Job summary
This role is the senior clinical lead within the Medicines Management Team for Medicines Safety, Effectiveness and Governance and Adult Specialist Services. The postholder will play a key role in the review of medication incidents, audits, risk management processes and the development of policies and procedures that promote the safe and effective use of medicines across the organisation. You will chair our Trust-wide Patient Group Direction Group and support our Trust wide Medicines Safety & Governance Group.

You will proactively identify opportunities for service improvement and contribute to policy, governance and quality developments that enhance patient outcomes, working collaboratively across services and multidisciplinary teams across the Trust to achieve positive outcomes.

You will deliver a specialist clinical pharmacy service to adult inpatient bedded units, working closely with multidisciplinary teams to optimise medicines use and support safe, effective care.

Alongside this, you will support and develop pharmacy colleagues, including pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and assistants, contributing to the ongoing growth and success of the Medicines Management Team.

Main duties of the job
As a senior clinical pharmacist you will

• Lead and deliver on medicines safety, effectiveness and governance.
• Chair the SCFT wide Patient Group Direction (PGD) group.
• Lead and deliver on a specialist clinical pharmacy service to adult bedded units with regular commitments to wards and / or services within allocated area in SCFT.
• Provide and develop a specialist clinical pharmacy service in order to improve the quality of patient care and to promote evidence-based, cost-effective prescribing and use of medicines. Identify risks related to medicines and manage these to ensure patient safety and improve patient experience.
• Lead on medicine management project(s) across SCFT.
• Provide training and education to clinical and healthcare staff.
• Play a key role liaising with a range of colleagues in the Medicines Management Team and other members of staff, notably Prescribers, Nursing, Finance, Human Resources, Estates, Facilities, Transport and Health and Safety.
• Participate in the ICU clinical pharmacy rota and any on-call duties (when implemented).
• The post is allocated a base but will be expected to travel across to other bedded units and service areas in SCFT when required.
• The post holder will be expected to work flexibly in line with hours of operation.

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
• 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
• Beautiful Sussex location near the South Downs and coast

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.

Details
Date posted: 01 September 2026
Pay scheme: Agenda for change
Band: Band 8a
Salary: £57,528 to £64,750 a year per annum
Contract: Permanent
Working pattern: Full-time, Part-time
Reference number: 150-GM2784-COR-B
Job locations: Brighton General Hospital, Elm Grove, Brighton, BN2 3EW, United Kingdom

Job description
Job responsibilities
This is an exciting time to join Sussex Community Foundation Trust, where you will be working at the interface of primary and secondary care, as the NHS implements three key shifts of the 10 year plan: hospital to community, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention.

You will be joining a friendly and supportive Medicines Management Team in a positive environment of collaboration across the Trust. Our Medicines Management Team support a wide range of services including Intermediate Care Units, Virtual Wards/Urgent Community Response, Rheumatology, Children and Young People, Medicines Optimisation Care Homes, and domiciliary Medicines Optimisation. We actively focus on continuous learning and improvement with staff expected to attend our quality improvement training. We support career development and can train pharmacists who wish to become prescribers.

This role will have an office base and is expected to travel across the geography regularly. We support hybrid working, remotely and from home on an occasional basis to fit the service needs.

See attached Job Description and Person Specification for full details.

Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential

• Masters degree MPharm
• Registered pharmacist (1 year competency assessed and examined) professional registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) UK.
• Diploma in Clinical Pharmacy or equivalent

Desirable

• MSc in Clinical Pharmacy or equivalent
• Non-Medical Prescriber

Experience
Essential

• At least 5 years relevant post-registration experience
• Providing clinical pharmacy services within an acute setting or similar setting with direct patient contact.
• Clinical audits. Full audit cycle. Plan, organise the collection of data, analyse data, findings, recommendations and audit report writing. Follow-ups
• Experience of writing policies, procedures and protocols
• Broad specialist clinical pharmacy knowledge
• Experience implementing national guidance and strategy relating to medicines
• Ability to demonstrate evidence of working in multi-disciplinary teams.
• Experience of implementing clinical governance and continuous improvement.
• Developing and delivering medicines management training to other healthcare professionals.
• Involved in identifying and assessing risk to improve patient safety
• Familiarity with the concepts of evidence based medicines.
• Expertise of addressing and resolving legal issues related to medicines.
• Addressing, implementing and monitoring compliance with NHS Improvement Patient Safety Alerts related to medicines

Desirable

• Experience of working with older people with complex health needs as a clinical pharmacist.
• Working with a community health services setting
• Experience of provision of medicines information and associated systems.
• Developing and undertaking clinical and non-clinical audits.
• Antimicrobial Stewardship knowledge and experience on relevant areas of community health services
• Developing and writing patient group directions (PGDs)
• Managing or advising on drug budgets and drugs costs and how to monitor these

Skills and Knowledge
Essential

• Excellent organisational skills
• Ability to assimilate, analyse and interpret complex data to assess risks and improve patient safety
• Critical appraisal skills
• Ability to communicate effectively and develop effective working relationships at all levels
• Ability to work independently and within a team
• Ability to challenge
• Ability to work under pressure and be able to make important decisions in pressured situations.
• Ability to prioritise and manage own work and deliver within identified timelines.
• Good written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to apply sound professional judgement to legal and ethical issues
• Effective influencing and negotiation skills and ability to persuade others
• The ability to research and analyse complex information, judging the input required to arrive at robust and accurate conclusions and using these conclusions to inform decision-making
• Computer skills including spreadsheets, presentations, or ECDL
• Self-motivated and able to initiate change.
• Methodological approach and attention to detail in terms of medicines.
• Ability to write reports, SOP and other documents

Desirable

• Ability to generate prescribing data using epact.net

Other Requirements
Essential

• Requirement to travel cost effectively across the area covered by Sussex Community NHS Trust
• Able to cope with interruptions when busy

Desirable

• Able to concentrate for extended periods

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. 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).

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: Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust
Address: Brighton General Hospital, Elm Grove, Brighton, BN2 3EW, United Kingdom
Employer's website: https://www.sussexcommunity.nhs.uk/work-with-us/ (Opens in a new tab)

Employer contact details
For questions about the job, contact: Principal Clinical Pharmacist, Lorna Elliott, lorna.elliott1@nhs.net, 01273696011

Privacy notice
Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust's privacy notice (opens in a new tab)