Modern MatronNHS

Job summary

The Maternity Matron post is a senior clinical leader responsible for providing visible, professional and operational leadership across maternity services. Working closely with the Head of Midwifery, obstetric, neonatal and wider multidisciplinary teams, the post holder will lead on the delivery of safe, effective and compassionate care, ensuring that women, babies and families receive high-quality services that meet national standards and local priorities.

The Matron will be accountable for maintaining clinical quality, patient safety, governance, workforce management and patient experience across designated maternity areas. They will support staff development, promote a positive culture of continuous improvement, and lead initiatives that enhance service performance, ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements and recommendations from national maternity reviews. The role requires strong leadership, experience in change management, and a commitment to improving outcomes and reducing inequalities for women and babies.

Please note we reserve the right to close this vacancy prior to the closing date once the required number of suitable applications have been received.

Main duties of the job

The Modern Matron provides senior, visible, and compassionate clinical leadership across maternity services, ensuring the delivery of safe, effective, high-quality and personalised care for women, birthing people, babies, and families. The post holder will lead and support community and rural midwifery-led unit teams to maintain excellence in clinical standards, operational performance, and patient experience.

Working collaboratively with the multidisciplinary team, the Midwifery Matron ensures that services are responsive to women's needs and aligned with national maternity priorities and local service objectives. The role promotes a culture of learning, continuous improvement, professional accountability, and staff wellbeing, acting as a positive role model and clinical expert who drives innovation and delivers equitable, evidence-based maternity care.

Job description

Provide visible clinical and operational leadership across maternity services, promoting a culture of safety, compassion, accountability and continuous improvement.

Lead and support maternity teams to deliver high-quality, evidence-based care that improves outcomes and experiences for women, babies and families.

Maintain oversight of clinical quality, patient safety, risk management, infection prevention and patient experience within designated areas.

Ensure effective implementation of national maternity strategies, regulatory standards and local policies.

Lead on workforce management, including recruitment, retention, absence management, rostering and workforce planning.

Support staff wellbeing, professional development, clinical supervision and leadership development.

Monitor service performance, quality indicators and key performance metrics, taking action to address areas of concern.

Investigate incidents, complaints and patient safety events, ensuring lessons learned are identified, shared and embedded into practice.

Work collaboratively with midwifery, obstetric, neonatal and corporate teams to drive service improvement and transformation programmes.

Ensure effective management of resources and budgets, promoting efficient use of staffing and equipment.

Champion equity, inclusion and personalised care, working to reduce health inequalities and improve maternity outcomes for all women and families.

Contribute to strategic planning and service development across the maternity service.

About us

We manage three major locality hospitals at North Tyneside, Wansbeck and Hexham, plus a number of smaller community hospitals and clinics from Tynemouth to Berwick on Tweed, covering one of the largest geographical areas of any NHS trust in the country. Leading in innovation and quality - opening a state of the art Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital, the first of its kind in England. Do you want to work in one of the best performing NHS organisations in England? Work in an organisation that supports its staff and focuses on staff experience as much as it does the experience of its patients? You can live and breathe in an area that has the cleanest air, cost effective living, great nightlife, some of the best schools with a wealth of history available on your doorstep. Sound too good to be true? Well it isn't, this is what you get when you work for Northumbria Healthcare, this is the Northumbria Way! Please read 'applicant guidance notes' before submitting your application.