About this role
Job summary
Are you an experienced registered nurse looking for a unique opportunity to shape, develop and lead a new joint hospice community service?
This exciting role will lead the development and implementation of an innovative community-based hospice service, improving the experience of care for people with palliative and end-of-life care needs and their families across the Wakefield district.
This unique and pivotal role offers an opportunity to lead the development, implementation, and
delivery of an innovative out-of-hospice model of care during its pilot phase. Working closely
with hospice teams, newly forming neighbourhood networks, and wider health partners, you will ensure
patients receive timely, coordinated, and person-centred support in the place that is right for them.
Main duties of the job
Key Responsibilities:
Operational Clinical Leadership: Act as Team Leader to oversee patientassessment, triage, allocation, and care coordination across both hospices and the wider system.
Service Innovation: Act as project lead to maximise available resources and support coordinated working across professional and organisational boundaries.
Strategic Influence: Use learning from the pilot to shape a sustainable, future-commissioned model that improves long-term outcomes for patients and families.
About us
Wakefield Hospice & The Prince of Wales Hospice, are committed to providing the highest level of symptom management and care for people who have advanced active, progressive and life threatening illness.
Job description Job responsibilities
The role will lead the development, design, implementation, and delivery of a new community specialist palliative care service.
The aim of the service is to scope, test and refine a new approach to specialist hospice palliative care, with the longer-term ambition of establishing a sustainable commissioned service for the Wakefield District. The service aims to provide clinical leadership, professional advice and operational coordination for End-of-Life and Palliative care needs across the Wakefield District.
The role will be working closely with system partners involved in End of Life and Palliative care provision, the hospice teams, and the newly forming neighbourhood teams. The post holder will play a key role in developing and delivering an innovative community model of care.
The role will act as the clinical operational lead across both hospices and the wider End-of-Life care system, overseeing patient identification, assessment, triage, allocation and care coordination to ensure better coordinated care, including timely access to hospice services and the effective use of specialist resources. The role will support service development to improve the experience of care, reduce avoidable hospital admissions, facilitate coordinated transitions between services, and enable more patients to receive care and die in their preferred place care.
Key Responsibilities
Service Development and Implementation
Lead the design, development and implementation of the new community service model, working collaboratively with system partners, hospice leaders, newly forming neighbourhood teams and other key community partners.
Lead the day-to-day development of the service, building and adapting the model as the pilot evolves in response to patient need, service demand and learning from delivery.
Launch and embed the service reviewing efficiency and impact.
Work with hospice leaders to develop safe and sustainable staffing models that align with agreed budgets, service demand and workforce capacity.
Provide operational clinical leadership, support and supervision to staff within the service, ensuring high-quality, responsive and safe care is delivered to patients and families.
Collaborate with stakeholders to establish eligibility criteria, referral pathways, pilot service parameters and plans for future service growth and full implementation.
Coordinate resources effectively to ensure the service meets patient need while maintaining quality, safety and efficiency.
Monitor service activity, demand, outcomes and capacity, recommending and implementing changes to support continuous improvement as the pilot develops.
Contribute to the development of a sustainable model of care and provide evidence to support future commissioning of the service.
Ensuring accurate tracking of patient interactions to ensure clear information for commissioning
Day to day line management
Community Support and Care Delivery
Alongside the wider team, manage a small but intensive caseload, promoting continuity of care and ensuring patients and families receive timely, responsive support as needs change.
Undertake specialist assessment, triage and care coordination for patients with complex palliative and end of life care needs.
Coordinate multidisciplinary input, ensuring patients have timely access to the most appropriate professionals and services based on their identified needs.
Facilitate communication and collaborative working across hospice, primary care, community, acute and voluntary sector services.
Ensure care is delivered in line with agreed clinical standards, policies and professional requirements, seeking advice, support or escalation where appropriate to maintain safe and effective patient care.
Ensuring accurate tracking of patient interactions to ensure clear information for commissioning
Support patients to achieve their preferred place of care and, wherever possible, their preferred place of death.
Evaluation and Service Improvement
Support the ongoing evaluation of the service, monitoring activity, demand, outcomes and workforce capacity.
Use patient, family and stakeholder feedback to identify opportunities for service improvement.
Review and refine referral pathways, caseloads, operating hours and workforce models based on learning from delivery.
Contribute to reports and recommendations that support future service planning, commissioning decisions and the transition from pilot to a sustainable commissioned service.
Leadership
Provide supportive and visible leadership to staff involved in the delivery of the service.
Work with key stakeholders from both hospices and partner organisations to design, develop and deliver the service.
Proactively monitor demand and capacity, ensuring resources are deployed effectively and patients receive a responsive service.
Continuously review, evaluate and improve service performance, identifying opportunities for development and innovation.
Promote a positive learning culture, supporting the development and wellbeing of colleagues.
Facilitate the sharing of knowledge, skills and best practice across teams and identify training and development opportunities where required.
Advice Line
Support the enhancement and development of the hospices' 24/7 advice line, ensuring patients, families and healthcare professionals have timely access to hospice specialist palliative care advice and support.
General Duties and Responsibilities
All employees are required to abide by the Health and Safety at Work Act, attend annual mandatory training sessions and ensure they comply with Hospice policies and procedures at all times;
Employees must demonstrate commitment to their own personal development and are required to make a positive contribution to fundraising and raising the profile of the Hospice;
Strict confidentiality applying to all aspects of Hospice business must be observed at all times. Report promptly any untoward incident, complaint, grievance, etc or other aspect likely to affect the safe and efficient functioning of the service.
The tasks and responsibilities outlined in this job description is not exhaustive and the post holder may be required to undertake other tasks in agreement with their line manage
Person Specification
Experience Essential
Experience of: Multidisciplinary and multi-agency working Service development, quality improvement or implementing change Providing clinical leadership and support to colleagues Working autonomously and managing competing priorities Leading or supporting projects, service redesign or transformation programmes Reporting service activity and outcome data Working collaboratively across organisational boundaries
Qualifications Essential
Registered Nurse Evidence of ongoing professional development Post-registration qualification or significant experience in palliative and end of life care.
Desirable
Degree
Disclosure and Barring Service Check This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
Employer details Employer name Wakefield Hospice
Address Wakefield Hospice
Aberford Road
Wakefield
West Yorkshire
WF1 4TS
United Kingdom
Employer's website https://www.wakefieldhospice.org/ (Opens in a new tab)