A Vacancy at Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.
We are seeking an individual with a genuine interest and expertise in the provision of information and support to patients with cancer.
The successful post holder will be part of the cancer services team and will have skills to work collaboratively with the specialist nursing workforce and the wider cancer support workers team. The successful individual must have a solid working knowledge of cancer care and the issues of concern to patients during their cancer diagnosis and treatment. Excellent communication and people skills are essential for this role.
The post holder will be based at St. Helens Hospital but will be required to work with other areas (Primary Care, other hospitals etc) and with a transformation team to deliver a continually evolving, comprehensive service to patients with cancer and their relatives / carers.
As the most senior member of the Cancer Support Worker workforce the post holder will be expected to effectively chair the Cancer Support Worker Forum meetings and contribute towards the development of the wider Cancer Support Worker workforce, acting as the key link between the Cancer Support Workers and Macmillan to provide regular updates.
The post holder will provide day-today management of the Macmillan Information Centres work, providing non- clinical support to patients and families and other staff involved in the cancer pathway.
The role is to support patients through a diagnosis of cancer through to completion of treatment and living with and beyond cancer.
The successful applicant will identify patient concerns through Holistic Needs Assessment and refer non- clinical concerns to support agencies / groups etc.
They will provide information on the wards to patients and be involved in health promotion.
The postholder will organise and support the day-to-day work of our team of valuable volunteers; ensuring that there are constructive working relationships within the department and that the Volunteer Manager is kept informed about her team's work.
The post holder will need to demonstrate excellent organisational skills, must be flexible in approach, able to exercise initiative and demonstrate integrity, a consistently high standard of professionalism and an awareness of the importance of maintaining confidentiality.
The post holder must be willing to undertake on-going training and development which will be supported by the Cancer Services Management team.
Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves a population of over 600,000 with a workforce of over 9000 dedicated and skilled staff across 21 sites.
We strongly believe that the communities we serve should all have access to Five Star Patient Care.
Our Services:
Acute Care
Providing emergency and maternity services at Whiston, Southport and Ormskirk hospitals, and medical and surgical specialties across all our sites.
Primary Care
Providing primary care services at Marshalls Cross Medical Centre situated in St Helens Hospital.
Community Services
Providing adult community services for St Helens and a wheelchair service in Chorley, South Ribble, and West Lancashire. Our inpatient unit at Newton Community Hospital is where patients needing acute hospital beds can continue rehabilitation, freeing up space for more unwell patients. We also provide urgent care at our Urgent Treatment Centre located in St Helens town centre.
Specialist Regional Services
We provide the Mersey Regional Burns & Plastic Surgery Unit at Whiston Hospital and the Spinal Injuries Unit at Southport Hospital to more than 4 million people across the whole of Merseyside, West Lancashire, Cheshire, Isle of Man and North Wales.
Achievements:
• Rated Outstanding by CQC Inspection August 2018
• Top 100 places to work in the NHS (NHS Employers & Health Service Journal)
• National Preceptorship Accreditation (2023) for Nursing & AHP Preceptorship Programme
KEY DUTIES
CLINICAL & PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES
• Interpret and assess enquiries from the public and health and social care professionals. Exercise judgement in identification of their needs of the service and provide appropriate, accessible, timely and sensitive information and support.
• Utilise own clinical experience and knowledge of the NHS and external agencies to maximum potential in outreach activities, promotion, and continued development of the service.
• To support the cancer services management team with evaluating, recommending, and implementing new initiatives to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the service ensuring the maintenance of high-quality standards.
• To organise own workload and to work autonomously as required. This demands flexibility to manage the unpredictable pattern of the work by nature of being a “drop in” service as well as working with patients and families with multi-faceted concerns.
• Triage individuals contacting the service face to face or by telephone/ email to prioritise needs.
• Deal with whatever situations present in a sensitive manner and base decisions on own judgement.
• Provide information and signposting to other supportive services and liaise with clinical staff to support patients and carers in distress.
• Ensure equitable service delivery via communication strategies using skills and tools needed where physical, mental, language or emotional barriers to understanding are present e.g., for service users with learning disabilities or where English is not the first language.
• Create meaningful & productive roles for volunteers by identifying volunteer roles within the service. Provide induction in accordance with the local induction checklist & volunteers handbook. Develop & deliver a training programme and provide ongoing day to day supervision and support of volunteers.
• Able to be adaptable, multitask and prioritise under pressure.
• Can respond to situations without warning.
• Provide a confidential listening service and empathic support to staff affected by cancer.
• Ensure that situations or enquiries requiring specialist intervention are referred appropriately and in a timely manner.
• Understand that there will be challenging situations which may present and when to seek appropriate support/advice.
• Always maintain confidentiality in line with Trust and Data Protection policies.
• Ability to retrieve information from a wide range of sources and in different formats to meet the needs of the individual and engage with multi-media information formats to optimise the range of service available from the MCIC.
• Work collaboratively with clinical and non-clinical services both internal and external to the Trust to provide a seamless service which is responsive to individual service user need..
ADMINISTRATIVE RESPONSIBILITIES
• Provide a wide range of administrative and clerical support to the mangers including data collection, stock taking, and report writing.
• Participate in the MCISS steering group deputising as required.
• Participate in collection and reporting of evidence data for Macmillan Quality Standards.
• Support the information needs of the individual cancer teams e.g., Quality Surveillance Programme.
• Contribute to the completion of audits and respond to the findings to improve service delivery.
• Create and maintain databases which record all support and information activity and information resources.
• Organise, participate, and take minutes of meetings as requested by the MCIC Manager.
• Plan, and co-ordinate events such as the Health and Wellbeing events for cancer patients.
• Present / attend cancer conferences locally and regionally as required.
• Organise the day to running or service, organising meetings, bookings rooms, responding to email enquiries.
• Work with MCISS Manager to develop the service to meet the needs of patients in other care and community settings.
• Work with other centres across the region to adopt best practice
LINE MANAGEMENT/SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITIES
• Act as a role model by demonstrating leadership and expertise, and by maintaining credibility across the Trust, the wider health care community, and external agencies, ensuring a positive image of the Trust is always maintained.
• Contribute to the development and implementation of policies, procedures and guidelines related to own service.
• Ensure compliance with Trust policies, procedures, and guidelines. Supervise the day-to-day activities of the volunteers for the Macmillan Information and Support Service including organising tasks and team communications.
• Participate in and contribute to meetings internally or externally to the Trust, relevant to specialist area of practice.
• Act as Clinical Supervisor for a team of Cancer Support Workers and contribute to their development.
• Lead on the Cancer Support Worker Forum, ensuring regular meetings are held and the outputs from these meetings are shared with the Macmillan Centre Manager and the Cancer Operational Manager.
• Conduct appraisals at least annually for each cancer support worker or other relevant members of the team that report to this role.
• Support the Division in the effective use of resources, e.g., budget, supplies and materials.
• Maintain systems and processes to promote a healthy, safe, and secure working environment and maintain accurate documentation and report any concerns.
• Contribute to departmental risk assessments and support any investigation of untoward incidents via the Datix system.
• Lead on the development and maintenance of relationships with other departments, wards within the Trust and external agencies, charities, and regional cancer centres.
• Liaise with all members of the extended MDT to aid facilitation of a collaborative approach to the care of the patient and make referrals or signpost as appropriate.
• Be flexible in approach and demonstrate a consistently high standard of professionalism and integrity.
• Communicate sensitively and compassionately with patients and families who may be affected by cancer and life limiting conditions.
• Promote patient/user participation in the development of the service and facilitate regular forums for this participation.
• Comply with the Trust’s complaints procedure.
• Actively promote Equality and Diversity and ensure the continued achievement of standards across the service.
• Take care of own safety and that of others who may be affected by their actions or omissions.
• Adhere to Health and Safety Policies and those of any other organisation which outreach services are provided.
• Report any accident/incidents or ill health, failings in premises, equipment, or personal protective equipment.
• Make sure that people affected by cancer are aware that they are interacting with a Macmillan professional and know about the full range of resources and services available through Macmillan.
• Actively engage with Macmillan Cancer Support to contribute expertise and experience and support the Macmillan Corporate Strategy
TEACHING & TRAINING RESPONSBILITIES
• Take responsibility for own learning and development by recognising and taking advantage of all opportunities to learn, including full participation in appraisal, supervision, action learning and by maintaining a professional/personal portfolio of learning.
• Support the development of direct reports through the appraisal process and ensure all mandatory training has been completed.
• Undertake the necessary training to become a HOPE course facilitator and deliver the course regularly as part of a team of facilitators.
• Assist with systems and processes to ensure that learning needs are identified and met and that all learning is shared, to change and improve services as indicated.
• Participate in the education of health care professionals regarding the needs of cancer patents and the information and support available.
• Promote and educate cancer patients regarding ‘health and wellbeing’ and active lifestyles.
• Participate in patient and public involvement activities.
FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
• Maintain efficiency and minimise any waste.
RESEARCH & AUDIT
• Responsible for supporting audits of the service.
• Involvement in potential audit or research within the unit or Trust.
This advert closes on Sunday 9 Feb 2025
Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme
Disability Confident
About Disability Confident
A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to Disability Confident .