Divisional Medical Director

Are you a dynamic and visionary clinical leader ready to shape the future of mental health care?

Are you ready to join an award-winning, industry-leading organisation where quality is at the heart of everything we do — and excellence is more than just a word, it's our culture? With just under 300 medical professionals on our team, we’re setting the standard for care.

Cygnet Health Care is seeking an exceptional Divisional Medical Director (DMD) to take on a pivotal executive leadership role. As the most senior medical leader within your division, you will drive the strategic direction, uphold the highest professional standards, and lead a high-performing medical workforce dedicated to delivering safe, effective, and person-centred care.

This is a unique opportunity to collaborate at the highest level across multidisciplinary teams, influence organisational priorities, and champion a culture of innovation, learning, and continuous improvement.

Cygnet distinguishes itself through a unique combination of scale, specialism, and personalisation of care. Our 13,000 staff support 8,300 individuals and with a portfolio of over 150 services, we offer care across a range of services from acute, PICU, Eating Disorders and CAMHS. We have a strong reputation for quality, inclusion, and staff satisfaction. We stand apart through our ability to deliver exceptional, high-acuity care at scale, underpinned by deep clinical understanding, sector-leading quality ratings, and an unwavering focus on person-centred practice.

We keep our focus on maintaining high-quality standards across all our services, consistently achieving sector-leading regulatory ratings across the UK. 81% of services evaluated earned a Good or Outstanding rating by regulators, outperforming the national average. Cygnet has 17% higher CQC Good or Outstanding ratings than the rest of the mental health independent sector and 95% of our hospitals are rated Good or Outstanding by our internal quality assessment team. Our collaboration with 360 commissioning bodies, has not only allowed us to support integrated pathways of care, but has also helped shape local and regional strategies for individuals with complex needs.

Cygnet has also been recognised externally, with recent wins at the HealthInvestor Awards including Specialist Care Provider of the Year and has also been recognised by the Carers Trust, with 20 of our services being awarded Triangle of Care accreditation.

Reporting directly to the Group Clinical Director, this is a full-time position responsible for strategic leadership of our Health Care South region (Including Greater London, South East, South West, South Wales and West Midlands). This is a remote role but will include travel to sites within this region 2 – 3 days per week, so access to a car & UK driving licence is essential.

Key Responsibilities:

Strategic and Clinical Leadership

• Provide strategic clinical leadership across the division, setting high standards for medical practice and professional conduct.
• Ensure alignment with national clinical policy and statutory requirements, championing evidence-based care, prevention, early intervention, and integrated models of service delivery.
• Promote a strong culture of patient safety, learning, and openness in line with Just Culture principles.

Clinical Governance and Quality Improvement

• Oversee clinical governance frameworks to ensure safe, effective, and person-centered care.
• Lead on clinical quality improvement, audit, and innovation initiatives, ensuring high standards of care are maintained and continuously enhanced.
• Promote adherence to policies relating to safeguarding, medicines optimisation, infection prevention and control, and controlled drug safety.

Medical Workforce Leadership

• Lead on all aspects of clinical workforce planning, including recruitment, retention, role redesign, and succession planning.
• Ensure a high-performing and appropriately skilled clinical workforce through oversight of appraisal, revalidation, CPD, and professional development.
• Embed a culture of reflective practice, supervision, and 360-degree feedback within medical leadership.

Operational Excellence and Resource Stewardship

• Work closely with the respective Managing Directors and regional clinical directors to ensure high-quality and high-value service delivery.
• Ensure clinical productivity and resource utilisation are optimised, with clear outcome measures and benchmarking in place.
• Contribute to the achievement of the overall financial targets by the division.

Innovation, Research and Partnership

• Foster academic and clinical partnerships with external stakeholders, including NHS bodies, academic institutions, and research networks.
• Promote engagement in ethically approved research, supporting a culture of inquiry, learning, and evidence-based practice.
• Champion patient and resident involvement in research to inform service development and improve care outcomes.

We are looking for someone who is…

• Extensively experienced in senior medical leadership, ideally at Associate Medical Director, Regional Medical Director, Divisional Director or equivalent level.
• Holds an in-depth understanding of clinical and corporate governance frameworks.
• Has comprehensive knowledge of the professional, educational, and regulatory requirements of the medical workforce.
• Experienced in service redesign, workforce transformation and strategic planning.
• Demonstrates a proven ability to lead change, manage complex teams and influence across organisational boundaries.
• Demonstrates commitment to quality improvement and evidence-based practice in a multi-disciplinary setting.
• Holds strong financial and budget management skills (desirable).
• Experienced in medical research, audit, and clinical effectiveness.
• Shows high emotional intelligence and excellent interpersonal skills, with the ability to navigate complexity and foster consensus.
• Excellent written, verbal, and presentation skills, with the ability to engage diverse stakeholders.
• Committed to ongoing personal and professional development, including the use of feedback tools such as MSF/360 appraisal.
• Fully registered GMC & MBBS (or equivalent) qualified, and registered on the specialist register (CCT/CESR), Section 12 and AC Status

Why Cygnet? We’ll offer you…

• Market leading salary and bonus
• Company shares
• Travel allowance
• Generous annual leave entitlement that increases with length of service
• Company paid Life Assurance scheme covering 3x salary
• Contributory pension scheme
• Electric Car Scheme
• Free meals, on-site parking and EAP support
• Research and teaching opportunities, as well as the opportunity to lead and participate in QI & Audit initiatives
• A unique opportunity to lead the development of new services within the independent sector, shaping an innovative model of care from the ground up
• Extensive development opportunities and monthly CPD groups
• Peer‑led “Characters of Care” programme and a comprehensive employee benefit and support programme
• Company Funded Cash plan with the ability to claim up to £1000 per annum worth of benefits including free Physiotherapy, Osteopaths, Optical, dental, consultations, scans and free prescriptions
• Gym Discounts across the UK as well as free online fitness classes with ClassPass, Nutritional Programmes and Fitness Consultations
• Discount schemes including Reward Gateway, NHS Discount and Blue Lights Card
• Smart Health Toolkit, including 24 hour GP service with the option of prescription delivery to your local pharmacy

If you would like to discuss this informally we’d be more than happy to facilitate this. Please contact: Hannah Dunlop via [email protected] or 077 20 497 792

Requirements

The successful candidate will be required to undergo an enhanced DBS and reference check and an offer of employment will be subject to successful clearance.

*Recruitment agencies please note: Speculative emails are not to be sent directly to our clinical staff, these need to go via our internal recruitment team. If speculative candidates are sent directly to a member of the clinical team, we will consider these candidates as our own*