The National Controlled Drugs Accountable Officer Lead will work as part of the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer England’s team to provide system wide professional and clinical leadership in relation to the safe use and management of controlled drugs in the NHS.
Please be aware that should you be successful in this position, you will be hired to the job tit le of National Lead for CDAO and this job tit le is advertised to attract the right skills needed for the role.
This includes:
Ensuring the role and function of the controlled drugs accountable officer within NHS England is delivered at regional and national levels.
Leadership of the Local Intelligence Function with a wide range of stakeholders including NHS, police, organisational and professional regulatory bodies
High quality, authoritative, professional policy guidance and advice on issues relating to controlled drugs with particular reference to public inquiries, incidents of concern and professional conduct.
Clinical input into areas including legislation that defines how controlled drugs are used in health settings
Service delivery – Professional leadership and strategic input into NHS England’s direct commissioning of controlled drugs.
Support to NHS England and DHSC
Identifying and defining opportunities to optimise care and maximise outcomes
Identify and drive innovation but more importantly create innovative partnerships across and within NHS England
Maintaining public confidence in quality of NHS England’s management of controlled drugs.
Maintaining commitment of public engagements and speaking events, national and local
To do this, the role acts as the lead for pharmacy professionals within NHS England at national and local level exercising the controlled drugs accountable officer function
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.
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.
Secondments
Applicants from within the NHS will be offered on a secondment basis only, agreement should be obtained from their employer prior to submitting the application.
