KEY DUTIES Provide effective clinical and professional leadership acting as a role model for all staff within the maternity service. Line manager responsibility for the quality and safety team and for the specialist midwives in the post holders portfolio. Develop and support mechanisms to guide and empower staff in developing and strengthening leadership skills and meeting the responsibilities of their role. Actively work to support and empower all staff to develop and utilise clinical leadership, audit and risk reporting skills, ensuring they are supported in appropriate levels of authority to undertake their role effectively in an accountable manner. Ensure effective communication systems, written, verbal and the use of Information Technology is embedded in the maternity service. Liaise with all support services and departments to ensure they and the organisational cultures are meeting the needs of women and their families in the clinical areas. Facilitate and negotiate change and new ways of working where necessary to support new care delivery process within the directorate. In conjunction with the Divisional Deputy Director of Midwifery develop a prioritised action plan for the implementation of identified maternity safety standards, building on current skills, expertise and practice within the department. Represent the department or directorate at professional and academic fora. Advise the midwifery team on policies, which influence or may impact on the departmental/care group services. Ensure that national guidance which as a minimum is required at external assessment is considered by the multidisciplinary team with appropriate actions to achieve compliance. Engage in Clinical Effectiveness reviews to support the work of the department/care group in ensuring that the criteria from the maternity safety standards are implemented within the department/care group. Work in close collaboration with the multidisciplinary team to deliver a safe and effective service. In collaboration with the maternity team ensure that key targets are achieved in line with local and National standards. Assist the Divisional Deputy Director of Midwifery in the development of the strategic direction and vision for the service in line with corporate vision, objectives and nursing and midwifery strategy. Ensure integrated working across the full multidisciplinary team across agencies both internal and external to the organisation. Assist in the development and implementation of long-term maternity service objectives through effective, affordable and achievable action plans. CLINICAL & PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES Maintain Professional Registration and practice through CPD. Adhere to the NMC Code Maintain own clinical/professional competence and credibility. Utilise clinical sessions to role model standards of care and expected behaviour. Maintain personal standards of conduct and behaviour consistent with the Trust and NMC guidance. Provide expert advice on evidence- based practice in midwifery. Influence maternity care to be the highest standard whilst exercising professional and personal autonomy. Provide a visible presence in clinical areas and be accessible to service users and staff, thus providing the opportunity to seek information, help and support. Work closely with the multidisciplinary maternity team to ensure robust audit, action planning and change management to minimise, strengthen measures to prevent and control risk Benchmark against national and international best practice to develop and deliver evidenced base practice for women and families. Involvement in the complaints and legal services process, working with the teams to set the standards and drive improvements across the Trust. Encourage an awareness of learning from incidents, claims and complaints. To act as ambassador for the Trust at all times ADMINISTRATIVE RESPONSIBILITIES Maintain effective systems to ensure accurate records of all incidents claims and complaints received, and information is triangulated to ensure lessons are learnt and cascaded. Ensure systems and processes in place for responding to national Guidance and recommendations from maternity service reviews. Ensure the policies are reviewed regularly and are up to date, reflecting best practice and national regulations. Ensure standards of record keeping and documentation are monitored and systems for storage of notes are in place in accordance with Caldicott guardian and Trust policy. TEACHING & TRAINING RESPONSIBILITIES Take responsibility for personal and professional development, participating in the Trust appraisal system. Work with the matrons to ensure staff are compliant with corporate and clinical mandatory training days including those elements identified in the training needs analysis Ensure the clinical environment is conducive to teaching, education, training and development for all staff and students. Facilitate the student experience in partnership with the clinical team ensuring appropriate placements in partnership with the Clinical Practise Educator. Lead the development and maintenance of midwifery training and education within the service. LINE MANAGEMENT/SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES Provide direct line management for the Quality and Safety team and specialist midwives within the post holders portfolio. Monitor sickness and absence of the Quality and Safety team and Specialist midwives ensuring appropriate action is taken with the Trusts policy and guidelines. Participate in the senior midwives bleep holder rota and take the helicopter view of the maternity service. Provide service focused leadership, in partnership with the Divisional deputy Director of Midwifery in the delivery of continuous improvement in clinical performance of the maternity services with a specific focus on: o Ensuring high quality clinical care, continuous improvement of clinical practice and positive patient experience, maintaining a quality safe, effective maternity service and patient safety o Support the embedding of cultural changes where required in clinical practice. o Provide professional advice and leadership to midwives within the maternity service. Provide operational day to day support to senior staff within the clinical areas and support teams. Support the safety, quality and effective use of resources. Lead and undertake reviews and report writing. Responsibility for the guidelines and audit midwives and overarching responsibility for monitoring guidelines and audits for the maternity department. Be the lead for facilitating the completion of action plans and ensuring actions identified are implemented accurately and in a timely manner to meet the Trust time frames. Work collaboratively with the Trust clinical audit department. Contribute to innovative solutions to workforce delivery and working in new ways to meet the needs of the client group Ensure appraisals are undertaken for all maternity staff responsible to this post-holder by providing forums for objective setting, performance review and continuing professional development and promoting development through knowledge and skills framework. Contribute to and promote a culture that values all staff recognising and acknowledging achievement and success whilst positively addressing poor performance. Ensure that staff development enables career progression and succession planning. Ensure all midwives comply with NMC regulations and work within their scope of practice. Validate changes in roles and practice within the quality and safety team ensuring changes are in line with key policy initiatives and care group business plans. RESEARCH & AUDIT Contribute to clinical audit and research projects ensuring compliance with research governance. Ensure that wherever possible clinical practice is evidence based and auditable. Ensure that all actions identified as an outcome of audits are monitored implemented and embedded. Ensuring where appropriate evidence is available.