Employer heading
Risk and Governance Midwife
Band 7
Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one of the busiest and largest NHS foundation trusts in the country, with around 15,000 staff and an annual budget of £1.6 billion.
We have a long history of providing high quality care, clinical excellence, and innovation in medical research regionally, nationally and internationally.
We’re in the top five providers of specialised health services in the country, supporting people with a range of rare and complex medical, surgical and neurological conditions, cancers and genetic orders.
Our staff oversee around 6,500 patient contacts each day, delivering high standards of healthcare.
We are committed to promoting equality and diversity and recognise the benefit in providing an inclusive environment. We value and respect the diversity of our employees and aim to recruit a workforce which reflects the communities we serve, and is equipped to deliver the best service to our patients. We welcome all applications irrespective of people’s race, disability, sex, sexual orientation, religion or belief, age, gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity and in particular those from under- represented groups.
Newcastle Hospitals are proud to be one of the exemplar organisations across the NHS on sustainability, with a long history of delivering Sustainable Healthcare in Newcastle (Shine) and the first healthcare organisation in the world to declare a climate emergency. Our strategy includes commitments to being Net Zero by 2030, for our direct carbon footprint, and Net Zero by 2040 for our footprint plus. Delivering these ambitions will not be possible without the help, support and action of every single member of our team.
Job Overview
We are delighted to offer an exciting opportunity for an experienced motivated midwife to join our Maternity Patient Safety Team at Newcastle upon Tyne Hospital NHS Trust, ensuring a proactive and learning-focused approach to patient safety.
You will play a key leadership role in identifying, investigating and learning from incidents and work collaboratively with clinical teams to drive improvements in safety to ensure high- quality and safe care, meanwhile promoting a culture of learning across maternity services.
- Interview Date Wednesday 24 September 2025
- 37 Hours 30 Minutes/Week
- You will be redirected to Trac to apply for the vacancy. Please expand the job details section and read all of the information before applying for the vacancy.
NO AGENCIES PLEASE
Main duties of the job
The Post Holder, In Conjunction With The Clinical Board Management Team And Quality And Clinical Effectiveness Midwife Will Lead And Advise On Ongoing Management And Oversight Of All Aspects Of Risk Management And Patient Safety. You Will Be An Integral Member Of The Maternity Patient Safety Team, Fostering a Culture Of Learning Amongst Our Teams That Ensures Clinical Quality And Risk Management Remain One Of The Top Priorities Within Our Service Through
- Enabling all staff to actively participate in identifying, actioning and evaluating all patient safety, highlighting in practice the relationship between risk management and everyday clinical practice and the effects on women and families.
- Fostering a “just” culture in line with corporate objectives, resulting in the delivery of a high- quality, cost effective service.
- Aligning complaints and litigation to maternity incident investigation using the PSIRF principles, ensuring compassionate engagement with families and staff and share the emergent learning.
- Identifying and sharing learning from good practice.
Th post holder will have a fantastic opportunity to develop professionally and be involved in shaping the safety culture within a committed, collaborative and supportive working environment.
Working for our organisation
As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement. If it works for the service, we will do our best to make it work for you.
Our staff oversee over 6,500 patient contacts every day, delivering high standards of healthcare from the following sites:
- Freeman Hospital
- Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI)
- Health Innovation Neighbourhood (on the former Newcastle General Hospital and Centre for Ageing and Vitality site)
- Newcastle Dental Hospital
- Newcastle Fertility Centre
- Northern Centre for Cancer Care, North Cumbria
- Northern Genetics Service
- Cramlington Manor Walks
These include a range of flagship services which deliver cutting-edge care (supported by state-of-the-art diagnostic services in both radiology and pathology) and are a catalyst for innovation to support pioneering clinical practice in the NHS.
We also have offices at Regent Point in Gosforth and community sites.
Please see attached information on what Staff Benefits we have to offer at our Trust under ‘Documents to download’ or ‘Supporting documents’.
For further information on The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust please visit:
Careers | Newcastle Hospitals | NHS | Newcastle Hospitals and
Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Detailed Job Description And Main Responsibilities
In conjunction with the Director of Midwifery/Associate Director of Operations / Clinical Director and Quality and Clinical Effectiveness Midwife lead and advise on all aspects of Risk Management and patient safety.
As an integral part of the Obstetric Governance Team, facilitate, develop and coordinate clinical risk management within the Directorate.
Foster a "fair blame" culture in line with the corporate objectives, resulting in the delivery of a high-quality, cost-effective service.
Promote a positive learning environment where lessons are learnt, and changes implemented to ensure a quality service working in partnership with the Director of Midwifery/Associate Director of Operations/ Clinical Director/ Quality and Clinical Effectiveness Midwife and Matrons.
Deputise for the Quality and Clinical Effectiveness Midwife when required.
To work regularly with colleagues in the clinical areas to:
- ensure professional midwifery skills are maintained
- to work closely with colleagues to raise the profile of Risk Management
- to highlight in practice the relationship between Risk Management and everyday clinical practice and the effects on women and families
- align complaints and litigation to incident investigation and share the emergent learning
- to identify areas of good practice and highlight areas that can be improved
Person specification
Qualifications & Education
Essential criteria
- Registered Midwife
- Recognised teaching/assessing qualification or equivalent
- Extensive experience as a registered midwife
- Evidence of ongoing professional and personal development to Degree level
Knowledge & Experience
Essential criteria
- Demonstrates a broad knowledge of current midwifery issues
- Management skills
- A working knowledge of risk management/clinical governance/ quality and safety
- Conversant in national reports / guidelines on maternity services
- Awareness of Trust & Directorate Policies
Desirable criteria
- Recent clinical experience
- Experience of managing change
- Knowledge of key ambitions and the National Strategy for Maternity Services
- Experience of incident investigation and an understanding of MIS/MNSI/MBRRACE, NHS Resolution
- Previous involvement in audit/research
Skills & Abilities
Essential criteria
- Excellent time management skills
- Presentation/IT skills including Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, Databases, Internet
- Excellent communication skills
- Excellent leadership skills
- Ability to network
Important note on completion of reference section of Application Form
All references from current and previous employers will be sought and must cover a minimum of 3 years employment. Therefore, when completing the reference section of your application form, please give the address, telephone number and work email address of each of your current/previous line managers that cover 3 years employment. Failure to complete this section may result in your application not being processed.
Please note it is a requirement of The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust that all successful candidates who require a DBS for the post they have been offered pay for their DBS certificate. The method of payment is a salary deduction from your first month’s pay.
Candidates who are shortlisted for interview will be contacted by e-mail. You should check your SPAM folders as well as your inbox. If you have not been contacted within 4 weeks of the closing date you should assume your application has been unsuccessful.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
Applicant requirements
You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.
Documents to download
- JD & PS (PDF, 216.6KB)
- Newcastle Staff Benefits (PDF, 274.4KB)
- Behaviour and Civility Charter (PDF, 93.8KB)
Apply online now
Further details / informal visits contact
Name Lisa McQueen Job title Quality and Clinical Effectiveness Midwife Email address Lisa.mcqueen3@nhs.net Telephone number 0191 9177212
