Medical Head of Service - Chailey Clinical ServicesNHS

Job summary

Are you passionate about improving the quality of care, access, experience and outcomes for patients? Chailey Clinical Services offer a range of highly specialist multidisciplinary services supporting children, and young people with complex neurodisability and complex or fluctuating health needs. Child Development Services provide comprehensive, multidisciplinary child development and disability services, largely focused on children and young people with neurodisability and neurodevelopmental disorders. We are seeking a medical Head of Service to provide clinical leadership, alongside the operational, healthcare science and AHP Heads of Service, to shape and develop our Chailey service's offer. Alongside the leadership responsibilities which are 2 PAs / sessions, this role includes a further 4 PAs / sessions to deliver direct clinical care within SCFT's Child Development Centres. Depending on the clinical background of the successful applicant, this could include initial health assessments for Children Looked After, or general caseload responsibility in community paediatrics. This is an exciting opportunity to further transform our pathways of care for patients working closely with our clinical and operational leaders to address unwarranted clinical variation, use a data driven approach to identifying and tackling health inequity, strengthen evidence-based care and enhance personalised care. Interview date: 4th December 2026.

Main duties of the job

This 6 PA / session post comprises:

• 2 PAs / sessions - Medical Head of Service
• 4 PAs / sessions - clinical care and caseload responsibility

You will provide operational direction and leadership to Chailey clinical service delivering improvement programmes, developing the medical workforce and ensuring robust clinical governance, job planning and an open learning culture. The successful applicant will work closely with other medical Heads of Service across the division. Informal discussion or visit prior to application is welcomed. The successful post-holder would be based at Chailey Clinical Services but travel to other sites may be required for clinical activities.

Job description

a) The Chailey services Medical Head of Service will demonstrate strong professional clinical leadership and provide medical advice across the services within their portfolio. Acting in support of the Planned Care Divisional Medical Director, the post holder will be a key member of the Divisional leadership team and work as a triumvirate with the Clinical, Health Care Science and Operational Head of Service.

b) The post holder will support the Divisional Medical Director to continually improve equitable patient care, experience, access and outcomes for their service and assist with the implementation of national and Trust initiatives working closely with the Operational, Healthcare Science and Clinical Head of Service.

c) The postholder will play a key role in developing the service to meet the population's needs at locality and regional level and will have a service development portfolio and clinical leadership role. They will ensure services provide safe, effective, personalised and evidence-based clinical interventions and holistic care.

d) The post holder will demonstrate highly visible clinical and professional leadership behaviours, which are underpinned by the values of the Trust, and be a role model for leadership, training, coaching, and facilitating staff development at all levels. The post holder will be expected to provide a medical perspective to Divisional planning and decision-making, interpreting national guidance in relation to all aspects of clinical care delivered by the Trust and advise on implementation within the modernisation and changing environment of all service areas.

e) The post holder will be required to be/become skilled in improvement methodology and practice, role modelling leadership for improvement behaviours, supporting the building of Quality Improvement capability and capacity in the Division and using information to initiate and deliver improvement programmes which result in improved outcomes for patients, efficiency and productivity.

f) Working with the Operational Head of Service, the post holder will support medical recruitment and retention, measuring and improving standards of care and patient experience in accordance with agreed objectives, targets, quality standards, controls and resource constraints.

g) The postholder will, working with the Operational Head of Service and other clinical Heads of Service, be responsible for clinical governance including the identification, reporting, management and mitigation of risk and patient safety.

Entry on the GMC Specialist Register for Paediatrics (or expected within 6 months of the interview date) is essential.

About us

We are the main provider of NHS community services across East and West Sussex, with 6,000 staff serving 1.3 million people. We deliver essential care to adults and children, helping them manage their health, avoid hospital admissions, and reduce hospital stays.

Our Trust vision is to provide excellent care at the heart of the community. We offer opportunities across medical, clinical, support, and corporate services.

Why work for us?o Positive 2024 NHS Staff Survey results, highlighting compassionate leadership and wellbeingo Varied environments: community hospitals, patients' homes, and bases across Sussexo Flexible working options: part-time, flexi-time, annualised hours, and flexi-retiremento Excellent training, development, and research opportunitieso Accredited Living Wage Employer, we ensure fair pay for all our staffo Cost-effective workplace nurseries in Crawley, Hove, and Brightono Active EMBRACE, Disability & Wellbeing, LGBTQIA+, and Religion & Belief networkso Level 3 Disability Confident Leader and Veteran Aware Trust

Our values--Compassionate Care, Working Together, Achieving Ambitions, Delivering Excellence--guide everything we do.

We embrace diversity and encourage applications from all backgrounds, particularly from ethnically diverse, disabled, and LGBTQIA+ individuals. We aim to create an inclusive environment and support reasonable adjustments during recruitment.

This post may close early if sufficient applications are received.