Clinical Lead, Healthcare

Contract/

Hours:

Permanent/Full Time – 37 hours per week

• 29 days annual leave plus bank holidays and options to buy or sell leave
• Flexible maternity, adoption, and paternity packages
• Pension with up to 7% matched employer contribution with included life assurance cover
• Staff discounts and Blue Light Card eligibility with 15,000 national retailers’ discounts
• We’re offering a highly competitive rewards package, plus a comprehensive supervision and development programme to continue your professional development.
• We are a Real Living Wage accredited employer
• Free parking on site

We are one of the largest children’s charities in the UK and have been making a difference to the lives of the UK’s vulnerable children for over 150 years.

Find out more about Action for Children here:
Action for Children and on Linked In, Facebook or You Tube to get to know us better.

The Squirrels is a warm, welcoming respite service for children with learning and physical disabilities and complex health needs, offering our children a true home-from-home environment. We offer overnight short breaks for up to 4 children at a time, ensuring every child receives highly personalised care in a calm nurturing environment.

Our comfortable, homely setting is centred around a large communal living and dining area, creating a relaxed and inclusive space where children can feel safe, supported and cared for. With an exceptional nursing and care team at the heart of the service, The Squirrels is a place where compassion, dignity and high-quality care part of everything we do.

We're looking for an experienced and passionate Clinical Lead Nurse to provide expert clinical and operational leadership within our respite service for children with learning disabilities and complex health needs.

This is a pivotal role that combines hands on clinical oversight with strategic leadership, ensuring the care delivery meets the highest professional, regulatory and quality standards. Working closely with the registered manager, you will deputise in their absence and take responsibility for:

• The leadership supervision, and development of the nursing team.
• Clinical governance, audit and continuous improvement.
• Ensuring The service consistently meets Care Quality Commission (CQC) standards, relating to the Treatment of Disease, Disorder and Injury (TDDI) regulatory requirements.

You will oversee the nurse-led model of care, ensuring staff competences are formally verified, mandatory training is consistently maintained, and robust clinical audit processes are integrated throughout the service. Your leadership will be essential in maintaining a service that is always inspection ready, providing confidence to families, commissioners, and regulatory bodies.

This role requires strong paediatric and learning disability nursing experience, excellent leadership skills, and a clear commitment to improving outcomes for children with complex needs within an Ofsted-regulated setting.

• Lead, manage and develop the nursing team, ensuring the delivery of safe high quality, evidence-based care for children with learning disabilities and complex health needs.
• Deputised for the registered manager, providing clinical and operational leadership and continuity of service.
• Maintain oversight of clinical governance, including audits, risk management, staff competences and quality improvement initiatives to ensure full compliance with the CQC Treatment of Disease, Disorder and Injury (TDDI) standards.
• Lead on care planning, outcome measurement and service improvement to enhance children's well-being and development, supported by exemplary clinical record- keeping.
• Work collaboratively with children, families, carers, commissioners and external professionals to deliver truly child focused, nurse-led care.

We are looking for a Clinical Lead who understands how to develop trust, rapport, influence and credibility with a staff team. You also need:

• Registered Nurse (ideally learning disabilities and/or children’s nursing), educated to degree level, with a recognised teaching and assessing qualification.
• Experience working with children with learning disabilities and complex health needs, including care planning, outcome measurement and working in community or residential settings.
• Strong clinical leadership background, including delivering clinical supervision, staff training, competency sign off and audit activity.
• Safeguarding knowledge, child protection and relevant legislation, with a clear understanding of professional accountability.
• Strong communication, organisation and leadership skills, with flexibility to support across shifts when required.

We look forward to receiving your application