Associate Director of Quality (Patient Safety and Experience)
| Posting date: | 27 February 2026 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | £91,342.00 to £105,337.00 per year |
| Additional salary information: | £91342.00 - £105337.00 a year |
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 30 March 2026 |
| Location: | Bristol, BS10 5NB |
| Company: | NHS Jobs |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Job reference: | C9387-26-0442 |
Summary
Please refer to the attached job description for full details of the main duties and responsibilities that the post holder is required to undertake. Key Dimensions Staffing: Responsible for c. 42.0 WTE across the Group Quality patient safety and experience function. Budget: Direct budget responsibility for c. £2.5m, with wider influence over budgets linked to quality and governance programmes. Portfolio: Group-wide delivery leadership responsibility for Patient Safety investigation, learning response & action oversight, training and education, Human Factors strategic development and delivery, Complaints & PALS services, Patient & Carer Experience strategic planning & delivery, Sustaining and leading the development of patient and carer partners, supporting Digital safety practice working collaboratively with CCIO, CNIO and digital safety leads Impact: Critical to achieving and sustaining Good and Outstanding CQC ratings, enabling corporate and clinical teams to gain quality insight for assurance and improvement to enhance care delivery. Key Relationships Internal: Group Executive Team, Group Directors, Divisional Directors, Clinical Directors, senior nursing and medical leaders. Clinical and corporate functions: Microbiology, Infectious Diseases and Pharmacy Teams, Tissue Viability services, estates, risk, digital, data and analytics teams, Emergency Preparedness, Resilience & Response (EPRR). Patient and staff networks. External: NHS England, Care Quality Commission, Integrated Care Board, academic partners, Health Education England, professional regulators (NMC, GMC, HCPC), Health Innovation network and other specialist networks, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO), patient partners (including patient safety partners), voluntary/community organisations, patients, and carers. Key Responsibilities 1 Strategic and Operational Leadership of Patient Safety and Experience Provide strategic leadership for the development and integration of Group-wide patient safety and experience strategic plans, policies and teams, ensuring alignment with organisational strategy (and national priorities). Working with the Associate Director of Quality: Insight, Effectiveness & Regulation, lead the management and continuous improvement of digital systems for patient safety and other types of incident management, PALS, complaints, patient feedback systems (including the Friends and Family Test) and contribute to the development and embedding of the Trusts approach to a Quality Management System. Working with the Quality Insights team, translate complex patient safety and experience data into meaningful narratives and insights that support clinical teams, inform executive decision-making and provide assurance to the Board. Ensure that the Trust meets national best practice in its continued development of the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) and implements a board approved Patient Safety Incident Response Plan (PSIRP). Lead the strategic development of Human Factors practice developing and embedding the principles, techniques and mindsets into quality improvement programmes. Lead the oversight and, where necessary, improvement of supplier performance. Provide strategic Leadership of Patient and Carer Experience Programmes to enhance patient and carer experience, ensuring alignment with national policy, NHS England frameworks, and trust-level priorities. Provide leadership and delivery oversight to ensure the collection, curation, and presentation of Patient Stories for use at the Board, in governance meetings, staff training, and quality improvement. Ensure stories are appropriately planned and delivered for impact, taking account of the trusts strategic direction, key areas of quality improvement and are gathered in line with trust policy. 2 Patient Safety Specialist role Lead, oversee and support patient safety improvement in the Trust and ensure that systems thinking, human factors understanding and just culture principles are embedded in all patient safety processes, working in line with NHS England PSIRF requirements. Support the fundamental principle that patient safety is everyones responsibility and support the future requirement for patient safety to be a core element of all staff training. Act as a key component of a safe system within the Trust and to influence and have direct access to the executive team, including access at no notice to escalate immediate risks or issues. Provide an overview and ability to influence and interact with all patient safety processes within the organisation and to influence the executive team to enable effective change management. Work as part of a wider team in ensuring that patient safety is appropriately prioritised and considered in the work of the organisation. Develop and sustain key relationships with medication safety officers (MSOs), medication device safety officers (MDSOs), patient safety specialists in other organisations, chairs of relevant internal patient safety and/or clinical governance committees and divisional/directorate managers and members of other safety departments, Caldicott Guardian, information governance lead, Freedom to Speak Up Guardian, Director of Infection Prevention and Control, equalities lead, Patient Support and Complaints team, improvement team safeguarding leads and national patient safety team and NHS England and NHS Improvement regional teams. Develop and lead the involvement of patient safety partners (patient and public representatives involved specifically in patient safety) as these roles develop. Analyse information from a number of sources including national strategy and frameworks, trust level incident activity and staff skill mix and make judgements to inform, develop and operationalise local trust strategy and plans (including structure and staffing) for managing patient safety and continuous learning and improvements. Act independently in determining policy and systems relating to patient safety across the trust. Manages the corporate patient safety department, interpreting national patient strategy and frameworks for implementation trust wide. 3 Engaging with commissioners & regulators Participate in contract discussions with commissioners and other healthcare providers to develop and agree the quality schedules in commissioning contracts on behalf of the Chief Nurse and Medical Director, ensuring the Trusts perspective is represented in the final contract Represent the Chief Nurse and Chief Medical Officer in contract quality assurance meetings Ensure provision of robust and timely assurance information to commissioners that evidences the quality of services provided by the Trust Represent the Trust at national patient safety forums (e.g. NHSE) as required. Act as the Trusts representative on the West of England Patient Safety Collaborative Board Provide assurance of compliance with statutory Duty of Candour and regulatory compliance with CQC Outcome 12 Safe Care and Treatment. Work proactively with Executive, operational and Divisional leads to ensure the Trust maintains a state of readiness for CQC inspections with respect to patient safety and patient experience. 4 Governance, Assurance & Compliance Ensure robust governance systems provide Board-level assurance on patient safety & experience quality performance, statutory and regulatory compliance and clinical risk management. Lead mandatory reporting requirements (e.g. LfPSE, Complaints KO41) and ensure data accuracy, analysis and insight inform improvement actions. Maintain corporate oversight of risk registers for patient safety and patient experience and escalate concerns appropriately, in line with the Trusts Risk Management Strategy & policy. Produce high-quality reports for the Board, Quality & Outcomes Committee, Trust Clinical Quality Groups and regulators (CQC, UKHSA), evidencing compliance and improvement. Ensure learning from patient safety events, complaints/PALS and patient and carer feedback provides meaningful insight to drive sustainable quality improvement. Lead the contribution of patient safety and experience content for the Trusts annual Quality Account ensuring that this statutory document is developed according to the necessary timescales, led by the Associate Director of Quality (Insight, Clinical Effectiveness and Regulation) 5 Leadership, Culture and Improvement Act as a senior role model for quality, safety and continuous improvement, promoting a just, learning and compassionate culture. Act as a change leader in alignment requirements for the Bristol NHS Group embracing the opportunities this presents and supporting clinical and corporate teams through any changes from legacy approaches. Provide leadership, development and performance management for teams within the portfolio. Influence and support senior clinical and operational leaders to embed quality control and assurance into everyday practice. Hold delegated responsibility for managing budgets associated with the patient safety & experience portfolio and will ensure resources are deployed effectively to maximise quality impact. Represent the Group at system, regional and national forums as required.