Midwifery Team Leader - Maternity Assessment Unit

Job summary
Are you an experienced and passionate midwife looking for an opportunity to shape and influence antenatal services? We are seeking an inspiring and compassionate Maternity Assessment Unit (MAU) Team Leader to join our maternity team and play a key role in delivering outstanding care for women, birthing people, babies and families. Based within the Maternity and Day Assessment Unit, (MAU/DAU), this role offers the opportunity to combine hands-on clinical practice with leadership, service development and team management.

As the MAU/DAU Team Leader, you will provide visible and supportive leadership, ensuring the delivery of safe, personalised and evidence-based care throughout pregnancy. You will work closely with midwifery, obstetric, neonatal and community colleagues to coordinate seamless care pathways, support staff development, and drive improvements that enhance both the patient and staff experience.

This role includes participation in the Manager on Call rota.

Main duties of the job

• Provide clinical and operational leadership across the Maternity Assessment Unit (MAU) & Day Assessment Unit (DAU) ensuring the delivery of safe, high-quality, evidence-based care.
• Lead and support a multidisciplinary team of midwives, support workers and learners, promoting a positive culture of learning, development and compassionate care.
• Maintain a visible clinical presence, acting as an expert resource for antenatal assessment, high-risk pregnancy management and complex care planning.
• Coordinate the day-to-day management of the service, including patient flow, staffing, capacity and operational performance.
• Work collaboratively with obstetric, neonatal, community and wider multidisciplinary teams to ensure seamless, personalised care for women and families.
• Lead quality improvement initiatives, clinical governance activities and patient safety programmes, supporting continuous service development and innovation.
• Manage incidents, risks and complaints effectively, ensuring lessons learned are embedded into practice and shared across teams.
• Support workforce planning, staff wellbeing, recruitment, appraisal, supervision and professional development to ensure a skilled and engaged workforce.
• Contribute to the development and implementation of policies, guidelines and care pathways in line with national maternity standards and organisational priorities.
• Participate in the maternity manager on-call rota and provide leadership support across services as required.

About us
At UHSussex, diversity is our strength, and we want you to feel included to help us always deliver Excellent Care Everywhere, as shown in our Outstanding for Caring CQC rating. Your uniqueness and experiences will be part of our creative and innovative community where everyone is encouraged to succeed. We have a range of staff networks to help break down barriers, and can offer a buddy to help new members settle in. We're proud to be a Disability Confident Employer (Level 3) and a Veteran Aware Trust.

Candidate Pack

Job responsibilities
Please see the attached job description and person specification.
The MAU Team Leader provides expert clinical and operational leadership across the Maternity Assessment Unit (MAU) and Day Assessment Unit (DAU). The post holder is responsible for ensuring the delivery of safe, high quality, evidence based, woman and family-centred care for women and birthing people in pregnancy.

The role combines clinical leadership with day-to-day operational management, with a significant proportion of time spent in direct clinical care. The post holder will lead and support the midwifery antenatal team, support the multidisciplinary team, provide clinical supervision, and act as an expert resource for antenatal assessment, planning and care.

Working closely with obstetric and wider multidisciplinary colleagues, the Team Leader will coordinate personalised care pathways, oversee service delivery and drive quality improvement, patient safety and service development in line with national maternity priorities. Ultrasound scanning skills would be advantageous.

This role includes participation in the manager on call rota.

Person Specification
Experience
Essential

• NMC Registered Midwife
• Significant clinical experience
• Specialist expertise in high risk midwifery

Desirable

• Mentorship or equivalent
• Ultrasound scanning
• HDU/NLS course or equivalent
• Leadership/Management course or equivalent experience

Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion
Essential

• Evidence of having championed diversity in previous roles (as appropriate to role).
• Evidence of having undertaken own development to improve understanding of equalities issues

Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Applicants must have current UK professional registration.