Quality Improvement Lead | South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

We are looking for an experienced, motivated and forward-thinking Quality Improvement Lead to join our team. This is an exciting opportunity for an enthusiastic leader with a strong background in quality improvement to help drive improvement across services.

The postholder will play a key role in enabling teams to deliver high-quality, safe and effective care through the development and implementation of quality improvement methodology, programmes and culture. You will work closely with clinical and operational leaders to embed continuous improvement approaches, build capability across the organisation, and support the delivery of strategic priorities.

This role is ideal for someone with excellent leadership, influencing and programme management skills, alongside a passion for improving outcomes and experience for staff, service users, carers and the wider community.

· To provide leadership and improvement expertise for QI initiatives within the Trust

· To manage and support initiatives that fall within the Trust’s portfolio of high priority QI areas

· To act as an internal organisational expert on the use of data and measurement for improvement

· To provide specific support to Improvement coaches in the services and directorates

· To support the development and deployment of continuous improvement; supporting the Principal QI Lead, , Improvement Service leadership team, Director of Slam Partners, wider QCen members and the organisation.

· To act as a member of the Trust’s internal expert resource for teaching and supporting improvement science

· To represent the Trust QI Programme at internal and external events

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trustprovide the widest range of NHS mental health services in the UK as well as substance misuse services for people who are addicted to drugs and alcohol. We work closely with the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN), King's College London and are part of King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre. There are very few organisations in the world that have such wide-ranging capabilities working with mental illness. Our scope is unique because it is built on three major foundations: care and treatment, science and research, and training.

The Trust employ around 5000 staff and serve a local population of 1.1 million people. We have more than 230 services including inpatient wards, outpatient and community services. Currently, it provides inpatient care for approximately 5,300 people each year and treat more than 45,000 patients in the community in Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark; as well as substance misuse services for residents of Bexley, Bromley and Greenwich.

By coming to work at our Trust, you will gain experience of being part of an organisation with a rich history and international reputation in mental health care. You will have access to professional development and learning opportunities and have the chance to work alongside people who are world leaders in their field.

Key Responsibilities:

1.0 To provide leadership and improvement expertise for Trust wide QI initiatives

· To have a strategic overview of specific Trust wide initiatives providing critical support and challenge to the clinical services to deliver, scale up and spread changes tested in small teams

· To facilitate cross Clinical Academic Groups (CAGs) and pathway learning and improvement within/ across Boroughs exploiting opportunities for collaborative working as appropriate

· To actively engage clinical and non-clinical stakeholders who may be key to the initiatives(s) achieving their aim(s)

· To be accountable for ensuring meaningful service user and carer involvement in improvement activity

· To collaborate with QI sponsors in the running of QI forums and support of QI initiatives

· To attend key local QI forums and provide high level improvement advice and leadership where required.

· To provide leadership and support to colleagues working with teams within/ across Boroughs

· To act as a key day-to-day communication link between frontline initiatives and the central QI team

· To assist in publication of work

2.0 To manage and support projects that fall within the Trust’s portfolio of high priority QI areas

· To provide high level improvement expertise, leadership and coaching as required to project teams, QI sponsors and any other stakeholders involved in high priority improvement work.

· To assist senior management to design and embed a structure to allow high priority improvement projects to be supported and thrive within existing infrastructure

· To advise and design any specialist learning events that may be required to facilitate the progress of the QI projects

· To attend project team or any other meetings relevant to the delivery of the project’s aims

· To monitor progress of high priority projects and collaborate with relevant internal and external stakeholders to ensure progress in improvement work is maintained

· To collate and present information relating to the progress of these projects at numerous internal and external forums and meetings to different audiences with varying understanding

· To help improvement project team members to promote and publish work being undertaken and ensure learning is shared

3.0 To act as an internal organisational expert on the use of data and measurement for improvement

· To provide expert advice and, where necessary, leadership to staff at all levels in the organisation on using data and measurement for improvement (from Executive to front-line service level).

· To empower Trust staff on analysing and interpreting data for improvement. This will involve reviewing complex macro, meso and micro data sets and formulating and amending strategies where there may be more than one course of action

· To promote and support the publication of Trust QI work using data for improvement

· To teach on using data for improvement at a variety of forums in the Trust

4.0 To support the development and deployment of continuous improvement; supporting the Principal QI Lead, Head of improvement programmes, Head of SLAM Partners, Head of QI, Director of Slam Partners, wider QCen members and the organisation.

· To support the development of improvement priorities on annual basis for the Trust

· To support CAGs, Corporate and non-clinical services to integrate continuous improvement into their service delivery

· To engage with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders

· This role may involve presenting highly sensitive or complex information to groups of staff where there may be barriers to understanding

5.0 To act as a member of the Trust’s internal expert resource for teaching and supporting improvement science.

· To teach improvement science at a number of internal and external training events as required including QI methodology, Lean, Operational Management System and coaching and supporting of trust teams and services

· To co-produce teaching materials and agendas for training events

· To help support the rollout of QI skills building within the organisation

· To assist in the development of in-house training packages on QI.

6.0 To represent the Trust QI Programme at internal and external events

· To coordinate, create and present material on the QI Programme or any of its constituent parts at internal or external training events, conferences or awards as required

· To collaborate with local QI project team members as required to prepare and present QI material and content

7.0 General Responsibilities

· To plan and prioritise own work to ensure effective support to all areas and delivery of key objectives

· To ensure that allocated project plan(s) are kept updated and regular reports provided to the central QI team, Head of Improvement Programmes, , Director of Slam Partners, Deputy Medical Director and the Programme Board(s)

· To attend and contribute to the planning of the central QI team meeting, key work-stream meetings, and relevant governance meetings/routes across the Trust

This advert closes on Tuesday 23 Jun 2026