Overview
Director of Mental Health
Director of Mental Health
Location: Homebased
Contract: Permanent
Salary: £95,000 – £113,625 per annum
For an informal discussion or further information on the role, please contact Dr Arun Chopra via his Executive Personal Assistant, fanni.kovari@cqc.org.uk and for general enquiries please contact recruitment@cqc.org.uk
About Us
We’re the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and we work to improve health and adult social care in England.
We regulate health and adult social care, work together with the public, systems and providers of care to protect people, and to promote and improve quality of care. Our vision is to see everyone receiving safe, effective and compassionate care.
We’re committed to listening, acting, informing and protecting the public, helping providers and systems of care to improve and innovate, ensuring our people feel valued and do great work, and to work together with partners who share our purpose for better care.
We’re now looking for a Director of Mental Health to join us on a full-time, permanent basis.
Why this could be a great role for you…
This is a fantastic opportunity for a credible and inspirational leader from the health and social care system with change and improvement experience gained within regulated systems to join our senior leadership team.
We’ve built our organisation around our values of Excellence, Integrity, Caring, and Teamwork. We are insight-led, proportionate and innovative, transparent, accountable and impartial, just, compassionate and respectful, and collaborative, inclusive and fair.
If these values resonate with you and you feel you can embody and represent them, you will discover an outstanding working environment with opportunities for professional development and growth, where your contributions make a lasting impact.
What’s more, you’ll be taking on a role with real purpose at a time with mental health and social care is at the forefront of the nation’s mindset and having solutions, systems and processes in place is even more important than ever.
What you will bring…
To be considered as our Director of Mental Health, you will need:
– Extensive experience in complex, senior stakeholder engagement across the health and social care system
– Previous experience of working in health, social care, the NHS, regulatory or related fields
– Experience leading large-scale change and driving improvement in complex environments
– Experience of risk management, operational policy development and shaping regulation
– Strong people management experience, including building and developing high-performing teams
– Excellent interpersonal, communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence at the highest levels
– Political awareness and strong business acumen, with the ability to identify opportunities for innovation
– Analytical capability, using data and insight to drive decision-making
– Knowledge of the Mental Health Act (1983), Mental Capacity Act (2005), and wider government and regulatory policy
– An understanding of corporate finance, managing budgets and measures of performance
– A future-thinking approach, skilled in horizon scanning and shaping strategy
What you’ll be doing…
As our Director of Mental Health, you will provide strategic leadership across our mental health work, driving improvement and shaping future policy.
Specifically, you will work with the Chief Inspector of Mental Health, co-ordinate our Mental Health Act responsibilities and shape policy and practice across the health and social care sector.
You will provide clear leadership to the Mental Health Act operations teams, as well as mental health policy and strategy teams, whilst supporting our regulation of Mental Health Independent Providers and High Secure Hospitals, assisting with the annual Mental Health Act Report, and leading our activity in the implementation of the Mental Health Bill.
Additionally, you will:
– Respond to emerging issues and thematic work in the mental health sector
– Build strong relationships with key stakeholders to enhance registration and assessment processes
– Manage risk across health and care, collaborating to develop a shared view of quality
The Benefits
We offer a wide range of benefits, including:
Annual leave starting at 27 days per year, rising to 32.5 days with service, plus bank holidays (usually 8 days per year).
Training and development opportunities.
Wellbeing initiatives, such as gym discounts and meditation.
NHS pension scheme, with around 14% employer contribution.
Discount schemes (including eligibility for a Blue Light card, at a cost of £4.99 and valid for 2 years), reward vouchers, car leasing and more!
Please see our benefits page for the full list.
Next steps…
You can read the full details of the role in the following Job Description and Candidate Information Pack:
JD Director of MH
CQC Candidate Pack Director of Mental Health FINAL
To apply please upload a current CV and covering letter via the link below.
Your covering letter should describe your suitability for the role and outline your knowledge and experience of using the Mental Health Act (1983) and Mental Capacity Act (2005)
Equity for all
We know job descriptions can feel intimidating. Research shows they can cause some people to doubt whether they’re a good fit. This happens more often to people from underrepresented groups (e.g. ethnic minority backgrounds). If this role interests you, we encourage you to apply. Your unique perspective, skills, and experience could be exactly what we need.
We want every candidate to feel supported and able to do their best. If you need adjustments to our process, we’ll work with you to remove any barriers. Visit our accessibility page for more on this. If you’d like to chat, please contact recruitment@cqc.org.uk . Please note, if you have previously informed us of adjustments you need for interview or within your role these are not carried over and must be discussed for each individual application you make.
We promote a workplace where fairness, respect and inclusion are a priority. Diverse teams make our work better, help us deliver our mission and make our culture stronger. See our ED&I page for more about this.
We welcome applications from everyone, and colleagues can find support and community among our many employee networks. This includes people of any:
- Age
- Sex
- Gender identity or expression
- Sexual orientation
- Religion or belief
- Ethnicity
- Disability
Values and vision
We are guided by our core values, which shape our work and our culture.
Excellence – being a high-performing organisation.
Caring – treating everyone with dignity and respect.
Integrity – doing the right thing.
Teamwork – learning from each other to be the best we can.
We are a disability confident employer and a carer confident employer.
A Note on AI
AI tools can be great for research and refining ideas, but we want to learn about you. If you use AI or Chatbots to help you with your application, keep these points in mind:
- AI can support research, structuring and refining your writing, but your application must reflect your real skills and experience.
- Spell-checking and condensing word counts are great ways to use AI effectively.
- Do not copy and paste AI generated answers. These will not help you stand out; remember we want to hear about your skills and experience.
- Providing false and insincere examples goes against our core values of honesty and integrity and may lead to your application being withdrawn or termination of your employment.
