Ward Manager

Job summary

Are you an experienced, motivated healthcare leader passionate about delivering high-quality, patient- and staff-centred care? We are looking for a dedicated Ward Manager to join our energetic, supportive team at Cherrywood Ward in Dartford.

Cherrywood Ward is a vibrant acute inpatient environment caring for adults aged 18-65 with complex mental and physical health needs. Situated at Little Brook Hospital alongside other acute and Psychiatric Intensive Care Units (PICU), our wards work closely together to ensure outstanding patient outcomes while fostering strong peer support across teams.

In this role, you will lead a diverse multidisciplinary team--including nurses, healthcare assistants, occupational therapists, psychologists, peer support workers, junior doctors, and consultants. Operating on a supernumerary basis, you will drive clinical excellence, champion innovation, and support staff development across the unit, providing direct clinical input whenever needed.

If you are a compassionate leader who thrives in a collaborative environment, we would love to hear from you.

We are serious about diversity and inclusion, and we are working hard to build this into our DNA. We warmly welcome applications for any of our roles from people from diverse backgrounds, and we are proactively encouraging applications from under-represented communities for our more senior roles, like this one

Main duties of the job

• Clinical Leadership & Recovery Practice: Oversee the care of working-age adults with complex mental and physical health needs, embedding evidence-based, person-centred, and recovery-orientated practice across the ward.

• Team Development & Supervision: Provide robust clinical and professional leadership, offering regular supervision, training, and mentorship to junior staff.

• Safety & Quality Assurance: Monitor ward safety and clinical quality in line with the Health and Social Care Act. Proactively identify, escalate, and resolve quality breaches or incidents using data triangulation and regular service reviews.

• Strategic Alignment & Governance: Support Trust objectives by ensuring staff comply with internal policies, clinical guidelines, and external audit requirements.

• Openness & Integrity: Uphold a strict Duty of Candour at all times, maintaining transparent, compassionate communication with service users and carers.

• Flexible Clinical Support: Lead from the front, stepping in to provide direct clinical input and team coverage when required.

About us

We are Kent and Medway Mental Health NHS Trust. We care for the mental health and wellbeing of people across Kent and Medway.

Our teams support children, young people and adults with a wide range of mental health needs. We also provide specialist services, including all-age eating disorder services and neurodevelopmental assessments for children and young people, such as autism and ADHD.

Because we work across the whole county and across hospital and community settings, we can make care more joined up and easier to access for the people we serve.

Our vision is simple: we are here to help communities not just live with mental illness, but live well. It's why we're passionate about working with communities to make mental health care better for everyone. Everything we do is guided by our values: caring, inclusive, curious and confident.

Join us if you share our passion for better mental health care and want to be part of a team that's working well together.

The High-Cost Area (HCA) allowance, also referred to as London Weighting, is a payment made to employees who work in London and the surrounding areas.

As this post is based in Dartford, Gravesham or Swanley, the successful applicant will receive an additional payment each month.

5% of basic salary, subject to a minimum payment of £1,346 per year and a maximum payment of £2,270 per year. The agreed annual amount will be divided into 12 equal amounts and paid monthly.

2026/27 figures

Job responsibilities

Please refer to the attached job description for the full details on the responsibilities and person specification

Person specification

Training, Qualifications and Registration

Essential

• Professional registration e.g. RMN, RNLD, Occupational Therapist.
• Practice Assessor

Desirable

• Leadership qualification.

Experience

Essential

• Experience as a Deputy Ward Manager, or equivalent, within an inpatient setting.

Desirable

• 5 years post registration experience.

Knowledge and Skills

Essential

• Mentoring, role modelling and coaching skills.
• Ability to utilise, and provide, clinical supervision effectively.
• A comprehensive understanding and ability to apply principles of risk assessment and risk management.
• Significant awareness of clinical governance and its relationship to clinical effectiveness and patient safety and patient experience.

Desirable

• Knowledge and experience of managing a change programme.