Head of the NHS Specialist Pharmacy Service

A fantastic opportunity has opened up to lead the NHS England commissioned national Specialist Pharmacy Service, the case for and strategic development of which are mandated in the 2014 NHS England paper: The review of specialist pharmacy services in England and in line with a further commissioning arrangement. The successful candidate will be enthusiastic, hard-working and have a strong track record of service development and innovation. They will have extensive experience and understanding of managing across boundaries in the NHS. The post-holder would work with the SPS Service Leads and the Office of the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer in developing and leading SPS. The service has 100 wte staff currently hosted through nine acute hospitals across England. Specialities include, medicines procurement, pharmaceutical quality assurance, medicines advice and medicines use and safety. The service has website www.sps.nhs.uk which attracts 8.5 million views per annum and hosts several medicines related tools, key articles and information for front line health care professionals. The post is based in the Pharmacy Practice Unit, Liverpool, where it is hosted by Liverpool University Hospital Group. Remote working is possible with a commitment to attend site for key meetings monthly., The purpose of this role is to lead the NHS Specialist Pharmacy Service (SPS) in successful delivery of the national contract with NHS England and enable access to specialist pharmacy expertise on behalf of the Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for England., The key aspects of this role will be to:

• Provide leadership and strategic direction for SPS in England
• Lead and oversee functional delivery to ensure that SPS is deployed to meet the needs of patients, providers, commissioners and clinical and professional networks.
• Ensure that service requirements and key performance indicators are delivered and collated to enable oversight by the SPS contract management board.
• Manage the Chief of Staff of SPS, the SPS function Hub Leads employed in the Pharmacy Practice Unit, Liverpool. To include Medicines Use and Safety, Medicines Advice and Quality Assurance and Procurement.
• Lead the SPS Operational Group, comprising the Assistant Head of SPS and nominated leads from Medicines Use and Safety, Medicines Advice, Quality Assurance, Procurement and Website and Digital.
• Contribute to NHS England's Pharmacy Senior Management Team and interface effectively with the CPhO Pharmacy Advisory Group, Acute Providers' Pharmacy Advisory Group, ICB Chief Pharmacists Group and NHSE policy teams.
• Liaise with Regional Medical Directors, Regional Chief Pharmacists (or their equivalent) and regional pharmacy workforce leads on the equitable delivery of SPS across England.
• Liaise with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society on the contribution of SPS to the work on professional standard sand the appropriate recognition of expertise in within the Society's faculty programme.
• To provide managerial oversight to the Pharmacy Practice Unit (Liverpool) to include Quality Control Northwest (QCNW) Liverpool.
  
  General Pharmaceutical Council Registration
• Post graduate diploma or Master's degree
• Management qualification or demonstrable equivalent experience
• Membership of the Royal College of Pharmacy or equivalent professional leadership body
Desirable criteria
• Higher degree to doctorate level, Extensive and broad post registration experience
• Substantive experience of working at a strategic senior management level equivalent to a Trust Chief Pharmacist of a large teaching hospital
• Demonstrable track record of success in multidisciplinary clinical settings and in clinical leadership roles in terms of driving forward the development and implementation of clinical strategies to deliver improvements in patient care
• Demonstrable track record of leading and implementing change successfully in large and complex organisations
• Demonstrable track record of major policy implementation and policy or service development in large and complex organisations
• Demonstrable experience of formulating long term strategic plans in large and complex organisations
• Demonstrable substantive experience of development of policies, procedures, guidelines and standards
• Demonstrable experience of planning and managing budgets
• Evidence of working with and engaging patients and the public
• Experience of working across several areas of pharmacy practice
• Advanced specialist knowledge of the major strategic issues related to pharmacy, prescribing and medicines optimisation including the introduction of new technologies, financial strategy, delivery of CIP and performance management
• Detailed knowledge and understanding of clinical governance
• Detailed knowledge of the legislative aspects of medicines and technology management and national policy within the NHS reforms
• An understanding of workforce, education and training issues relevant to the planning of the future pharmacy workforce, You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
  
  NHS University Hospitals of Liverpool Group (UHL Group) was formed on 1 November 2024, born from a shared aim to improve the care we provide our communities.
We are one of the largest employers in region, with over 18,900 colleagues who are dedicated to caring for our communities - from birth and beyond. For the 630,000 people across Merseyside, we are their local NHS. We provide general and emergency hospital care, alongside highly specialised regional services that extend to more than two million people in the North West. We operate from five hospital sites: Aintree University Hospital is the single receiving site for adult major trauma patients in Cheshire and Merseyside, and hosts a number of regional services including an award-winning stroke facility. Broadgreen Hospital is home to several elective surgical, diagnostic and treatment services, together with specialist patient rehabilitation. Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital provide specialist services in cardiothoracic surgery, cardiology and respiratory medicine, both in the hospital and out in the community. Liverpool Women's Hospital specialises in the health of women and babies, delivering over 7,200 babies in the UK's largest single site maternity hospital each year. The Royal Liverpool University Hospital is the largest hospital in the country to provide inpatients with 100% single en-suite bedrooms and mainly focuses on complex planned care and specialist services.

Note: Under current Home Office Immigration Rules we are currently unable to offer right to work visa sponsorship for Band 2 and 3 roles with a salary of less than £25,000 pa as they do not meet the UK Visas & Immigration criteria. Only those applicants who demonstrate clearly how they meet our person specification will be shortlisted for interview. We reserve the right to close any vacancies from further applications when we have received a minimum number of applications from which to make a shortlist. Please ensure you apply without delay if you wish to be considered for this role. Candidates applying for the role of Healthcare Assistant on the staff bank should note that due to the nature of the role, workers must be aged 18 or above when commencing in post. Applicants are therefore welcome from those aged over 18 or within 3 months' of their 18^th birthday. The Trust is committed to promoting a healthy work-life balance and achieve fair, equitable and consistent practice. We welcome flexible working requests and will consider a variety of flexible working arrangements from day one of your employment. Not all roles are suitable for every flexible working opportunity all of the time. Flexible working options may include reduced hours, compressed hours, fixed shifts, time back in lieu and home working. The Trust is committed to promoting equality and diversity; we value the contribution of individual talent, skills, knowledge and experience and aim for a workforce demography representative of the local community. We encourage applicants from the following groups that are currently under-represented in our workforce black, Asian and minority ethnic, lesbian, gay, bisexual and Transgender (LGBTQ+), disabled, male and age 16-24. Trust policy requires that the cost of submitting & processing the successful applicant/s DBS application be recovered via salary deduction following start in post. The amount of £26.50 (standard disclosure) or £54.50 (enhanced disclosure) will be deducted from salary, in manageable monthly instalments for up to 3 months following commencement of employment. Bank posts require upfront payment. From April 2017, Skilled visa applicants and their adult dependant(s) will be required to provide a criminal record certificate from each country they have lived in consecutively for 12 months or more in the past ten years. Applicants requiring sponsorship may wish to determine the likelihood of obtaining sponsorship for this position by assessing themselves against the criteria on the gov.uk website - https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa. This organisation has a zero-tolerance approach to the abuse of children, young people and vulnerable adults. All staff must ensure they adhere to the organisations safeguarding children and adults' policy and comply with the Local Safeguarding Children and Adult Board procedures. Staff should be mindful of their responsibility to safeguard children and adults in any activity performed on behalf of the organisation in line with the requirements of statutory guidance and legislation. All employees (and volunteers)are expected maintain their safeguarding knowledge and skills by completing mandatory safeguarding training which includes understanding and recognising the signs of abuse and neglect and taking appropriate action. As an organisation, we have adopted the Merseyside Domestic abuse workplace scheme which supports our staff who are experiencing Domestic Abuse /any forms of sexual violence. If you have any personal requirements that will enable you to participate in our recruitment process please contact a member of the Recruitment Services by phone on at the earliest opportunity to ensure that measures can be put in place to enable your application for this post. Please note: new entrants to the NHS will commence on the first pay point of the relevant band.