The National Patient Safety Team is seeking an experienced and strategic leader to lead the delivery, development and continuous improvement of the Learn from Patient Safety Events (LFPSE) service – England's national patient safety reporting and learning system.
Reporting to the Deputy Director of Patient Safety (Digital), you will lead the service responsible for the collection, quality assurance and stewardship of patient safety event data from across NHS-funded care. You will drive innovation in how patient safety data is used to support learning, improvement and risk reduction, ensuring the service continues to meet the needs of patients, providers, policymakers and the wider health and care system.
Working collaboratively with national and local stakeholders, suppliers, analysts, clinicians and digital teams, you will oversee service delivery, data quality, user engagement, system development and strategic improvement. You will play a key role in shaping the future use of patient safety data and ensuring that insights generated through LFPSE support the delivery of safer care for patients across England.
Key responsibilities include:
Leading the delivery and strategic development of the national LFPSE service.
Driving innovation in patient safety reporting, learning and data use across the NHS.
Ensuring high standards of data quality, governance, access and information management.
Building strong relationships with NHS organisations, system suppliers, policymakers and patient safety partners.
Leading and developing a multidisciplinary team to deliver high-quality services and continuous improvement.
Supporting the development of national patient safety policy, reporting systems and learning initiatives.
Overseeing service performance, budgets, business planning, risks and stakeholder engagement.
Ensuring patient safety data is translated into actionable insight that supports safer care and improved outcomes for patients.
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.
You will be an experienced senior leader with a track record of delivering complex national services, leading high-performing teams and working effectively with senior stakeholders across organisational boundaries. You will bring strong expertise in information systems, data governance, service delivery, transformation and continuous improvement, alongside a passion for patient safety and improving outcomes through better use of data.
This is an exciting opportunity to lead one of the NHS's most important patient safety services and shape the future of how patient safety intelligence supports learning and improvement across the healthcare system.
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.
