Integrated Care Team Leader (Pod Lead)

Integrated Care Team Leader (Pod Lead)

Job summary
We are currently reviewing our 3-5 year plan and as our service develops, we have a new and exciting opportunity to work with our team who are committed to delivering the highest possible standards of care to babies, children and young people. You will have the opportunity to make a real difference to those we support and their families, in-house in our Hospice, Chorley and in the wider community.

We actively encourage ongoing professional development and have an in-house clinical education team and a dedicated clinical skills lab to enhance and improve training and competencies.

Be part of something special and help ensure that no child or family faces lifes hardest moments alone.

Benefits:

• We offer 35 days holidays per year, including bank holidays and increasing with length of service
• Continuation of NHS Pension scheme (if eligible) or option to join Derian House Contributory Pension Scheme
• Retail discounts through Blue Light card and Benefits platform
• Free onsite parking
• Subsidised meals in our diner
• Shift enhancements for weekend / night / bank holiday shifts
• Payment of professional NMC registration fees

Dont delay with submitting your application, we reserve the right to close this advert once we have received enough applications.

Hours: 37.5 hours per week (full-time). Weekend, nights and evening work will be required.

Main duties of the job
The Integrated Care Team Leader provides visible clinical and operational leadership to an allocated pod of colleagues and babies, children and young people (BCYP) and oversees the pods caseload, care planning, performance, competence and wellbeing, ensuring changing needs, risks and gaps are addressed or escalated.

The Team Leader is senior to, and expected to be capable of undertaking, the Nurse in Charge (NIC) role. When rostered as NIC, coordinates safe care across the hospice under the current NIC role document and ensures each practitioner retains accountability for their own practice.

About us
At Derian House, we are proud to provide high quality care to help babies, children and young people with life limiting conditions, from across the Northwest, to make the most of every precious moment. We also stand alongside their families, offering comfort, support, and hope.

Derian House is the place where you can make a real difference, as we support our colleagues and volunteers to provide this amazing service for children and families. It's a great place to enhance and develop your career as we are committed to investing in training to support our people and their aspirations.

Our values
The Team Leader must consistently model Derian Houses(DH) values in leadership, decision-making, relationships and clinical practice:

SAFE you can expect the highest standards

COMPASSIONATE we care

ACCOUNTABLE we do what we say we will do

We make this promise to our families, colleagues and community. Every single time.

Job responsibilities
Main duties and responsibilities
1. Pod leadership and case oversight

• Lead colleagues and caseload, ensuring each BCYP has clear arrangements for contact, review and follow up.
• Coordinate regular caseload reviews and family contact with relevant multidisciplinary colleagues; ensure decisions and actions are recorded and completed.
• Maintain oversight of changes in diagnosis, condition, treatment, medicines, equipment, dependency or family circumstances, and ensure essential care, emergency, escalation and moving and handling plans are current, detailed and accessible. Resolving missing or conflicting information before admission.
• Work across pods to share capacity, expertise and learning and provide one joined up DH service.

2. Clinical leadership and safe care

• Provide evidence informed palliative, respite and end of life care within personal scope and competence, assessing, planning and evaluating care with BCYP and families while respecting consent, capacity, best interests, dignity, privacy, communication and cultural needs.
• Recognise and respond promptly to deterioration, deviation from baseline and emergencies, following individual escalation plans and obtaining timely professional support.
• Delegate only to colleagues with the appropriate role, competence and capacity, provide clear direction and supervision and confirm the required outcome.
• Act immediately when resourcing, skill mix, competence, equipment, environment or documentation may compromise safety.
• Promote safe medicines practice and seek ACP, medical or other advice when decisions fall outside personal scope.

3. People leadership, performance and wellbeing

• Set clear expectations, regular one to ones, appraisal, objectives, feedback and development planning.
• Oversee mandatory training, competencies, revalidation support and development actions, using a pod skills matrix to inform deployment and escalate workforce risks.
• Recognise good practice and address conduct, capability, attendance or performance concerns promptly, fairly and compassionately under DH policy.
• Create a psychologically safe, inclusive and civil culture that supports reflection, supervision, respectful challenge, speaking up and learning.
• Monitor workload, emotional demands and wellbeing, seeking support where safety may be affected, and contribute to recruitment, induction, preceptorship, practice learning and retention.

4. Quality, governance and improvement

• Promote compliance with the NMC Code, CQC regulations, safeguarding, legal duties and DH governance arrangements.
• Ensure incidents, near misses, safeguarding concerns, complaints and clinical risks are reported, acted on and escalated; support openness and duty of candour, preserve evidence and provide accurate information.
• Contribute to proportionate review and learning, considering human factors, system conditions and prevention of recurrence.
• Lead or support audit, observation, policy implementation and improvement; use agreed pod indicators, evidence, data and feedback to identify variation, evaluate impact and share learning.

5. Communication, collaboration and family partnership

• Build respectful relationships with BCYP and families, communicate sensitively and honestly, check understanding and ensure their views inform care and improvement.
• Work effectively with health, education, social care, and other partners, sharing information lawfully, proportionately and promptly.
• Manage differences through informed discussion and respectful challenge, escalating unresolved safety concerns.
• Respond constructively to concerns and complaints, protect ongoing care and use feedback for learning.

6. Operational delivery and resources

• Translate DH objectives into pod priorities, deliverables and individual objectives.
• Use colleague resources, time, equipment and charitable resources responsibly and escalate risks to safe delivery or agreed outcomes.
• Contribute within delegated authority to rostering, workforce deployment and budget management; service wide establishment, budgets and final roster accountability remain with the Matron / Head of Integrated Care or delegated senior manager.
• Support service, policy, digital and practice change; participate in relevant meetings and complete agreed actions.

7. Nurse in Charge responsibilities

• The NIC role is responsible to the Team Leader; when rostered as NIC, coordinate whole hospice colleague resourcing, care delivery, situational oversight, escalation, safety decisions and handover under the current DH NIC role document.
• Work supernumerary where required by the safe staffing framework, considering capacity, acuity, dependency, complexity and available competence.
• Provide coordination, support and assurance; each colleague remains accountable for their own actions, omissions, decisions and professional practice.

8. Professional responsibilities

• Maintain NMC registration, revalidation, and continuing development; practise within competence and complete required training and assessment before undertaking extended practice.
• Maintain clear, accurate, contemporaneous and secure records, identifying retrospective entries and complying with confidentiality, information governance, data protection and records management.
• Maintain professional boundaries and use spoken, written, electronic and social media communication responsibly.
• Maintain the health and capability required for the role, raise concerns where health or fatigue may affect safety, and participate in appraisal, supervision and reflective practice.

9. Safeguarding, health and safety

• Follow DH safeguarding policy and statutory guidance for BCYP, acting immediately when someone may be at risk.
• Promote a safe environment and manage relevant clinical, environmental, infection prevention, moving and handling and workplace risks.
• Report accidents, incidents, hazards and unsafe systems, cooperate with investigations and improvement, and take reasonable care of everyones safety.

Person Specification
Digital and Organisational Skills
Essential

• Ability to prioritise and coordinate competing clinical, people and operational demands.
• Competence in electronic care records, digital communication and standard office applications.
• Ability to maintain accurate records and promote high quality pod data.

Desirable

• Experience of electronic rostering, dashboards, audit tools or digital improvement.

Safety, Governance and Improvement
Essential

• Working knowledge of the NMC Code, safeguarding, duty of candour, consent, capacity, information governance and relevant CQC requirements.
• Experience of incident reporting, risk assessment, audit and improvement.
• Ability to use evidence, data and feedback to identify risk, variation and improvement opportunities.
• Understanding of human factors and developing a psychologically safe culture.

Desirable

• Training or experience in quality improvement, clinical governance, patient safety or systems based incident review.
• Experience of evaluating and demonstrating the impact of change.

Qualifications
Essential

• Current NMC registration.
• Evidence of current revalidation and continuing professional development.
• Relevant post-registration study or demonstrable equivalent experience in paediatric, complex, palliative or end of life care.

Desirable

• Degree or postgraduate study relevant to clinical practice, leadership or palliative care.
• Practice assessor, clinical supervision, coaching or appraisal qualification.
• Recognised leadership or management development.

Communication and Collaboration
Essential

• Highly developed written, verbal and interpersonal communication.
• Ability to communicate sensitively with BCYP and families in complex, distressing or emotionally demanding circumstances.
• Ability to manage conflict, challenge respectfully and escalate unresolved concerns.
• Ability to build effective relationships across professional and organisational boundaries.

Desirable

• Advanced communication skills training.
• Experience of co-production or structured family and service user engagement.

Leadership and People Management
Essential

• Experience of leading a shift, team or defined area.
• Ability to set expectations, delegate safely, supervise practice and confirm outcomes.
• Experience of feedback, colleague development and addressing performance or conduct concerns.
• Evidence of compassionate, inclusive, civil and visible leadership.

Desirable

• Formal line management experience.
• Experience of recruitment, appraisal, attendance management or workforce planning.
• Experience of implementing a new model of care or significant service change.

Clinical Experience
Essential

• Substantial post registration experience involving babies, children or young people with complex health needs.
• Competence in assessing, planning, delivering and evaluating person centred care.
• Experience of recognising and escalating deterioration and responding to clinical emergencies.
• Experience of multidisciplinary and multi-agency care coordination.

Desirable

• Childrens hospice or specialist palliative care experience.
• Experience of long-term ventilation, tracheostomy, enteral feeding, syringe pumps or other relevant complex care interventions.
• Experience of community or cross-setting care

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.

UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).

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.
Applicants must have current UK professional registration.