Clinical Quality Assurance and Practice Development Lead (MH&LD) - INTERNAL

Job Overview PLEASE NOTE THAT WE WILL ONLY ACCEPT APPLICATIONS FROM STAFF CURRENTLY EMPLOYED BY HYWEL DDA HEALTH BOARD

Hywel Dda University Health Board is looking for an experienced, motivated and compassionate clinical leader to take up a newly developed role at the heart of our Mental Health &​ Learning Disabilities (MH&​LD) Clinical Care Group: Clinical Quality Assurance and Practice Development Lead.

This is a pivotal post for anyone who wants to make a tangible difference to the safety and quality of mental health and learning disability services across West Wales. You will lead the design, implementation and continuous improvement of our quality assurance, incident learning and practice development systems — working across community, crisis, inpatient and liaison settings, and across the full age range from children through to older adults.

You will work closely with senior clinical and operational leaders, including direct engagement with the Assistant Director of Nursing and wider governance structures, to ensure that learning from incidents, audits and patient feedback translates into real, sustained improvements in frontline practice.

This is a role for someone who is as comfortable building relationships and coaching ward-based staff as they are presenting analysis and assurance to senior governance audiences.

If you are passionate about patient safety, evidence-based practice and genuine co-production with people who use our services and their families, we would welcome your application.

Main duties of the job The successful applicant will:

• Lead Quality Assurance &​ Practice Development function
• Lead incident management and Duty of Candour processes
• Coordinate quality reviews, audits and improvement work
• Develop policies and clinical standards
• Engage stakeholders and external partners
• Provide coaching, mentoring and education
• Promote co-production with patients and families
• Support governance and regulatory compliance

The ability to speak Welsh is desirable for this post; English and/or Welsh speakers are equally welcome to apply.

Interviews will be held on 03/08/2026

Working for our organisation Hywel Dda University Health Board plans and provides NHS healthcare services for people living in Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire, and bordering counties.

We have over 13,000 staff and together we provide primary, community, in-hospital, mental health and learning disabilities services.

We work in partnership with the three local authorities, as well as public, private and third sector colleagues, including our valued team of volunteers.

Our services are provided in:

• Four main hospitals: Bronglais Hospital in Aberystwyth; Glangwili Hospital in Carmarthen; Prince Philip Hospital in Llanelli; and Withybush Hospital in Haverfordwest
• Five community hospitals: Amman Valley and Llandovery hospitals in Carmarthenshire; Tregaron Hospital in Ceredigion; and Tenby and South Pembrokeshire hospitals in Pembrokeshire
• Two integrated care centres: Aberaeron and Cardigan in Ceredigion, and several other community settings
• 47 general practices (six of which are health board managed practices); dental practices (including four orthodontic); 99 community pharmacies; 43 general ophthalmic practices; and 8 ophthalmic domiciliary providers
• Numerous mental health and learning disabilities services

Hywel Dda University Health Board operates a bilingual policy. All applicants are invited to apply in Welsh, any application submitted in Welsh will not be treated less favourably than an application made in English. IMPORTANT NOTE FOR APPLICANTS: Applications for our roles are carefully reviewed and shortlisted based on specific criteria, which varies from job to job. Using a generic application to apply for multiple roles or relying on automated AI application services, such as Lazy Apply or AI Apply, may not provide the necessary information, leading to your application being overlooked. To ensure your application is given full consideration, we recommend submitting a tailored application that directly addresses the criteria listed in the Person Specification section of the advert.

By submitting your application to NHS Jobs/Trac, you are giving your consent for elements of your application data to be transferred to the NHS Electronic Staff Record (ESR) and other secure, internal NHS Workforce systems in order to support and manage your recruitment and employment within your employing organisation; to be used by Recruitment for purposes of checking your Professional Registration online (where applicable). These processes are in line with Fair and Lawful processing in line with current Data Protection Legislation especially those in relation to your personal or sensitive personal data (sensitive personal data is defined as any declared physical or mental health conditions, racial or ethnic origin, sexual orientation, trade union membership, political opinion, religious beliefs). As an organisation, we ensure that the legislation defining confidentiality is observed such as use of data for specific, defined purposes, and use of data that is relevant and not excessive whilst practicing data accuracy and security of all held personal identifiable information (PII) If you are successfully appointed, by completing the application form you authorise the UHB to obtain any previous NHS service details including all electronically held sickness information, via the Inter Authority Transfer process on the national Electronic Staff Record (ESR). To work in the UK, all candidates who are not UK or Republic of Ireland (RoI) nationals require sponsorship to obtain either a Health and Care visa or Skilled Worker visa , unless you have permission to work via another route. Non UK / RoI candidates wishing to apply should self-assess the likelihood of obtaining a Certificate of Sponsorship by visiting Work in the UK . If you are eligible for the Health and Care visa, application costs are lower and you do not need to pay the annual Immigration Health Surcharge.