Job summary
Join the Integrated Discharge Service (IDS) at Bristol NHS Foundation Trust and play a key clinical leadership role in supporting safe, timely and person-centred discharges for patients with complex needs. As a Band 6 Case Manager, you will use your professional expertise to guide multidisciplinary teams, support complex decision-making and ensure patients leave hospital safely, in the right way and at the right time.

You will be a registered health or social care professional bringing strong assessment skills, sound clinical judgement and a passion for improving patient experience. You'll work closely with ward teams, the Transfer of Care Hub and partners across BNSSG, offering expert advice on discharge processes and supporting colleagues through real-time coaching, supervision and leadership.

If you thrive in a fast-paced environment, enjoy solving complex challenges and want to make a meaningful impact for patients with multifaceted needs, this senior role offers both autonomy and development within a supportive team.

Main duties of the job
In this role, you will:

• Lead and influence high-quality board rounds, providing expert clinical guidance, coaching ward teams and driving timely discharge decision-making.
• Coordinate and manage complex discharges, including patients with homelessness, NRPF, mental health needs, CHC/Fast Track cases and out-of-area placements.
• Champion 'Home First' principles, promoting safe, appropriate and timely discharges and reducing avoidable delays.
• Support and supervise IDS Coordinators, providing clinical oversight, coaching and guidance within your cluster team.
• Use expert communication and problem-solving skills to navigate complex situations, resolve barriers and support patients and families through challenging conversations.
• Build effective partnerships with community services, social care, voluntary sector organisations and the Transfer of Care Hub to ensure joined-up discharge planning.

Applicants should bring strong clinical assessment skills, confidence managing complex and emotive situations, and the ability to lead others in a dynamic hospital environment.

About us
Bristol NHS Foundation Trust brings together more than 28,000 staff to deliver over 160 clinical services across thirteen hospital locations, operating from three main sites at Southmead, Bristol city centre and Weston.

With an annual turnover of £2.3 billion, we are now one of the largest NHS trusts in the United Kingdom. Our hospitals are spread across Bristol and Weston, join us and you can enjoy the very best of both worlds; city living within a stone's throw of the countryside or beside the seaside, both with easy access to all that the South West has to offer.

Bristol NHS Foundation Trust values all people as individuals. As an equal opportunities employer actively working towards a diverse workforce we aim to recruit and retain a workforce which represents the rich diversity of the local population at all levels and are committed to designing our services around the needs of individual patients and those around them.

Anonymous information will be used from your application in order to ensure we're meeting our pledge.

Job responsibilities
As a senior clinician within IDS, you will:
Clinical Leadership & Board Round Excellence

• Lead daily board rounds on allocated wards, coaching MDT colleagues and acting as the expert point of escalation for complex discharge queries.
• Support early discharge conversations with patients and families, ensuring clear, person-centred planning.
• Lead post-board huddles, allocating actions and providing real-time supervision to Coordinators.

Complex Case Management

• Hold a specialist caseload including homeless patients, self-funders, CHC/Fast Track cases, mental health and learning disability cases, NRPF, and out-of-area discharges.
• Undertake comprehensive clinical assessments, including mental capacity assessments and contributions to Best Interest Decisions.
• Coordinate multi-agency planning meetings and develop High Impact User plans for patients with recurring or prolonged stays.

Cluster Team Supervision & Professional Support

• Provide clinical supervision, coaching and oversight to IDS Senior Coordinators and Coordinators.
• Review Transfer of Care documents and ensure quality standards are met.
• Support performance or capability concerns sensitively and appropriately.

Discharge Flow, Governance & System Standards

• Promote accurate Criteria to Reside coding and ensure delays are recorded in line with BNSSG operational standards.
• Actively challenge inappropriate discharge cancellations and support timely decision-making.
• Maintain accurate documentation in CareFlow in line with IDS Documentation Standards.

Partnership Working

• Work closely with the Community Transfer of Care Hub, social care, Sirona, care providers, housing teams, mental health services and third-sector organisations.
• Support the restart or redesign of packages of care and provide expert advice on discharge pathways P0-P3 and Home First approaches.

Training, Development & Service Improvement

• Deliver training to new IDS staff and support students through induction and ongoing learning.
• Participate in audits, quality improvement work, complaint investigations and service development.

Seven-Day Service

• Contribute to the seven-day working rota, ensuring continuity of complex case management across weekends and bank holidays.

Person Specification
Essential

• Qualified Health or Social Care Practitioner
• Current professional registration with relevant professional body (e.g. NMC/HCPC)
• Evidence of Continuing Professional Development undertaken since qualification
• Substantial post graduate experience
• Relevant post registration experience in care of complex patients.
• Ability to build relationships which support person-centred planning, involving the person in all decision making and building on strengths and capabilities
• Demonstrate how to prioritise work and manage deadlines for self and others
• Evidence of partnership working and competence in identifying and maintaining purposeful networks and collaborative arrangements
• Be a competent practitioner and supervise the actions of others effectively
• Evidence of managing complex and difficult situations.
• Experience of timely, effective and safe discharge from an acute trust
• Inter-disciplinary collaboration within the team and by working across boundaries with other disciplines.
• Able to assess and analyse to achieve change in a robust and timely manner
• IT literate with experience of using wide range of tools
• Prioritisation of workload with changing priorities
• Frequently change task and be adaptable to the changing environment/situation in order to deliver workload expectations.
• Ability to work under pressure and cope with the unexpected, responding calmly to emotive situations and seeking appropriate support and solutions

Desirable

• Experience of managing complex discharges in a hospital environment
• Knowledge of integrated discharge team
• Specialist knowledge to advise on the management of the discharge process and policy

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.

Certificate of Sponsorship
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years.

UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website.

Employer details
Employer name: Bristol NHS Foundation Trust
Address: Brunel Building, Southmead Hospital, Bristol, BS10 5NB, United Kingdom
For questions about the job, contact: IDS Operational Team Lead, Neena Kaukab, neena.kaukab@nbt.nhs.uk, 01174144444

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