NHSE advertises 22 director roles

NHS England is advertising 22 national clinical director roles, including two newly created leadership roles, and 20 existing posts.  

The national clinical director posts are normally hired on fixed-term contracts, and the existing 20 contracts are up for renewal in October.

Incumbents are able to re-apply, and in the past, many have done so and been kept on in part-time roles.

Two new NCD posts are also being created this year. One is for NHS Impact, the new improvement programme created by NHS England chief Amanda Pritchard. Its NCD will, the advert says, “galvanise the NHS and champion improvement through clinical leadership in the NHS. They will be an experienced professional leader with the clinical credibility and experience to represent NHS Impact in an environment where frontline services are under intense pressure, and the demands and expectations placed on it are increasing”.

The other new post is a new NCD for neonatology, whose job advert refers to government and NHSE proposals to improve neonatal care. The advert for this post says: “There is increased scrutiny on neonatal services to deliver the safety recommendations and outcomes as outlined in both the Shrewsbury and Telford and East Kent reports.

“This role will support the governments’ ambitions, [Long Term Plan] neonatal commitments, neonatal critical care review recommendations, [NHSE] maternity and neonatal three-year delivery plan and help to optimise outcomes for both mother and baby.”

The only existing NCD post which is not being readvertised (nor an equivalent NCD post) is the NCD for violence reduction. HSJ understands its functions, currently held by Barts surgeon Martin Griffiths, are being combined into a major trauma specialist clinical adviser role.

It also comes as NHSE carries out a major restructure, proposing to remove about 8,000 posts across NHSE, NHS Digital, and Health Education England, with which it has merged.