An exciting opportunity has arisen for an experienced Advanced Clinical Practitioner to join the Supportive Oncology Service at The Christie NHS Foundation Trust. This innovative new role will lead the development of the Acute Cancer Symptom Optimisation and Support (ACSOS) programme, supporting patients with complex cancer-related symptoms through proactive assessment, intervention and personalised care.
Working within the Ambulatory Care Unit and alongside Acute Oncology, Supportive Care and multidisciplinary teams, you will provide advanced clinical assessment, diagnosis and management for patients with highly complex needs. The role is designed to improve symptom control, avoid unnecessary hospital admissions and support patients to receive the right care, in the right place, at the right time.
As an autonomous practitioner, you will work across the four pillars of advanced practice: clinical practice, leadership and management, education and training, and research, quality improvement and service development. You will play a key role in developing new pathways of care, improving patient outcomes and supporting delivery of personalised, proactive supportive oncology services across the cancer pathway.
This is a unique opportunity to shape and lead an innovative service that aligns with national cancer priorities and transforms the experience of patients living with complex cancer-related symptoms.
This is an 18 month fixed term, 27 hour position
The Advanced Clinical Practitioner will provide expert assessment, diagnosis, treatment and ongoing management for patients with complex supportive oncology and acute cancer care needs. Working autonomously, you will manage a caseload of patients requiring advanced clinical decision-making, symptom optimisation and personalised care planning.
You will work closely with Acute Oncology, Ambulatory Care, palliative care, cancer site-specific teams and community services to support admission avoidance, facilitate timely interventions and improve continuity of care across organisational boundaries. A key focus of the role will be identifying opportunities for earlier intervention, improving symptom management and supporting patients to remain well and independent for longer.
The post holder will provide clinical leadership, contribute to service development and support implementation of innovative supportive oncology pathways. You will deliver education and supervision, support workforce development and act as an expert resource for colleagues across the Trust. The role will also include participation in audit, research and quality improvement initiatives, ensuring services are evidence-based, effective and responsive to patient need.
The Christie is one of Europe’s leading cancer centres, treating over 60,000 patients a year. We are based in Manchester and serve a population of 3.2 million across Greater Manchester & Cheshire, but as a national specialist around 15% patients are referred to us from other parts of the country.
We provide radiotherapy through one of the largest radiotherapy departments in the world; chemotherapy on site and through 14 other hospitals; highly specialist surgery for complex and rare cancer; and a wide range of support and diagnostic services. We are also an international leader in research, with world first breakthroughs for over 100 years.
We run one of the largest early clinical trial units in Europe with over 300 trials every year. Cancer research in Manchester, most of which is undertaken on the Christie site, has been officially ranked the best in the UK.
Along with the service line senior leadership team, including Advanced Practitioners and Consultant Practitioners, Advanced Practitioners will provide positive leadership, connecting patients, staff and partners with the vision and values of The Christie NHS Foundation Trust.
They will use their expert knowledge and skills to assist in leading and delivering safe and clinically effective, quality driven, personalised care for people within our communities. Working alongside the senior managers and clinicians, they will assist in leading services that meet the needs of patients and their families to achieve improved health outcomes and promote health and wellbeing while demonstrating care, compassion, competence, communication, courage, and commitment.
The post holder will provide advanced and specialist level comprehensive assessments for patients with highly complex presentations, case management, treatment, and education. This will predominantly be delivered within the setting of their service line and may extend into inpatient and clinic settings to support with highly complex cases and patient pathways.
Central to the role will be critical thinking and using advanced decision-making skills to assess and manage patients accurately and safely. However, at no times should clinical staff work outside their defined level of competence. If the post holder has concerns regarding this, they should immediately discuss this with their line manager.
The Advanced Practitioners position is service driven and will cover the four pillars of advanced practice as outlined in the multi-professional framework for Advanced Practice in England (2025); clinical practice; leadership and management; education and training; research, quality improvement and service development.
The Advanced Practitioners role will support senior leadership collectively delivering high quality, effective and consistent care. Fostering effective working relationships with colleagues across a range of specialties and agencies.
Provide clinical/professional supervision and support for clinical staff and trainee advanced practitioners within the service line not purely within their own profession. This will be in an associate workplace supervisor role once more than 2 years qualified and at 3 years can be as a coordinating education supervisor (as guided by the specific University) having attended a supervisor training course.
Provide education and development in the delivery of core and specialist training for the service line. The post holder will be expected to support in the creation of an environment of continuous quality improvement, develop clinical practice and care pathways designed around the people within our services and to ensure that delivery of care is regularly reviewed ensuring CQC compliance and embedding NICE and other quality benchmarks in good practice.
Assist in the maintenance of a culture of service improvement which promotes quality and safety and striving to improve and develop.
To support in embedding evidence-based practice, clinical research, supporting a research portfolio for studies within the service line, linking with relevant stakeholders and recruiting patients for studies in fields relevant to their clinical practice.
To promote and support patient and public involvement in research. To assist in and undertake local and national audits. To identify and support implementation of service improvement plans.
A job plan will be agreed to meet service and role needs, specifying the ratio of contracted hours to be spent delivering direct patients care (maximum 80%) and the time to be spent undertaking supported professional activity (minimum 20%), being reviewed annually or more frequently as required.
See attached job description for further details and information.
