Associate Director of Nursing Community Services

County Durham & Darlington NHS Foundation Trust Closing date: 23 December 2025 The Associate Director of Nursing for Community Services at County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust is responsible for leading community nursing services, providing professional leadership, overseeing operational and financial performance, and leading clinical governance arrangements within the Care Group. Reporting to the Associate Director of Operations, the post is part of the Care Group Quadumvirate and requires significant experience in community nursing services, with the ability to lead a workforce of approximately 800 staff. Job Responsibilities Provide strategic and transformational leadership to support, guide and develop nursing staff in the Care Group. Protect the safety and well‑being of patients, service users and colleagues, taking preventive or corrective action as required. Ensure a safe and high‑performance patient flow through effective and responsive teamwork. Maintain effective communication with other disciplines to foster positive relationships with clinicians and managers, ensuring that the Trust leads in best professional practice and service delivery. Continuously review nursing provision models alongside patient care pathways within the Care Group and implement best practice. Contribute to the development and implementation of the nursing strategy with the Director of Nursing & AHPs, ensuring AHPs deliver improvement against agreed performance indicators. Work in partnership with the ADT and the Medical Director on all matters relating to clinical governance, taking specific leadership responsibilities for the performance‑management framework. Manage the nursing workforce within an agreed budget, while having the flexibility to modify the skill mix as per the Trust’s framework. Provide nursing leadership on emergency planning and major incident plans. Collaborate with the Trust and partners across the health and social care economy to ensure seamless patient care services, especially during care transfers. Act as an ambassador for the Trust, ensuring practice meets the highest professional standards. Serve as a visible professional role model, facilitating clinical leadership and ensuring timely corrective action to maintain service standards and safety. Enable the development of Clinical General Managers and team leaders, ensuring clarity of role, purpose, and regular feedback and appraisal. Create a culture of excellence, promoting the profession’s reputation and the Trust’s standing. Develop and implement nursing metric performance indicators in partnership with the Director of Nursing & AHPs to monitor safety, effectiveness, and compassion of care from floor to board. Lead by example, embedding patient, service‑user, and family feedback into strategic objectives around patient and public involvement. Maintain and expand personal knowledge, skills, and competence. Ensure direct‑line staff work in accordance with their job descriptions, banding, and requirements, and take action to support their development. Ensure direct‑line reports manage workloads effectively, taking corrective action where needed. Complete and document personal development reviews for all direct‑line staff, addressing NHS staff survey feedback. Encourage involvement in research and audit, ensuring evidence‑based practice. Provide expert leadership to matrons, team leaders, and wardsisters to deliver high‑performance processes for safe and effective patient care and efficient flow. Ensure wards and patient‑facing services comply with standards for single‑gender accommodation, privacy, dignity, and infection prevention. Agree with the ADO on performance indicators monitored through a dashboard and shared with accountable leaders. Agree with the ADT and Medical Director on a programme for improvement in compliance with Care Quality Commission and NHS Litigation Authority requirements. Take joint lead on ensuring Trust Quality Account, patient‑reported outcome measures, and patient‑reported experience measures are delivered. Identify champions within the Care Group to lead on patient‑safety improvements, maximising the contribution of nursing specialists. Partner with the ADO, ADT, and Medical Director to accept accountability for the full business agenda beyond nursing practice. Develop and implement appropriate policies within the Care Group. Ensure all serious and untoward incidents are reported according to the Trust’s Risk Management Strategy, investigated, and lessons learned. Respond timely to concerns from patients, service users, and families regarding services delivered by the Care Group. Contribute to the Care Group risk register, reviewing and updating risks related to the post holder’s responsibilities. Oversee decisions by Clinical General Managers and team leaders to suspend nurses, ensuring fair and timely investigation. Administer conduct, capability, and other proceedings. Accountable for the nursing workforce within the Care Group, flexing workforce within an agreed standard and funded establishment. Manage temporary staff usage. Collaborate with HR to secure retention and recruitment of the nursing workforce for a safe, effective service. Develop workforce and nursing development plans that ensure effective leadership, succession planning, and new role creation. Promote and value diversity within the nursing workforce. Handle workforce issues, including disciplinary, grievance, agency arrangements, and compliance with mandatory training, performance review, and staff development per HR policies. Responsible for the nursing budget, ensuring services are managed within budget and influencing budget setting across the Care Group. Ensure compliance with standing financial instructions and governance. Special Skills & Knowledge Knowledge of the PSIRF process and evidence of leading incident reviews. Excellent communication and presentation skills, both verbal and written. Strong leadership and team‑building skills. Strong management and organisational ability. Innovative and creative problem‑solving approach. Good delegation and empowerment skills. Ability to make logical operational and strategic decisions. Adaptable, flexible, and able to deal with unpredictable situations and work patterns. Ability to negotiate and influence across all levels and disciplines. Self‑starter with attention to detail; change agent. Assertive and decisive, able to work well under pressure and prioritise effectively. Good knowledge of NHS issues at the local level. Good knowledge of Microsoft packages, especially Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Access. Experience Significant experience at a senior community nurse level (band 8a and above). Experience of multi‑professional team working. Record of successful change management. Record of dealing with highly complex, emotive and sensitive information. Qualifications Evidence of specialist knowledge in Community Nursing. Registered General Nurse with current NMC registration. \x9 Degree in Nursing or a related health subject. Equivalent demonstrable experience in Community Nursing. \x9 Management qualification. Evidence of financial and performance management. \x9 Ability to write reports and business plans. \x9 Evidence of continuing professional development. \x9 Sound knowledge of current Community Nursing issues both nationally, regionally, and locally. Evidence of safeguarding knowledge and skills for children and young people. \x9 Knowledge of developments in healthcare which affect patient care. \x9 Evidence of implementing innovative practice. \x9 Evidence of professional leadership. Evidence of developing new roles. Evidence of working with external stakeholders to improve patient care. Ability to analyse, interpret and manage financial, service and manpower data and respond accordingly. Statutory Registration Current NMC Registration. Special Requirements Ability to fulfill the requirement to join the Trust Tactical on‑call rota. Ability to travel independently across Trust sites and attend meetings nationwide. County Durham & Darlington NHS Foundation Trust Disclosure and Barring Service Check: This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and will require submission for Disclosure to the Disclosure and Barring Service. #J-18808-Ljbffr