Director of Investigations

The closing date is 19 September 2023

This role is not part of NHS England and will start once the Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) is established as a stand-alone organisation in October 2023.

Job summary

The Director of Investigations will be an established leader and confident working alongside system leaders to play a crucial part in supporting the long-term strategic transformation of patient safety. This is an exciting period of change, and we are looking for an established senior leader to drive the transformation of investigations and insight teams to improve patient outcomes.

This role has oversight of all patient investigations undertaken by HSSIB and will ensure their success by providing visible and inspiring professional leadership to the investigation teams. The successful candidate will be responsible for ensuring a positive culture which encourages innovation and engagement with a strong focus on patients. They will actively engage with teams, empowering them by creating the conditions for everyone to thrive.

We are committed to equality of opportunity for all staff and welcome applications from all individuals regardless of age, disability, sex, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief and marriage and civil partnerships.

Whilst the Health Services Safety Investigations Body is a remote working organisation, this role will include national travel.

Interview Process

We envisage a multiple stage interview process which will test aptitude, media skills, staff engagement and a final panel interview.

We unable to reimburse travel expenses for attending interviews.

Main duties of the job

The Director of Investigations is a key senior role for HSSIB. Working directly with the Chief Executive Officer, the successful candidate will lead HSSIB's critical role in shaping and conducting independent safety investigations across the healthcare system in England. Our investigations span a wide range of clinical themes, with the aim of bring about real, system-wide change across the NHS. This role ensures that national investigations are designed to improve patient safety on a national level, and promote learning across the NHS.Key responsibilities:

· Designing and implementing the HSSIB strategy and policy for healthcare safety investigations

· Developing and leading the HSSIB investigation policies and reporting processes

· Supporting the CEO, Chair and Board in improving and maintaining the confidence of the public, families and other stakeholders in the safety investigation process

· Working with healthcare services to help improve the quality of local safety investigations across the healthcare sector

About us

The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) was formed in 2017 with the aim to improve patient safety across the healthcare sector, by carrying out expert investigations to determine the causes of accidents and serious incidents, and make safety recommendations, to improve safety across the healthcare system.Changes to the Health and Care Act 2022 will establish HSIB as the Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) in October 2023. As a fully independent arm's-length body our enhanced powers require people and organisations to cooperate with patient safety investigation, ensure our investigations support a greater focus on thematic learning and educating the system. Investigations - Each year HSSIB publishes investigation reports, following incidents or accidents that evidence risks affecting patient safety in England, that make safety recommendations to a range of bodies and organisations.

Education - The aim of our investigation education programme is to support a professional approach to healthcare safety investigations through improved local patient safety investigations in NHS organisations. With over 11k learners, courses are currently available for free to NHS staff in England only.

This is a transitional period, staff recruited before the 30 September 2023 will TUPE the new HSSIB on 1 October 2023. There will be no changes to their terms and condition only the title of the employer. Details can be found on www.hsib.org.uk/organisational-transformation

Job description

Job responsibilities

Functional Responsibilities

Leadership

· Develop a HSSIB ethos where everyone is respected and treated fairly. Train and develop staff within the Investigation groups to ensure that they maintain and improve their skills and are given equal opportunity to reach their full potential.

· Discuss and negotiate complex, sensitive or contentious information with external stakeholders.

· Provide leadership and strategic direction to the Investigation team to ensure that investigations, reports and secondary duties are carried out in an effective manner in accordance with the principles of HSSIB.

· Lead the partnership work with healthcare services to improve the quality of local safety investigations across the healthcare services.

· Demonstrate theoretical and practical knowledge of safety investigation principles.

· Lead the partnership work with healthcare services to improve the quality of local safety investigations across the healthcare services.

· Demonstrate theoretical and practical knowledge of safety investigation principles.

Corporate

· Shape and implement the vision, policy, strategy, structure and processes for HSSIB investigations and reporting.

· Act as an ambassador for HSSIB at a national and International level.

Operational

· Deputising, as required, for the Chief Executive Officer

· Lead the ongoing development of investigation and reporting strategies to enable the HSSIB to become and remain a center of excellence for safety investigation within healthcare.

· Provide judgement on highly complex facts or situations requiring analysis and interpretation comparison for a range of options.

Personal

· Maintain currency in investigation and human factors practices and professional registration if appropriate.

· Seek 360-degree feedback on own performance.

Finance and resources

· Management of budget and resource allocation to investigations, reports and training.

· Ensure that budget and resource management is carried out in accordance with HSIB policies.

· Manage procurement of capital equipment and supplies required by the Investigations Group.

Staff / HR Management

· Overall management, motivation, support, development and recruitment of the HSIB Investigations Team.

· Ensure that all members of the investigation group are developed to reach their full potential and performance is actively managed.

Working relationships

· Display highest levels of professional credibility and integrity.

· Forge positive working relationships, in order to support an effective approach to achieve HSIB objectives.

· Provide strategic advice, support and constructive challenge to colleagues across HSIB and the wider healthcare system.

· Provide expert advice on complex and conflicting issues and generate solutions in situations that require changing mind sets.

Information Management

· Provide oversight to ensure reports and publications meet the required standards for publication.

Provide oversight on the security and release of information collected as part of the investigation process in accordance with statuary obligations and HSIB policies and procedures.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

· Educated to Masters, or equivalent level of development and experience.

· Evidence of training and application in human factors and safety investigation.

Knowledge & Experience

Essential

· Proven experience of leading and developing complex policy and strategy programmes and safety investigations

· Significant experience as a safety investigator, healthcare clinician or other related role.

· Extensive management experience including dealing with complex personnel issues and leading successful teams

· Understanding of human factors principles in a safety investigation environment.

Skills

Essential

· A high level of integrity and the ability to make independent judgements and provide advice, negotiate persuasively, motivate and reassure.

· To demonstrate empathy and have the ability to win the confidence of stakeholders with patients, families and the public.

Values and Behaviours

Essential

· Understands how the Equality Act 2010 affects the role and is proactive in delivering on this

· Values, upholds and promotes diversity and inclusion in interactions with patients, public and staff

Personal Effectivemess

Essential

· Encourages a culture of accountability in which individuals are empowered to make decisions but are held to account.

· Visible, approachable and actively listens; displays respect for individuals and encourages and provides constructive feedback.

Skills Capabilities & Attributes

Essential

· Excellent communication skills demonstrating an ability to engage clinicians, managers and members of the public on complex and sensitive issues.

· A high level of integrity and the ability to make independent judgements and provide advice, negotiate persuasively, motivate and reassure.

EDI

Essential

· Demonstrate understanding of the Equality Act 2010 and Public Sector Equality Duty

· Evidence of personal contribution to EDI through service development or in team working

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

UK Registration

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

Employer details

Employer name

NHS England