Thank you for your interest in North London NHS Foundation Trust (NLFT).
As of 1 April 2026, NLFT has formally merged with Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust—marking the start of an exciting new chapter. This is a unique opportunity to join a forward-thinking organisation at a time of transformation, where we are strengthening access to mental health services, responding more effectively to complex and specialist needs, and advancing our work in education, research and innovation.
By bringing together our combined expertise, we are building a stronger, more collaborative Trust—one that delivers consistent, high-quality care and improved outcomes for the diverse communities we serve.
At the heart of our approach is The North London Way. We are committed to:
- Working collaboratively at every level, guided by our shared values
- Shaping a positive, inclusive culture where staff and service users thrive
- Empowering our teams with the skills, tools and autonomy to drive meaningful change
- Delivering excellence and continuously improving the quality of care we provide
- Embedding research, innovation and technology across our services
- Taking a trauma-informed approach in everything we do
We are proud to be an inclusive employer that values diversity. We actively welcome applicants from all backgrounds, particularly from our local communities, and are committed to creating opportunities for everyone—including apprentices, veterans and care leavers.
The North London Way to deliver: Better Mental Health, Better Lives, Better Communities.
Our trust website is: https://www.northlondonmentalhealth.nhs.uk/
As a values‑driven Trust, we recruit through our values. Our selection processes focus on behaviours, attitudes, and examples that reflect our organisational values and commitment to compassionate, high‑quality care.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a set of technology that can perform various tasks that typically required human intelligence. Your application is your opportunity to demonstrate to us how you meet the requirements of the role.
We recognise that AI tools can support accessibility, equity and confidence for applicants. However, it’s important that examples and responses genuinely reflect your own experience and abilities, as these will be explored further during the selection process. AI must not be used to provide misleading or false information during any stage of the application journey.
Further guidance can be found in the NLPSS Applicant Toolkit https://royalfree.pagetiger.com/cuuomnr/1.
North London NHS Foundation Trust is committed to ensuring that its recruitment processes are carried out with integrity, transparency, and fairness for all applicants. To help maintain these standards, we ask candidates to provide accurate and truthful information throughout the recruitment process.
If incorrect or misleading information is identified, this may affect the progression of an application, any employment offer, or continued employment. As part of our due diligence, the company may verify the information provided by applicants and take appropriate action where necessary.
We do not charge applicants any fees at any stage of the recruitment process, including applications, interviews, sponsorship arrangements, pre-employment checks, or employment offers. All vacancies are advertised through TRAC/NHS Jobs and candidates are assessed solely on their skills, qualifications, experience, and suitability for the role. If you are asked to make a payment in connection with an NHS job opportunity, please treat this as suspicious and contact the organisation directly using the details published on our official career's website.
Applicants can refer to the Fraud Act 2006 for further information: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2006/35/contents
Job overview
Are you an experienced senior nurse with the credibility, expertise and ambition to shape quality and patient safety across one of London’s large mental health trusts?
We are seeking an exceptional Associate Director of Nursing for Quality & Safety to join our senior Nursing Directorate leadership team at North London NHS Foundation Trust.
This is a pivotal Trust-wide leadership role, with responsibility for providing strategic nursing leadership and oversight across quality, patient safety, integrated governance and organisational learning.
The opportunity
Working alongside the Chief Nursing & AHP Officer, Deputy Chief Nursing Officer and senior clinical and operational leaders, you will have the opportunity to influence how we understand quality, respond to risk and translate learning into measurable improvements.
You will provide leadership across a significant portfolio including:
· the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF)
· Learning from Deaths and mortality governance
· integrated quality governance and assurance
· development and delivery of the Trust's annual Quality Priorities
· learning from incidents, complaints, mortality reviews and patient feedback
· patient and family involvement in learning responses
· improvement and learning across clinical services.
Advert
About you
We are looking for a Registered Nurse with current NMC registration who brings significant senior NHS leadership experience across quality, patient safety and governance.
You will be able to demonstrate:
· substantial senior leadership experience within a complex NHS environment
· experience of quality surveillance, performance reporting and identifying emerging risks
· the ability to interpret complex quality and safety information and translate it into clear priorities and action
· experience of influencing senior clinical, operational and corporate leaders
· strong leadership of multidisciplinary teams and the ability to develop high-performing services
A key part of the role will be bringing together information from across the organisation to identify emerging themes and risks, ensuring that quality intelligence leads to action and sustainable improvement. You will provide expert advice and assurance to senior leaders, Executive committees and the Board and will work closely with Clinical Care Groups and corporate teams across the organisation.
Just as importantly, you will bring compassionate, visible and values-led leadership. You will be comfortable working in a complex environment, able to navigate competing priorities and confident communicating highly sensitive information with clarity, judgement and diplomacy.
Working for our organisation
North London NHS Foundation Trust (NLFT) is committed to improving mental health care across North London to deliver excellent services to our local people.
Our Five-Year Strategy:
- We will provide consistently high-quality care closer to home.
- With our partners in North London and each borough we will ensure equity of outcome for all
- We will offer great places to work, providing staff with supportive environment to deliver outstanding care.
- We will be more effective as an organisation by pioneering research, quality improvement and technology.
Why NLFT?
- We develop and retain our staff through leadership behaviours and managers programme and many more opportunities.
- We promote flexible working and support staff with a range of health and wellbeing initiatives.
- NHS Discounts, generous annual leave and NHS pension scheme
- Excellent internal staff network
In order to meet the needs of the Trust you may be required from time to time to work at different locations to your normal place of work. This may mean that you are required to work at any location that fall under Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey or Islington. The Trust reserves the right to require staff to work at such other places or locations as it considers reasonable and necessary on a temporary or permanent basis.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Why this role?
This is an opportunity to make a significant contribution to the next phase of our quality and safety journey.
You will have the scope to strengthen how we triangulate intelligence, learn from patient safety events, understand variation and risk, and ensure that the voices of patients, families and staff influence improvement. You will also play an important role in supporting an organisational culture characterised by openness, learning, continuous improvement and compassionate leadership.
The postholder will lead senior patient safety and governance functions, including the Head of Integrated Governance Systems, Head of Patient Safety Incident Management and Patient Safety & Family Liaison Manager, and will deputise for the Deputy Chief Nursing Officer when required.
Due to the high number of applications that are received for some posts, we reserve the right to close any vacancies before the stated closing date. Therefore, please ensure you apply without delay if you wish to be considered for this role.
In line with NHS protocols, only those applicants who demonstrate clearly how they meet our person specification will be shortlisted for interview. We regret that it is not possible to contact all applicants for every vacancy. If you have not been contacted within 4 weeks of the closing date, please assume you have not been shortlisted for the next stage.
You must already have the right to work in the United Kingdom or fully meet the eligibility criteria for sponsorship under the Skilled Worker visa route. We welcome applications from candidates who require visa sponsorship; however, we can only consider these where all UKVI requirements are met. Before applying, please ensure that both you and the role satisfy the relevant UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) points‑based system criteria, as applications that do not meet these requirements cannot be progressed. For more information about the criteria, please click here
References will be required to cover your last 3 years of employment/training. One has to be from your current or most recent employer and the others from your previous employer. The references should be from persons with management responsibility or HR.
Please note, in order to progress your application your data will be processed by our 3rd party recruitment providers – North London Partners Shared Service, who conduct recruitment activities on behalf of North London NHS Foundation Trust. As part of pre-employment checks your identity and right to work documentation will be verified remotely (in most circumstances), using a certified identity verification service provider TrustID. You will be asked to capture an image of the relevant documents as well as a “selfie” using your smartphone/tablet (if available) for facial matching. TrustID will also perform a digital address check using Trunarrative and Equifax, which is a soft check and does not leave a footprint on your credit rating. For more information, visit www.trustid.co.uk
The Trust uses electronic new starter forms on Trac to collect personal details. Information collected is securely stored and used to set up the employee record on the ESR HR system.
We are an equal opportunities employer and are committed to creating an inclusive, fair, and supportive workplace for all. We actively welcome applications from individuals who are under‑represented within our workforce and are dedicated to eliminating discrimination in all its forms.
As a Disability Confident (Two Ticks) employer, we guarantee an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role and are committed to making reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process.
By applying for this role, you accept in the event you are successful that your personal data may be transferred from the Trust to another NHS organisation where your employment transfers within the NHS. This is in accordance with the streamlining programme which is aimed at improving efficiencies within the NHS both to make costs savings for NHS organisations but also to save you time when your employment transfers.