Principal Clinical Pharmacist Mental Health - Division Lead

Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust

Principal Clinical Pharmacist Mental Health - Division Lead

The closing date is 17 May 2026

We are seeking three experienced and motivated clinical pharmacists to join our pharmacy team as Divisional Lead Pharmacists (Band 8a).

The posts provide senior clinical leadership across the following divisions: Adult Acute and Urgent Care Services; Specialist Services (Children and Young People and Older People); Learning Disabilities and Forensic Services; and Adult Community Services.

The roles are suited to forward-thinking pharmacists keen to influence practice, develop services and progress as senior clinical leaders. Experience in mental health or learning disabilities is desirable but not essential, and applicants with strong transferable clinical and leadership skills are encouraged to apply.

Working closely with the pharmacy management team, senior clinicians and multidisciplinary teams, you will lead the safe, effective and person-centered use of medicines across inpatient and community services. You will provide specialist clinical expertise, influence prescribing practice and support delivery of the Trust's Pharmacy and Medicines Optimisation Strategy.

You will join a supportive and progressive pharmacy team with strong links to multidisciplinary colleagues, senior Trust leaders and academic partners, offering opportunities to develop leadership, research and advanced practice aligned with national credentialling frameworks.

Main duties of the job

• Provide highly specialist clinical pharmacy expertise in mental health, learning disabilities and forensic services
• Lead and develop pharmacy services across assigned divisions, ensuring high-quality, evidence-based and cost-effective medicines use
• Influence prescribing practice and contribute to Trust-wide medicines optimisation strategy and governance
• Use Independent Prescribing skills (where qualified) within agreed scopes and Trust policy
• Support medicines safety through incident review, learning, audit and quality improvement initiatives
• Line manage and develop Band 6/7 pharmacists and other pharmacy staff, fostering a strong learning culture
• Deliver and oversee education and training for pharmacists, technicians and wider healthcare professionals
• Contribute to policy development, formulary management and Trust committees (e.g. Drugs & Therapeutics)
• Work collaboratively across services and systems to support safe and seamless transfer of care

About us

Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust is one of just five mental health trusts to achieve an overall rating of 'Outstanding' from the Care Quality Commission

Our family of over 4,000 members of staff provide health and social care for people with mental ill health, physical ill health and learning disabilities across Hertfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex and Norfolk, delivering these services within the community and several inpatient settings. Everything is underpinned by choice, independence and equality, with our Trust values embedded throughout:

Welcoming. Kind. Positive. Respectful. Professional.

In return, we can offer you:

• leadership and management training opportunities
• 5% on top of basic salary high cost allowance supplement (subject to a minimum and a maximum payment pro rata)
• 27 days holiday rising to 33 days (depending on NHS Trust service) plus bank holidays (pro rata where applicable)
• One of the UK's best pension schemes
• Comprehensive health and wellbeing services
• Special leave for family and personal reasons
• NHS Car Lease Scheme
• Employee Assistance Programme

Our staff survey results tell a story of highly engaged, motivated, passionate people working at HPFT. The survey has shown that staff overwhelmingly believe that their role makes a difference to service users, to the extent that HPFT had the best score nationally for this question.

Job responsibilities

• To work with the Chief Pharmacist and a team of clinical pharmacists and technicians to provide and support the integrated delivery of pharmaceutical care initiatives to patients with mental and physical health needs and learning disabilities in identified areas of HPFT to ensure safe, appropriate and cost-effective use of medicines.
• To provide highly specialist pharmaceutical advice concerning the care and treatment of service users in Mental Health (including Forensics) and Learning Disabilities Services and to promote safe, effective and evidence-based cost effective use of medicines within the Trust.
• To actively lead the provision and development of pharmaceutical services to a specific division.
• To provide highly specific advice to clinical team members on the management of complex medicines related issues, such as complex drug interactions, medicines use in pregnancy, unlicensed/off‑label use of medicines etc.
• To provide and receive highly complex, highly sensitive or highly contentious information, where developed persuasive, motivational, negotiating, training, empathetic or reassurance skills are required. This may be because agreement or co‑operation is required or because there are barriers to understanding. This may also involve presenting complex, sensitive or contentious information to a large group of staff, service users or carers.
• To work as part of a multidisciplinary team to provide clinical pharmaceutical support to designated areas in order to maximise benefits and minimise risk to service users. This will include medicines reconciliation, prescription review, medication reviews, identification and management of drug interactions and adverse effects, advice on clinical monitoring, medicines information, advising on supply problems, compliance with legislation, compliance with Trust policies and guidelines and participation in multidisciplinary team meetings where appropriate.

For a more detailed description, please see attached job description and person specification or contact Nicola Headland, Nicola.headland@nhs.net, or 07827 880328, Harsha Patel harsha.patel7@nhs.mail, 07779 555393

Person Specification

QUALIFICATIONS / EDUCATION / TRAINING

• BPharm / MPharm / BSc Pharmacy
• Registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)
• Postgraduate clinical pharmacy certificate/ diploma or equivalent experience.
• Demonstrates own CPD record/ or documented CPD
• Registration with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS)
• Postgraduate Certificate/diploma in Psychiatric Therapeutics or equivalent experience
• Postgraduate diploma in Advanced Clinical Practice
• Leadership or Management Qualification
• Independent prescribing qualification (or working towards)
• Member of the RPS Education and Standards Committee
• Post-registration Foundation or Core advanced credentialed with RPS

EXPERIENCE

• Experience of working in a secondary care setting, (demonstrable post qualification hospital pharmacy practice)
• Experience of working in a multidisciplinary team
• Evidence of involvement in clinical pharmacy provision and in operational management
• Writing and reviewing of policies, guidelines, and procedures
• Documented evidence of completed audit work and research practice
• Good, broad clinical knowledge and ability to apply to a ward, community and dispensary setting
• Experience of working as a member of a multidisciplinary team in mental health and learning disabilities
• Evidence of education, training, performance management and development of staff
• Good management skills - including recruitment, supervision, and appraisals
• Experience showing leadership skills or equivalent
• Managing quality and cost effectiveness initiatives
• Experience in incident analysis and investigation
• Awareness of current issues facing the NHS
• Experience of project management
• Experience of carrying out clinical supervision
• Experience of chairing committees

SKILLS / COMMUNICATION

• Advanced IT skills and comprehensive use of Microsoft office including power point and excel
• An ability to organise and prioritise own workload and that of others
• An ability to lead, inspire and motivate a team
• Engaging, compassionate and caring communication skills when dealing with patients/family/carers on complex/sensitive issues
• Experience of delivering training to staff
• Highly developed physical skills in dispensing, preparing, and checking of medicines involving a high level of accuracy.
• English language competency sufficient to communicate effectively with all staff and deliver education sessions in an appropriate form
• Advanced computer, keyboard and mouse skills
• Good interpersonal skills
• Confident, able to influence and assertive when dealing with other professionals.
• Excellent communication skills, both written and oral
• Team player with leadership skills
• Able to prioritise and meet deadlines
• Demonstrates empathy towards client groups
• Shows initiative and has well-developed problemsolving skills
• Demonstrates attention to detail, accuracy, and numeracy skills
• Ability to analyse highly complex information, both clinical, financial, and managerial

KNOWLEDGE

• Advanced theoretical and technical, clinical and pharmaceutical knowledge relating to the promotion of high quality, effective and cost-efficient use of medicines, including a wide range of work procedures and practices
• An awareness of NHS Plan, and clinical governance priorities
• Good knowledge of all medicines legislation relating to the supply and storage of medicines

ABILITY

• Able to deal with conflicting demands on workload and frequent interruptions
• Ability to work under pressure
• Able to influence other professionals
• Able to communicate with service users
• Able to impart complex information in a manner understandable to junior staff and students.

ANALYTICAL SKILLS

• Able to make judgements involving complex facts or situations which require analysis, interpretation, and comparison of a range of options
• Able to critically appraise clinical trial data and research papers.

PHYSICAL EFFORT

• Moving handling of laptop and other materials
• Sitting and standing for long periods of time in different settings
• Driving across Hertfordshire to different bases/units
• Able to work late duties/ bank holidays/weekends as per rota/take part in annual stock take

MENTAL EFFORT

• The job will require frequent use of VDU equipment every day and intense concentration in a sometimes-noisy open plan office environment
• The post holder may encounter challenging/hostile service users when visiting the mental health units
• Communication of complex information about medicines regarding individual service users within own organisation and across other organisations for example commissioning organisations, acute trusts, or community pharmacy

VALUES / MOTIVATIONAL / PERSONAL QUALITIES / DIVERSITY

• Welcoming/Kind/Positive/Respectful/Professional

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.

Address

£59,798 to £67,020 a year per annum, pro rata (5% HCAS Included)

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Full-time

Reference number

367-CORP-101248

Job locations

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