Clinical Lead/ Deputy Manager

What you'll be doing:

Performance Management

• Provide senior operational and clinical leadership to ensure the delivery of outstanding, evidence-based neuro and spinal nursing care across the unit.
• Lead the delivery of all nursing performance outputs, holding teams accountable for meeting their objectives and maintaining consistently high standards.
• Use data-driven approaches: including time-and-motion studies, acuity and dependency tools, workflow analysis, and skill-mix reviews to evaluate workforce efficiency and ensure safe, effective staffing.
• Identify performance risks early and implement robust, timely actions to address gaps in quality, safety, or delivery.
• Develop and present business cases for staffing changes, service enhancements, or resource investment where evidence indicates need.
• Embed Active Care Group (ACG) nursing priorities locally, ensuring they translate into measurable improvements for patients, staff, and service outcomes.

Quality, Risk & Clinical Governance

• Lead the operational governance of the unit and ensure that clinical services are safe, effective, well-led, and aligned with local, national, and regulatory requirements.
• Maintain a safe, clean, and high-quality environment, taking immediate corrective action where standards fall below expectation.
• Lead investigations into complaints, incidents, near misses, and safeguarding concerns, ensuring high-quality documentation, timely reporting, and meaningful learning.
• Undertake and oversee root-cause analysis processes, ensuring action plans, delivering teaching to drive real change and measurable improvement.
• Review trends in hospital admissions, falls, pressure damage, UTIs, restrictive practices, safeguarding, and all key quality metrics, using insights to shape improvement strategies.
• Ensure strong communication and collaborative problem-solving with patients, relatives, carers, and staff, especially when managing complex or sensitive issues.
• Share best practice, support innovation, and drive continuous improvement in patient safety and clinical quality.
• Work closely with the Hospital Director to ensure exceptional clinical governance, regulatory compliance, and service readiness at all times.

Professional Leadership and Staff Management

• Act as a visible, accessible, and authoritative nursing leader, setting the tone for clinical excellence and compassionate care.
• Provide expert clinical guidance and leadership, ensuring the nursing contribution is clear, high-performing, and consistently delivered.
• Develop and mentor Deputy Nurses/ Ward Managers and future leaders through coaching, supervision, and structured leadership development.
• Ensure full compliance with ACG policies, professional standards, and regulatory requirements.
• Represent the organisation at internal, local, regional, and national forums, promoting high standards of neuro care and showcasing service achievements.

Departmental & Staff Organisation

• Coordinate daily operations across the unit, ensuring smooth patient flow and effective MDT collaboration.
• Continuously assess staffing levels, activity, acuity, and dependency, ensuring safe and efficient deployment of the workforce.
• Where inefficiencies are identified, lead redesign of workflows, clinical processes, and workforce models to optimise efficiency and quality.
• Oversee rosters to ensure appropriate skill mix, cost-effectiveness, and compliance with organisational guidelines.
• Control bank and agency usage, ensuring safe staffing while maintaining financial accountability.
• Lead the performance management cycle, ensuring regular appraisal, objective setting, development planning, and timely management of underperformance.
• Monitor patterns of staff absence, implement strategies to support wellbeing, and escalate concerns where necessary.
• Build strong relationships with local hospitals, Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), commissioners, and national stakeholders to ensure effective and collaborative pathways.

Referrals, Admissions & Business Development

• Ensure clients are referred into the service efficiently, safely, and in a way that supports excellent patient experience.
• Work closely with referrers, commissioners, hospitals, and external partners to maintain strong and sustainable referral pathways.
• Support the MDT to deliver a smooth, compassionate, and patient-centred admission process.
• Contribute to business development by promoting the service, supporting referral growth, and representing clinical excellence to external stakeholders.
• Identify opportunities for service expansion, improvement, or innovation and support the creation of strong clinical cases for investment.

*Other duties including Financial Management, Research, Development, Education and Training; full job description available upon request.