Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust • Dartford DA2 7WG

Continuous Improvement Lead - Offender Healthcare Directorate | Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust

About this role

Join Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust and help shape a culture of continuous improvement that makes a real difference to people’s lives. Quality is at the heart of everything we do, and as a Continuous Improvement Lead (CIL) you will work with prison teams in our Offender Healthcare directorate to turn ideas into meaningful change that improves care, outcomes and experience.

The post holder will provide improvement expertise and support to healthcare teams in a number of prisons across the South West and South East of England. It is a unique opportunity to improve healthcare for people in secure settings and to influence change in a complex, rewarding and often overlooked part of the NHS.

The post holder will be part of an ambitious, continuous improvement programme that is transforming how improvement happens across Oxleas. Working as one of 7 Continuous Improvement Leads, you will lead, coach and support frontline teams to test new ideas, use data for improvement and embed lasting improvement.

If you are passionate about improving services, building capability and making an impact at scale, this is an exciting opportunity to be part of something truly meaningful, and a wonderful team.

The Continuous Improvement Lead will play a key role in three main areas of support that the Improvement

Team provides to the trust

  • Direct support to front line services to transform and improve the quality of the service they provide to patients
  • Development and delivery of improvement projects that may span multiple service areas
  • Building improvement capability in our workforce through the design and delivery of development programmes, training, mentoring and coaching

We are looking for an enthusiastic and dynamic individual who has experience of making change happen. The post holder will have a proven track record of working with frontline staff to deliver significant improvements to service quality with evidence of benefits and significant experience of using data and measurement for improvement.

This post offers an excellent opportunity to work within a forward thinking organisation that puts quality at the heart of what we do, further develop our quality system and enhance the quality of the services we provide for those with lived experience, staff and other stakeholders.

Oxleas offers a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people in community and secure environment settings. Our services include community health care such as district nursing and speech and language therapy, care for people with learning disabilities and mental health care such as psychiatry, nursing and therapies. Our multidisciplinary teams look after people of all ages and we work in close partnership with other parts of the NHS, local councils and the voluntary sector and through our new provider collaboratives. Our 4,300 members of staff work in many different settings including hospitals, clinics, prisons, secure hospitals, children’s centres, schools and people’s homes.

We have over 125 sites in a variety of locations in the South of England. In London we operate within the Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley Greenwich and into Kent. We manage hospital sites including Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup and Memorial Hospital, Woolwich, as well as the Bracton Centre, our medium secure unit for people with mental health needs. We are the largest NHS provider of prison health services providing healthcare to prisons within Devon, Dorset, Bristol, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, Kent and South London. We are proud of the care we provide and our people.

Our purpose is to improve lives by providing the best possible care to our patients and their families. This is strengthened by our new values:

  • We’re Kind
  • We’re Fair
  • We Listen
  • We Care

Key Task and Responsibilities

Continuous Improvement

  • Provide leadership, facilitation and specialist support to teams

undertaking improvement projects, using recognised QI methodology to maximise motivation, engagement, impact and learning

  • Work collaboratively with clinical, non-clinical, corporate and managerial colleagues across Offender Healthcare Services to identify quality improvement opportunities and support the spread of learning and best practice across offender healthcare settings
  • Train staff, those with lived experience and carers in improvement methods and tools
  • In discussion with the Assistant Director of Quality Management, agree programmes of work that you will lead and deliver
  • To provide specialist training in improvement for a range of audiences
  • To collate, provide and analyse qualitative and quantitative information relating to patient care/outcomes when required.
  • Provide support in the measurement and use of data for improvement projects
  • Work with frontline teams on the identification, collection, analysis and interpretation of data for use in the monitoring or the impact of the projects. This will include presenting data in a variety of formats, bar charts, statistical process control charts
  • Work with project sponsors to set time scales and project deliverables which are reviewed regularly and take corrective action where required
  • To support the development, updating and maintenance of quality improvement approaches, priorities and programmes relevant to Offender Healthcare Services
  • Development and delivery of improvement projects across Offender Healthcare Services, including work that may span multiple prison settings
  • Planning and organising a number of complex quality improvement programmes within Offender Healthcare Services, some of which may require adaptation to meet the needs of different clinical and custodial environments
  • Implement policies for own work area and suggest changes to improve performance that have wider implications

Finance

  • In discussion with the Assistant Director of Quality Management, ensure that appropriate resources and equipment are available at all times to support the programmes

This advert closes on Wednesday 27 May 2026

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