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Job summary

Main area
Pathology
Grade
NHS AfC: Band 7
Contract
12 months (Fixed term)
Hours
  • Full time
  • Flexible working
37.5 hours per week
Job ref
319-7958830JA
Employer
Northumbria Healthcare - NHCT Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Employer type
NHS
Site
North Tyneside General Hospital
Town
North Shields
Salary
£49,387 - £56,515 per annum
Salary period
Yearly
Closing
17/06/2026 23:59

Employer heading

Northumbria Healthcare - NHCT Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust logo

Pathology Quality Lead

NHS AfC: Band 7

Do you want to work in one of the best performing NHS organisations in England? Work for an organisation that was voted the best acute and combined acute and community trust in the country, based on the experience of its staff (NHS Staff Survey 2022).  Work in an organisation that supports its staff and focuses on staff experience as much as it does the experience of its patients? You can live and breathe in an area that has the cleanest air, cost effective living, great nightlife, some of the best schools with a wealth of history available on your doorstep. Sound too good to be true? Well it isn’t, this is what you get when you work for Northumbria Healthcare and, this is…the Northumbria Way!

What the Northumbria Way means for you:

  • Extensive staff health and well-being programme including access to our specialist Wellbeing Hub
  • Support and connection through a variety of Staff Network groups
  • A range of flexible working opportunities
  • Generous annual leave and pension scheme
  • Access to lease car and home electronics scheme (qualifying criteria applies)
  • Opportunities to improve your professional development through our vast training programmes
  • Access to savings scheme via salary sacrifice with Northumberland Community Bank

We work closely with Kids First Nurseries that are based within our trust grounds at Wansbeck, North Tyneside and Hexham hospitals to care for our Trust family's children, they offer care for children from 6 weeks old up to 4 years.  There are a number of funding options run by the government to help working parents, including Early Years Funding and Tax Free Childcare.

Flexible working offers choice in where, when, and how we work, ensuring patients remain at the heart of all we do. It’s open to everyone, and we aim to find solutions that work for both you and the organisation. All arrangements must be reasonable and balanced to maintain safe and effective patient care.

We are proud to be one of the country’s top performing NHS trusts – rated ‘outstanding’ overall by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). We provide a range of health and care services to support more than 500,000 people living in Northumberland and North Tyneside across the largest geographical area of any NHS Trust in England. Our teams deliver care from hospitals, a range of community venues and people’s homes. Our hospitals include a specialist emergency care hospital (the first of its kind in England), three general hospitals and community hospitals. In the community we deliver a wide range of community and public health services.

We lead in innovation and quality, having opened the Northumbria Healthcare Manufacturing and Innovation Hub during the Covid-19 pandemic and have recently launched our Community Promise – a pledge to make a real impact not just in healthcare but on the wider factors that affect people’s lives, such as education, employment and the economy. 

If Northumbria Healthcare sounds like somewhere you could belong we would love to hear from you. Visit our website to catch up on our latest news.

Whilst Northumbria Healthcare are a highly innovative organisation, the use of Third Party Artificial Intelligence (AI) presents a risk to the integrity of our Recruitment & Selection processes.  If you use AI, and it poses a risk  to the integrity your individual recruitment process, we may withdraw your application at any stage of the process. 

Job overview

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an experienced Biomedical Scientist to join the Pathology quality team on a 12 month fixed term contract to cover maternity leave.  

The post holder will be the specialist lead in quality management for Pathology and will be responsible for supporting the strategic planning, design, development, implementation, day-to-day management and maintenance of the Pathology Quality Management system across the Trust.

Please note we reserve the right to close this vacancy prior to the closing date once the required number of suitable applications have been received.

Please note: for Secondment roles before an application is submitted, please ensure you have received the appropriate approval from your current manager and have completed documentation required beforehand (see secondment policy) , as this may delay the process if an offer was to be made.

Main duties of the job

The post holder is a senior member and integral part of the Pathology management team, will work with the Pathology Quality manager, clinical leaders, managers and wider staff to develop and embed the culture of quality as an implicit ongoing priority which is delivered routinely within the daily working lives of all staff. 
The post holder will support coordination of the quality management system within Pathology to achieve and maintain a quality system which meets regulatory, licensing and accreditation requirements.
The post holder will have the skills and abilities to promote quality within all areas of Pathology and will be vital to clinical governance and risk management within Pathology services.
The post holder will support the management of the Pathology Q-Pulse document control system.

Working for our organisation

We manage three major locality hospitals at North Tyneside, Wansbeck and Hexham, plus a number of smaller community hospitals and clinics from Tynemouth to Berwick on Tweed, in addition to our state-of-the-art Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital, the first of its kind in England. We also care for people in their homes and provide services from facilities in local communities such as health centres. We give people greater choice and control over their care to help them to live independently at home and avoid hospital admission where appropriate. High quality patient care is at the heart of everything we do and we strive to ensure every single patient and service user has an exceptional experience with us. We have one of the most extensive patient experience programmes of any trust in England.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Accountable to the Pathology quality manager
Supports training and education manager in delivery of training and competence framework in the QMS
Delivers quality related training programmes
Actively manages continual improvement within the department
Day to day management of level 2 healthcare science apprentice  (Quality)

For further detail please see the job description and personal specification

Person specification

Qualifications / Professional Registration

Essential criteria
  • MSc in Biomedical Sciences or Quality Management, or equivalent academic achievement (e.g. FIBMS) ratified by a relevant professional body.
  • HCPC Registration
  • Recognised management qualification

Experience and Knowledge

Essential criteria
  • Substantial in-depth experience and knowledge of Pathology
  • Experience of working to quality management standards within a laboratory environment

other

Essential criteria
  • It is an essential requirement of the role that the post holder has a valid driving license and is either a car owner and able to use the car for work purposes, or has a Trust personal lease vehicle which may be used for the role.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

NHS Pastoral Care Quality AwardApprenticeships logoNo smoking policyAge positiveArmed Forces Covenant Gold AwardDisability confident employerCare quality commission - OutstandingStonewall equality policy. Equality and justice for lesbians, gay men, bisexual and trans people.Better Health at Work AwardHappy to Talk Flexible WorkingDefence Employer Recognition Scheme (ERS) - GoldNHS England - Work Experience Quality Standard - Gold Award

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Documents to download

Apply online now

Further details / informal visits contact

Name
Jonathan Boxshall
Job title
Pathology Quality manager
Email address
[email protected]
Telephone number
0191 2934005
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