Ward Manager

NHS Jobs; United Kingdom; Remote; GBP 49,000 - 57,000; Full time

Job summary

County Durham & Darlington NHS Foundation Trust in Darlington Memorial Hospital is seeking a Ward Manager to lead the Critical Care nursing team and deliver safe, high-quality patient care.

You will provide visible clinical leadership, develop workforce, balance staffing and budgets, and drive quality, governance and practice improvements across the unit, while working with the Matron and multidisciplinary teams.

Qualifications

• Registered Nurse (adult) with valid UK NMC PIN.
• Experience in leadership roles.
• Budget and resource management experience.
• Staff line management and risk management experience.

Responsibilities

• Provide clinical leadership to the Critical Care nursing team.
• Ensure safe, day-to-day unit management and staffing.
• Lead quality, governance and clinical practice improvements.
• Collaborate with Matron and multidisciplinary teams.

Skills

Leadership

Communication

Budget management

Change management

IT skills

Flexible teamwork

Education

Nursing degree or equivalent

Step 4 Critical Care competencies

Job description

County Durham & Darlington NHS Foundation Trust

Ward Manager

The closing date is 30 September 2026

An exciting opportunity hasarisen to join our Critical Care team as a Ward Manager at Darlington MemorialHospital. This key leadership role has responsibility for the day-to-daymanagement and professional leadership of the nursing team, ensuring thedelivery of safe, effective and high-quality patient care.

We are looking for anexperienced and highly motivated Critical Care Nurse with strong leadership andcommunication skills and a passion for developing people and services. Workingwith the wider Critical Care leadership and multidisciplinary teams, the WardManager will provide visible and compassionate leadership, support workforcedevelopment and safe staffing, and lead improvements in quality, governance andclinical practice.

Main duties of the job

The successful candidate will provide visible, professionaland clinical leadership to the Critical Care nursing team, with responsibilityfor the safe and effective day-to-day management of the unit. They will providespecialist clinical expertise and ensure the assessment, planning,implementation and evaluation of care reflects current evidence and deliversconsistently high standards of safe, patient-focused critical care.

Working closely with the Matron and wider multidisciplinaryteam, the Ward Manager will lead and develop the nursing workforce, promoting apositive and inclusive culture where staff are supported to develop theirknowledge, skills and professional practice. They will have responsibility forsafe staffing and skill mix, workforce planning and development, quality andgovernance, performance and the effective use of resources.

About us

You must be able to produce ALL certificates stated essential in the person specification or you will not be able to complete pre-employment checks.

We provide hospital services from two acute sites - Darlington Memorial Hospital and University Hospital of North Durham. We have a centre for planned care in Bishop Auckland and provide care from community hospitals in Chester-le-Street, Shotley Bridge, Barnard Castle, Sedgefield and Weardale as well as over 80 other community based settings and providing care in patients' homes.

We particularly welcome applications from disabled and Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) candidates as BAME and disabled people are currently under-represented.

Full Job Descriptions can be found in the adverts supporting documents.

Over reliance onAI-generated content is discouraged and may diminish the applicant's chances ofsuccess.

Job responsibilities

The post holder will contribute to the development and implementation ofspecialist protocols, standards and services within Critical Care, usingevidence, audit, incidents, patient feedback and clinical outcomes to drivecontinuous improvement. As a senior clinical leader, they will workcollaboratively across professional and organisational boundaries, representingCritical Care at relevant meetings and providing assurance regarding thequality, safety and performance of the service.

Person Specification

Statutory Registration

• Registered Nurse (adult) on part 1 of the NMC register
• Valid UK NMC PIN

Special Requirements

• Able to travel across Trust sites to meet the requirements of the post

Experience

• Experience within a leadership role
• Clinical expertise in the area of practice
• Awareness / experience of budget and resource management
• Experience of staff line management
• Experience of Risk Management
• Experience of managing challenging situations

Special Skills & Knowledge

• Effective communication and interpersonal skills
• Effective organisational skills
• Management of budgets
• Experience of change management, Quality / service improvement.
• Ability to deal with non-routine and unpredictable nature of workload and individual patient contact working with high levels of concentration.
• Competent IT Skills
• Be able to work flexibly within the service needs.

Qualifications

• Nursing Degree or equivalent qualification
• Evidence of continual professional development
• Step 4 Critical Care competencies in management and leadership

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.

County Durham & Darlington NHS Foundation Trust

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