Overview
Specialist Advisor – Independent Healthcare
Specialist Advisor Rate – £300 payable to the individual or to a seconding organisation.
Contracted Hours: Ad-Hoc – As and when required.
Closing date: Monday 27th October 2025 at 11.59pm
Are you committed to helping us regulate health and social care within England?
When thinking about what drives you every day in your job, what keeps you motivated and passionate about your work what comes to mind? For 3000+ people at the CQC we end each day knowing that we have made a difference to the lives of those most in need in our communities. We make sure health and social care services provide people with safe, effective, compassionate, high-quality care and encourage care services to improve. We are looking for people who are caring, demonstrate integrity and work well as part of a team to join with us and share in this sense of achievement. If you would like to help us, make a positive impact to health and social care within England, then read on.
Why this could be a great role for you….
The CQC’s approach to inspection is reliant on the inclusion of Specialist Advisors in each inspection team. Specialist Advisors provide specialist advice and knowledge and support the CQC’s regulatory inspection and investigation activity. This advice ensures that our judgements are informed by up to date and credible clinical and professional knowledge and experience.
This role is ad-hoc and can be undertaken alongside your current role via an inward secondment agreement. Many employers encourage Specialist Advisors to carry out work for CQC using study leave or professional leave as it is a valuable tool for service improvement and supporting personal professional development, however we would encourage candidates to discuss and agree this with their employer, prior to submitting an application.
There is also provision for Specialist Advisors to complete work for CQC in their own time and to receive remuneration through CQC payroll, income is subject to statutory deductions at source. This applies to individuals who do not have a substantive employer and/or those who carry out work for CQC outside of their substantive working hours.
What we’re looking for from you…
We welcome those who are deeply passionate about quality in healthcare services and wish to seek to make a lasting contribution to improving the experiences of service users and families in the delivery of effective regulation, credible inspections and tangible quality improvements.
Here at the Care Quality Commission we are seeking to recruit and strengthen our team of Specialist Advisors with expertise in acute Independent Healthcare. To be considered for this role you must be from one of the following areas:
- Surgical ward senior nurse or manager
- Outpatient senior nurse or manager with a speciality (such as for ophthalmology)
- High dependency nurses (for surgical specialities)
- Allied Health Professionals including physiotherapists and radiographers
- Theatre senior practitioners and nurse manager
- Endoscopy nurse specialist
- Cancer services nurse, manager or doctor
- Cosmetic surgery nurse, manager or surgeon
- Independent health governance manager or lead
- Medical Director, acute Independent health hospital or clinic
You will have up-to-date and credible clinical and professional knowledge and experience which will help you evaluate and analyse evidence and information. You should be a skilled communicator, with the ability to engage with staff, service users and stakeholders at every level. You should be able to demonstrate the ability to interpret complex information and be comfortable working transparently as part of a team.
You are not committed to undertaking a specific number of inspections throughout the year, but we would expect a minimum of 1 or 2 days a month where possible and more if you are able. We try to give you 6 weeks’ notice ahead of inspection, but this is not always possible as we do inspect dependent on risk and some of this may be at short notice. We have a scheduling department which will be your contact and who will organise your availability.
We do a mixture of virtual and onsite inspections and where travel, accommodation and subsistence are incurred they will be reimbursed within the parameters of CQC policy.
Within your supporting statement you should tell us about your experience of one of the above areas.
Candidates who are successful at the shortlisting stage will be invited to participate in an interview held virtually via Microsoft Teams.
Please do not use this application as an opportunity to express an interest in other Specialist Advisor roles as we will be unable to retain your information for this purpose and your application will be closed.
Key responsibilities:
- Provide timely, robust and objective specialist advice to CQC staff, either through verbal or written communication.
- Accompany CQC representatives on inspection and investigation activity to identified provider organisations and provide relevant advice and input to your specialist area in order to support appropriate judgements to be made.
- Observe the highest standards of impartiality, integrity and objectivity in relation to advice and activities that are undertaken on CQC’s behalf.
- Adopt an approach of openness and transparency in all business activities and the provision of advice undertaken on CQC’s behalf.
- Ensure all work carried out is within the scope of that required and relevant CQC policies/guidance are adhered to.
- Maintain the confidentiality of information that is accessed in the course of work undertaken for CQC.
Essential criteria:
- Proven experience in your specialist area – see above.
- Strong understanding of the health and/or social care sector.
- Highly-developed influencing, analytical and communication skills.
- A track record of working successfully with senior teams in large organisation’s.
- Have up to date skills, knowledge and experience in area of specialism.
- Hold current registration with appropriate professional body.
- Reside in England and be able to evidence employment within an organisation currently regulated by CQC.
Individual Adjustments…
We are committed to being open and transparent around our processes and we endeavour to offer every candidate the opportunity to perform at their best throughout the recruitment process. We seek to support candidates to identify potential challenges and work with them to identify and facilitate individual adjustments as appropriate. Should you require assistance and/or would like to request an adjustment at any stage of the recruitment process, please contact a member of the team via email: temprecruitment@cqc.org.uk.
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. Your application will be completely anonymous. 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 or not you are shortlisted.
You can read the full details of the role in the Job Description
For an informal discussion or further information about this role, please contact Joanne Ward and Michelle Gibney, Senior Specialists via email at joanne.ward@cqc.org.uk / michelle.gibney@cqc.org.uk
The Benefits
We offer a wide range of benefits , including:
- Training and development opportunities.
- Wellbeing initiatives, such as gym discounts and meditation.
- Discount schemes (including eligibility for a Blue Light card, at a cost of £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 . 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.
