Main area: Fertility Counsellor Grade NHS AfC: Band 6
Contract: Permanent
Hours: Part time - 18.75 hours per week (remote working could be considered.)
Job ref: 358-7027969-W&C
Employer: University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust
Employer type: NHS
Site: Leicester Royal Infirmary
Town: Leicester
Salary: £37,338 - £44,962 Per annum, pro rata
Salary period: Yearly
Closing: 06/05/2025 23:59
Fertility Counsellor
NHS AfC: Band 6
Job overview
Ready for the next step in your counselling career, in a specialism with profound impact on patients’ lives? We need a driven individual to join the Leicester Fertility Centre (LFC) team at Leicester Royal Infirmary (LRI). We provide diagnostic testing and treatments such as insemination and in vitro fertilization (IVF), for the 1 in 7 couples with problems conceiving, and same sex couples and single patients wishing to start a family. Our life-changing services include fertility cryopreservation for cancer and transgender patients and egg, sperm and embryo donation.
Various types of counselling are provided including support, implications and therapeutic. Counselling is offered to patients, gamete donors and their families, recipients of donated gametes, and those conceived via donation. With the opening of the UK donor register, there is an increased need to help those considering making applications for information.
If you can confidently support fertility patients’ emotional and psychological needs as a Fertility Counsellor, we’d love to hear from you about this rewarding role in an ever-modernizing sector.
Main duties of the job
* Comfortable working independently, be assertive, use initiative and judgement to implement new processes
* Line manage other counselling staff, motivate others
* Attend meetings, follow up actions
* Prioritise workload, act under pressure
* Conduct staff competency assessments, protocol review, directing complaints to the Quality Manager
* Perform ‘Welfare of the child’ assessments
* Be professional, liaising via telephone, email, in person and participating in online meetings
* Excellent interpersonal skills, able to build rapport with patients, communicate with referring clinicians
* Respond politely and empathetically to anxious and distressed patients, maintaining confidentiality
* Process sensitive information in a fast-paced environment
* Deal promptly and efficiently with urgent and routine enquiries, signpost to useful resources
* Accurate correspondence, record keeping and database input, liaising with administrators
* High level concentration skills, understanding of medical terminology.
* Manage counselling appointment diary, ensure optimal clinic utilisation, flag capacity issues
* Work closely with doctors, nurses, administrators and laboratory staff
* Resilient, cover colleagues in times of staff shortages, annual leave or sickness
* Access to supervision, annual appraisal to focus on your development
* Use specialist software for electronic patient consent
Person specification
Qualifications
* Have relevant counselling qualification (at least level 5)
* Registration status with BACP/UKCP
* BICA accreditation, or working towards
* 5 years relevant experience with fertility/ bereavement, preferably at an HFEA-licensed clinic
* BACP accreditation, or working towards
Experience
* Able to explain how to deal with hypothetical clinical scenarios
* 450 hours post-qualification counselling experience
* Relevant counselling experience (fertility, bereavement, psychosexual etc)
* Evidence of ongoing CPD
* Able to explain compliant practice as per HFEA code of practice, guidelines from BICA
* Experience of Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Teams, Outlook; able to perform literature searches for evidence-based practice
* Experience with a fertility database such as IDEAS
* Experience with an electronic consent platform such as Engaged MD
Communication
* Excellent verbal and written communication skills
Organisation
* Time management
* Ability to work independently
Ethical practice
* Demonstrable track record of ethical practice
Additional Information
Please submit your application form without delay to avoid disappointment; we will close vacancies prior to the publishing closing date if we receive a sufficient number of completed application forms.
Please check the email account (including your junk mail) that you supplied as part of your application on a regular basis following the closing date and throughout the recruitment process, as this is how we will communicate with you.
UHL is an equal opportunities employer. We aim to employ a workforce that reflects the diverse communities we serve. We welcome applications from people from all backgrounds who match our job criteria.
Applicants who have a disability and meet the essential criteria for the job will be interviewed if you indicate you wish to be considered under the Guaranteed Interview Scheme. If you require a reasonable adjustment at any stage of the recruitment process please make the recruitment services team aware as soon as possible.
UHL is committed to helping colleagues balance the demands of both their work and personal needs through flexible working arrangements wherever reasonably practicable and subject to service needs.
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
Please note if you are successful in obtaining this position and the post involves regulated activity you will be required to undertake a Disclosure & Barring Service check.
The Trust will pay for the check initially and the money will then be deducted from your salary over a three month period commencing on your first month's payment.
The current price of a check is £38 for an enhanced and £18 for a standard check.
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