We are seeking an experienced Allied Health Professional leader to join our Unplanned Care Division as Head of Service for Urgent Community Response, Home First and Intermediate Care services.
This clinically focused leadership role combines operational and professional leadership, supporting multidisciplinary teams to deliver high-quality, patient-centred care that helps people remain at home, avoid unnecessary hospital admissions, and maximise independence.
The role spans:
Urgent Community Response and Home First (60%)
Intermediate Care Units (40%)
Working with operational and clinical colleagues, you will provide visible leadership to ensure safe, effective care across community and bed-based services.
Why join us?
Lead high-impact frontline services
Make a real difference to patient care
Help shape out-of-hospital and unplanned care
Access ongoing leadership development
Please note: Due to recent changes in UK immigration and visa rules, this role may not be eligible for Skilled Worker visa sponsorship. Applicants who do not currently have the right to work in the UK may not be considered. Candidates requiring sponsorship should review the eligibility criteria on the gov.uk website before applying to assess their eligibility for a Certificate of Sponsorship for this role.
Skilled Worker visa: going rates for eligible occupation codes - GOV.UK
Health and Care Worker visa: If you’ll need to meet different salary requirements - GOV.UK
a) Work with the divisional management team and Heads of Service to provide professional and clinical leadership to the Division, ensuring that a framework is in place to ensure that all clinical staff are appropriately managed and are clinically and professionally developed so that they are, therefore, efficient, effective, engaged and highly motivated.
b) Responsible, with the leadership team, for the oversight of quality governance within the division and provide robust assurance to demonstrate safe, effective care is delivered.
c) In partnership with the relevant clinical executive director and the clinical divisional leadership team and other clinical Heads of Services, lead and implement the Trust’s clinical priorities and strategies ensuring clinical staff are engaged and connected to the objectives and plans.
d) Maintain a highly visible leadership profile and, through the provision of effective leadership, ensure any clinical change and service improvement is driven forward.
e) Support the clinical lead to supervise clinical areas requiring special management measures or additional support to ensure that patient safety is maintained, and improvement objectives are met.
f) Lead and promote an open learning culture which facilitates speaking up and listening up.
We are the main provider of NHS community services across East and West Sussex, with 6,000 staff serving 1.3 million people. We deliver essential care to adults and children, helping them manage their health, avoid hospital admissions, and reduce hospital stays.
Our Trust vision is to provide excellent care at the heart of the community. We offer opportunities across medical, clinical, support, and corporate services.
Why work for us?
- Positive 2024 NHS Staff Survey results, highlighting compassionate leadership and wellbeing
- Varied environments: community hospitals, patients’ homes, and bases across Sussex
- Flexible working options: part-time, flexi-time, annualised hours, and flexi-retirement
- Excellent training, development, and research opportunities
- Accredited Living Wage Employer, we ensure fair pay for all our staff
- Cost-effective workplace nurseries in Crawley, Hove, and Brighton
- Active EMBRACE, Disability & Wellbeing, LGBTQIA+, and Religion & Belief networks
- Level 3 Disability Confident Leader and Veteran Aware Trust
Our values — Compassionate Care, Working Together, Achieving Ambitions, Delivering Excellence —guide everything we do.
We embrace diversity and encourage applications from all backgrounds, particularly from ethnically diverse, disabled, and LGBTQIA+ individuals. We aim to create an inclusive environment and support reasonable adjustments during recruitment.
This post may close early if sufficient applications are received.
Previous applicants need not apply.
Operational
a) In conjunction with the Divisional and Deputy Nursing/AHP Director, support the line management of nurses/AHPs working in the service within their locality including performance and professional standards management.
b) Ensure a consistent approach is taken, so that all clinical staff comply with Trust-wide policies and procedures.
Continuous improvement
a) Ensure clinical staff within the services are trained to an appropriate level in Quality Improvement and are confident and competent in using QI methodology, tools and resources.
b) Encourage a culture of innovation, welcoming ideas for improvement, and supporting clinicians with taking forward change, ensuring it is data-driven, responds to the patient voice and leads to improved outcomes for patients, efficiency and productivity.
c) Support the development of a data led approach to improvement and evaluation. Contribute to the collation and use of clinical data and be involved in subsequent improvements required, relating to outcome/quality/performance indicators.
d) Lead on research for the services in their portfolio, encouraging and supporting the development of programmes of research ensuring a multi-disciplinary, multi-professional approach and working closely with the Trust’s research team.
e) Responsible for ensuring that Divisional clinical staff understand and effectively respond to identified trends from complaints, and patient feedback, ensuring that opportunities to learn are maximised.
f) Ensure systems are in place that support the delivery of action plans, embedding learning into practice and sharing learning and improvement.
g) To undertake special projects, which develop the understanding and knowledge of clinical nursing/AHP practice.
People and professional leadership
a) T o provide line management to staff within the Divisional team as required.
b) To provide professional leadership and support to the staff employed within the Division and advise on all professional and clinical management matters, acting as a point of escalation for issues of concern.
c) To work closely with the Education team and take responsibility and accountability for developing and implementing professional competencies in specific areas of practice as service requirements and change in workforce profile dictates.
d) To work with the leadership team on the development, implementation and evaluation of workforce requirements and support the recruitment and retention, training and development of staff.
e) To proactively manage matters relating to poor capability or poor performance ensuring that Trust performance management systems are adhered to.
f) To maintain an analytical knowledge and awareness of local and national health care issues, such as NICE Guidance, Safeguarding Children and Vulnerable Adults and the Care Quality Commission.
Patient Care, Quality and Governance
a) Respond to issues, complaints and feedback through systems and staff to resolve issues promptly and locally, including liaison with patients and relatives as needed, dealing with difficult issues sensitively.
b) Ensuring that patient and public involvement is integral to the planning, development and delivery of clinical services. Work closely with representative groups to gain feedback on service delivery issues which can be used to inform improvement.
c) Lead and support relevant staff in the investigation and action planning into clinical incidents, ensuring learning is shared and embedded.
d) Work with the Operational Head of Service to be accountable for the implementation and monitoring of actions from governance, quality and safety group that relate to the clinical area within the span of responsibility. Provide clinical leadership to governance meetings, either as a chair or member as required.
e) To lead programmes of work to demonstrate improvements in practice and ensure that patients can have confidence in the services, actively seeking the views of patients and public.
f) To ensure robust systems, monitoring and follow-up action is in place regarding infection, prevention and control.
g) To implement the Trust’s Risk Management Strategy, proactively identifying, recording and managing clinical risk.
h) To ensure Health and Safety standards are adhered to within the Division and staff are appropriately trained to enable them to undertake their duties safely and without unnecessary risk.
i) Present highly complex information to large groups of staff or members of the public, this may include reconciling conflicting views where there are significant barriers to acceptance or understanding.
Performance
a) Within the triumvirate support the management of the performance of services, including developing plans to mitigate risks and taking remedial action, supporting clinicians to make changes as required to pathways, access and ways of working to improve.
Finance & resources
a) To ensure optimum use of resources establishing and maintaining effective processes to ensure financial control/balance to deliver the service and professional objectives in line with commissioned activity, budgeted income and financial frameworks.
b) With the Operational Head of Service, ensure bank and agency spend is within the agreed control limits, appropriate authorisation of exceptions to maintain patient safety and safe, cost-effective rostering.
Partnership
a) Utilising own clinical expertise and experience work in partnership with the patient, their relatives, and clinical teams within own division and across other divisions in the development of care pathways to provide assessment, planning, delivery, and evaluation of high-quality seamless care.
b) To engage and work collaboratively with patients and with other stakeholder groups (for example, neighbourhood forums, expert patient groups and local authority consultative forums) to improve the patient experience, and to ensure appropriate advice, guidance, or ancillary services are provided to patients, relatives, or carers.
c) Represent the Trust with partner organisations and work closely with them to institute integrated working in the best interest of patient care.
d) Establish excellent communication with professional/clinical leads within the Trust and in partner organisations.
e) To act as a key conduit for dissemination of information from the leadership team to clinical staff and vice versa.
f) Work in collaboration with colleagues to challenge behaviours that undermine equality and diversity, privacy and dignity adhering to the Human Rights Act, Trust policies and other relevant local and national policy.
Corporate duties
a) Participate in Trust’s out of hours on call rota and ensure competencies and training is up to date.
b) Have an understanding of the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 with respect to Emergency Planning, Resilience and Response (EPRR) and lead on implementation of the division's obligations under the Act.
c) Ensure that business continuity plans (BCPs) are developed and regularly tested for all areas within the division in collaboration with the Emergency Planning Manager.
d) Ensure systems and processes are in place to deliver accurate timely statutory information requirements including the Trust Data Protection Policy and Freedom of Information Act.
e) E n s ur e E qu a l i ty, D i v er s i ty an d I n clu s i o n a r e e m bedde d i n to t h e c o r e bu s i ne ss o f t h e D i v i s i o n i n l i n e w i th th e c orp o ra te f ra m e w or k; inc l u d ing go v e rnan c e a r range m en ts, p l a nn i n g processes, an d en s u r i n g th i s i s e m bedde d w i t h i n t h e on g o ing p o l i cy a n d s e r v i c e de v e lo p m en t pro c e ss e s.
f) T o p r epar e , de v e l o p an d w r i te bu s i n e ss c a s e s , bids, an d i n f or m a t i o n p aper s as req u i r e d .
g) Un d er t a ke o t h e r du t i e s c o m m en s ura te w i th th i s gra d e o f po s t i n a g ree m en t w i th th e r e l e v an t l i n e m anager .
h) A nnua l l y agre e ap p rop r i a t e p e r s on a l o b j e ct i v e s an d a p er s on a l de v e l op m en t p lan w i th t h e Ch i e f Nurse’s team , i n l i n e w i t h T r u st ob j e ct i v e s.
i) Res pon s i b l e f o r en s u r i n g i d e n t i f i e d t r a i n i n g a n d de v e l op m en t i s u nder t a k e n a ppro p r i a te t o t h e po st h o l d e r ’s r o l e .
