Chief Nurse NNUH
Join us at the Norfolk and Waveney University Hospitals Group.
The Group was formed in 2025 to bring the three Acute Trusts in Norfolk and Waveney together into one system with one purpose – better care for patients. It has unified leadership with one Chair, one Chief Executive and one Board, which includes Executive Managing Directors for all three Trusts.
The Group has clearly defined aims to
- Provide great care.
- Nurture a skilled, engaged workforce.
- Enable service modernisation expanding digital use and services.
- Plan the right services and environments and support the development of integrated neighbourhood services.
- Stabilise finances and live within our means.
- Leverage our network and strengthen collaboration with system partners.
- Shape future roles of our hospitals and the pattern of Clinical Services necessary to support them- starting with the needs of our population.
It also has an ambition to build, with its partners in health sciences, education and research, a world class University Hospitals System.
Taken together, our three Acute Trusts – The James Paget University Hospital NHS Trust in Gorleston, The Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn and the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital in Norwich (including the Jenny Lind Children’s Hospital and Cromer Hospital), have a combined workforce of circa 18,000 people.
Job overview
This is an exceptional opportunity for an outstanding nursing leader to shape the quality, safety and experience of care at the Norfolk & Norwich University Hospitals as part of the Norfolk and Waveney University Hospitals Group.
As Site Chief Nurse, you will provide visible, empowering professional leadership for our nursing, midwifery and allied health professional workforce. Working as a key member of the Hospital Leadership Team, you will share responsibility for delivering safe, high-quality and compassionate services, while helping to shape the Group’s wider strategic direction.
You will lead organisation-wide improvements in patient care and experience, fostering a culture of innovation, learning, inclusion and continuous improvement. The role offers the scope to influence beyond the hospital site: deputising for the Group Chief Nurse and leading Group-wide portfolios, programmes and priorities.
We are advertising for positions at both QEH and NNUH. If you wish to be considered for QEH as well as NNUH please make sure you express that in your supporting statement, there is no need to apply to both adverts.
Contact details to find out more about each site and the Group can be found below.
Advert
Working closely with the Site Medical Director, Executive Managing Director and Group Chief Nurse, you will:
• Hold senior professional responsibility for the quality and safety of care delivered at the hospital site.
• Provide visible leadership to nursing, midwifery and allied health professional teams.
• Lead improvements in patient safety, patient experience, clinical governance and professional practice at site and Group level.
• Ensure the workforce is skilled, productive, engaged and clinically and financially sustainable.
• Shape workforce, education and development plans that meet current and future service needs.
• Lead the site’s response to regulatory requirements and maintain constructive relationships with the Care Quality Commission and professional regulators.
• Champion an open, fair and learning culture in which colleagues feel safe to speak up.
• Support service transformation, innovation and the development of integrated pathways across Norfolk and Waveney.
• Build strong partnerships with patients, carers, staff representatives, education and research partners, commissioners, and the wider health and care system.
• Represent the Executive Managing Director and Group Chief Nurse as required.
Working for our organisation
The newly formed Norfolk & Waveney University Hospitals Group (NWUHG) is placing people and culture at the heart of its transformation.
By working as one system, the Group is strengthening workforce development, improving staff experience, and creating consistent, supportive leadership across all three hospitals. This unified approach enables better training, enhanced well-being support, and a stronger culture rooted in compassion, flexibility, and continuous learning.
Focusing on people also supports national priorities—ensuring the workforce is skilled, adaptable, and ready for future models of care—and strengthens NWUHG’s overall performance by improving quality, resilience, and sustainability.
Together, this creates a Groupwide commitment to making NWUHG a great place to work, with clear benefits for staff including:
Flexible working hours
Fast Track Staff Physiotherapy Service
Multi Faith prayer room at NNUH Colney Lane site
Discounted gym memberships
Generous pension scheme and annual leave entitlement
Wagestream - access up to 40% of your pay as you earn it
Free Park & Ride service direct to NNUH Colney Lane site
Free 24-hours confidential counselling support
On-site Nursery at NNUH Colney Lane
On-site cafes offering staff discounts at NNUH Colney Lane
Support in career development
Flexible staff bank
Salary Sacrifice schemes including lease cars, Cycle to Work scheme and home electronics
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
You will bring extensive senior nursing leadership experience within a complex organisation, including experience operating at director level and influencing strategic decisions. You will have a strong track record in quality governance, quality improvement, patient safety and risk management, alongside experience of leading service innovation, transformation and collaboration across health and social care. You will be able to manage complexity, make sound decisions and communicate clearly with staff, boards, regulators and partners, supported by strong financial, workforce and strategic planning capability. Your collaborative, inclusive and compassionate leadership style will give you the credibility to inspire others, challenge constructively and role-model the highest professional standards.
Why join us?
This is a rare opportunity to influence care at both hospital and Group level during a period of significant development for health services across Norfolk and Waveney. You will work with talented clinical and corporate leaders, contribute to major transformation programmes and help create an environment in which our people can deliver their best for patients.
We are looking for a leader who combines professional authority with humility, openness and a deep commitment to inclusion. If you share our ambition for excellent, safe and compassionate care, we would welcome your application.
The Job Description and Person Specification outline the full scope of responsibilities and essential criteria for this role. In your supporting statement, please clearly demonstrate how your skills, experience, and leadership capabilities align with the requirements detailed in the Person Specification.
Please note this is an application led process and CVs are not accepted.
Visa and Immigration
Applicants requiring sponsorship—including those currently sponsored and seeking a change of employer—should review the eligibility criteria for a Skilled Worker Visa, available at:
https://www.gov.uk/skilled-worker-visa/your-job.
Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)
Roles involving work with children or adults will require a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. Applicants will be asked to declare relevant information regarding previous convictions during the application process.
NHS Service Verification
If appointed, we will verify any previous NHS service via the ESR Inter‑Authority Transfer (IAT) process. Submission of your application will be taken as agreement to this.
For VSM (Very Senior Manager) posts, applicants must also declare any redundancy payments received within the 12 months prior to re‑employment within the NHS.
Professional Registration
Where professional registration is an essential requirement of the role, candidates must hold current UK registration at the point of application.
Application Correspondence
To support our commitment to reducing paper usage, all correspondence regarding your application will be issued by email. Please ensure that you check your inbox (including spam/junk folders) regularly.
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
We value diversity at all levels of the organisation and welcome applications from all sections of the community.
Applicants with a disability who meet the minimum essential criteria may request consideration under the Guaranteed Interview Scheme by indicating this on their application form.
Flexible Working
While recruitment will be undertaken in line with the advertised post, we recognise the importance of flexible working. Alternative working patterns or contract types (e.g., part‑time arrangements or secondments) may be considered. If you wish to propose a different working pattern, please indicate this within your supporting statement.