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Interim Chief Nursing Officer

Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Dorchester, DT1 2JY £100,000 – £200,000 a year Fixed-Term Posted 26 August 2026 Apply by 9 September 2026

Home Office register entry: Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Dorchester

Visa sponsorship

This role is listed by an employer that holds a live Home Office sponsor licence on the Skilled Worker route.

Closest occupation match: SOC 1111, Chief executives and senior officials. Home Office going rate for this occupation: £88,100 a year.

NHS roles fall under the Health and Care Worker route. Public reference figures for that route: the general salary minimum is £25,000 a year, and salaries set by national pay scales (NHS bands) at or above the relevant band rate typically meet the occupation's requirement. Individual eligibility depends on personal circumstances. These figures are public reference information, not advice or a verdict on this job.

Role description

Job summary

A unique opportunity to lead, influence and shape the future of integrated care in Dorset.

Whether you are ready to step into your first Chief Nursing Officer role or are an experienced executive leader seeking a new challenge, this is an exceptional opportunity to join a supportive, ambitious, and highly collaborative leadership team.

Dorset County Hospital is part of an innovative partnership with Dorset HealthCare and following the appointment of our Joint Chief Nursing Officer to a new executive leadership role across both organisations, we are seeking an outstanding Interim Chief Nursing Officer to join us at this exciting time.

As we continue to strengthen integration across acute, community and mental health services, you will play a pivotal role in ensuring we maintain our unwavering focus on delivering outstanding patient care, quality, safety, and workforce excellence. This is a rare opportunity to influence care delivery across organisational boundaries and contribute to the development of a truly integrated model of healthcare for the people of Dorset.

As a key member of the Executive Team and Board, you will help shape the next phase of our transformation journey. Working alongside talented clinical and operational leaders, you will provide strategic direction, inspire professional practice, and champion innovation that improves outcomes and experiences for patients, carers and staff.

Main duties of the job

As Interim Chief Nursing Officer, you will:

  • Be the professional leader for Nursing and Quality across the Trust.
  • Drive excellence in patient safety, clinical quality and patient experience.
  • Influence organisational strategy and system-wide transformation as a key member of the Executive Team and Board.
  • Lead significant programmes that improve clinical outcomes, experience and quality of care.
  • Ensure the voices of patients, carers, families and staff remain central to decision making.
  • Champion a culture of learning, innovation, inclusion and continuous improvement.
  • Inspire and support the next generation of clinical leaders across the organisation.
  • Working closely with the triumvirate of the Chief Operating Office and Chief Medical Officer

You will be an experienced, credible, and inspirational nursing leader with a strong track record of leading quality improvement, delivering sustainable change and working collaboratively across organisational boundaries.

You will bring strategic insight, emotional intelligence, and a deep commitment to compassionate leadership, together with the ability to influence at Board level and build strong relationships across the wider health and care system.

If you are ready to make a lasting impact, lead at the heart of an ambitious organisation and help shape the future of healthcare in Dorset, we would love to hear from you.

About us

At DCHFT, we pride ourselves on the care we provide for our patients, and on the culture, we are creating for our staff. We work hard to create a fair, inclusive environment for our staff.

Our Mission is to provide outstanding care for people in ways which matter to them, and our vision is Dorset County Hospital, working with our health and social care partners, will be at the heart of improving the well-being of our communities.

We are a Trust that celebrates diversity, and we are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We welcome applications from people in all under-represented groups.

We understand that AI can be a useful tool when completing your application. However, we are seeing an increasing over-reliance of AI tools, which can negatively affect your application as it reduces a candidate's individuality, and makes it difficult for us to gain a clear and authentic understanding of your experience, skills, and in turn your suitability for the role.

All submissions must be truthful and if you do use AI, it should only be used to enhance your application and not create your supporting statement in its entirety. Your supporting statement should be in your own words and must accurately reflect your personal experience and achievements. Where we have concerns that AI has been used to generate content that misrepresents your experience and suitability for the role, we may withdraw your application.

Details

Date posted

26 August 2026

Pay scheme

Very senior manager (VSM)

Salary

£100,000 to £200,000 a year PA

Contract

Fixed term

Duration

12 months

Working pattern

Full-time

Reference number

405-26-NM433CNO

Job locations

Dorset County Hospital

West Dorset General Hospitals NHS Trust

Dorchester

DT1 2JY

United Kingdom


Job description

Job responsibilities

We are looking for a visible, compassionate, and values-driven leader who is passionate about creating environments where people feel supported, empowered and able to thrive. You will provide strategic leadership for nursing, midwifery, allied health professionals, and quality, while helping to shape the future direction of our Trust and our wider system partnerships.

Like all NHS organisations, we face significant challenges and opportunities, including increasing demand, workforce pressures, advancing technology and system-wide transformation. We are seeking someone with the resilience, ambition, and creativity to navigate complexity while maintaining a relentless focus on quality, inclusion and patient-centred care.

Most importantly, you will share our commitment to delivering exceptional care and creating a culture where our people can be at their best every day.

Please see the attached candidate pack and any additional questions please request a meeting with Dawn Dawson, Deputy Chief Executive

Person Specification

Education and Qualifications

Essential

  • Professional qualification and professional registration with the NMC in one of the fields of Nursing
  • Degree in Nursing or health related subject
  • Master's Degree or equivalent level of experience
  • Evidence of continuous professional and personal development
  • Evidence of recent management and leadership development

Training

Essential

  • Evidence of recent and ongoing CPD development, and able to demonstrate advanced theoretical and practical knowledge in field, equivalent to a doctorate plus further specialist training.

Desirable

  • Specialist knowledge of quality improvement

Previous Experience

Essential

  • Extensive post-registration experience of which a substantial amount must be in service management
  • Significant experience of working with safeguarding statutory frameworks
  • Extensive knowledge and experience of leadership, development and quality
  • Considerable understanding and experience of managing a complex service: including evidence of solving a range of complex operational and strategic problems
  • Extensive knowledge and experience of leading quality improvements
  • Well-developed people management skills, with the ability to build and lead teams across multiple locations.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

Essential

  • Evidence of ability to confront challenging issues taking a problem-solving approach to ensure proactive and effective resolution
  • Track Record of delivering against set objectives and achieving key organisational targets, demonstrating continuous improvement and taking remedial action to address unwarranted variation
  • Excellent communication skills (written and verbal); good interpersonal skills with the ability to communicate information to senior managers, staff and external agencies
  • Highly developed analytical and problem-solving skills
  • Ability to act on own initiative with evidence of high level of autonomous decision making
  • Highly developed influencing, negotiating and conflict resolution skills
  • Highly developed clinical leadership skills with strong political awareness
  • Able to demonstrate personal resilience in challenging situations.
  • Understanding of current NHS national and local agendas and implications for the Trust's Strategy

Finance Management

Essential

  • Experience in the planning, monitoring and review of financial resources.

Information Technology

Essential

  • Good IT skills and an understanding of NHS information governance principles and practices.

Additional Requirements

Essential

  • Subject to the provisions of the Equality Act 2010, able to travel using own vehicle on Trust business.
  • Demonstrable skills in written and spoken English, adequate to enable the post holder to carry out the role effectively

Personal Qualities

Essential

  • Understanding and advocacy of underrepresented groups and a commitment to tackle inequalities and promote fairness and transparency
  • A compassionate leader with a proven track record of bringing people together
  • Strong personal integrity

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 (opens in a new window).

Employer details

Employer name

Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Dorset County Hospital

West Dorset General Hospitals NHS Trust

Dorchester

DT1 2JY

United Kingdom


Employer's website

https://www.dchft.nhs.uk/working-for-us/

Apply now

Last verified against our ingestion on 27 August 2026; sponsor register dataset 2026-08-25.