NATASHA RICHARDS

I am currently employed as an Occupational Health Advisor with Optima Health since 01/2025, having progressed through the GROW programme. Currently I am a mentor of a colleague undertaking the GROW programme. In addition, I am responsible for managing a diverse caseload including management referrals for sickness absence, fitness for work assessments, health surveillance, and pre-employment screening. I provide clear, evidence-based advice to managers, balancing employee wellbeing with business needs. I ensure timely report completion within service-level agreements, maintain robust documentation, and uphold strict information governance standards. I am highly conscious of performance metrics, report turnaround times, and the importance of delivering consistent, evidenced based clinical advice in a driven occupational health environment.

I have 13 years NHS experience, including almost six years in senior clinical and operational leadership roles, where I developed a strong focus on clinical governance, performance assurance, and workforce development. As Clinical Team Manager, I led caseload oversight, audits, workforce planning, escalation management, and budget monitoring. I ensured staff compliance with training, competency frameworks, and revalidation requirements while mitigating service risk. Within the out-of-hours service, I devised a standardised triage tool to improve clinical consistency, prioritisation, and response times. In a senior management role within the temporary staffing department, I was accountable for approximately 1,600 healthcare professionals. I led recruitment initiatives, including liaising with a local university to bring student nurses into the workforce, managed allocation across seven divisions, oversaw temporary staffing expenditure, and delivered staffing targets within budget. These responsibilities strengthened my operational efficiency, clinical competency oversight, and professional development of staff, linking workforce planning directly to service performance. Clinically, I undertook regular patient assessment, evaluated and implemented care, complex decision-making, and safe, outcome-focused care.

My experience in urgent care and multidisciplinary collaboration has strengthened my ability to manage competing priorities, make timely decisions, support teams under pressure and manage complex interactions.

I am now seeking to progress into a Clinical Performance Manager role, combining my current occupational health with leadership, governance, and workforce development experience to ensure teams deliver consistent, high-quality performance. I am passionate and motivated by providing appropriate staff support, being approachable and fair to undertake roles requiring balance between clinical excellence, operational accountability, and KPI achievement, while enhancing staff capability, customer relationships and I am keen to grow within the business. I am committed to ongoing development, having previously self-funded qualifications. I am keen to consolidate my occupational health knowledge and have explored undertaking a self-funded an Occupational Health degree to strengthen my expertise.