Job summary
Band 8a Matron - Palliative and End of Life Care. 0.6 WTE substantive. 3 days per week working pattern. We have an exciting opportunity for an ambitious and experienced Matron to join our Palliative and End of Life Care team. We provide fully integrated 24/7 clinically effective, efficient and high-quality care to people with complex specialist palliative and end of life care needs, based on current evidence and best practice across inpatient and community settings. Our dedicated Palliative and End of Life Care team provides rapid response to patients in the dying phase and our overnight service (Pal@Home) support people to remain in their preferred place of care. Please contact gstt.palliativecareseniornurses@nhs.net to find out more.

Main duties of the job
The successful post holder, through strong clinical leadership, will support the delivery of excellent personalised care to patients and families across the Boroughs of Lambeth & Southwark, in their own homes and care homes. They will have overall managerial responsibilities for the Clinical Nurse Specialists (CNS), Deputy Clinical Nurse Specialists (DCNS) and Allied Health Professionals (AHP) within the Palliative and End of Life Care Team (PaEoLC). The Matron will work with clinical and operational leads to support and deliver an efficient and effective service, providing professional/clinical leadership and expertise in palliative nursing. They will act as a resource to patients, staff, and other professionals regarding palliative care issues. The Matron has responsibility to ensure high standards of nursing care and associated clinical, quality, safety and workforce standards are agreed and delivered to ensure a positive patient experience. The Matron will uphold and ensure trust values are implemented and monitored to provide assurance that nursing/clinical staff behave in a professional manner. The Matron will contribute to identifying and managing issues of poor performance, risk, and complaints. The successful applicant requires a professional registration as a nurse and will be highly visible, accessible, and approachable to all staff, patients, families, and carers.

About us
Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust comprises five of the UK's best known hospitals - Guy's, St Thomas', Evelina London Children's Hospital, Royal Brompton and Harefield - as well as community services in Lambeth and Southwark, all with a long history of high quality care, clinical excellence, research and innovation. We are among the UK's busiest, most successful foundation trusts. We provide specialist care for patients including heart and lung, cancer and renal services as well as a full range of local hospital and community services for people in Lambeth and Southwark. We have a long tradition of clinical and scientific achievement and - as part of King's Health Partners - we are one of England's eight academic health sciences centres, bringing together world-class clinical services, teaching and research. We are a member of the Palliative Care Clinical Academic Group, providing unique access to world leading researchers in the field. You will have the opportunity to develop your teaching skills through delivering training across the wider Trust. We support our staff wellbeing through clinical supervision as well as multiple team and Trust wide initiatives.

Job responsibilities
Please see attached job description and personal specification for a detailed description of the roles and responsibilities for this post.

Person Specification
Qualifications / education
Essential

• BSc/diploma in Adult Nursing
• Broad clinical experience relevant to the post.
• Leadership course attendance
• Evidence of equivalent knowledge and experience to Masters level.
• A proven track record of operational service management at a senior level in an acute hospital environment, including staff management, financial management and change management.

Desirable

• To have or be working towards a Master's degree
• Leadership qualification
• Advanced Communication qualification

Previous Experience
Essential

• Experience of working autonomously at an advanced level within Palliative and end of life care delivering effective patient focused care.
• Experience of Managing a multidisciplinary team
• Proven evidence of advanced organisational/leadership skills and autonomous practice
• Experience with playing an active leadership role in clinical governance, managing concerns and complaints
• Demonstrable previous success in leading and delivering change and performance with and through clinical teams, by engaging them in the strategic direction and delivery plans, establishing clear work priorities with them, delegating effectively, ensuring a capability to deliver, monitoring performance and giving feedback.
• Proven ability to analyse complex problems and to develop and successfully implement practical and workable solutions to address them

Skills, knowledge and ability
Essential

• Ability to be intellectually flexible and to look beyond existing structures, ways of working, boundaries and organisations to produce more effective and innovative service delivery and partnerships.
• A commitment to improving patient services through an ability to sustain a clear performance focus on achieving demanding goals.
• Well developed leadership and influencing skills with the ability to enthuse, motivate and involve individuals and teams, and have them understand the Trust's and your performance expectations.
• Sound political judgement and astuteness in understanding and working with complex policy, and diverse interest groups, and common sense in knowing when to brief 'up the line'.

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.

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. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website.

Applicants must have current UK professional registration.