Job Description
Grade E2: £95,000 per annum Contracted Hours: Full time 37 hours per week Contract Type: Secondment Opportunity up to 6 months to cover sick absence - to be reviewed monthly after 3 months and extended as needed Location: Homebased Closing Date: Wednesday 29 April 2026 at 11.59pm Interview Date: Thursday 7 May (pm) and Friday 15 May (am) via MS Teams - please keep dates free should you be shortlisted Compliance Note for internal candidates: This is a secondment opportunity. Please read the recruitment and selection policy section on secondments. You must discuss your application with your line manager before applying. Make a difference Every role at CQC contributes to our mission. If you’re looking for a new interim role in Mental Health that offers real meaning and purpose, you’ve found it. As Interim Director of Mental Health, you’ll provide steady leadership during a period of absence, helping CQC continue to protect people’s rights and improve the quality of mental health care across England. Picture this For the next three to six months, you’re stepping into a senior leadership role at pace, bringing continuity, focus and reassurance while shaping national mental health work that really matters. You’ll balance day to day oversight with high impact activity, ensuring progress continues without pause. As a Director of Mental Health in the Mental Health Directorate, you might lead delivery of the sectors strategic priorities including working with system partners to progress our assessment framework and supporting our teams in delivering our rebuild programme activities. As a Director of Mental Health in the Mental Health Directorate, you could steer CQC’s response to emerging sector risks, working across teams to agree practical actions that support safer, fairer care. The role You’ll play an important part in delivering our mission during a period of cover. In this role, you’ll: Provide strategic and operational leadership: Maintain clear direction for mental health and Mental Health Act activity, ensuring priorities are delivered consistently and performance remains strong throughout the interim period. Oversee risk, quality and improvement: Hold a national view of risk across mental health services, ensuring concerns are identified, managed and escalated appropriately to support improvement and safety. Support people and partnership working: Lead senior colleagues, manage resources and budgets, and sustain trusted relationships with government, providers, system partners and people who use services. Show us We will be looking for specific skills, knowledge and experience in your application form: Interim or senior leadership experience: Experience stepping into senior roles at pace within health, social care, regulation or a related environment, providing stability and clear leadership during periods of change or absence. Risk‑based decision making: Experience using data, insight and lived experience to identify emerging risks, set priorities and guide action that improves service quality and safety. Senior stakeholder engagement: Experience working with senior internal and external stakeholders, including government or system partners, to maintain confidence, influence decisions and deliver agreed outcomes. Apply today to work in a role where your impact is felt every day. You can read the full details of the role in the Job Description How to apply T o 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 interim role? - What strengths will you bring to the role? For an informal discussion or further information on the role, please contact Chris Dzikiti via his Executive PA, Fanni Kovari at [email protected] 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 [email protected] . 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.