Deputy Director – Inspectorate Office, Hospitals

Grade E3: £75,183 per annum

Contracted Hours: Full-time 37 hours per week

Contract Type: Permanent

Location: Homebased, with travel as required

Closing Date: Monday 25th May 2026 at 11.59pm

Interview Date: w/c 6th July 2026 – please note, these will be face to face in either our Stratford, London Office or Newcastle Upon Tyne Office

Make a difference 

Every role at CQC contributes to our mission. If you’re looking for a new role that offers purpose at a pivotal moment for the organisation, you’ve found it. 
 
As Deputy Director of Hospitals, you’ll support the Chief Inspector and Inspectorate Senior Leadership to deliver CQC’s strategy, strengthen performance, and help rebuild our organisation so it is fit for the future. To achieve this, you will need to build close relationships with directors and colleagues in the wider inspectorates  
 
We are recruiting four roles, each supporting one Inspectorate: Hospitals, Primary Care & Community Services, Mental Health, and Adult Social Care.  While aligned to a specific sector, these roles are integral to working across Inspectorates to enable joined-up, consistent approaches and enhance collaboration. 

Picture this 
You work at the heart of a Chief Inspector’s Office, helping a small central team run smoothly while supporting clear priorities, strong relationships and confident leadership across the system. 
 
In the last year as a Deputy Director for the Inspectorate Office, you might have: 
. Helped a Chief Inspector and Directors drive strategic delivery and performance during a period of organisational change, ensuring priorities stayed focused and achievable. 
. Worked alongside other Deputy Directors to align cross‑sector priorities, sharing insight and learning so approaches were consistent across health and care. 

The role 
You’ll work closely with others to deliver shared outcomes. In this role, you’ll: 
. Support the Inspectorate’s leadership and delivery: Ensure the Chief Inspector and Directors are well supported to lead their Inspectorate, with clear priorities, strong oversight and effective use of time and resources. 
. Coordinate and connect teams: Make sure relationships and programmes of work across Inspectorates and with corporate partners work well, so the Inspectorate’s work is joined up and well supported. 
. Provide strategic insight and assurance: Bring together performance, risk and delivery information to give the Chief Inspector and Directors a clear picture of progress, emerging issues and opportunities to improve quality and consistency. 

Show us 
We will be looking for specific skills, knowledge and experience in your application form: 
. Executive and strategic support: Proven experience supporting a senior leader or executive team to deliver a large, complex portfolio of work, including setting priorities, planning activity, managing budgets, enabling effective governance and tracking delivery against organisational strategy in a national or complex organisation. 
. Regulatory leadership and assurance: Experience leading or overseeing operational delivery in a regulatory or assurance‑based environment, including managing risk, performance, quality and enforcement activity, and using sound judgement within the health and social care system. 
. Collaborative delivery and informed decision‑making: Experience delivering results through matrix working across functions, building effective relationships with senior stakeholders, and using data and insight to produce clear advice, briefings or recommendations that support decision‑making during change. 
. Quality Management System expertise:  Demonstrable knowledge and experience in building and implementing Quality Management system to drive planning, improvement, and assurance.

Apply today and be part of CQC’s work to strengthen health and care, making a real difference for people across England. 

You can read the full details of the role in the following Job Description and Candidate Information Pack: 

Job Description 
Candidate Information Pack

How to apply 
To apply for this role, please submit a copy of your CV and Supporting Statement (no more than 750-words) via the Recruitment System.   
   
Your Supporting Statement should cover the following:   
   
– How your previous experience makes you suitable for this role?   
– What strengths you will bring to the role?   

Compliance

To progress your application, you’ll need to provide evidence of your right to work in the UK. Without valid right to work you won’t be eligible for the role. We are unable to offer sponsorship for this role. Some roles may also be subject to a satisfactory DBS check.

Next steps

If you apply, you’ll need to create a profile and complete an online application form. Please see our information for applicants for more details on the process. We contact every applicant to let them know the outcome of their application, so you will hear from us whether you are shortlisted.

If you’d like to have an informal chat about the role you can contact – Maggie Kemmner, Director of Hospitals, maggie.kemmner@cqc.org.uk. For general enquiries, please email recruitment@cqc.org.uk. 

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 Blue Light Card, costing £4.99 and valid for 2 years), reward vouchers, car leasing and more!

Please see our benefits page for the full list.

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.

We promote a workplace where fairness, respect and inclusion are a priority. 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

A Note on AI

We know 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.

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.