Director of Midwifery inDarlington inDarlington PUBLISHED TUE 24 DEC 2024

County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust is one of the largest integrated care providers in England, with 7000 staff serving a population of around 650,000 people through two acute sites, one centre for planned care and five community hospitals plus multiple community based settings and patient homes. We have been given an overall rating of Good, following the Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection which took place in December 2and have been actively pursuing Outstanding. The Good places us in the top 30% of acute trusts in the country.

Working closely with the Chief Executive and the Board, you will provide leadership and accountability for the overall quality outcomes and patient experience for women and their families. Within this role, you will lead and advocate for safe, high quality maternity care, leading the strategic and operational delivery of local services. This role will include the development and delivery of clinical and professional standards and the development of leadership capacity within nursing and midwifery.

The Director of Midwifery will act as the Trust expert on midwifery and maternity matters both internally and externally across our multi-site organisation. You will lead on the delivery of national maternity requirements/plans ensuring that the vision, values and strategic themes of the Trust are integrated and that delivery is focused on improving outcomes and experience for women using our services.

We are an ambitious and innovative Trust as you will see when you join us with current activity including the implementation of our electronic patient record system and the improvement opportunities that this provides services, the responsive planning process contributing significantly to the effective management of ongoing service delivery models to meet the changing needs of our patients and the support of integrated working as part of one of the largest ICS regions in the country.

To meet the needs of this role you will be a senior leader with a proven record of leading teams to deliver high quality patient care. This role demands exceptional leadership qualities, the ability to build credible relationships at all system levels and the tenacity to ensure we deliver high quality patient care through efficient and effective operational services and strategic planning.

Most important, will be your ability to demonstrate passion, drive and curiosity, as well as a track record of delivery in a role of this breadth; that your leadership style is compatible with our values led approach.

If you want to learn more about this exciting opportunity please contact Lee Mack, Associate Director of Operations (Family Health) and/or Kathryn Burn, Executive Director of Nursing, Midwifery, AHPs and Quality for a confidential discussion (to arrange a suitable time please contact Joanne Grimble, Personal Assistant, on . Visit www.jobsincare.com/job/jbnswVBB to find out more about Team CDDFT

About us

Selection day: Wednesday 5 February 2025

The Director of Midwifery will act as the Trust expert on midwifery and maternity issues both internally and externally. The role is a key senior leadership position, ensuring excellent quality outcomes and experience for women, birthing people and their families when using Trust Maternity Services.

The Director of Midwifery will:

Be a senior member of the Executive Director of Nursing, Midwifery, AHPs and Qualitys leadership team, operating with a significant degree of autonomy and being the recognised professional lead for midwifery with the Trust.

Report directly to the Board on midwifery and maternity matters

Have the support of an Executive and Non-Executive Board Level Maternity Safety Champion

Set the vision and strategy for midwifery within the Trust and, with the Clinical Director, develop the strategy for maternity services, ensuring that the vision and strategy are aligned to the Trusts mission, vision and values and focus on improving outcomes and experience for women.

Lead on setting and maintaining a compassionate and inclusive culture in midwifery and, with the Clinical Director, across the maternity services. This should be an open and respectful culture where teams are confident and skilled in providing regular, constructive feedback, where issues can be raised and solved openly, leading to improvements for women, their families and for staff.

Provide expert professional advice to the Executive, Board and partner organisations on midwifery and maternity matters, maintaining an up to date understanding of national policy and best practice.

Set professional standards, and agree and direct the delivery of safety and quality objectives to continuously improve midwifery and maternity services (the latter with the Clinical Director).

Act as an advocate for the needs of women and birthing people and for continuous improvement in their experience and outcomes.

Work with the support of the Care Group Director, Associate Director of Operations (Family Health), and with the Clinical Director, Heads of Midwifery and the General Manager to ensure the Service meets all external requirements relating to Maternity Services in relation to national plans, MSSP, CQC, CNST and HSIB etc.

Actively establish and build a wide range of effective networks, contacts and partnerships within and external to the Trust which are used to inform and influence improvements in service delivery and outcomes.

Work as an integral member of a leadership quadrumvirate for the Family Health Care Group, which brings together maternity, neonatal obstetrics, gynaecology, and paediatric services, to ensure that: there is seamless and effective integration between relevant services; overall care group objectives are achieved, and the service is fully connected into the Trusts overall governance and management model.

Develop constructive and effective working relationships with the Executive, the Board and within the quadrumvirate as an enabler for the success of the midwifery teams and maternity services.

Be responsible for ensuring that Professional Midwifery Advocacy is in place for all midwives, working collaboratively with the corporate nursing directorate PMA/PNA lead to ensure that the Trust has a robust model in place.

Work with all stakeholders, including Deputy and Associate Directors of Nursing, to ensure optimum standards of care and shared learning across all areas.

This post holder is a senior member of the Family Health Care Group but will work closely with the Nursing and Quality Directorate and have a direct link to the Executive Team and Trust Board.

The Family Health Care Group includes the Directorate of Obstetrics and Gynaecology and the Directorates of Paediatrics, Neonates and Childrens Therapies.

There are approximately 4,300 births per annum across County Durham and Darlington hospital sites.

The Obstetric Unit at the University Hospital of North Durham has:

13 delivery rooms

13 bed Ante/Postnatal Ward

Recovery Area

One dedicated obstetric theatre

Planned C/S lists in main theatre three times per week

One birthing pool

Pregnancy Assessment Unit 9 bedded area with a scan room

Antenatal Clinic 4 rooms

Bereavement suite

The Obstetric Unit at Darlington Memorial Hospital has:

10 Delivery Rooms

23 Bed Antenatal/Postnatal Ward

One dedicated Obstetric Theatre

Recovery area 2 beds

Planned C/S lists in main theatre twice a week

One birthing pool

Pregnancy Assessment Unit 1 scan room, 1 triage room, 3 assessment rooms

Antenatal clinic 5 rooms

Plans in place to develop a bereavement suite