Deputy Director of Midwifery Full Time NEW

University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust is delighted to offer a fantastic opportunity to work with us.

Please see below for detailed job description of the role

Main duties of the job

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an experienced, compassionate and credible senior midwifery leader to join University Hospital Southampton as Deputy Director of Midwifery.

In this key senior role, you will deputise for the Director of Midwifery and provide professional and operational leadership across our maternity services, supporting the delivery of safe, high quality, personalised care and leading our contribution to national maternity priorities.

You will join the senior midwifery leadership team within Women & Newborn Services at one of the largest acute teaching Trusts in England. Our maternity services provide care across obstetric and midwifery-led pathways, supported by strong multi-disciplinary working and a clear commitment to safety, learning and continuous improvement.

We are proud of our skilled, committed workforce and our ambition to continually improve outcomes and experience for women and birthing people, babies and families. You will work closely with senior clinical and corporate colleagues, system partners and maternity voices to help shape and deliver our service now and for the future.

Working for our organisation

University Hospital Southampton is one of England’s largest acute teaching Trusts, offering a wide range of learning and development opportunities to support your career aspirations.

Located on the south coast with an international airport and direct rail links to London, Southampton offers an ideal setting to live and work, with the New Forest, South Downs and Jurassic Coast.

We believe that using technology wisely shows strong time management and commitment to innovation. However, personalizing your recruitment application to highlight your unique skills and experiences is crucial. Relying too heavily on generic, AI-generated content instead of drawing from your own strengths and accomplishments may lead to your application being rejected if multiple candidates present identical or similar information.

At UHS we’re committed to providing a flexible working environment where possible. Whether you are balancing family, study, or your wellbeing with your career, we want to support you so you can help our patients.

At UHS, we proudly champion individuality, recognizing that outstanding care is only possible with a diverse, inclusive team. We’re committed to creating an anti-racist, anti-discriminatory environment where everyone feels valued, safe, and empowered to make a meaningful impact in our communities. We welcome applicants of all backgrounds, identities, and experiences to join us in building a healthcare community where everyone can belong, thrive, and contribute.

Detailed Job Description And Main Responsibilities

As Deputy Director of Midwifery, you will provide professional, managerial and clinical leadership across maternity services and play a central role in achieving divisional and Trust objectives.

You Will

• Deputise for the Director of Midwifery, providing senior leadership and assurance across quality, safety, governance and performance.
• Lead with a strong operational presence, ensuring safe, effective and evidence based maternity care across midwifery-led and obstetric-led pathways.
• Take a senior role within workforce planning, recruitment and retention, ensuring services meet national safe staffing expectations.
• Provide leadership and oversight of women and birthing people’s experience, complaints handling and learning, ensuring feedback drives improvement.
• Represent the Trust across the regional maternity footprint, supporting delivery of the national maternity transformation agenda in partnership with maternity care providers.
• Work collaboratively with senior clinical, operational and corporate colleagues to progress service developments aligned to professional, clinical and organisational priorities.
• Provide effective budgetary oversight, including control of temporary staffing and supporting value based use of resources.

You will be a registered midwife with significant experience working at senior level within maternity services and a strong understanding of the national maternity agenda.

You Will Bring

• Substantial leadership experience within a complex maternity service, including working with senior clinical and managerial teams.
• Credible professional leadership with the ability to influence, motivate and support others through change.
• Excellent communication skills, with the confidence to provide senior advice, judgement and assurance.
• Strong skills in negotiation, facilitation, coaching and relationship building across organisational and system boundaries.
• The ability to balance operational delivery with strategic thinking in a dynamic and high profile clinical environment.

Attached you will find the person specification document which provides more detail about the essential and desirable skills and experience needed for this role. We highly recommend you review this document and use it when completing your application as these criteria are used by hiring managers as guidance during shortlisting.

For an overview of the main duties of the role please see the ‘Job Description and Main Responsibilities’ section below. To understand the day-to-day responsibilities in more detail please read the full job description document attached.

Person specification

Qualifications / Training Required

Essential criteria

• Registered Midwife on relevant part of the NMC Register
• Educated to masters degree or post-registration qualification or equivalent professional qualification/experience
• Undertaken a senior leadership development programme

Physical requirements of the post

Essential criteria

• Ability to get to place of work to include travel to all four UHS sites and external organisations

Previous or relevant experience necessary

Essential criteria

• Evidence of continuous personal and career development
• Experience in developing service culture that promotes clinical engagement in decision making and leading continuous change (always improving value) and improvement in maternity services, encouraging the use of new technologies
• Evidence of some experience of service innovation and development
• Evidence of change experience/managing difficult and complex change
• A track record of achievement in:
• Effective performance management
• Introducing robust systems and processes, and
• Facilitation of groups.
• Evidence of some understanding of health service issues, strategy and national policy agenda as it affects provider services
• Experience of financial /budgetary management

Desirable criteria

• Experience of working with external partners to design and implement strategic change
• Experience of organisational development and culture change programmes

Special requirements of the post

Essential criteria

• Ability to travel for national and regional commitments as well as between PAH, UHS, NFBC and community settings
• Ability to work flexible hours and fulfil commitments of on-call / site management role’

Values and behaviours

Essential criteria

• Patients First
• Always Improving
• Working Together