Ward Manager

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust; Greater London; On-site; GBP 42,000 - 52,000; Full time

Job summary

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust is seeking an exceptional Band 7 Ward Manager to lead our new Acute General Medical Ward. Reporting to the Matron, you will provide visible, compassionate leadership while ensuring 24/7 safe, high-quality care.

You will oversee planning, delivery, and governance of a 39-bed ward, with responsibility for workforce planning, recruitment, and performance improvement within a trust that supports education and development for staff.

Qualifications

• Registered Nurse (Adult) with current NMC registration.
• Post-registration professional development experience.
• Acutely ill adult or specialist course.
• Experience leading teams and managing performance in an acute hospital setting.
• Band 6 or above experience in an acute hospital.

Responsibilities

• Provide professional, clinical, and operational leadership to the ward team.
• Day-to-day management and performance of the ward, ensuring safe, effective care.
• Lead and develop a multidisciplinary team with a culture of excellence.
• Ensure nursing practice complies with NMC standards and Trust policies.

Skills

Excellent communication

Clinical decision making

Patient flow knowledge

Band 7 experience

Education

NMC registered nurse

Post-registration development

Acutely ill adult course

Job description

Step into a place where exceptional care, patients, culture, and careers come together.

Explore our current vacancies and take your first step toward making a real difference.

Join us. Make a difference. Be part of Team LGT.

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, (LGT), is a community-focused provider of local and acute care, delivering high-quality services to over one million people living across the London boroughs of Lewisham, Greenwich, and Bexley. We provide whole-life care and are here to support our communities to live healthier lives as well as taking care of them when they need us the most.

Employing almost 7,500 colleagues, affectionately known as Team LGT, we provide services at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich, University Hospital Lewisham, and at over a dozen community settings in Lewisham. We also provide some services at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup.

We have recently launched our new vision and values to mark the LGT10 – the tenth anniversary of our Trust forming in 2013. Our trust vision is to be exceptional. In the quality of our patient care; our support for colleagues; and in the difference we make through our partnerships and in our communities.

Our hospitals and community sites provide a wide range of inpatient and outpatient services, as well as emergency and planned care. The Trust is rated as “good” or “outstanding” in over three-quarters of the services inspected by the Care Quality Commission.

Every year our work includes performing 10,000 procedures in our theatres; bringing seven and a half thousand new lives into the world; carrying out 570,000 visits to patients in their homes or communities and providing emergency care for more than 300,000 patients arriving in our busy Urgent and Emergency Departments.

LGT is a centre for the education and training of medical students enrolled with King’s College London’s GKT School of Medical Education. We are a training centre for nurses, midwives and allied health professionals. We are pioneering new roles that will support the changing needs of our patients and are one of the largest employers of physician associates in the country.

We are committed to working with our partners to deliver the best outcomes for our local communities. This means playing an active role in the South East London Integrated Care System (ICS), and in formal partnerships including the South East London Acute Provider Collaborative, provider partnerships with our local mental health trusts and borough-based boards of the I… in Bexley, Greenwich and Lewisham.

Job overview

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust is seeking an exceptional Band 7 Ward Manager to lead our new Acute General Medical Ward. This is a unique opportunity to establish a high-performing team, create a positive ward culture, and make a lasting impact on patient care, staff development, and service excellence.

Reporting directly to the Matron, the successful candidate will provide visible, compassionate, and transformational leadership while ensuring the delivery of safe, effective, high-quality care 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Main duties of the job

As Ward Manager, you will be accountable for the planning, provision and delivery of an effective nursing service within the ward, ensuring patients receive outstanding care that is evidence-based, person-centred, and aligned with Trust values and professional standards.

You will:

• Provide professional, clinical, and operational leadership to the ward team.
• Be responsible for the day-to-day management and performance of the ward, ensuring the delivery of safe, effective, and compassionate care.
• Lead and develop a motivated multidisciplinary team, fostering a culture of excellence, accountability, inclusion, and continuous improvement.
• Ensure nursing practice complies with NMC standards, Trust policies, and national quality and safety requirements.
• Act as a highly visible role model, demonstrating exemplary professional behaviours and clinical practice.
• Promote a positive patient experience and ensure patients and their families remain at the centre of all care delivery and decision-making.
• Lead workforce planning, recruitment, retention, and staff wellbeing initiatives.
• Monitor and improve quality indicators, patient outcomes, patient experience, and performance standards.
• Ensure effective governance, risk management, incident investigation, and implementation of learning.
• Support service development, innovation, and quality improvement projects.
• Manage resources effectively to ensure safe staffing and efficient use of budgets.

Our people are our greatest asset. When we feel supported and happy at work, this positivity reaches those very people we are here for, the patients. Engaged employees perform at their best and our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) initiatives contribute to cultivate a culture of engagement. We have four staff networks, a corporate EDI Team and a suite of programmes and events which aim to insert the 5 aspirations:

• Improving representation at senior levels of staff with disabilities, from black, Asian, and ethnic minorities background, identify as LGBTQ+ and women, through improved recruitment and leadership development
• Widening access (anchor institution) and employability
• Improving the experience of staff with disability
• Improving the EDI literacy and confidence of trust staff through training and development
• Making equalities mainstream

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The post‑holder will be responsible for the planning, provision and delivery of an effective 24‑hour nursing service on Ward 15 (39 bedded inpatient ward) . They will provide senior clinical and operational leadership to ensure that nursing practice, standards and procedures are fully aligned with NMC requirements and Trust policies.

The Ward Manager will lead, support and develop the nursing teams across both wards, acting as a visible role model and ensuring that the clinical environment remains a safe, supportive and effective learning area for staff and students. The post‑holder will oversee the educational, professional development and competency needs of the nursing workforce, enabling the delivery of a patient‑centred, evidence‑based service.

The post‑holder will have clinical and operational oversight of Ward 15.

Person specification

Qualifications

• Registered Nurse (Adult) with current NMC registration
• Evidence of post‑registration professional development
• Acutely ill adult or specialist course

Experience

• Demonstrate experience of leading teams, managing performance, and supporting staff development.
• Significant experience working at Band 6 or above within an acute hospital setting
• Experience in service redesign, quality improvement projects, or audit leadership.
• Proven ability to maintain safe staffing, manage risk, and uphold clinical standards
• Lead, audit/link nurse role with relevant actions

Skills

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to influence and motivate teams.
• Ability to provide advanced clinical decision‑making and act as a senior point of escalation
• Understanding of patient flow systems, discharge to assess pathways, and community interface
• Excellent written and verbal interpersonal skills
• Ability to manage ward area, balancing operational oversight, patient flow, and workforce management.
• Previous ward manager/Band 7 experience

As a local employer and anchor institution we work closely with our community to recruit locally and we welcome applications from the widest variety of people to ensure our workforce are reflective of the local communities which we serve. We encourage all suitable candidates to apply including if you are Black, Asian or other ethnic minorities, live with a disability (visible or not) or are LGBT+. We have a number of active staff networks including Disability, LGBT+, Multicultural Inclusion and Women’s staff networks to bring staff together and celebrate diversity across our whole workforce.

Please note: Information provided during recruitment and pre‑employment checks must be accurate. Misrepresentation may be investigated as fraud and could lead to withdrawal from the process, professional sanctions, or criminal action.

Please note: that sponsorship under the Skilled Worker route is subject to Trust allocation and UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) approval.

Use of AI in recruitment: We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support the initial review of applications against the essential criteria for this role. Where AI is used, it will support rather than replace human decision-making, and applications will remain subject to appropriate human review.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Application numbers

To ensure fairness and manageable shortlisting processes, some vacancies may have an application cap. This means the vacancy will close once a set number of applications have been received even if this happens before the advertised closing date. We recommend applying as early as possible to avoid missing out. All applications received before the cap is reached will be considered equally and assessed against the person specification.