Co-Director
Women's, Children's and Families
Barwon Health
CANDIDATE INFORMATION PACK
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We, Barwon Health, acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land, the Wadawurrung people of the Kulin Nation. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. We thank the Traditional Owners for custodianship of the land and celebrate the continuing culture of the Wadawurrung people, acknowledging the memory of honourable ancestors.
Executive Summary
- Lead strategic and operational performance across Barwon Health's Women's, Children's and Families Directorate, a critical clinical portfolio within one of Australia's largest regional health services.
- Report directly to the Chief Operating Officer while working closely with the Clinical Director to drive service excellence, workforce reform and sustainable models of care.
- Influence the future direction of women's, children's and families services through operational leadership, governance oversight, service redesign and continuous improvement.
- Make a lasting impact on health outcomes for a rapidly growing regional population while enjoying the lifestyle benefits of Victoria's thriving Geelong region.
THE OPPORTUNITY
Barwon Health is one of the largest and most comprehensive regional health services in Australia, delivering care across the full continuum from primary and community services through to acute, mental health, and aged care. Serving a population of more than 500,000 people across a network of over 20 sites and supported by more than 9,000 staff and volunteers, the organisation plays a critical role in meeting the health needs of a rapidly growing and diverse regional community. It operates within a complex and evolving environment shaped by increasing demand, workforce pressures, and the need to deliver sustainable, high‑quality care aligned to contemporary models and government priorities.
The Women's, Children's and Families Directorate is one of Barwon Health's most significant and strategically important clinical portfolios, delivering an extensive and highly integrated range of services across maternity, midwifery, obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics, neonatal care and family-focused community programs. Spanning inpatient, outpatient and community settings, the directorate supports women, children and families across every stage of the care continuum and plays a central role in improving the health and wellbeing of communities throughout the Barwon South West region.
The service is both broad in scope and sophisticated in complexity, providing more than 3,000 births annually and offering a comprehensive suite of contemporary maternity models, including Midwifery Group Practice, Homebirth, shared maternity care and tertiary high-risk obstetric services. Complementing these services are a Level 2 Special Care Nursery, inpatient paediatric services, Hospital in the Home, developmental and rehabilitation programs, multidisciplinary child development services, an Early Parenting Centre, paediatric outpatient programs and a range of specialist community-based services. Collectively, these services represent one of the largest and most visible clinical directorates within Barwon Health, requiring executive leadership that can successfully balance operational excellence with long-term strategic vision.
This appointment presents an exceptional opportunity to join a highly regarded executive leadership team at a defining moment in the directorate's evolution. With the Victorian Government investing more than $500 million in the development of a new Women's and Children's facility, the successful candidate will help shape the future delivery of maternity, neonatal and paediatric services for the region.
THE ROLE
Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer and working in close collaboration with the Clinical Director, the Co-Director, Women's, Children's and Families provides strategic and operational leadership across a diverse and complex directorate. The role is jointly responsible for developing and delivering service plans, achieving performance objectives and ensuring services are aligned with Barwon Health's strategic priorities and commitment to safe, patient-centred care.
The position carries broad responsibility for the operational management of the Directorate, including service performance, workforce leadership, patient flow, resource allocation, financial stewardship and the delivery of high-quality clinical services. The Co-Director leads the implementation of strategies, policies and governance frameworks that support operational excellence, service sustainability and continuous improvement, while ensuring compliance with regulatory, accreditation and organisational requirements.
A critical aspect of the role involves fostering strong relationships across clinical, operational and executive stakeholder groups to support integrated models of care and effective service delivery. The Co-Director works closely with senior clinicians, managers and professional leaders to build workforce capability, strengthen multidisciplinary collaboration and drive innovation in response to emerging service and workforce needs. The role also contributes to organisation-wide initiatives, strategic planning, risk management and after-hours executive leadership through participation in the Director-on-Call roster.
THE CANDIDATE
The successful candidate will be an accomplished executive leader and Registered Midwife with a proven record of leading large, complex women's and children's services within a contemporary health environment. They will bring demonstrated experience in partnering effectively with senior clinicians to deliver integrated models of care, driving operational excellence across quality, safety, workforce and financial performance, and successfully leading organisational change within a matrix environment. Equally important will be their ability to build trust and credibility across the organisation, engage confidently with government, community and health sector stakeholders, and provide the stable, authentic leadership required to guide the directorate through a period of sustained growth, increasing service demand and significant transformational change.
HOW TO APPLY
The closing date for applications is Monday, 24 August 2026.
For a confidential discussion about the position, please contact:
Lynette Taylor
HardyGroup Executive Director, Search and Recruitment
HardyGroup
BARWON HEALTH
About Barwon Health
Barwon Health is one of the largest and most comprehensive regional health services in Australia, providing care at all stages of life and circumstance. Services available through Barwon Health cover the full spectrum from primary care, community services, aged care, rehabilitation, mental health, emergency and acute care. We serve more than 500,000 people through the efforts of more than 9000 staff and volunteers across more than 20 sites. Barwon Health is committed to developing a vibrant culture of education, training and research that advances health and wellbeing for all.
Formed in 1998, Barwon Health is one of the largest and most comprehensive regional health services in Australia, providing care at all stages of life and circumstance. Health services available through Barwon Health cover the full spectrum from primary care, community services, aged care, rehabilitation, mental health, emergency and acute care. With the exception of neurosurgery and transplantation, virtually all other specialties are available through University Hospital Geelong.
Barwon Health provides services for everyone who needs care, regardless of their financial status or the location of their usual residence. As a regional health service, we provide leadership and tertiary referral services across the Barwon South West region. Our local community is the G21 region which comprises the residents of the City of Greater Geelong, Colac Otway Shire, Golden Plains Shire, Borough of Queenscliffe and Surf Coast Shire.
Care is provided to the community through:
- Community health services at key locations throughout the region.
- Aged care through the McKellar Centre and its sites in North Geelong and Charlemont.
- Rehabilitation services both as an inpatient at the McKellar Centre and outpatient services at North Geelong and Belmont.
- A major teaching hospital and its associated services.
- With more than 8,700 staff, we are one of Australia’s largest regional employers and a major education provider through our relationships with Deakin University, University of Melbourne, Monash University, the Gordon and a number of other educational centres and universities.
Barwon Health Statement of Commitment to Child Safety
- Barwon Health is committed to the health, safety, wellbeing and empowerment of all children and young people and has zero tolerance for child abuse.
- We are committed to providing a child-safe environment where the health of children and young people is promoted and where they are safe, feel safe, are encouraged to communicate their concerns, and their voices are heard about decisions that affect their health and lives.
- We are committed to preventing child abuse and have processes in place to identify and respond to child abuse and to actively reduce risks.
- We are committed to providing training and education materials and resources to support and maintain the currency of the knowledge of our workforce.
- We value the role of families and carers in the lives of children and young people and have processes in place to involve them in decision-making and to support communications with them.
- Allegations of abuse and neglect and safety concerns will be treated seriously and consistently with our policies and procedures and legal obligations.
Families and Carers Rights and Responsibilities
The Carers Recognition Act 2012 acknowledges the important role of carers and introduced the principle that, where appropriate, carers should be involved in the assessment, planning, delivery and review of services that affect them and the care relationship.
Families and carers are important contributors to the care and wellbeing of our consumers and their ongoing recovery. Every effort is made to support the role of families and carers and to encourage and promote their involvement in all elements of our service delivery.
Barwon Health works in partnership with families and carers to bring about the best possible healthcare outcomes for consumers.
We provide health promotion programs that aim to improve the health and well-being of the population and address priorities in the Victorian Public Health and Wellbeing Plan 2019-2023.
Barwon Health organisational structure
See an overview of Barwon Health’s organisational structure.
Role Specification
The Co-Director Womens, Children’s and Families is accountable to the Chief Operating Officer for strategic and operational leadership of the directorate and contributing to the achievement of the Directorate’s and Barwon Health’s Strategic Plan and objectives.
The Co-Director works collaboratively with the Clinical Director Womens Children’s and Families and is responsible for the development of service plans and Key Performance Indictors (KPI’s). Working in partnership with the Clinical Director, charged with the responsibility of service delivery and the management of the Directorate’s budget within delegations of authority.
Key Accountabilites
- Work the Clinical Director and Business Partners (Finance and People and Culture) to achieve strategic priorities
- Provide governance within the Directorate and across Barwon Health Manage staff operational issues within the Directorate with the relevant head of unit or line manager
- Provide operational leadership of the Directorate, including budget management
- Provide daily operational leadership of the Directorate, including the operational performance, the implementation and management of service plans, care delivery, quality leadership within the Directorate, education and training, safety and quality, human resources, promoting clinical standards and governance, patient flow and for achieving the Directorate KPI’s, and managing the Directorate budget within the delegations of authority
- Work collaboratively with other Directorate leads on all operational and staff matters
- Undertake regular Directorate Performance Meetings and represent the Directorate at other meetings as required
- Develop a professional reporting line to the relevant discipline lead
- Significantly contributing to Barwon Health’s strategic planning, consistent with the Strategic Plan and objectives
- Provide strong leadership within the Directorate, fostering an environment that inspires staff to set direction for and continually improve services across Barwon Health
- Developing policies and practices in consultation with senior managers and clinicians that provide clinical engagement in the management of the Women’s Children’s and Families Directorate and the development of inter-disciplinary clinical teams
- Continually evaluating the Women’s Children’s and Families services provided, including quality and safety performance to monitor standards of care and determine whether service priorities are being addressed
- Contribute to the effective, efficient and timely systems and processes for the provision of high quality, efficient and cost-effective operational management of the directorate
- Ensuring the provision of high quality, efficient and cost-effective services, both within and out of hours, rostering & daily staffing management, service coordination
- Ensuring a focus on the patient/consumer is at the core of all services provided
- Ensuring effective stakeholder relationships within and external to Barwon Health by initiating, developing and maintaining appropriate working relationships with staff and key stakeholders, including the community in the provision and planning of services
- Leading innovation, change processes and coordination responses to emerging service and workforce needs and research across the directorate of Women’s and Children’s.
- Initiating and/or overseeing innovations, systemic change processes and co-ordination of responses and meet health service needs
- Ensuring compliance with systems to respond to all incidents in line with Barwon Health’s policy and procedures to ensure compliance with the National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards Accreditation
- Proactively manage risks, and incidents by monitoring recommendations and analysis of trends of all incidents
- Identifying, assessing and reviewing of controls and action planning in relation to corporate and clinical risks within the Women’s and Children’s and Families Directorate
- Participating in the Director on Call roster to ensure safe management of Barwon Health after hours
- Ensuring work is carried out in accordance with the Barwon Health and Victorian Public Service Commission Codes of Conduct, Policies and Procedures and legislative requirements, including, but not limited to:
- Safe Patient Care Act 2016
- Health Complaints Act 2016
- Occupational Health and Safety (OHS)
- Equal Employment Opportunities (including prevention of bullying, harassment and intimidation).
- Child Safety Standards
- Disability Discrimination.
- Compliance with the Health Records Act 2001 (Vic), which regulate the collections, use, disclosure, storage and transfer of all personal patients/client information and throughout its funded service providers.
- Relevant Enterprise Agreements, Fair Work Act 2009, Public Administration Act 2004
- Relevant Australian Standards.
- Duty to maintain confidentiality.
- Smoke Free Workplace.
- To value and respect the needs and contributions of Barwon Health Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander staff and clients, and commit to the development of Aboriginal cultural competence across all Barwon Health practice and service delivery.
- Applying the principals of the Barwon Health’s Risk Management procedure and guideline
Other Duties
- Undertake special projects or reports required by the Directorate, Chief Operating Officer on a wide range of issues.
- Report all incidents through the incident management system.
- Practice in accordance with the relevant health care or industry standards.
- Demonstrate an understanding of appropriate behaviours when engaging with children.
- Complete mandatory training and education.
- Comply with relevant Barwon Health policies and procedures.
- Participate in quality improvement activities.
- Perform all other duties as directed within the limits of skill, competence and training to maximise flexibility and effectiveness
- Bachelor’s degree in Health or related Management discipline
- Registered Midwife with Australian Health Practitioners Regulation Agency (AHPRA)
1. Executive Leadership and Strategic Service Delivery
Demonstrated executive leadership experience in leading complex women's, maternity, neonatal, paediatric and family health services, with the ability to translate organisational strategy into operational excellence. Proven capacity to lead multidisciplinary teams, foster a high-performance culture and deliver sustainable improvements in clinical outcomes, patient experience and organisational performance.
2. Clinical Governance, Safety and Quality
Extensive experience leading clinical operations within a complex healthcare environment, with a strong commitment to clinical governance, patient safety, quality improvement and accreditation. Demonstrated ability to implement evidence-based practice, strengthen clinical standards, manage clinical risk and improve outcomes across women's, maternity, neonatal and paediatric services.
3. Financial, Workforce and Resource Management
Demonstrated success in managing significant operational budgets, workforce planning and resource allocation within a large health service. Proven ability to optimise service efficiency, achieve financial sustainability, manage industrial and workforce matters, and deliver agreed organisational performance outcomes.
4. Collaboration, Influence and Stakeholder Engagement
Highly developed interpersonal, communication and influencing skills, with a proven ability to work in partnership with clinical leaders, executive colleagues and external stakeholders. Demonstrated success building collaborative relationships across multidisciplinary and matrix environments to achieve shared strategic objectives.
5. Leading Change, Innovation and Service Reform
Demonstrated capability to lead organisational change, service redesign and innovation within complex healthcare settings. Proven ability to identify emerging service and workforce needs, drive continuous improvement and successfully implement large-scale reforms that enhance patient care and organisational performance.
6. Professional Qualifications and Contemporary Health Sector Expertise
Relevant tertiary qualifications in health or health management, with current registration as a Registered Midwife with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA). Extensive senior leadership experience within complex healthcare organisations, supported by a sound understanding of the Australian health system, contemporary health policy, clinical governance, industrial frameworks and emerging health service directions.
Internal
- Clinical Director
- CEO / COO / Clinical Director
- Managers and staff within Directorate
- Finance Department including Analyst and Finance Business Partner
- Workforce Directorate – including People and Culture Business Partner
- BH Executive
- Other Barwon Health Directorate’s /External providers
External
- Consumers - Patients/ Family members
- Barwon Health Foundation
- Other Health Services and relevant external providers
Salary: $190,000 - $210,000 plus super
Location: Geelong, Victoria
Budget: $73m (excluding corporate overheads)
FTE (Directorate): 362
Additional Requirements
- Obtain a police/criminal history check prior to employment.
- Obtain a Working with Children Check prior to employment (if requested).
- Date prepared: May 2026 Category A
- Prior to commencement with Barwon Health, all new employees are required to provide a completed Barwon Health Immunity Status form and have Staff Care clearance
- Report to management any criminal charges or convictions you receive during your employment.
- Protect confidential information from unauthorised disclosure and not use, disclose or copy confidential information except for the purpose of and to the extent necessary to perform your employment duties at Barwon Health.
- Adherence with requirement of National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards and other relevant regulatory requirements including the Child Safe Standards.
The closing date for applications is Monday, 24 August 2026.
The reference number to include in your application is H26_5531.
Note: Please use the online platform to submit your application. It will not be accepted via email.
If you require assistance in submitting your application online, please get in touch with Executive Search Coordinator, Sarah Prebble: M: +61 (0)430 219 787 / E: sprebble@hardygroupintl.com
Your application must include:
1. Cover letter addressed to the Principal Consultant;
2. A written response addressing the key selection criteria and
3. An up to date copy of your Curriculum Vitae
It is standard practice for HardyGroup to acknowledge receipt of your application no later than the next business day. We request that if you do not receive the acknowledgement, you contact the search coordinator listed above as soon as possible after the 24-hour business period and arrange to resend your application if necessary.
For a confidential discussion, please contact:
Lynette Taylor
HG Executive Director, Search and Recruitment
M. +61 (0)431 293 861
E. ltaylor@hardygroupintl.com
LIVING AND WORKING IN
GEELONG, VICTORIA
A place for everyone, Geelong offers a relaxed lifestyle close to beaches and the countryside, yet is only an hour away from Melbourne. As one of Australia’s largest urban centres, Geelong has a big city feel without the commotion, and combines a beautiful coastal location with a friendly multicultural community. With excellent events and festivals, accessible public transport, quality educational precincts, and a vast array of sport and leisure activities, Geelong provides the perfect environment for individuals and families to achieve enhanced work-life balance.
The City of Greater Geelong covers 1245km2 with a contrast of landscapes including urban, country and coastal. Only 75 kilometres outside Melbourne CBD, Geelong has become a popular tourist destination. Elements of the region includes a bustling city centre framed by water which includes the multi-award winning waterfront, the Bellarine Peninsula, the Barwon River that runs through the region and it is also the gateway to the world-renowned Great Ocean Road.
Geelong is Victoria’s second largest city after Melbourne with a population of over 245,000 people and a forecast that shows it will grow a further 150,000 people within the next 20 years. The local government has placed a great emphasis on innovation, employment and economic growth in the Geelong region. The city has a broad industry of 17,000 businesses and a labour force of 110,632 (2016 Census estimate). The sector includes health and allied services, education and research, advanced manufacturing, tourism, agribusiness, construction and professional services.
With a low commute time, affordable house prices and a booming infrastructure, Geelong is a city difficult to compete with. The region is bounded by the Moorabool Shire, the Borough of Queenscliffe, Golden Plains Shire and Surf Coast Shire and Bass Strait.
At Geelong's core sits Barwon Health, the state's largest regional health service with 23 sites.
ABOUT US
HardyGroup’s (HG) mission is simple
Find and Grow Great Leaders - and we have been doing exactly that for more than 30 years in public and private health, primary, community and aged care as well as the broader public service.
Our synergistic business model of Executive Search and Recruitment integrated with Executive Leadership and Learning is our unique point of difference.
It ensures our clients can count on us for the lifecycle of their organisations leadership journey and why we are regarded as the leading trans-Tasman partner agency by clients.
When engaging HG you can be confident in a deeply personalised experience and service as nothing matters more to us than relationships and results.