Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Head of Patient Safety
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Head of Patient Safety
NHS AfC Band 8b
£66,582 to £77,368 per annum
Permanent | Full time, 37.5 hours per week
Based in Worthing with travel across Trust sites
Closing date: 5 October 2026
Could you lead the patient safety agenda across our mental health and learning disability services?
Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust is looking for an experienced senior clinician to become our Head of Patient Safety and designated Patient Safety Specialist.
This is a high-profile opportunity to provide Trust-wide leadership for patient safety, clinical governance and quality improvement. You will influence how we learn from incidents, respond to risk and deliver measurable improvements for patients, carers and staff across our services.
Patient safety in mental health involves complex and distinctive challenges. In this role, you will help shape safer care across a range of mental health and learning disability services in Sussex, as well as services for children and young people in Hampshire.
The opportunity
Working closely with the Trust Board, Executive Team, senior clinical and operational leaders, you will lead the delivery of the NHS Patient Safety Strategy and Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF).
You will ensure that robust approaches are in place for incident response, learning, improvement and assurance, helping to embed a culture of openness, safety and continuous improvement.
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You will also work with NHS England, the Integrated Care Board, patients, carers, Patient Safety Partners and other external stakeholders.
What you'll be doing
- Leading the Trust's Patient Safety Strategy and PSIRF programme
- Providing expert patient safety advice to the Board, Executive Team and clinical services
- Overseeing patient safety investigations, learning responses and incident management
- Ensuring learning from incidents results in measurable improvements to patient care
- Using patient safety data to identify themes, risks and opportunities for improvement
- Leading the development and delivery of the Trust's Patient Safety Incident Response Plan
- Supporting compliance with national patient safety alerts and reporting requirements
- Providing leadership and support to Patient Safety Learning Response Leads
About you
You will be a registered healthcare professional, such as a nurse, occupational therapist, social worker or psychologist, with significant experience in patient safety, clinical governance, risk management or quality improvement.
You will bring senior leadership experience, a strong understanding of PSIRF, systems thinking, human factors and just culture principles, and the ability to influence confidently across organisational boundaries.
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You will be educated to master's level or able to demonstrate equivalent senior-level experience.
Why join Sussex Partnership?
We provide specialist mental health and learning disability services across Sussex and children and young people's services in Hampshire.
We're committed to creating an inclusive workplace where people feel valued, supported and able to develop their careers. We offer access to lifelong learning and professional development, alongside flexible working opportunities where service needs allow.
This is an opportunity to influence patient safety at scale, work alongside senior leaders across the organisation and make a lasting difference to the quality and safety of care delivered to our communities.
Ready to make a lasting difference?
If you're passionate about improving patient safety and creating meaningful change for patients, carers and staff, we'd love to hear from you.
Click Apply to view the full job description and person specification and complete your application through our recruitment system.
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