Quality and Nursing Operations Manager

Quality

assurance and inspection readiness

Keep

a live self-assessment of every site against CQCs five key questions, using

whichever assessment framework CQC has in force, with the evidence held in one

place and every gap owned and tracked to closure.

Run

• an annual audit programme including on clinical protocols/processes,
• infection prevention and control, cleanliness, cold chain, and emergency
• medicines and equipment and make sure every finding becomes an action with an
• owner and a date.

Close

the loop: report audit results back to the teams and sites that produced them,

and check that agreed changes have actually happened.

Report

regularly to the Quality and Safety Group on what has been checked, what was

found, what has been done and what is still outstanding.

Review incidents, significant

events, complaints and patient feedback for themes, and turn them into learning

events and changes in practice. Individual cases are handled through the

established processes; this post

looks

across them. Where a theme or case involves nursing practice, agree the

clinical learning with the Lead Nurse, then take it back to the nursing team

through team meetings, clinical supervision or learning events in a way that

encourages reflection rather than blame.

Where

• an individual nurse is involved, hold the feedback conversation jointly with
• the Lead Nurse the manager covering process and conduct, the Lead Nurse
• covering clinical practice and help the nurse record it as reflective
• evidence for revalidation.

Keep

the clinical and quality risks on the organisations risk register current,

with named owners and mitigations.

Keep nursing and

clinical-quality policies and procedures current within the organisations

policy register, with clinical sign-off from the Lead Nurse, and make sure

staff know what has changed.

Safe care

systems

Vaccines

and cold chain: own the standard and

the system at every site fridge monitoring and records, transport between

sites, stock checks, and escalation and reporting of any breach. The Planned

Care Manager runs vaccination campaigns and ordering; the Lead Nurse makes the

clinical decision on any breach.

Infection

prevention and control: run the

programme across all sites audits, training compliance and action plans

with the Lead Nurse as named IPC lead.

Cleanliness

• and clinical waste: audit sites
• against the national cleanliness standards and waste requirements, and report
• contractor performance to the Operations Manager, who holds the contracts.
• Patient Services Managers manage day-to-day arrangements on site.

Routine

• safety checks: make sure checks on
• emergency medicines and equipment, medical device servicing and calibration,
• and sharps happen, are recorded and are acted on.
• Patient Group and Patient
• Specific Directions: keep the
• register of who is authorised to work under each one, with renewal dates, so
• nobody works under a lapsed authorisation.

Leading the

nursing team

Line

• manage the nursing team registered nurses, nursing associates and healthcare
• assistants, around 40 staff across eight sites directly and through a support
• layer : induction, probation and objectives, one-to-ones, appraisal, absence
• and return to work, conduct and capability, working with HR.

Make

sure every member of the team has an annual appraisal with objectives and a

development plan. For NMC registrants, support nurses to complete where

appropriate, once they have had their reflective discussion with another

registrant.

Work

with HR to keep one record of every team members registration and revalidation

dates, mandatory training and competencies; flag expiries early; and make sure

nobody is rostered for work they are not signed off to do.

Agree

with the Nurse Lead a single joint process for concerns about an individual, so

that issues involving both conduct and clinical practice are dealt with once,

together, rather than passed between the two.

Plan

nursing capacity and skill mix across sites against demand working with the

Planned Care Manager including long-term condition recalls, vaccination

campaigns and extended opening hours and manage rotas, cover, and bank and

agency use.

Lead

recruitment to nursing posts with HR, with the Lead Nurse on interview panels

to assess clinical skills.

Make

sure nursing has a voice in operational decisions that affect clinical

practice, bringing in the Lead Nurse where clinical input is needed.

Build a team culture in which

people report problems and mistakes because they know the response will be

learning, not blame.

First-year priorities

• By
• three months: one current record of
• every team members registration, revalidation date, training and competencies;
• an appraisal schedule covering the whole team; and a baseline infection
• prevention and cold chain audit at every site.

By

• six months: a baseline
• self-assessment of every site against CQCs key questions, with a gap-closure
• plan agreed by the Quality and Safety Group; a regular assurance report in
• place; and the first themes report from learning events, patient feedback and
• complaints, with learning actions.
• By twelve months: every team member appraised with objectives; the audit
• programme running to schedule with actions closed; nursing policies current;
• and an organisation that is consistently ready for inspection.

Special working conditions

The postholder will work across

all Affinity Care sites, in person, and may occasionally be asked to be

flexible in their working hours to meet the needs of the service.

This job description is not

exhaustive and will be reviewed with the postholder as the role develops. The postholder

will treat information as confidential in line with organisational policy,

complete mandatory training including safeguarding at the level required,

promote equality, diversity and inclusion, and take reasonable care for their

own and others health and safety.