Clinical Lead for Sustainability & Practice Support

at  Swansea Bay University Health Board

The Clinical Lead for sustainability will work in partnership with the Group Medical Director, the Associate Director and the Head of Primary Care to develop a robust sustainability framework for Primary Care services. They will support services to operate efficiently and thereby provide assurance that systems and processes are in place that demonstrate safe, effective and prudent clinical practice.
The post holder will provide leadership to the sustainability agenda within the Primary Care, Community and Therapies Group (PCTG). This pivotal role will have a profile beyond PCTG with an opportunity to work alongside colleagues in secondary and tertiary services, as well as in other health boards and nationally, as appropriate and in accordance with current work streams.
The post holder must be registered with the GMC and have the MRCGP qualification.

The post holder will have substantial experience working in Primary Care and will understand the challenges that are currently faced by General Practice and wider Primary Care services. The Clinical Lead for sustainability will also have a good understanding of the interface between services and the risks present for delivering safe patient care. *

• Please see full overview in the job description attached*

To deputise for the Deputy Group Medical Director / Group Medical Director on relevant panels/groups. As part of the Senior Medical team represent the Deputy Group Medical Director or Group Medical Director in meetings.
Please see job description attached
Equality and Human Rights : The Public Sector Equality Duty in Wales places a positive duty on the HB to promote equality for people with protected characteristics, both as an employer and as a provider of public services. There are nine protected characteristics: age; disability; gender reassignment; marriage and civil partnership; pregnancy and maternity; race; religion or belief; sex and sexual orientation. The HB is committed to ensuring that no job applicant or employee receives less favourable treatment of any of the above grounds. To this end, the organisation has an Equality Policy and it is for each employee to contribute to its success.
Dignity at Work: The organisation condemns all forms of bullying and harassment and is actively seeking to promote a workplace where employees are treated fairly and with dignity and respect. All staff are requested to report and form of bullying and harassment to their Line Manager or to any Director of the organisation. Any inappropriate behaviour inside the workplace will not be tolerated and will be treated as a serious matter under the HB/Trust Disciplinary Policy.
Values: All employees of the Health Board are required to demonstrate and embed the Values and Behaviour framework in order for them to become an integral part of the post holder’s working life and to embed the principles into the culture of the organisation.

Sustainability and Innovation

• To develop innovative strategies to support Primary Care Contractors develop robust plans for future sustainability. This will include but not be limited to workforce redesign. Workforce planning advice on managing access and demand. Signposting to other forms of support.
• The possible lead will be a key lead member of the practice support team and a member of the access and sustainability forum.
• The post holder will provide leadership in assessing sustainability risks and scores. The post holder will proactively visit practices and assist them in designing effective and sustainable systems and workforce to meet demands of modern Primary Care.
• The post holder will provide an annual report highlighting activities to support GP practice sustainability together with an assessment of the current situation of future risks.
• Lead on ensuring the safe, effective and efficient delivery of patient care within any PCTSG Managed Services within Swansea Bay University Health Board, including implementation of best practice and guidance. Ensure the principles of prudent healthcare are at the forefront of service planning and delivery and empower service teams to implement change and development where the need is identified.
• Demonstrate effective clinical leadership and management of the team of Clinical Leads of specialities within your areas of responsibility, including job planning, workforce planning, recruitment and ensuring annual Health Board appraisal is conducted.
• Ensure all services within your areas of responsibility are well managed, developed, and directed to provide care that is safe, compassionate, consistently of excellent quality and always improving; in line with the Health Board’s Values and Behaviour Framework and Quality Strategy.
• Provide confident and informed professional leadership to all medical staff within your areas of responsibility and promote the development of new service models to meet changes in demand and to comply with best practice and national guidelines.
• Support the delivery of innovation, service redesign and improvement to support the wider Health Board and National strategies for Primary Care.
• Promote the principles of Prudent Healthcare and Values Based Healthcare to achieve the Health Board’s need for clinical effectiveness, flexibility, value for money and high staff engagement.
• Lead on the delivery of required quality and performance standards in all services within your areas of responsibility by using key information to support planning, performance and decision making.
• Lead and promote the development of effective working relationships with other relevant specialties in Unscheduled/planned Care, Primary Care, Community services , Secondary Care and wider agencies and third sector colleagues in the interests of patient centred care
• Provide clinical advice, input and leadership for the development of strategic and operational plans for all services within your areas of responsibility. This will align with core Health Board targets and objectives as set out in the Integrated Medium-Term Plan, Annual Plan and Clinical Services Plan.

Performance Management

• To develop an overall plan to support sustainability of general practice to be agreed by the Access and Sustainability Forum
• To work with the Primary Care Academy Clinical Lead to develop and promote training and education programmes to support the future sustainability of Primary Care.
• Facilitate mentoring and supervision , where appropriate and the need identified, in order to manage performance issues of medical staff within your areas of responsibility.
• Ensure medical staff directly aligned to you are compliant with statutory and mandatory training, annual Health Board and professional appraisal.
• Highlight and escalate any concerns to the Deputy/Group Medical Director and Clinical Director for Quality and Safety regarding the performance of medical staff within your areas of responsibility.
• Local Medical Committee. Establish good working relationships to work collaboratively, understand individual perspective and address the issues raised.
• Act to resolve medical performance concerns at informal level and escalate to formal processes where needed in line with Health Board policy, Human Resources advice and communication with the Group Medical Director, Clinical Director for Quality and Safety and Responsible Officer in addition to the GMC where needed.

Quality and Safety

• Provide leadership and oversight for Primary Care sustainability issues, including leadership for the wider sustainability and primary care teams to implement service/practice change and improvement where needed.
• Represent the Primary Care viewpoint at Service Group and Health Board level and provide expert knowledge and planning where needed when discussing concerns, challenges and risks associated with PCTSG Managed Services.
• Attend the Access and Sustainability meeting, contribute to the agenda and liaise with the Primary Care Managers and Heads of Service to ensure all outstanding actions have been completed for areas relating to Managed Services.
• Attend regular meetings with the Group Medical Director/Associate Service Group Director to update them of service development, innovation, challenges and risks.

Audit & Research

• Identify areas of clinical practice in Primary Care in which standards may need to be raised and promoted. This should align to regular audit cycles and staff engagement to ensure sustainability and innovation of services.
• Support the analysis and intelligence gathering from Primary Care audits in the context of your areas of responsibility. Identify deficits and act to lead the development and implementation of key policies and processes conducive to effective service delivery.
• Contribute towards research and audit in the service group and screen and assist the GMD in agreeing to any future research relevant to your areas of responsibility.

Other duties

• In exceptional circumstances, it may be necessary to provide direct clinical services in order to maintain a safe service to patients when a service fails unexpectedly. E.g. the sudden collapse of a GMS practice.
• It may be necessary as a Clinical Lead to work across the health board to develop wider pathways or services as new medical procedures, medicines and technologies develop.
• Any other duty in keeping with the role of a Clinical Lead for Primary Care, Community and Therapy services and from the direct tasking of the Deputy Group Medical Director in accordance with their current work streams.

• In exceptional circumstances, it may be necessary to provide direct clinical services in order to maintain a safe service to patients when a service fails unexpectedly. E.g. the sudden collapse of a GMS practice.
• It may be necessary as a Clinical Lead to work across the health board to develop wider pathways or services as new medical procedures, medicines and technologies develop.
• Any other duty in keeping with the role of a Clinical Lead for Primary Care, Community and Therapy services and from the direct tasking of the Deputy Group Medical Director in accordance with their current work streams