Overview
Our Benefits
You can also see our full list of employee benefits on our careers site here: Why you should work for us | West Northamptonshire Council
About the role
What if your experience could help improve not just one service, but dozens?
As a Quality Improvement Officer, you’ll use your knowledge, professional judgement and passion for quality to influence care services across West Northamptonshire and beyond. Rather than focusing on a single home or provider, you’ll work across a diverse portfolio of services, helping to raise standards, share best practice and improve outcomes for adults accessing care and support.
Working across care homes, home care, supported living, day opportunities and other commissioned services, you’ll play a key role in ensuring people receive safe, effective and person-centred support. You’ll help providers identify opportunities for improvement, navigate challenges and continually develop the quality of the services they deliver.
Perhaps you’ve spent years running a service, managing teams, solving problems and improving outcomes for the people in your care. Now you’re looking for the opportunity to use that experience on a bigger stage. An opportunity to support multiple providers, influence best practice and help raise standards across the wider care sector.
If you’re looking for a role that combines professional challenge, variety, autonomy and the chance to make a genuine difference, you’ll find it here.
Interviews will be held on the 18th and 24th August 2026
What will you be doing?
This is a role built around relationships, influence and improvement.
You’ll spend your time out in services, meeting managers, talking through challenges, identifying opportunities and helping providers make meaningful improvements. You’ll be a visible presence across your portfolio, building strong relationships and developing a detailed understanding of the services you support.
Some days you’ll be celebrating excellent practice and sharing what’s working well. Other days you’ll be supporting providers through challenges, reviewing quality standards or helping to develop plans that deliver lasting improvements. And occasionally, you’ll be the person asking the difficult questions and helping services navigate the changes needed to achieve better outcomes.
You’ll act as a critical friend to providers, offering support, challenge, encouragement and expertise in equal measure. Alongside this, you’ll contribute to wider quality improvement activity, share learning across the sector and help identify emerging themes that can influence improvement across the local care market.
No two days are the same, but at the heart of every conversation, visit and improvement plan is the same goal: ensuring people receive the highest quality care and support possible.
About you
We’re not looking for someone who simply understands regulations.
We’re looking for someone who understands people.
You may currently be a Registered Manager, Deputy Manager, Quality Assurance professional, Care Manager or an experienced practitioner within health or social care looking for a fresh challenge. Whatever your background, you’ll have a strong understanding of what good care looks like and a genuine passion for helping services improve.
You’ll be someone who quickly builds credibility and professional relationships. You know how to challenge constructively, support positively and bring people with you. You’re confident having conversations that others might avoid, but you do so with empathy, professionalism and a focus on achieving the best possible outcomes.
You’re naturally curious, enjoy asking questions and take satisfaction from solving problems. Whether you’re writing reports, presenting in forums, visiting providers or supporting improvement activity, you’re able to communicate clearly and confidently with a wide range of people.
The best people in this role genuinely enjoy helping others succeed. They get satisfaction from seeing a service improve, watching leaders grow in confidence and knowing their support has helped create better experiences for the people who rely on those services every day.
Most importantly, you’ll care about making a difference. Because behind every quality review, action plan and provider visit are real people, real lives and real outcomes. That’s what makes this role so important and so rewarding.
Why Join Us?
- Use your experience to influence quality across a wide range of services, not just one organisation.
- Enjoy a varied role where no two days are the same.
- Build relationships and become a trusted expert within the local care sector.
- Combine field-based visits, home working and office working in a flexible hybrid role.
- Develop specialist expertise in quality improvement, commissioning and regulation.
- Join a supportive and experienced team that is passionate about improving services and outcomes.
- Be enrolled into the ever popular Local Government Pension Scheme – a benefit with an extremely loyal fan club.
- Most importantly, see the direct impact of your work on the lives of people accessing care and support across West Northamptonshire.
If you’re passionate about quality, driven by improvement and ready to use your experience to make an even bigger impact, we’d love to hear from you.
About us
We’re a new council, following one of the largest shake-ups in local government
reform in recent history. As a new authority, we’re embarking on an exciting journey
to deliver exceptional services for our residents, customers and
communities.
Our vision at West Northamptonshire Council is ‘to make West Northants a great
place to live, work, visit and thrive’. We truly stand by this and work hard every day to
make this a reality. Our corporate values, THRIVE, stand for: Trust, High Performance,
Respect, Innovate and Empower, they underpin everything we do and how we deliver
services.
At West Northants Council, it’s about our people. People who thrive with
ambition, bubble with new ideas, demand better ways of working, caring about every detail,
and who never shy away from a challenge. Our culture is a gateway for new experiences. A
place to forge new opportunities. To empower you in your career and unite you with like-
minded people.
When potential is unlocked, talent thrives.
Choose a career that offers you a true sense of achievement, fills you with pride and
challenges you in a positive way, every day.
West Northants Council, where careers thrive.
IMPORTANT: Before applying for this role, please make sure you have the right to work in the country where the role is based. Unless it clearly stipulates within in the job advert above that the hiring company is looking to or able to sponsor applicants it is deemed that the hiring employer will only consider applications from those able to comply with and work in the country where the role is based.
