Lead Nurse Independent Health and Social Care - RCN02718
Nursing | RCN Sunderland Office with hybrid working | £66,909
Contract type: Fixed Term Contract
Lead Nurse Independent Health and Social Care
Sunderland, 35 hours per week, Fixed Term (10 months)
Salary range per annum £66,909 to £75,492 *
Imagine being faced with a world of exciting possibilities that could ultimately enable you to support our members and help shape the health policies of the future. As the UK’s largest trade union and professional body for nursing, we support over half a million members with unwavering loyalty and total commitment. We represent and develop them, support their practice and lobby on their behalf to make a positive difference to their working lives.
We're accredited with Investors in People Silver Standard. Our people are our greatest asset, and we want people who can contribute to our purpose in line with our values.
As the Lead Nurse, Independent Health and Social Care, you’ll use your positive attitude, your knowledge of this sector and your ability to promote nursing.
It's a job full of possibilities and you could get involved in anything from delivering Education, Learning and development to influencing health policy. We'll look to you to represent the RCN on strategic issues and foster a culture of collaboration through matrix working to ensure our members working in the Independent Health and Social Care sectors benefit from everything the RCN has to offer. It's a great way to build your knowledge of our work and develop your potential.
To join us you’ll need to be able to think strategically, have excellent communication skills and possess in-depth knowledge of working in an area of practice in independent health or social care.
A key part of what you do will be to suggest and drive innovative approaches to promote the profession of nursing across the sector, from social care and care homes to prison nursing and independent hospitals, develop and implement membership recruitment and retention approaches as well as raising the profile of the RCN in the sector.
You’ll influence critical decisions about RCN operational planning for our work across these sectors and help us deliver our Independent Sector Strategy for members. This is a real opportunity to make an important difference to nursing across a range of different employment settings and to help shape nursing policy and practice on a regional and national scale.
What we offer you
We expect you to look after our members. And we expect you to be rewarded for it. We offer an impressive range of benefits, a broad range of learning development opportunities and an award-winning health and wellbeing programme. We offer annual leave up to 32 days plus bank holidays and three additional days for the Christmas break plus generous maternity, adoption, paternity, and shared parental leave packages.
*We offer a competitive pay structure with annual pay progression until you reach the top of the salary scale. We normally offer new employees the first point of the salary range, although you may be able to negotiate a higher starting salary depending on your skills, experience and current salary.
We are a diverse organisation and understand everyone has different needs and many of our employees enjoy flexible working enabling them to deliver results whilst having a good work life balance. Our hybrid working model allows for up to 60% of your working time to be carried out from home. At least 40% of your working time will be spent working in person.
Our selection process
Please click the ‘apply now’ button to submit a CV and answer the supporting questions online demonstrating how you meet the criteria for this role. You may not be shortlisted if you don’t. Please ensure your CV is in a simple format with minimal tables and sections. Any identifying information in your application will automatically be anonymised for shortlisting purposes.
We want your experience applying for a job with us to be the best it can be. We may hold our interviews and assessments in person or by video call. If you foresee any problems, please let us know.
Equal opportunities for everyone
Equity, diversity and inclusion are a priority for us and we aim to foster an inclusive environment so our people can bring their authentic selves to work. This is integral to our mission to enable you to support our members and ensure their voice is heard by all UK governments to get the best outcomes for them and their patients.
As a proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme we actively encourage applications from people with disabilities.
Contact details For more information or for an informal discussion about the role please contact the Sunderland office on 0191 511 5801 to make an appointment to speak with Sarah Dodsworth, Regional Director.
For more information about the recruitment and selection process please contact recruit@rcn.org.uk
Opening date: 15 July 2025
Closing date: Midnight on 17 August 2025
If we receive many applications after a week of advertising, we may close this vacancy earlier.
Interview & assessment date: 8 September 2025
Interview date: 08/09/2025
Contracted hours: 35