Head of Mental Health Clinical Services (Nursing)

South Tyneside Health Collaboration is seeking an experienced Head of Mental Health Clinical Services (Nursing) to provide visible, senior clinical leadership across our Enhanced Primary Care Mental Health, Neurodivergent and Learning Disabilities system. The role is a senior, system-level position for a highly credible nurse leader who can operate confidently across organisational boundaries, influencing practice, strengthening governance and providing assurance in complex, high-risk and ambiguous situations. The postholder will play a critical role in ensuring services across PCNs and partner organisations work as a coherent, safe and clinically aligned system, with clear accountability, consistent standards and effective escalation. You will work as part of an integrated leadership team, remaining operationally engaged, supporting teams directly, resolving clinical complexity and shaping future models of care to ensure they are clinically safe, deliverable and person-centred.

Responsibilities

• Driving consistent clinical standards, escalation thresholds and decision‑making frameworks.
• Providing hands‑on clinical leadership in complex, high‑risk and system‑critical situations.
• Leading multi‑agency collaboration to ensure clarity of responsibility, continuity of care and safe outcomes.

Embedding robust governance, supervision and risk management across organisational boundaries. The postholder works at system level but remains operationally engaged, ensuring that clinical leadership is active, credible and responsive, not purely advisory. They will also play a key role in shaping and influencing service development, ensuring that new models of care are clinically safe, deliverable and aligned across partners.

Qualifications

We are looking for a Registered Nurse with significant senior clinical leadership experience in primary care, community and/or mental health services, and a strong track record in governance, safeguarding and system working.