Job summary

Following receipt of new funding, an exciting opportunity is available for an exceptional mental health pharmacist who has leadership skills and significant clinical experience in mental health to join the medicines management team as a Lead Pharmacist for Inpatient Mental Health services at the Harbour, Blackpool.

Pharmacy practice and medicines optimisation at the Trust are well developed and you would be joining an established and respected pharmacy and medicines management team of over 90 staff delivering a clinical pharmacy service to specialist mental health and community health services across Lancashire and South Cumbria. The team are proud to have been awarded a Trust Quality and Patient Safety award in 2023 in recognition of the significant and important work undertaken by the team in these areas.

You will be based on one of the mental health in-patient units in Blackpool where you will be an integral member of the multi-disciplinary team. Outside of the ward environment you will have responsibilities as a member of the senior pharmacy leadership team leading education, development, research, and audit in mental health pharmacy.

Main duties of the job

Key activities of the post holder include:

1. Providing advanced level clinical (including non-medical prescribing) input to the care of patients, optimising patient outcomes, reducing prolonged lengths of stay and improving the patient experience
2. Developing innovative pharmacist focussed service delivery pathways to ensure that those with unmet need are identified and treated
3. Acting as a role model and expert in mental health, ensuring a consistently high level of pharmacy input.
4. Promoting the safe use of medicines across the Trust and acting as an expert resource across the Trust, and externally
5. Leading education and development in medicines use in mental health for Trust staff and other staff working in this therapeutic area.
6. Provide professional leadership to the pharmacy team, contributing to staff education and development, and initiating service evaluation, research and audit

The successful candidate for this post will be encouraged to work towards achieving the requirements and associated assessment of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society Consultant Pharmacist Credentialing process.

For further information or an informal discussion about the post please contact:

Tara Gallagher, Network Pharmacy Director 01253 447716, 07790 388141 email

Holly Webb, Deputy Network Pharmacy Director 01253 447716

About us

Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust provides a range of services including secondary mental health care across this area. Specialist provision comprises inpatient child and adolescent mental health services, perinatal mental health and forensic services including low and medium secure care.

The Trust also provides a range of physical health and well-being services in the community alongside a range of partners in the Lancashire, Cumbria and Sefton area.

Lancashire & South Cumbria Foundation Trust encourages flexible working, we believe that a positive work/life balance benefits NHS employees through improved health and wellbeing. We would consider working patterns such as; term time, part time, compressed hours, flexi-time and career breaks. We encourage applicants to state clearly on their application forms this request and discuss these options at interview.

For more information please visit our website via Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS FT.

Job description

Job responsibilities

For more details on this vacancy please review the attached job description and person specification.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

7. Masters degree in Pharmacy
8. Pharmacist registration with General Pharmaceutical Council
9. Postgraduate diploma or equivalent including MA/MSc
10. Evidence of and commitment to continuing professional development
11. Independent Pharmacist Prescriber V300

Knowledge

Essential

12. Expert clinical knowledge relevant to mental health
13. Able to identify a vision for the delivery of an advanced clinical pharmacy service
14. Able to apply advanced levels of clinical reasoning and judgement to influence how medicines are used
15. Be able to manage difficult and ambiguous problems

Experience

Essential

16. Extensive experience of providing pharmaceutical care to patients with acute mental health needs
17. Experience of practice research or audit
18. Able to demonstrate prioritisation and time management skills