Service Lead for Paediatric Audiology

Main area: Audiology
Grade: NHS AFC: Band 8a
Contract: Permanent
Hours: Full time – 37.5 hours per week
Job ref: 361-6354878-B
Site: Lister Hospital
Town: Stevenage
Salary: £53,755 – £60,504 Per annum
Closing: 12/09/2024 23:59

Our mission is
Providing high-quality, compassionate care for our communities.

Our vision to 2030 is:
To be trusted to provide consistently outstanding care and exemplary service.

Job overview

East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust have an exciting new opportunity for a Band 8a Service Lead within Paediatric Audiology. If you are looking for an opportunity that will be integral to the large-scale transformation of the audiology services at Lister Hospital, then this is the perfect opportunity for you.

We are looking for a highly skilled and enthusiastic Audiologist to join our team as we embark on a significant period of resetting and improvement in our delivery of care.

The ideal candidate will have extensive clinical skills within Audiology with specialist experience within paediatrics. High standards are paramount. You should be able to work autonomously in a clinical setting, seeing the most complex paediatric cases, and by being a key part of the embedding of continuous improvement of culture across the service.

This opportunity will be ideal for someone ready to make that step into a senior leadership role, or for an established clinical lead who would like to be part of this exciting time of large-scale transformation in our audiology services and the care we provide for those with hearing difficulties.

In return you will become part of a proactive and enthusiastic senior leadership team, given support by the Head of service, and given the opportunity to deliver care in both an innovative and patient focussed manner.

The field of Audiology is not without significant challenges. This is an excellent post to become a Clinician who can shape and build future services that will positively impact patients of all ages.

Our Values are Include, Respect, and Improve and this is a fundamental to how we want to provide our services and care for our staff and colleagues.

In addition to your base salary, we can offer you London weighting – fringe allowance and relocation expenses in line with our policy. This will be for substantive employment only.

Main duties of the job

Service Lead for Adult or Paediatric Audiology will not only help deliver several specific projects and work streams but more importantly will support embedding a culture of continuous improvement across the Audiology Department

To have overall responsibility for ensuring the effective delivery of the Audiology service to nationally agreed levels of activity and quality, whilst developing a service culture where everyone is valued will be a key aspect in delivering success to this role.

Using modernising referral pathways, leading on key projects with the clinical director and general manager to support improved delivery of clinical services and support implementation of renewed processes which further improve patient care within the department.

Fulfil the role of Team Leader for ENHT Newborn Hearing Screening Programme.

Working for our organisation

At East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust, we are proud of the range of general and specialist services we provide and our 6,000 or so dedicated staff ensure our patients get the best care. Our ability to be flexible and innovative in the way in which we work and deliver our services to our catchment has never been more important than it is now.

We run the following hospitals:

• The Lister Hospital, Stevenage
• New Queen Elizabeth II (New QEII), Welwyn Garden City
• Hertford County, Hertford
• Mount Vernon Cancer Centre (MVCC), Northwood

We have ambitious plans to become an outstanding, patient-led Trust where dedicated staff provide high-quality, compassionate care to our patients.  We continue to undergo significant transformation and our staff and patients are at the heart of delivering this ambitious agenda.

We are committed to a positive work life balance for our employees.  This means that any employee is entitled to seek to work flexible working patterns and we are committed to listen and consider all requests. Such requests, of course, have to be made and considered formally, and will need to be balanced against service needs, but our starting point will always be to find ways to support making them happen.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please see the attached Job Description and Person Specification applicant pack for further detailed information regarding this role.

Person specification

Qualifications / Training

Essential criteria

• Degree in an appropriate scientific subject.
• An MSc in Clinical Audiology or equivalent
• Certificate of Audiological Competence / Higher Training Scheme (or equivalent).
• HCPC registration as a Clinical Scientist and compliance with an appropriate CPD scheme.
• ILM management / leadership qualification or equivalent.

Desirable criteria

• Experience of assessment / examining at a national level
• Evidence of study at doctoral level (or equivalent).

Previous Experience

Essential criteria

• Experience of assessment / examining at a national level
• Skill and experience in research and development.
• Skill and experience in communicating with patients and their relatives who may be distressed, including the ability to explain technical procedures in simple terms.
• Experience of previous clinical leadership / line management.

Skills/ Knowledge

Essential criteria

• Specialist knowledge of hearing assessment and management for children and neonates.
• In-depth and up-to-date knowledge of developments in the field of Paediatric Audiology (including international developments).
• Basic knowledge of anatomy and physiology relevant to Paediatric Audiology.
• Counselling skills.
• Good report writing and presentation skills – the post holder must produce clear and concise reports, and scientific papers.
• Teaching and training skills
• Skill and experience in research and development.
• Demonstrable HR and IT skills

Our values

We want our staff to believe in, demonstrate and live our values in everything we do.

Include
We value the diversity and experience of our community colleagues and partners, creating relationships and climates that provide an opportunity to share, collaborate and grow together.

Respect
We create a safe environment where we are curious of the lived experience of others, seek out best practice and are open to listening and hearing new ideas.

Improve
We are committed to consistently delivering excellent services and continuously looking to improve through a creative workforce that feels empowered to act in service of our shared purpose.

Committed to our Community

East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion for all job applicants, staff, patients and the wider community.  We want to create a workforce which represents the communities we serve.  We are on a journey to become a more inclusive organisation and we welcome applications from everyone regardless of their background.   In particular we encourage applications from candidates with disabilities, and candidates from Black, Asian and Minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds who are currently under-represented in various parts of our workforce.

We understand the importance of balancing work and home life.  We are committed to support flexible working for our staff wherever possible and all our employees are given the opportunity to discuss potential for flexible working.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident employer and achieved our status in 2019.

We will remove barriers that prospective candidates might face at any stage of our recruitment process.  If you have a disability and would like the advert in an alternative format, or would like to talk about how we can adjust the interview process to best support you, please contact us by emailing resourcing.enh-tr@nhs.net

We are also proud to support our UK armed forces by supporting Reservists, Cadet Instructors, Veterans and military spouses/partners into employment and offering supportive policies that value their contribution to the community and to our Trust.

We are committed to being a carer-friendly environment, addressing the complex needs of families with caring responsibilities. In partnership with Carers in Hertfordshire, all our working carers have access to support from recruitment. We are also a member of Carers UK, providing resources to make balancing work and caring easier. Our approach is inclusive, recognizing diverse challenges and creating a supportive environment where carers feel valued.

When you apply…

Please note that vacancies may close prior to the advertised closing date in certain circumstances. Please ensure that you make your application as soon as possible.

All correspondence relating to vacancies will be via the e-mail address you have provided on your application form. Some servers automatically send e-mails to your junk mail so please check as well as your inbox.

As a publicly funded employer, we need to ensure we utilise our funds responsibly, this may mean we are unable to support sponsorship required to gain the right to work for particular positions. We strongly advise you to contact the line manager or a member of the Resourcing Team before applying to confirm if we will be able to support with sponsorship for that post.

Prince’s Trust Support

If you’re aged between 16 and 30 years-old, you can get FREE employability support from The Prince’s Trust. The Prince’s Trust will help build your CV and cover letter, offer advice and top tips for future interviews and support you with research about working in the NHS. Please contact  Enquiries.H&SC@princes-trust.org.uk for support.

Secondments/Fixed term

Where a vacancy is advertised as a temporary position, the duration will be specified in the advert.  If the vacancy becomes permanent towards the end of the specified duration, the successful applicant may not be required to re-apply and can be slotted into the role on a permanent basis if appropriate.

Further details / informal visits contact

Name: Jodie McElligott

Job title: Service Improvement Lead- Paediatric Audiology

Email address: j.mcelligott@nhs.net

Telephone number: 07919 417 154

Additional information: My working days – Monday, Tuesday & Thursday 08:00am -18:00pm

Apply online: https://apps.trac.jobs/job-advert/6603429?ShowJobAdvert=&feedid=7