Chief Nurse Information Officer
Job summary
The Chief Nursing Information Officer (CNIO) is a senior clinical leadership role responsible for shaping and delivering the digital nursing and AHP agenda across Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust. Working at a strategic level, the CNIO will ensure that digital systems are clinically safe, usable and optimised to support high-quality patient care, professional practice and service transformation.
The post holder will combine strong clinical credibility with expertise in digital health, informatics and change leadership, acting as the senior nursing voice in the development, implementation and optimisation of digital solutions, including the Electronic Patient Record (EPR), electronic prescribing and wider digital clinical systems. The CNIO will work in close partnership with the Chief Clinical Information Officer (CCIO), Director of Informatics (DoI), Chief Nursing Officer and senior clinical leaders, ensuring that digital transformation is grounded in frontline clinical need and aligned to Trust and system priorities.
Interview will include an assessment task
Main duties of the job
The CNIO will provide strategic assurance on clinical safety, professional practice and adoption, supporting compliance with national standards and contributing to ICS-level and national digital nursing networks. The role will champion innovation, workforce engagement and digital capability development, ensuring nurses and AHPs are empowered to lead and embed digital change that improves patient outcomes, safety and experience.
Key aspects of the role include:
- Strategic leadership of the Trust's nursing and AHP digital vision
- Strategic input into EPR and clinical system design, implementation and optimisation
- Assurance of clinical safety, usability and workflow alignment of digital solutions
- Influencing Trust-wide digital strategy and system-level collaboration
- Leading workforce engagement, capability building and digital readiness
- Acting as the senior nursing advocate for safe, effective digital care delivery
- Involvement in the procurement, design and implementation of a new EPR system
This is a high-impact, Trust-wide role requiring senior leadership capability, professional authority and transformational influence, appropriate to Agenda for Change Band 8C level.
About us
Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves a population of over 600,000 with a workforce of over 10,500 dedicated and skilled staff across 21 sites.
Our services:
Acute Care
Providing emergency and maternity services at Whiston, Southport and Ormskirk hospitals, and medical and surgical specialties across all our sites.
Primary Care
Providing primary care services at Marshalls Cross Medical Centre situated in St Helens Hospital.
Community Services
Providing adult community services for St Helens and a wheelchair service in Chorley, South Ribble, and West Lancashire. Our inpatient unit at Newton Community Hospital is where patients needing acute hospital beds can continue rehabilitation. We also provide urgent care at our Urgent Treatment Centre located in St Helens town centre.
Specialist Regional Services
We provide the Mersey Regional Burns & Plastic Surgery Unit at Whiston Hospital and the Spinal Injuries Unit at Southport Hospital to more than 4 million people across the whole of Merseyside, West Lancashire, Cheshire, Isle of Man and North Wales.
Achievements:
- Rated Outstanding by CQC Inspection August 2018
- Top 100 places to work in the NHS (NHS Employers & Health Service Journal)
- National Preceptorship Accreditation (2023) for Nursing & AHP Preceptorship Programme
Job description
Job responsibilities
Please ensure you have read through the attached Job Description and Person Specification before submitting your application.
Advertising date: 17th June 2026
Closing date: 8th July 2026
Proposed Interview date: 22nd July 2026
Please note, this post may close earlier than advertised if a sufficient number of applications are received.
Person Specification
Values
- We are kind
- We are open
- We are inclusive
Qualifications
- Educated to Master's level or equivalent level of experience and training.
- NMC Registration
- Advanced clinical qualifications and evidence of ongoing professional development.
- Informatics/IT Qualification e.g. PRINCE2.
Knowledge
- Extensive and up to date knowledge of nursing and other clinical, administrative and/or operational workflows and processes within a hospital environment.
- Excellent clinical and managerial knowledge of one or more specific area, including knowledge of relevant operational policies and procedures
- Expert clinical knowledge and skills in clinical informatics to ensure successful implementation of technology that benefits patient care and achieves expected outcomes.
- Knowledge of policy relating to safeguarding adults and children.
- Knowledge of Information Governance, SOPs and other governance, national and professional standards of practice or other regulations
- Knowledge of national standards for recording patient assessments and clinical data
- Knowledge of all aspects of patient safety and quality.
- Experience of planning and managing change in large and diverse clinical teams.
- Previous NHS experience as a nurse leader at Matron Level or above.
- Experience of managing high performing multi-disciplinary teams evidenced by improvement e.g. improved recruitment / retention / staff morale / clinical outcomes
- Experience of planning and delivering a broad range of complex programmes which impact across a large multi site organisation
- Experience of managing clinical teams including recruitment, appraisals, sickness and performance management
Skills
- Demonstrates professional and personal credibility
- Maintain clinical knowledge and skills for professional registration and revalidation
- Ability to concentrate for long periods of time to author documents, analyse information. The post holder will need to be adaptable as the work pattern is unpredictable and may be required to switch concentration if an incident arises
- High level of personal resilience to be able to deal with the frequent requirement to deal with potentially emotive situations, communicating difficult messages to staff, patients or family members
- Ability to setup and oversee an R&D programme which will identify, review and evaluate new digital solutions
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Certificate of Sponsorship
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website.
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants.
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website.
Employer details
Employer name
Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
Address
Jubilee Court
Academy Site
St Helens
WA9 1TT
United Kingdom
Employer's website
https://www.merseywestlancs.nhs.uk/