Overview
Stockport’s Drug and Alcohol Service are recruiting an experienced prescribing Nurse Consultant/Clinical Lead to shape the future of our specialist substance misuse services and act as subject matter expert to offer clinical support, training and advice both within the Trust and to external partners including the Acute trust and Primary Care. This is a senior leadership position for an expert practitioner who can combine advanced clinical expertise with strategic service development and strong multidisciplinary leadership. This role combines advanced clinical practice with service development, staff leadership, and partnership working across health, social care, voluntary sectors, and co-ordination of the service medical and prescribing offer. This role is central to ensuring safe, effective, evidence-based care for people experiencing drug and alcohol dependence, overseeing clinical governance, including quality assurance, incident review, risk management, and safeguarding processes and to driving continuous improvement across all pathways. You will have autonomy to shape clinical practice, strengthen pathways, and lead an enthusiastic, multidisciplinary team.
Main duties of the job
The post holder will operate as the day to day Clinical Lead for the services. This includes the day to day prescribing for addictions and clinical management of a service client group of up to 1000 people at any one time. They will sit as a member of the Drug and Alcohol Directorate’s Senior Management Team in the Drug and Alcohol Service, the provider of all specialised adult prescribing for drug addiction (OST) for the borough. They oversee or deliver all of the specialist prescribing for alcohol, working alongside the borough’s GPs. They will be responsible for whole episodes of care including the assessment, formulation of treatment, initiation or review and delivery of the required specialist interventions (including prescribing of controlled drugs for addiction and other specialist packages of care relevant to the delivery of specialist substance misuse services). The post holder will carry a small caseload of the most complex clients. They will act as specialist expert resource for the provision of highly specialised accurate, contemporary and evidence-based drug and alcohol information and advice across a range of borough and wider settings. They will provide clinical leadership and decision-making through the Clinical Team and wider staff team.
Additional responsibilities include delivering high-quality clinical governance, contributing to safeguarding, and ensuring alignment with national and local policies.
Working for our organisation
We are proud to provide high quality mental health and learning disability services, both inpatient and in the community across five boroughs of Greater Manchester – Bury, Oldham, Rochdale, Stockport and Tameside and Glossop. Our vision is for a happier and more hopeful life for everyone in our communities and our staff work hard to deliver the very best care for the people who use our services. We’re really proud of our #PennineCarePeople and do everything we can to make sure we’re a great place to work.
All individuals regardless of race, age, disability, ethnicity, nationality, gender, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, religion or belief, marriage and civil partnership are encouraged to apply for this post. We would also encourage applications from individuals with a lived experience of mental illness, either individually or as a carer.
If you come and work for us we will offer a range of benefits and opportunities, including:
- Generous annual leave entitlement for Agenda for Change and Medical and Dental staff.
- Flexible working opportunities to support your work/life balance
- Access to Continued Professional Development
- Involvement in improvement and research activities
- Health and Wellbeing activities and access to an excellent staff wellbeing service
- Access to staff discounts across retail, leisure and travel
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
To hold lead responsibility (alongside the Trust Lead for Addictions, Head of Service and Service Doctor) for the delivery of safe, effective, evidence based clinical interventions for the service users.
- To undertake highly specialised assessments of the clinical needs of people with substance misuse issues, and instigate recovery-focused, clinical/nurse-led interventions (including highly specialised prescribing for addictions).
- To be responsible for assessing, autonomously initiating and reviewing the delivery of highly specialised packages of care for the most complex service users, including ongoing management in collaboration with other specialist services across the borough and region where necessary.
- To provide highly specialist advice and direction regarding drug and alcohol addiction, treatment and prescribing to staff across the borough from within the Trust and other partner agencies, including volunteers and carers.
- To communicate complex information sensitively to service users/families/carers and to staff, including discussions regarding treatment decisions that may be upsetting.
- To use appropriate clinical equipment for health screening, including highly specialised care for physical health issues and blood-borne viruses, and participate in national programs (e.g., flu vaccinations).
- Contribute to the development and sustainability of multidisciplinary and multi-agency working.
- To develop and implement national and local clinical policies and procedures and service interventions in line with expectations.
- To contribute to service financial management, including the borough prescribing budget in collaboration with commissioners.
- To provide specialist clinical and supervisory support for MOSAIC, young person’s substance misuse service and in-reach nursing provision; offered under a bespoke contractual arrangement with Pennine Care.
Person specification
Education/Qualifications
- Current appropriate Nursing Registration
- Post-registration qualification in a related subject (Non-Medical Prescriber)
- Masters Degree in relevant subject
- Teaching, training or mentorship qualification or evidence of equivalent experience
- Clinical Leadership and management qualification or commensurate relevant experience
- Evidence of continued professional development and maintenance of portfolio
- Proven experience in substance misuse in a senior/clinical leadership role with delivery of highly specialist clinical services
- Experience of leading and delivering clinical and prescribing packages and governance to national standards
- Experience of multi-agency working, training, supervision, and leadership of staff
- Significant nursing leadership experience across settings, budget/resource management
- Ability to analyse complex clinical issues and provide autonomous, proactive problem solving
- Excellent communication of complex clinical information to diverse audiences
- Ability to travel across the Trust footprint
- DBS check and safeguarding compliance
Application support – We recommend tailoring your application to each role you apply for, particularly your supporting information. Your supporting information should clearly explain, with examples, how your skills and experience meet the essential and desirable criteria for the role.
We understand that some candidates may use AI tools to help prepare their application. This is not restricted, however any AI support should only be used to enhance your own writing and must reflect your genuine skills and experience. You will be asked to talk about your application at interview. Applications that contain false or misleading information may be removed from the recruitment process.
We also offer virtual application support sessions each month. To secure your place, and to find out more visit the jobs events page on our website.
Sponsorship Information – We are an approved sponsoring organisation. Applications will be considered from applicants requiring sponsorship alongside all other applications. Please be aware, not all roles are eligible for sponsorship. You can review the list of eligible roles and requirements on the government website.
After You Apply
Once your application is submitted, you’ll receive updates via email. Shortlisting is based on how well you meet the criteria. Only shortlisted candidates will be invited to interview.
Pre-Employment Checks – To confirm your suitability for the role, we will carry out pre-employment checks in line with NHS Employment Check Standards. These include:
- Identity verification
- Right to work check
- Disclosure and barring service (DBS)/Criminal record check
- Professional registration and/or qualification check
- Occupational health assessment
- Employment history and reference validation
All applicants external to Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust will be required to provide HMRC employment history to cover the most recent three years employment.
If sponsorship is required, we will assess eligibility based on current government guidance. If not eligible and you cannot demonstrate right to work, your conditional offer may be withdrawn.
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