The NatSSIPs 2 Project Lead will provide senior programme leadership for the Trust-wide implementation and sustainment of the National Safety Standards for Invasive Procedures 2. The postholder will work autonomously within national guidance and Trust governance arrangements to support safe, reliable and proportionate invasive procedure practice across relevant clinical pathways and services.
Working with clinical, operational, patient safety, governance and education leads, the postholder will support delivery of the NatSSIPs 2 Organisational Standards of People, Processes and Performance, and the reliable implementation of “The NatSSIPs Eight” sequential standards. This will include strengthening governance, training, documentation, assurance, data use, patient involvement and proportionate application across major, minor, emergency and specialty-specific invasive procedures.
The role will require significant judgement, influence and collaborative leadership to reduce unwarranted variation, address barriers to implementation, and provide clear recommendations, risk escalation and assurance to senior leaders and governance committees. The postholder will use human factors, quality improvement and measurement for improvement approaches to embed sustainable change and support lasting improvements in patient safety.
- Lead the Trust-wide implementation and sustainability of NatSSIPs 2 across invasive procedure pathways.
- Develop and embed governance, assurance, policy and education arrangements that support safe and standardised practice.
- Use safety intelligence, audit, peer review and quality improvement methods to identify risks, reduce variation and drive improvement.
- Build clinical engagement and support cultural change through human factors, psychological safety and multidisciplinary working.
- Provide programme leadership, expert advice and Board-level assurance, ensuring delivery of benefits and transition into business as usual
Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one of the largest NHS organisations in the South West, providing a wide range of acute, specialist and emergency services to the people of Gloucestershire and beyond. With services delivered across Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, Cheltenham General Hospital and community locations, we are committed to delivering outstanding care, improving patient outcomes and creating a culture where learning, innovation and continuous improvement thrive.
This role is an exciting opportunity to join our specialist Patient Safety Team, a small specialist team focused on improving the safety and quality of care across the Trust. Working closely with clinical, operational and governance colleagues, the team supports the implementation of national patient safety priorities, strengthens organisational learning and drives improvements that make a real difference to patients and staff.
While based within the Patient Safety Team, the post holder will work collaboratively across the organisation, building strong relationships with multidisciplinary teams, clinical leaders and corporate services to support the successful implementation of NatSSIPs 2. This is a highly visible role with the opportunity to influence practice at scale, contribute to a positive safety culture and help deliver safer care for our patients.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead Trust-wide implementation and sustainment of NatSSIPs 2, providing senior programme leadership, oversight and delivery grip across relevant invasive procedure pathways, services and divisions.
- Embed the NatSSIPs 2 framework, including People, Processes and Performance, The NatSSIPs Eight and the principles of Standardise, Harmonise and Educate, ensuring proportionate application across major, minor, emergency and specialty-specific procedures.
- Strengthen governance, policy and assurance arrangements by supporting the NatSSIPs 2 steering group, developing policies, standard operating procedures (SOPs), Local Safety Standards for Safety Procedures (LocSSIPs), checklists and assurance processes, and ensuring clear links to divisional governance, Patient Safety, Quality Governance and Board-level reporting.
- Use data, intelligence and quality improvement methods to identify variation, risk and improvement priorities, drawing on incidents, near misses, complaints, learning from excellence, debrief themes, peer review, training data and audit outputs.
- Support peer review and direct observation of practice so that assurance reflects the quality of NatSSIPs delivery, team engagement and safety behaviours, rather than relying solely on documentation audit.
- Lead engagement, education and change activity with clinical, operational, education, governance and patient safety teams, including multidisciplinary training in human factors, systems thinking, team behaviours and local NatSSIPs 2 requirements.
- Promote patient involvement and safety culture by ensuring patient information, opportunities to speak up, complaints, feedback, learning responses and Patient Safety Partner input inform pathway design and improvement activity.
- Provide expert programme advice and reporting, interpreting national guidance, advising stakeholders, producing high-quality reports, escalating risks and presenting clear recommendations, mitigations, progress and residual assurance gaps to senior leaders and committees.
- Provide matrix leadership and programme coordination for project support, workstream leads and contributors, ensuring actions, resources, benefits, handover and transition into business as usual are effectively managed.
Management and Leadership
- Provide strategic and operational leadership for the Trust-wide implementation of NatSSIPs 2, including the development of systems, policies, standards and governance arrangements required to embed safe, standardised and sustainable practice across invasive procedures. Exercise delegated authority to make recommendations, agree corrective actions, escalate risks and influence delivery across divisions and services.
- As an active member of the Safety and Quality Team, build strong, constructive relationships with colleagues and work collaboratively with leaders, senior managers, and clinicians across the Trust to influence practice, support delivery, and ensure consistent adoption.
- Work autonomously within broad occupational policies and national guidance, interpreting requirements, determining the local implementation approach and resolving complex delivery issues without routine direct supervision.
- Support the establishment and effective operation of a multidisciplinary NatSSIPs 2 steering group or equivalent governance forum, with clear links to specialty leads, divisional governance structures, the Patient Safety team, Quality Governance and Board-level assurance routes.
Planning and Organisation
- Plan and design the programmes of work, monitor overall progress and initiate actions as required to keep the programmes on track.
- Analyse complex problems or situations, providing interpretation and offering a range of options and recommendations.
- Design and facilitate workshops, meetings and focus groups including planning content and attendance/involvement, preparing pre-reading materials, and structuring discussions to ensure successful delivery. Work effectively in group situations to solve problems and build buy-in to solutions.
- Proactively monitor and report on progress against the plan. This will require liaising with stakeholders and obtaining, analysing and interpreting updates and other key monitoring information.
- Understand, anticipate, highlight, and document risks, issues and actions; ensure early identification and proactive mitigation/resolution where possible; ensure prompt escalation of concerns where appropriate.
- Plan implementation activity across major and minor invasive procedure pathways, ensuring that safety checks are proportionate to procedural risk and that emergency, urgent and specialty-specific contexts are appropriately risk assessed.
- Tracking and report benefits realisation to ensure that the programme is achieving its objectives.
- At regular intervals report the progress of the programme to the relevant boards/committees.
- Develop a sustainability and transition plan so that NatSSIPs 2 requirements are embedded into business-as-usual governance, induction, education, audit, risk management and divisional assurance processes beyond the life of the fixed-term programme.
Research and Development
- Maintain an up-to-date understanding of emerging evidence, national guidance, and best practice relating to invasive procedure safety, ensuring the Trust remains aligned with the latest developments in NatSSIPs 2 and the wider patient safety agenda.
- Undertake horizon scanning to identify new policies, safety alerts, innovations, and opportunities for improvement, proactively assessing their relevance and supporting timely adoption within the Trust.
- Actively seek to learn from other organisations, including national networks, peer Trusts, and system partners, using benchmarking, shared learning, and external reviews to inform local practice and drive continuous improvement.
- Ensure that learning from incidents, investigations, thematic reviews, and national publications is systematically reviewed, translated into actionable change, and incorporated into policies, processes, and practice.
- Use NatSSIPs 2 performance indicators to support measurement for improvement and assurance, including review of team brief, sign in, time out, sign out, debrief, implant verification, reconciliation of items, consent and site marking practices.
- Contribute to internal and external reports, case studies, or presentations, as required, sharing learning and outcomes to support organisational assurance and wider system learning.
Communications and Working Relationship
- Support the management of communication between stakeholders relating to project delivery; use expert negotiation skills to present complex, potentially controversial information to large groups and use negotiation skills to resolve issues that may arise during programme implementation.
- Work in partnership with clinical, operational, and corporate teams to embed safety-critical processes into everyday practice, ensuring strong clinical engagement and ownership.
- Work with clinical teams to strengthen psychological safety, civil and respectful behaviours, speak-up culture and shared ownership of safety-critical checks, recognising that NatSSIPs 2 is a system-wide safety and culture programme rather than a checklist compliance exercise.
Contact Details
Victoria Wills (Acting Associate Director of Patient Safety)
[email protected]
07825 112560
Alternate contact: Suzie Cro, Director of Quality Governance.
[email protected]