Lead Practice Nurse

Description

We're looking for an experienced Lead Practice Nurse to provide clinical leadership across our nursing service. Someone ready to shape how nursing care is delivered, while still doing the hands-on clinical work that drew them into nursing in the first place.

This is a genuinely blended role. You'll continue to work as a Practice Nurse, delivering direct patient care for the majority of your working week, while also leading and supporting our Practice Nurses, Healthcare Assistants and Phlebotomists - mentoring, coaching and developing the team around you. You'll oversee clinical governance and quality across the nursing function, working closely with our Central Management Team to make sure the service runs safely, efficiently, and to a consistently high standard for every patient we see.

We know that stepping into leadership often means stepping away from the patient care you love, that's not the case here. Protected time is built into your week specifically for leadership responsibilities, so you're never trying to squeeze it in around a full clinical caseload. But this isn't a desk-bound management role either: you'll be a visible, trusted presence on the floor, someone your team can turn to, learn from, and lean on when it matters.

If you're an Experienced Practice Nurse who enjoys leadership without giving up the clinical work, and you want a genuine say in how nursing is delivered across a growing, multi-site organisation - we'd love to hear from you.

Key Responsibilities

• Leading and line-managing Practice Nurses, Healthcare Assistants and Phlebotomists — including inductions, mentoring, supervision and performance reviews
• Setting clear priorities, giving timely feedback and coaching colleagues to remove barriers to performance
• Overseeing clinical governance, safety and quality — including audits, significant events, complaints and incident learning
• Leading on safeguarding, infection prevention, medicines management and clinical risk within the nursing team
• Working with the Central Management Team on rotas, cover, recruitment and retention
• Ensuring key clinical programmes run safely and on target — long-term condition reviews, cervical screening, immunisations, wound care and NHS Health Checks
• Monitoring performance against QOF, contractual and internal targets, and driving improvement plans where needed
• Continuing to deliver hands-on Practice Nurse duties across the working week, including long-term condition management, screening, immunisations and patient education

You’ll thrive here if you:

• Are a Registered Nurse with current NMC registration and a recognised General Practice/Primary Care Nursing qualification (or equivalent experience)
• Have substantial recent experience as a Practice Nurse, including long-term condition management, screening, immunisation and wound care
• Have experience leading, supervising or developing clinical colleagues — including handling performance concerns fairly and directly
• Communicate clearly, set expectations early, and follow through on commitments to your team
• Take ownership of decisions and outcomes, and use evidence to drive improvement
• Are comfortable balancing hands-on clinical work with visible, active leadership
• Have experience with clinical audit or quality improvement (independent prescribing, leadership qualifications or multi-site nursing leadership experience all a bonus, but not essential)

More Information

Please review the full job spec here

About Penrose Health

Penrose Health is on a mission to deliver outstanding healthcare to every patient we serve.

We care for 75,000+ people across 9 sites in South East London, supported by a team of 200+ clinicians and staff. Our model is built on permanent, diverse teams, strong governance, and a clear focus on continuity, quality, and access.

We work closely with NHS partners to deliver a full range of services — from routine checks to complex, long-term care — backed by robust systems and a culture of continuous improvement.

We're proud to hold a CQC "Good" rating and consistently receive strong feedback from patients.

Learn more at penrosehealth.co.uk.