Head of Paediatric Clinical Services

Communicare Healthcare Ltd; Dublin; On-site; EUR 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Company car

Comprehensive healthcare cover for you

Employee Assistance Programme for you/

Company pension scheme

Continuous professional development

Job summary

Communicare Healthcare Ltd is seeking a Head of Paediatric Clinical Services to lead clinical governance, quality assurance, and service development for the national paediatric homecare division.

Strategic and operational leadership will oversee Clinical Nurse Managers, ensuring safe, person-centred care and regulatory compliance across community settings.

Qualifications

• Registered Children’s Nurse with current professional registration.
• Ten years’ progressive clinical experience in paediatric settings.
• Experience leading frontline clinical service delivery in complex, multi-stakeholder environments.
• Strong governance, quality assurance, regulatory compliance and risk management experience.

Responsibilities

• Provide clinical leadership across paediatric services nationally.
• Lead the Clinical Nurse Manager team and oversee frontline resources.
• Ensure robust risk management, incident identification and escalation.
• Maintain knowledge of legislation and regulatory requirements across service delivery.
• Oversee training, supervision, and professional development frameworks.
• Engage with families, regulators, and external partners to support care delivery.

Skills

Clinical leadership

Governance

Quality assurance

Risk management

Strategic leadership

Team leadership

Stakeholder management

Communication

Education

Registered Children’s Nurse (RCN)

10+ years paediatric clinical experience

Job description

Communicare’s Paediatric Care Division continues to evolve in response to growing service demand and increasing regulatory expectations, underpinned by a strong commitment to clinical governance, quality assurance, and continuous improvement. The organisation is dedicated to maintaining best-in-class clinical standards, robust risk management practices, and a culture that promotes professional excellence, accountability, collegiality, and safe care delivery across all services.

The Head of Paediatric Clinical Services is a senior leadership appointment responsible for the clinical oversight, governance, quality assurance, risk management, and continuous development and improvement of Communicare’s paediatric homecare services.

The role provides strategic and operational leadership across frontline service delivery through the management of Clinical Nurse Managers responsible for the day-to-day coordination of homecare packages and support of children and their families within the community.

Working closely with senior management, clinical teams, external stakeholders, and regulatory bodies, the Head of Paediatric Clinical Services will ensure the delivery of safe, effective, responsive, and person-centred care aligned with best practice, regulatory standards, and organisational objectives.

The position plays a central role in strengthening clinical quality, operational consistency, workforce capability, service development, and stakeholder confidence across an expanding national paediatric care division.

Clinical Service Leadership

• Provide clinical leadership across paediatric services nationally.
• Lead, support, and performance-manage the Clinical Nurse Manager team.
• Ensure effective allocation, coordination, and oversight of frontline clinical resources.
• Support high-quality, responsive care delivery to children and their families within the community.
• Drive consistency in clinical practice, service standards, and operational execution.
• Monitor service capacity, workforce utilisation, and escalation management.

Risk, Governance and Compliance

• Ensure that a robust risk management process is maintained, which identifies both clinical and non-clinical incidents and risks and manages them effectively to minimise impacts to clients and staff, determine the root cause, map trends, and reduce the likelihood of errors reoccurring.
• Provide senior clinical input into care planning, case review processes, reporting structures, and the ongoing clinical management of complex client cases as required.
• Maintain up-to-date knowledge of relevant legislation, standards, and regulatory requirements, and monitor compliance across all levels of service delivery.
• Ensure clinical policies and procedures reflect best practice in the sector.
• Manage internal and external auditing of core aspects of clinical service delivery, and oversee the implementation of any recommendations arising from same.
• Ensure continued compliance by frontline staff with all training and vetting requirements.

Clinical Oversight and Professional Standards

• Provide senior clinical leadership, oversight, and expert guidance in relation to complex care matters, supporting high standards of safe, effective, and person-centred care delivery.
• Support clinical decision-making processes and escalation pathways, ensuring timely intervention, appropriate governance, and effective resolution of clinical concerns and service issues.
• Ensure appropriate clinical supervision, competency assessment, professional support, and performance development frameworks are embedded and consistently maintained across the service.
• Promote a culture of evidence-based practice, clinical excellence, accountability, and continuous learning across the Paediatric Care Division.
• Contribute to the development, delivery, and ongoing management of the organisation’s clinical training programmes, including both in-house and externally delivered initiatives.
• Develop and implement clear communication processes between staff, clients, families and management.
• Oversee the management of comments, complaints, and compliments, ensuring timely resolution of client-impacting issues in accordance with regulatory requirements and industry best practice.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Build and maintain productive working relationships, liaising regularly with staff, clients and their families, the Health Service Executive, and other key internal and external stakeholders.
• Proactively manage emerging and existing stakeholder issues or conflicts in a constructive, solutions-focused manner that supports positive outcomes and sustained relationships.
• Actively engage with colleagues at all levels of the Paediatric Care Division and across the wider organisation, supporting operational efficiency and contributing to recruitment activities, including participation in the interview and selection of staff.
• Promote and support a family-centred approach to care delivery, fostering strong, collaborative relationships with parents, guardians, and other family members to ensure they are consulted and involved in care planning, decision-making, and the ongoing delivery of high-quality, responsive services.

Leadership

• Foster an open exchange of ideas and a culture of continuous development and growth through regular team meetings, structured supervision, constructive feedback, and professional coaching.
• Actively promote Communicare’s mission and values, ensuring alignment with and delivery against the organisation’s strategic objectives.
• Foster a positive and sociable culture and environment within the Paediatric Care Division and support collaboration between it and other divisions and functions across the organisation.

Judgement and Decision Making

• Make well-informed, timely decisions with confidence, demonstrating sound judgement and a clear understanding of their operational and clinical impact.
• In collaboration with Senior Management, support the management of annual divisional budgets and monitor expenditure against approved allocations to ensure effective financial control and accountability.

What We Offer

• Highly competitive salary
• Company car
• Comprehensive healthcare cover for you and your family
• Employee Assistance Programme for staff and their families
• Company pension scheme
• Continuous professional development opportunities

Person Specification

• Registered Children’s Nurse (RCN) or equivalent relevant clinical qualification with current professional registration.
• Minimum ten years’ progressive clinical experience gained across hospital and/or community healthcare settings, including experience within paediatric services.
• Demonstrated experience leading and overseeing frontline clinical service delivery within complex, multi-stakeholder healthcare environments.
• Proven track record in driving operational excellence, service improvement initiatives, and enhanced clinical outcomes within healthcare services.
• Strong experience in clinical governance, quality assurance, regulatory compliance, and risk management frameworks.
• Experience leading, mentoring, coaching, and developing clinical managers and multidisciplinary care teams.
• Strong clinical judgement with the ability to assess complex situations, evaluate information objectively, and confidently make timely, well-informed decisions.
• Strong understanding of family-centred care delivery and the importance of delivering high-quality, person-centred services across diverse healthcare environments.
• Highly organised with the ability to manage competing priorities, coordinate multiple workstreams, and maintain exceptional attention to detail.
• Excellent communication, interpersonal, and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to build trusted relationships across families, clinicians, regulators, and external partners.
• Demonstrated leadership capability with the ability to foster accountability, collaboration, continuous improvement, and a positive team culture.

Other

• Full driving licence.

Communicare is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all sections of community.

The post-holder may be required to perform other responsibilities as appropriate to the position from time to time. This job description is not intended to be exhaustive but should be regarded as providing guidelines within which the appointed individual will work.