Job summary
The UCR Service provides urgent support, seven-days a week, to help prevent unnecessary hospital admissions. This is achieved by providing a two-hour crisis response delivered by a multi-skilled team of professionals. Support is provided at home or where they usually reside for people who are concerned their health or mobility is declining and are therefore at risk of admission to hospital. Our teams work closely with our local ambulance service to pull category 3 & 4 patients off the ambulance stack, supporting patients in receiving a rapid response in the community by teams with the skills to support them to remain at home.

Teams are made up of GPs, Nurses, Paramedics, Pharmacists, Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists, and Health & Therapy Assistants who work together to reduce hospital admissions. Patients are reviewed daily by a clinical team and the 'ward round' may involve a home visit or take place through video technology.

Our multidisciplinary teams work flexibly to provide a 7-day service, 365 days a year, between 8am and 8pm.

Are you committed to delivering an outstanding service which is fast- paced and reliable? Do you want to work with a team of caring and dedicated staff? We are looking for an Operational Lead to join us, so if you're an ambitious, proactive, and looking to take a lead role in a team that provides cutting-edge, excellent community care, we'd love to hear from you!

Main duties of the job
The focus of this role is the effective leadership, management and coordination of the UCR MDT to ensure the provision of safe, effective, and high-quality clinical care. You will use your leadership and management skills to promote and ensure multidisciplinary and interagency working to ensure patients are seen by the right professional, at the right time, in the right place.

Working across the MDT you will be responsible for day-to-day management of the team to ensure service outcomes and performance indicators are met. You will also be part of the development of the service through reflective practice, clinical supervision, and quality improvement initiatives.

Your experience of working across a variety of clinical settings and working autonomously will help you excel in this role. We will support you to develop specialist areas of practice and your leadership skills through internal and external programmes.

In this role you will be responsible for staff management, supervision, and development, including shift coordination, allocation of visits, and the performance development reviews of members of the team. As Operational Lead you will have responsibility for team performance and be responsible for a devolved budget including pay and non-pay, working within the defined financial envelope.

About us
We are the main provider of NHS community services across East and West Sussex, with 6,000 staff serving 1.3 million people. We deliver essential care to adults and children, helping them manage their health, avoid hospital admissions, and reduce hospital stays.

Our Trust vision is to provide excellent care at the heart of the community. We offer opportunities across medical, clinical, support, and corporate services.

Why work for us?

• Positive 2024 NHS Staff Survey results, highlighting compassionate leadership and wellbeing
• Varied environments: community hospitals, patients' homes, and bases across Sussex
• Flexible working options: part-time, flexi-time, annualised hours, and flexi-retirement
• Excellent training, development, and research opportunities
• Accredited Living Wage Employer, we ensure fair pay for all our staff
• Cost-effective workplace nurseries in Crawley, Hove, and Brighton
• Active EMBRACE, Disability & Wellbeing, LGBTQIA+, and Religion & Belief networks
• Level 3 Disability Confident Leader and Veteran Aware Trust

Our values-- Compassionate Care, Working Together, Achieving Ambitions, Delivering Excellence--guide everything we do.

We embrace diversity and encourage applications from all backgrounds, particularly from ethnically diverse, disabled, and LGBTQIA+ individuals. We aim to create an inclusive environment and support reasonable adjustments during recruitment.

This post may close early if sufficient applications are received.

Job responsibilities
Further information is available in the attached job description and person specification.

Qualifications
Essential

• Degree level qualification and/or relevant management experience
• Evidence of continued professional development
• Evidence of leadership education/development or a willingness to undertake this

Desirable

• Management qualification or willingness to undertake

Other
Essential

• Must be a car driver, have access to a car for work purposes and be willing to travel between sites, potentially at short notice

Experience
Essential

• Experience of managing a team or other relevant management experience
• Knowledge and experience in using various IT systems

Desirable

• Experience of managing a multi-professional team/collaborative working
• Demonstrable success in delivering change and performance with and through your teams, by engaging them in development & delivery plans, establishing clear work priorities with them, delegating effectively, ensuring a capability to deliver, monitoring performance and giving feedback.

Skills & Knowledge
Essential

• Ability to work as an Autonomous individual
• Good numeracy and literacy skills
• IT literate with the ability to use all Microsoft office applications
• Demonstrates excellence in communication skills with an ability to negotiate and manage conflict
• Current knowledge of local and national policies informing health and social care
• Knowledge of Clinical governance, clinical audit and clinical supervision
• Demonstrate ability to reflect and learning from situations
• Identifies difficulties as challenges and works with others to identify solutions
• Demonstrate self-awareness, able to identify personal limitation and shows openness to address them
• Awareness of professional responsibilities and boundaries.
• Sound knowledge of safeguarding vulnerable adults and children
• Knowledge of local and national policies relevant to clinical area.
• 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.
• A strong sense of personal and team accountability coupled to a clear understanding of the boundaries around delegated authority.
• Ability to manage and deliver to deadlines and within resources.
• Ability to think and plan tactically and creatively, and to prioritise work programs in the face of competing demands
• Ability to analyse complex problems and to develop practical and workable solutions to address them.

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 (Opens in a new tab).

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. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

Employer details
Employer name: Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust
Address: BGH, Brighton, BN2 3EW, United Kingdom
Employer's website: Apply through our website

Employer contact details
For questions about the job, contact:
Deputy Operational Head of Service
Johanne Ansell
johanne.ansell@nhs.net
07890556765