough and clearly written reports with well-founded analysis and conclusions that explain the circumstances and factors of events and their relation to systemic patient safety issues.
• Engage with patients, families, carers, and staff in a professional, respectful and emotionally intelligent way that develops confidence and trust.
• Travel nationally to engage with patients, families, carers, staff or healthcare organisations.
• Proactively identify safety issues and lessons learned to improve safety within healthcare.
• Promote and represent HSSIB work externally, including delivering presentations on identified issues as required.
• Support internal work to further improve and develop HSSIB processes and functions.

About us

Our people

In order to be successful in our goal of providing professional, high quality healthcare safety investigations and education to the system we understand our people are at the heart of this. The NHS is building a culture that is positive, compassionate, and inclusive - and we all have our part to play.

As a flexible employer, we want to support you to work in a way that is best for the NHS, our patients and you. Talk to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that's a job share, part time, hybrid working or another flexible pattern. If it works for the service, we will do our best to make it work for you.

We are passionate about creating an inclusive workplace that promotes and values diversity. We know that different ideas, perspectives, and backgrounds create a stronger and more creative work environment that delivers better outcomes. We strive to ensure our people feel trusted, valued and empowered. We\'re passionate about nurturing and developing people.

To ensure this we are committed to equality of opportunity for all staff and welcome applications from all individuals regardless of age, disability, sex, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief and marriage and civil partnerships.

Please note that the vacancy may close early if we receive sufficient applications to shortlist before the advertised closing date.

Job responsibilities

The Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) is a fully independent non-departmental public body, commonly known as an arms length body (ALB), of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).

HSSIB operates within the legislation set out in the Health & Care Act 2022. The purpose of HSSIB is to improve patient safety across healthcare, by carrying out expert investigations to determine the causes of serious systemic patient safety. HSSIB investigations do not apportion blame or liability and make safety recommendations, and share safety learning, to help improve patient safety.

The core functions of a safety investigator are to:

• Conduct Investigations and produce reports that patients, families, carers and staff value, trust and respect.
• Generate investigation findings and recommendations which improve patient safety.
• Act as an exemplar for high quality investigation across healthcare provision in England.

Our investigators have diverse experience of healthcare and other safety critical industries, bringing new perspectives and a unique mix of clinical and non-clinical input to every investigation. We consult widely across the UK and internationally to ensure that our work is informed by appropriate and relevant expertise.

As a Safety Investigator with HSSIB, the post holder will work as part of a dynamic team delivering an effective service, working alongside other Safety Investigations and Senior Safety Investigators, to promote and publicise improvements in the safety of care provision.

Operational duties include:

• Undertake and complete investigation projects as delegated by the Deputy Director of Investigations or Senior Safety Investigator from initiation to compilation and presentation of reports, findings, recommendations and observations.
• Conduct effective and efficient investigations to determine the factors of the safety incident being investigated.
• Produce draft safety reports and recommendations that are well researched and effective in reducing the likelihood of a recurrence of the event.
• Prepare and present statements and evidence at legal hearings including coroners inquests.
• Share knowledge and enhance standards of incident investigation across healthcare.
• Gather and distill insights and intelligence to support identification of investigation topics.
• Responsible for day-to-day management of assigned investigations, ensuring that guidance is followed consistently and that investigations are completed and published in a timely manner.
• Responsible for embedding consistent methodologies and approaches to conducting investigations.
• Work with highly complex, sensitive and emotive information requiring analysis and interpretation to inform sound decision making.
• Work with patients, carers and relatives who have been harmed or bereaved and with affected healthcare professionals in highly emotive, sensitive and potentially contentious situations.
• Contribute to the development of investigation processes that support lifelong learning and capture lessons learned to enable continual improvements in investigation quality.
• Undertake secondary duties as required for HSSIB to achieve its strategic aims.

Financial and Resources

Responsible for accounting for budget and resource usage for subject matter advisors. Support the Senior Safety Investigator with advising and preparing progress reports and briefings for managers and stakeholders. Support the Senior Safety Investigator with the provision of analysis, interpretation and production of complex and multiple reports. Demonstrate value for money and greater efficiency in the use of budgets/resources within their own role. Act in a way that is compliant with Standing Orders and Standing Financial Instructions in the discharge of this responsibility.

Staff / HR Management

Supporting Senior Safety Investigators with the management of third party expert staff contracted to work on specific investigations. Contributing to training staff in good investigation practice in healthcare organisations.

Information Management

Ensure that reports are factually and evidence based, accurate, comprehensive, focused and of a standard fit for publication. Draft reports summarising status on issues, appraising outcomes, and providing progress reports for the Investigation manager. Highlight exceptions and manage actions to keep the investigation on track with pre-defined timelines. Analyse, interpret and present highly complex and sensitive data to highlight issues, risks and support decision making. Ensure data and information gathered in the process of investigation is managed, stored and disposed of in accordance with information governance requirements. Provide guidance to stakeholders to ensure information management requirements are met. Preserve the confidence in the HSSIB investigatory and reporting process in accordance with its statutory obligations.

Working Relationships

Display highest levels of professional credibility and integrity. Forge positive working relationships to support an effective approach to achieve HSSIB objectives. Provide advice, support and constructive challenge to colleagues across HSSIB and the wider healthcare system. Provide expert advice on complex and conflicting issues and generate solutions in situations that require changing mind sets. Present complex sensitive or contentious information to different audiences.

Research and Service Development

Supporting the Senior Safety Investigator to manage projects. Proposing changes to directorate function. Supports work to develop HSSIB processes.

Planning and Organization

Effectively manage a range of investigations and projects to ensure effective delivery against key performance indicators. Supporting the Senior Safety Investigator in organising investigation planning, e.g., liaising with organisations for scheduling, as part of the team.

Freedom to Act

Ability to work on own initiative and organise workload, allocating work as necessary, working to tight and often changing deadlines. Ability to make autonomous decisions on difficult and sensitive issues. Ability to act independently and apply relevant policy to the work area.

Travel

Travel nationally to engage with patients, families, carers, staff or healthcare organisations.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Extensive knowledge of specialist areas, acquired through post-graduate diploma or equivalent experience or training plus further specialist knowledge or experience to master's level equivalent
• Demonstrable postgraduate experience as a safety investigator, healthcare clinician or employment in a human factors related role

Knowledge and Experience

• Clear understanding of human factors principles, from a causal and improvement science perspective

Skills and Abilities

• Excellent planning and organisation skills with the ability to prioritise tasks for optimal personal and team performance
• Ability to translate patient safety information and investigation findings into informed intelligence, and present this transparently, accurately, and clearly

Values and Beliefs

• Values diversity and difference, operating with integrity and openness

Communication Skills

• Ability to produce well-written and concise reports in a clear and logical way with strong attention to detail
• Ability to provide and receive, convey and present highly complex, sensitive and/or contentious information, responding openly to questions to ensure full understanding and engagement

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.

Employer name

Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB)

Full-time, Part-time, Home or remote working