Job title:
SPUR Clinical Team Leader

Department:
Community

Hospice band:
Clinical Band 7

Reports to:
Community Services Lead

Responsible for:
SPUR

DBS required
Enhanced with Adult and Child Barring Lists

Job purpose
The SPUR Clinical Team Leader is responsible for the clinical, operational and professional leadership of the Specialist Palliative Urgent Response Service (SPUR).

The post holder will provide expert specialist palliative and end-of-life care advice, triage, assessment and intervention for patients experiencing urgent or complex needs across Birmingham and Solihull. They will function as an autonomous practitioner, independent prescriber and clinical leader whilst supporting the day-to-day management of the service.

The role combines approximately 40% clinical practice and 60% leadership, management, quality and service development responsibilities.

The post holder will support the safe delivery of urgent palliative care responses, oversee clinical decision-making, manage staff and resources, promote excellence in patient care and contribute to strategic developments across the wider health and care system.

Main duties and responsibilities
Provide specialist palliative and end-of-life care assessment, advice and intervention for patients, families and carers.

Undertake complex holistic assessment and clinical decision-making.

Act as an autonomous practitioner working independently within professional scope of practice.

Independently prescribe and review medication within competence.

Undertake specialist triage and prioritisation of referrals received by SPUR.

Coordinate urgent responses and ensure timely allocation of resources.

Assess, plan, implement and evaluate individualised care plans.

Support patients to remain in their preferred place of care wherever possible.

Facilitate rapid access to specialist palliative care services.

Lead management of complex symptom control and palliative emergencies.

Promote advance care planning, ReSPECT conversations and MASC implementation.

Support management of safeguarding concerns.

Liaise with GPs, District Nurses, Acute Trusts, WMAS, Care Homes and community teams.

Participate in the SPUR out-of-hours rota as required.

Act as an expert clinical resource for staff and system partners.

Support complex decision-making relating to admission avoidance and urgent care pathways.

Maintain professional accountability for all clinical decisions and delegated activity

Leadership and Management

• Provide day-to-day operational leadership for SPUR.
• Support the Service Lead in delivering service objectives and strategic priorities.
• Coordinate workforce deployment and caseload management.
• Ensure safe staffing and skill mix across the service.
• Participate in rota development and workforce planning.
• Line manage Band 7 practitioners and other designated staff.
• Undertake annual appraisals, supervision and wellbeing conversations.
• Support recruitment, selection and induction.
• Manage sickness, attendance and performance concerns in accordance with policy.
• Support staff development and succession planning.
• Promote a culture of accountability, learning and continuous improvement.
• Act as deputy for the Service Lead when required.
• Lead operational responses to incidents, escalations and service pressures.
• Support implementation of service developments and change programmes.

Clinical Governance and Quality

• Lead investigations into incidents, complaints and safeguarding concerns.
• Promote learning from incidents and near misses.
• Ensure compliance with clinical standards, policies and professional frameworks.
• Monitor documentation standards and undertake regular documentation audits.
• Support monitoring of response times, breaches and service performance indicators.
• Participate in clinical governance and audit programmes.
• Lead service improvement initiatives and quality improvement projects.
• Support development and review of policies, SOPs and clinical guidance.
• Monitor compliance with prescribing and medicines management standards.
• Contribute to PSIRF investigations and organisational learning.

Education and Workforce Development

• Act as a clinical role model.
• Support ongoing development of Band 6 practitioners.
• Deliver formal and informal education.
• Facilitate reflective practice, case reviews and clinical supervision.
• Support competency development and assessment.
• Supervise students and visiting professionals.
• Promote research, innovation and evidence-based practice.
• Support development of specialist palliative care knowledge across partner organisations.
• Lead learning from complex cases and system-wide reflections.

Service Development and System Leadership

• Develop effective partnership working across health and care organisations.
• Represent SPUR at operational and strategic meetings.
• Support ongoing evaluation of the SPUR model.
• Contribute to business planning and winter pressure planning.
• Identify gaps in service provision and opportunities for improvement.
• Support pathway development across urgent care, community and palliative care services.
• Promote awareness and utilisation of SPUR across Birmingham and Solihull.
• Contribute to service redesign and innovation programmes.

General duties

Confidentiality
All employees are required to uphold the confidentiality of all information records in whatever format, encountered in the course of employment and after it.

All employees are bound by the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulations when, in the course of their employment, they deal with information records relating to individuals.

Equality and Diversity
The hospice is committed to promoting an environment that values diversity. All staff are responsible for ensuring that they treat individuals equally and fairly and do not discriminate on the grounds of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation. The hospice expects all staff to behave in a way that recognises and respects diversity in line with the appropriate standards.

Health and safety
All employees have a responsibility under the terms of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 to protect and promote their own health and that of others in the workplace.

All employees must comply with all hospice health and safety procedures infection control.

The prevention and control of infection is the responsibility of everyone who is employed by the hospice. Employees must be aware of infection control policies, procedures and the importance of protecting themselves and their clients in maintaining a clean and healthy environment.

Information governance
All employees are responsible for ensuring they undertake any training relating to information governance, read the hospices policies, procedures and guidance documents relating to information governance, and understanding how this affects them in their role.

Professional development
All employees must participate in an annual appraisal and develop a personal development plan with their line manager.

All employees are responsible for maintaining their statutory and mandatory training.

Safeguarding children, young people and vulnerable adults
The hospice is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. All employees and volunteers are expected to behave in such a way that supports this commitment pandemic or major incident.

In the event of a pandemic or major incident, the post holder may be asked to undertake other duties not necessarily commensurate to the banding of this role. This could include duties in any part of the hospice. Prior to undertaking any duties, the member of staff will have full training and induction. We wont ask any member of staff to undertake duties for which they are not competent or where they feel unsafe in their environment or could put patients or themselves at risk.

The job description is not exhaustive and may be amended following appropriate consultation in the light of business needs.

Person Specification

Experience
Essential

• Significant experience within specialist palliative and end-of-life care.
• Experience working autonomously in complex clinical situations.
• Advanced symptom management experience.
• Triage and urgent response experience.
• Leadership and management experience.
• Experience of supervising and developing staff.
• Experience of incident investigation and clinical governance.
• Experience of service development and quality improvement.
• Experience of multidisciplinary and system-wide working.
• Non-medical prescribing experience

Personal Skills and Attributes
Essential

• Advanced clinical reasoning and decision-making.
• Excellent communication and influencing skills.
• Ability to manage competing priorities.
• Strong leadership and people management skills.
• Ability to analyse complex situations and lead change.
• High level digital and SystmOne competence.
• Ability to deliver education and supervision.
• Ability to lead quality improvement initiatives.
• Ability to build effective relationships across organisational boundaries.
• Full UK driving licence and access to a vehicle

Desirable

• Experience of undertaking research/audit
• Intermediate/advanced IT competency
• Experience of being a clinical supervisor

Qualifications
Essential

• Registered Nurse (Adult) or relevant registered healthcare professional.
• Current NMC/HCPC registration.
• Degree level qualification.
• Independent Prescriber (V300) or willing to work towards.
• Advanced Clinical Assessment qualification.
• Postgraduate qualification in Palliative Care or equivalent experience.
• Evidence of continuing professional development.

Desirable

• Recognised teaching qualification or working towards

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).

Birmingham Hospice is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all sections of the community.