Clinical Lead
Job summary
This Clinical Lead role sits within NHS England's Transformation Digital & Data Directorate, forming part of a multidisciplinary team delivering national programmes across Digital Clinical Informatics (DCI) and the Digital Primary Care Portfolio.
Primary care operates at the interface of some of the NHS's most interconnected clinical systems, spanning GP IT, pharmacy platforms, national infrastructure, and third-party integrations. Understanding where clinical risk emerges across these systems, and how national standards translate into real-world delivery, is central to this work. Rather than building systems directly, we set national standards, work alongside policy and systems partners, and support regions in delivering safe, impactful digital solutions at scale.
As a Clinical Lead, you will provide a senior clinical voice across multidisciplinary teams, lead Clinical Informaticians, oversee national programmes, and advise on digital risk, with clinical safety and assurance at the core.
We are looking for experienced Clinical Safety Officers with a strong background in digital clinical safety, assurance, and risk management, and a deep understanding of the interdependencies between GP IT, community pharmacy, and the national infrastructure that underpins primary care.
This post is multidisciplinary (Agenda for Change: pay band 8c or MDL1 dependant on professional registration)
Main duties of the job
In this role, you will be required to have regular contact with internal and external stakeholders and will often need to engage with them over sensitive, complex and contentious issues.
You will also be expected to lead and support other clinicians across the organisation, ensuring programmes and services have access to appropriate clinical support and are represented in externally facing Programme Boards, Clinical Reference Panels or Clinical Advisory Groups. You will join a multi-professional team of experienced clinicians with a variety of clinical backgrounds, all of whom have chosen informatics as a specialist area of expertise.
You will be joining the team at an exciting time, as the role of clinical informaticians becomes more important than ever before in supporting the safe and effective use of technology across health and social care services, for the benefit of patients and citizens.
About us
NHS England has a wide range of statutory functions, responsibilities and regulatory powers. These are focused on supporting the wider NHS to deliver high quality care, as well as doing those things that are best done once for the whole NHS.
Our staff bring expertise across clinical, operational, commissioning, technology, data science, cyber security, software engineering, education, and commercial specialisms -- enabling us to design and deliver high-quality NHS services.
In March 2025, the Government announced that NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care will increasingly merge functions, ultimately leading to NHS England being fully integrated into the department.
If you currently work within the NHS and if successful at interview, we will initiate an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR).This retrieves key data from your current or previous NHS employer to support onboarding, including competency status, Continuous Service Dates (CSD), and annual leave entitlement. You may opt out at any stage of the process.
Colleagues with a contractual office base are expected to spend, on average, at least 40% of their time working in our offices.
Staff recruited from outside the NHS will usually be appointed at the bottom of the pay band.
We cannot offer visa sponsorship for any vacancies.
Job description
Job responsibilities
- Lead in representing NHS Pathways at national governance meetings such as National Clinical Assurance Governance Group.
- Lead NHS Pathways in responding to Coroners inquests, Regulation 28s and HSSIB investigations.
- Using your current specialist Urgent & Emergency Care/Tirage knowledge you will lead the Clinical Informatics Manager in undertaking the original authoring, development, review and maintenance of the clinical content of NHS Pathways.
- Leading the NHS England Digital Clinical Governance Framework, working across services, programmes, and projects.
- Responsible for the delivery and implementation of clinical governance, continuous quality improvement, clinical safety, and clinical benefits delivery.
- Provides highly specialised clinical informatics advice and expertise to both clinical and non-clinical staff
- Represents and promotes understanding of the voice of citizens and patients in digital healthcare-related.
- Influences and establishes the respect of clinical and non-clinical professionals at all level.
You can find further details about the role, including key responsibilities and accountabilities, alongside the organisational structure and person specification in the attached Job Description and other supporting documents.
Person Specification
Knowledge and experience
- Knowledge of clinical informatics, digitisation of the health and care system, and current NHS digital policy context
- Experience of leading assessment, implementation or assurance of clinical IT systems, digital products, platforms or national digital services
- Experience of clinical safety, risk assessment, clinical governance and assurance in a digital or informatics context
- Senior leadership experience, including management of teams/functions, delivery through matrix working, and delivery against competing priorities
- Substantial post-registration NHS or social care experience demonstrated over a number of years
Qualifications
- Current registration as a regulated health or care professional with an appropriate professional body
- Masters level qualification or equivalent senior specialist experience
Skills Capabilities & Attributes
- Ability to lead clinical governance and safety frameworks with strategic understanding of clinical risk in a digital environment
- Ability to communicate, influence and negotiate complex, sensitive or contentious issues with senior stakeholders, boards, suppliers or cross-functional partners
- Strategic problem solving, decision-making and delivery at pace in a complex digital, clinical or national NHS environment
Values and behaviours
- Connects digital work to better outcomes for patients, the public, clinicians and frontline staff
- Demonstrates collaborative, inclusive and partnership-focused working aligned to NHS values, including quality, improvement and innovation
Desirable Bonus CSO
- Trained and accredited Clinical Safety Officer, or equivalent current clinical safety experience, including DCB0129 / DCB0160 application
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.
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website.
Employer details
Employer name
NHS England
Address
This role can be based in Wellington Place, Leeds or Wellington House, London
Leeds / London
LS1 4AP
United Kingdom
Employer's website
https://www.england.nhs.uk/about/working-for/