Head of Patient Safety And Security

Role Overview

The Head of Patient Safety & Security is a senior leadership role responsible for ensuring the hospital maintains compliance with Department of Health standards, CQC requirements, secure care standards, and internal policies across Medium Secure, Low Secure, and Adolescent Psychiatric Services. The post holder will lead the hospital's security and patient safety agenda, providing expert guidance on risk management, security governance, incident management, and staff development.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and manage patient safety and security systems, processes, audits, and compliance programmes.
• Manage and develop the Security Team, including recruitment, performance management, appraisals, and attendance management.
• Act as the hospital's Police Liaison Officer, maintaining effective relationships with external agencies while ensuring compliance with information governance and confidentiality requirements.
• Oversee security training programmes, induction training, and refresher courses for staff.
• Support multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) with complex risk assessments, patient safety planning, and high-risk patient transfers.
• Lead investigations into security-related incidents, including Root Cause Analysis (RCA) reviews and Datix reporting.
• Chair security governance meetings and contribute to clinical governance, service improvement, and quality assurance processes.
• Participate in the 2nd On-Call rota and support the management of major incidents.

Ideal Candidate Profile

• Registered Mental Nurse (RMN) with current NMC registration.
• Significant experience working within forensic mental health, secure services, or related environments.
• Strong understanding of clinical risk assessment, patient safety, security management, and safeguarding.
• Proven leadership experience, including staff management, coaching, recruitment, and performance development.
• Experience in audits, investigations, governance, compliance, and quality improvement initiatives.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to work effectively across multidisciplinary teams and external agencies.

Key Competencies

• Risk assessment and risk management expertise.
• Strong leadership and decision-making capability.
• Ability to balance therapeutic care with security requirements.
• Incident investigation and problem-solving skills.
• Effective communication, relationship building, and influencing skills.
• Commitment to patient safety, safeguarding, and continuous service improvement.

Recruitment Recommendation

This role is best suited to an experienced RMN leader from a forensic or secure mental health setting who can demonstrate expertise in patient safety, security governance, clinical risk management, and multidisciplinary leadership. The successful candidate will have a strong track record of driving compliance, leading investigations, developing staff, and fostering a culture of safety within complex healthcare environments