Division Director - Allied Health Professional & Health Care Scientist

at  Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an experienced senior AHP/HCS who is committed to delivering outstanding care, continuous quality improvement and a positive safety culture across acute and community services across a large NHS teaching hospitals trust.
This is a senior leadership role with responsibility for a board range of AHP/HCS services, therefore significant experience at senior level or above is vital.
Working directly within both the Community and Clinical Support Services triumvirate, as well as more widely as the clinical lead for AHP/HCS for the trust, the role will be pivotal in ensuring the delivery of safe, high quality care leading to outstanding patient experience.
Key responsibilities include senior leadership, management and coordination of services within the portfolio including oversight of clinical governance and risk management processes across services. This role will also contribute to the safety and quality agenda across the wider Trust.
Please note, this recruitment process will include an assessment centre which will take place on Friday 11th October 2024.
This post is a senior manager position and is pivotal in the delivery of effective and safe services. The post holder will be forward thinking and innovative in bringing services together to achieve seamless care. This role is vital to the implementation of the quality agenda in accordance with local and national policy and initiatives.
The post holder will work as part of triumvirate leadership team to ensure safe, effective and well-led services are underpinned by quality, safety and patient experience data. The post holder will be able to respond and adapt to a changing and challenging health landscape from a management and leadership perspective in line with Trust policies. This includes working with commissioners and system partners, responding to complaints and incidents, management of risk and HR issues.
The post holder will be required to ensure that any change or lessons learned are escalated and discussed with the service to enable learning to take place. At MWL, people are at the heart of everything we do. We ensure our service users and their families receive the highest quality of care and are guided by our trust values and strive to provide outstanding care and foster a positive workplace culture.
Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves a population of over 600,000 with a workforce of over 9000 dedicated and skilled staff across 21 sites.
We strongly believe that the communities we serve should all have access to Five Star Patient Care.

Patient/Service User and Community Experience

• Ensure that there is appropriate monitoring of experience using the real-time feedback mechanisms to achieve the organisation’s annual plan objectives.
• Ensure that all experience information informs future plans for service redesign and service improvement.
• Establish arrangements for the involvement of patient/service user groups, with relevant stakeholders, to ensure that patient experience, both positive and negative, is captured and used to develop improvement programmes

Corporate Responsibilities

• Accountable for the local, regional, and national implementation of NHS priorities and wider modernisation objectives for the AHP/HCS workforce. Bidding for national funding. Analysing and presenting highly complex facts to large groups.
• Provide expert knowledge of the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), all relevant professional bodies, national guidelines and evidence implementation of these within the Trust. Make regulatory referrals as required on behalf of the Chief Nurse.
• To work with the Executive Director of Nursing, Medical Director and Corporate quality and risk teams in delivering the vision of AHP/HCS across the organisation and maintain high standards of clinical excellence.
• To work with the Deputy Directors of Governance to deliver organisational responsibilities for monitoring and delivering mandatory requirements (e.g., single sex accommodation, CQUIN).
• In the absence of the Executive Director of Nursing or Medical Director, represent the AHP / HCS profession s within the organisation and wider.
• Attend Assurance Committees as appropriate.
• Chair professional forums.
• Represent the Executive Director of Nursing in forums outside of the organisation as required.
• Participate on the General Manager on-call rota.
• The post holder collaborates with the Divisional Director of Operations for relevant Divisions taking the lead on development programmes, staffing including recruitment and retention, measuring, and improving standards of care and the patient experience.
• The post has a key role in influencing the strategic direction and development of clinical services working in partnership with other organisations across the system and taking forwards national policies that enable evidence based high quality and sustainable service delivery.
• The post holder will be expected to demonstrate a highly visible, authoritative, compassionate, and transformational leadership style which is underpinned by the values of the Trust.

Patient/Service User and Community Experience

• Ensure that there is appropriate monitoring of experience using the real-time feedback mechanisms to achieve the organisation’s annual plan objectives.
• Ensure that all experience information informs future plans for service redesign and service improvement.
• Establish arrangements for the involvement of patient/service user groups, with relevant stakeholders, to ensure that patient experience, both positive and negative, is captured and used to develop improvement programmes.

Governance/Analysis and Data Management

• Support the Executive Director of Nursing and Deputy Director of Governance in the delivery of the Organisation’s Clinical Governance agenda and in particular Care Quality Commission (CQC),NHSLA compliance, CNST and Care Quality Commission Quality Accounts and reporting arrangements.
• Supporting the Executive Director of Nursing and Deputy Director of Governance on the publication of the annual quality account providing supportive information regarding the division’s performance against key objectives.
• In line with the Governance and Assurance Framework, to identify and manage the range of risks which are evident in relation to lead areas of responsibility.
• Is accountable for ongoing review and update of the divisional risk register ensuring all current risks are identified, appropriate actions are taken to control, mitigate and monitor. Where full control cannot be assured these are appropriately managed and notified to the Executive Risk Council.
• Support the Complaints Manager and team to ensure the appropriate investigation and response to complaints on behalf of the Organisation in accordance with appropriate procedures and standards.
• Where required to resolve complex complaints, be the corporate responsible officer and meet with complainants to address their concerns to ensure resolution is achieved.
• Monitor and review emerging themes from complaints, claims, accidents and incidents within the given area of responsibility and develop systems to ensure that lessons are learnt and shared.
• Be responsible for ensuring for incidents is cascaded, participating in trust wide PSRIF PSII panels and coordinating local investigations at divisional level.
• The post holder in conjunction with the Divisional Triumvirate, will lead and provide expert clinical advice, interpretation of national policy within the Trust, the Clinical Scheme for Negligence requirements (CNST).
• Developing reports for governance meetings, Trust board and external reporting to NHSE / LMNS and ICB.

Communications and Relationships

• Facilitate multi-disciplinary working through the integration of professional practice and working relationships among all health and care professionals within the Organisation.
• Identify, develop, and implement systems for the regular review of individual performance of direct reports, provide constructive feedback and advice and ensure that their development needs are met to help them achieve their full potential.
• Establish and promote a supportive, fair, and open culture that encourages and enables all parts of the workforce to meet required performance standards.
• As a very senior member of staff role-model the Organisation vision and values for five star patient care.
• Act as an advocate for the Organisation, internally and externally, promoting the delivery of the highest levels of patient care.

Responsibility for Patient Care

• Implement robust strategies and action plans for the ongoing reduction of healthcare acquired infections.
• Deliver the safeguarding of children, young people, and vulnerable adults’ agenda so that the Organisation meets its statutory obligations.
• Maintain a profile for governance, across the Division and Organisation, consistent with the Organisation’s aim to reduce harm to patients and to be a leading Organisation in which to work i.e. PSIRF and quality improvement methodology.
• Deliver and facilitate high standards of patient care, evidenced through the Quality Ward Rounds assurance system.
• Deliver a programme of quality improvement projects which will help staff make changes to provide safe, clean, and personal care to every patient, every time.
• To be accountable for the progress of these projects, along with a dashboard of measures, to determine the success of the Quality Improvement Strategy within the Division and the Organisation overall.
• Develop an effective system for sharing and explaining the projects and results with DDN colleagues to ensure a continuity of approach across the whole Organisation and wider.

Responsibilities for Financial and Physical Resources

• To maintain a high-level awareness of policy developments within the NHS and third -party providers, and supporting the Executive Director of Nursing in ensuring that these are responded to by the Organisation.
• Responsible for contributing to the development of standards of clinical performance, providing professional leadership, advice, and support for all nursing staff, inclusive of their appraisal and learning and development.
• Ensure that there is a an AHP, HCS and Nursing contribution for the development of clinical standards within clinical practice and to ensure that training and development opportunities are planned to meet these needs.
• Review performance against agreed targets and performance indicators. Provide clinical and professional leadership within the Division and across the Organisation to ensure that efficiency targets are achieved within all aspects of care and care delivery.
• Maintain appropriate financial management controls on designated budgets and contribute to the overall management of the divisional budget.
• Provide assurance to the Executive Director of Nursing that there is a robust quality impact assessment approach in place to ensure that the Division is safely achieving its efficiency targets.
• Work in conjunction with wider Divisional colleagues to develop and implement new models of care.