Deputy Ward Manager

NHS AfC: Band 6

• Outpatients
• NHS AfC: Band 6
• Permanent
• • Full time
  • Flexible working
• 319-7566058AZ

• Wansbeck General Hospital
• Northumberland
• £38,682 - £46,580 per annum
• Yearly
• 19/11/2025 23:59

Do you want to work in one of the best performing NHS organisations in England? Work for an organisation that was voted the best acute and combined acute and community trust in the country, based on the experience of its staff (NHS Staff Survey 2022). 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 and, this is…the Northumbria Way!

What the Northumbria Way means for you:

• Extensive staff health and well-being programme including access to our specialist Wellbeing Hub
• Support and connection through a variety of Staff Network groups
• A range of flexible working opportunities
• Generous annual leave and pension scheme
• Access to lease car and home electronics scheme (qualifying criteria applies)
• Opportunities to improve your professional development through our vast training programmes
• Access to savings scheme via salary sacrifice with Northumberland Community Bank

We work closely with Kids First Nurseries that are based within our trust grounds at Wansbeck, North Tyneside and Hexham hospitals to care for our Trust family's children, they offer care for children from 6 weeks old up to 4 years. There are a number of funding options run by the government to help working parents, including Early Years Funding and Tax Free Childcare.

Flexible working offers choice in where, when, and how we work, ensuring patients remain at the heart of all we do. It’s open to everyone, and we aim to find solutions that work for both you and the organisation. All arrangements must be reasonable and balanced to maintain safe and effective patient care.

We are proud to be one of the country’s top performing NHS trusts – rated ‘outstanding’ overall by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). We provide a range of health and care services to support more than 500,000 people living in Northumberland and North Tyneside across the largest geographical area of any NHS Trust in England. Our teams deliver care from hospitals, a range of community venues and people’s homes. Our hospitals include a specialist emergency care hospital (the first of its kind in England), three general hospitals and community hospitals. In the community we deliver a wide range of community and public health services.

We lead in innovation and quality, having opened the Northumbria Healthcare Manufacturing and Innovation Hub during the Covid-19 pandemic and have recently launched our Community Promise – a pledge to make a real impact not just in healthcare but on the wider factors that affect people’s lives, such as education, employment and the economy.

If Northumbria Healthcare sounds like somewhere you could belong we would love to hear from you. Visit our website to catch up on our latest news.

Whilst Northumbria Healthcare are a highly innovative organisation, the use of Third Party Artificial Intelligence (AI) presents a risk to the integrity of our Recruitment & Selection processes.  If you use AI, and it poses a risk  to the integrity your individual recruitment process, we may withdraw your application at any stage of the process. 

Job overview

· To assume responsibility for the devolved management of a ward/department, including the assessment of care needs, the implementation of evidence based programme of care in the absence of the Ward Manager.

· To supervise, support and educate junior members of the team.

· To provide senior nurse site management cover.

· To exercise accountability as set out in the NMC Code of Professional Conduct.

· To be responsibility for all nursing care standards and to maintain high clinical standards.

· To act as team leader and co-ordinate the multi-disciplinary care of a group of patients.

· To role model compassionate and inclusive leadership in order to shape the creation of a collective leadership culture within the trust. This means demonstrating a consistent leadership style which (a) engages, enables and empowers others (b) uses coaching to promote ownership of learning and quality improvement and (c) facilitates team working and collaboration within teams / departments and across organisational boundaries.

Main duties of the job

· To communicate with medical staff regarding patient conditions and medical plan, disseminating this information to the wider nursing team.

· To communicate with relatives/carers, explaining medical conditions, progress and investigations. Frequently breaking bad news.

· To negotiate with the multi-disciplinary team and outside agencies the need for care interventions. Communicating sensitive and often complex information.

· To communicate with staff of all levels to motivate and advice on achieving high standards of patient care.

· To maintain effective links with specialist nurses, utilising their skills and knowledge.

· To effectively deal with patients/families who are upset or aggressive and may challenge explanations given.

· To communicate with people shoes first language may not be English and to refer to interpreter service as per assessment needs.

· To develop effective communication with confused/demented patients.

· To regularly give presentations to small groups of staff for training needs.

· Responsible for the quality of written information within the nursing record.

· Representing the ward team at appropriate forums, cascading information both up and down the organisation.

Must be able to demonstrate the English language proficiency level required for this post

Working for our organisation

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.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

· Take lead in assessing, planning, implementing and evaluating programmes of care in partnership with the patient and the multi-disciplinary team, from admission to discharge, adhering to relevant NSF.

· To promote health with all patients and carers.

· To take responsibility on a regular basis for the organisation and co-ordination of nursing services in the ward/department in the absence of the ward manager.

· To deliver governance standards in line with the ‘Essence of Care Standards’ and the Trust’s Governance framework.

· To respond to enquiries from relatives and carers, deal with concerns, formal complaints, including PALS concerns, and actively problem solve to improve the patients experience.

· To extend the nursing role to ensure the delivery of ‘Compassion in Practice’ – Nursing, Midwifery and care staff vision and strategy, incorporating the 6C’s.

· Risk Management – to deliver the quality standards and targets outlined in the Trust’s Risk Management Strategy and local operational policies.

· Health & Safety – to take reasonably care for their own health and safety, and that of others who may be affected by their activities; to co-operate within the Trust by complying with all health and safety rules and safe systems of work; and to inform their line manager of any work situation, or practice, which may be considered a danger to health and safety.

· Patient, Care and Public Involvement – to the principles of patient, carer and public involvement in their work area, in line with Section 11 of the Health and Social Care Act 2001 and the Trust’s strategy for Patient, Carer & Public Involvement; to ensure that patients are the focus of everything they do and follow good practice shared in line with the Trust’s policies and procedures, such as learning from complaints and concerns.

· Contribute to the team decision making on proposed and planned changes affecting clinical care.

· With the Ward Manager, ensure the implementation of Trust Policies within the Team.

· With the Ward Manager, advise on the implementation of new policies of developments

· To utilise resources effectively using evidence based and best practice.

· Report the failure or mechanical problems of any items of equipment in line with the Medical Devices Policy.

· In line with the ward/department regular system of supplies, order stock and non stock items, including medicines.

· In conjunction with the Department Manager, when altering duty rotas in periods of short term absences, consider skill mix changes and additional temporary staffing cover.

· With the support of the Department Manager, understand and be able to account for pay and non pay budgets.

· In line with the NMC Code of Conduct, take part in the wards training and education programme.

· To support education, training and supervisional programmes for junior members of staff.

· Act as a mentor to pre and pos registration nursing students.

· To conduct appraisals to junior members of staff.

· To be involved in recruitment and selection processes.

In the absence of the Ward Manager, to proactively monitor and manage staff absence

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• First level live NMC Registered Nurse or Registered Mental Nurse.
• PP126/127 or AC631 or D32/33 or A1 or equivalent.
• Mentorship Qualification or relevant equivalent qualification (essential requirement for post, expectation this will be completed within an 18 month period).

Desirable criteria

• Leadership course.
• Management course
• Diploma or degree in nursing
• Qualification in specialty

Applicants who are members of the Armed Forces, and those who have a disability that requires support in the work place (two ticks pledge) and who meet the essential criteria will be interviewed under the Trust's interview guarantee scheme.

We recognise the positive value of diversity and inclusion and are committed to a workforce that is diverse, equal and inclusive. We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds. We particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) candidates as BAME people are currently under-represented in our workforce as well as other under-represented groups such as LGBT+ and disabled candidates. We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer, a Stonewall Diversity Champion, we have a Gold award from the Defense Recognition Scheme, and we are delighted to support Apprenticeships, Age Posi+ive and are a mindful employer.

If you require any reasonable adjustments to attend interview please make the recruitment team aware as soon as possible by calling our HR Recruitment Team on 0191 203 1415 option 2.

Applicants who meet the Fit and Proper Person Requirements (FPPR) will require additional pre-employment checks in line with CQC and NHS England statutory guidance.

Make sure to read the ‘applicant guidance notes’ before submitting your application and make sure you know everything there is to know before joining our fantastic trust!

Certificate of Sponsorship

Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust proudly hold a sponsor licence. In order to provide sponsorship you and the role you are applying for must meet UKVI eligibility requirements. Please check your eligibility prior to submitting an application. Skilled Worker visa: Overview - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Please note that it is a requirement of this Trust that all successful applicants pay for their own DBS certification if a DBS check is required for the post.  The method of payment is a salary deduction from your first monthly pay.

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Documents to download

Apply online now

Further details / informal visits contact

• Name
• Judith Coates
• Job title
• Department Manager
• Email address
• judith.coates@northumbria-healthcare.nhs.uk
• Telephone number
• ext: 134291
• Additional information

• Jane Ferguson - Modern Matron 07967 813705

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