Head of Audiology Services – Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Job Title: Head of Audiology Services
Band: 8C
Hours: 37.5 hours
Base: Luton & Dunstable University Hospital / Bedford Hospital, and any other associated Trust establishments across the Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust including outreach clinics and establishments used in the course of Trust business (if necessary for the role).
Reporting to: General Manager
Terms and Conditions of Service: Currently those of Agenda For Change and other local agreements

JOB SUMMARY

Reporting to the Clinical Director / General Manager, the post holder will be responsible for leadership of Audiology’s scientific service to deliver safe, clinically effective and high-quality care with best use of budgetary and other resources.

As the lead professional for Audiology within the organisation, the postholder will provide expert discipline-specific scientific advice on delivery and development of Audiology services. Operational leadership responsibilities will include pursuit of performance, financial, and other organisational objectives. As a senior scientific leader, the postholder will apply a skillset that reflects the domains of Good Scientific Practice* (GSP); professional practice, scientific practice, clinical practice, research, development and innovation, and clinical leadership at consultant level, all applied pro actively, with the end goal to deliver improved outcomes for the population served.

The postholder will be the responsible officer for all domains in the service, with ultimate responsibility for each of them as a professional themselves and for the service that they lead. They will work pro-actively to build strong cross-professional relationships within and beyond the organisation in pursuit of service objectives.

(*As described by The Academy of Healthcare Science)

Key Relationships:

Clinical Director, members of Audiology senior staff team, senior executive and General Manager level leaders in organisation, ENT Consultants, senior leaders in clinical teams, organisational healthcare science lead and those commissioning Audiology services for and from the organisation. Collaborative relationships relating to Audiology will be pursued with those leading healthcare research and development, representatives of HEIs delivering education and training, third sector organisation leads and representatives of local authority agencies.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Aligned with roles of Consultant Clinical Scientists in other Health Science disciplines and the scope of practice defined by the British Academy of Audiology (BAA)**, the post holder will:

• Provide scientific leadership across Audiology Services.
• Provide advanced clinical scientific expertise and interpretation of clinical data to other NHS professionals, and directly to patients. Work as an integral member of the clinical team, contributing directly to the development and delivery of patient management pathways in Audiology.
• Assume clinical scientific responsibilities at a level of accountability equivalent to that of consultant medical staff; providing high value clinical scientific services that require a significant breadth of clinical, technical, and scientific knowledge and expertise.
• Be accountable for clinical scientific advice and delivering treatment directly to patients to improve patient management and outcomes.
• Provide local, regional, and national strategic leadership of Audiology and contributing collectively across clinical scientific services.
• Be responsible for individual patient care including that delivered by others within the Audiological services that they lead, providing expert assurance to the employing organisation for the assessment, diagnosis and management of cases referred to the service.
• Deliver high-level clinical advice and expert care in the management of complex clinical cases involving hearing and hearing related conditions.
• Provide advice to organisations to assure the safe and effective use of health technologies, including compliance with statutory obligations relevant to Audiology.
• Promote and deliver evidence-based practise through evaluation of existing knowledge but, where sufficient evidence does not exist, understanding the significance of this in deciding best management on an individual patient basis.
• Act as an influential advocate for people living with hearing loss and related conditions.
• Lead the translation of cutting-edge scientific research and education, bringing strategic direction and innovation into clinical practice.
• Provide teaching, training, and professional leadership or Clinical Scientists, trainees and others at local and regional level within the NHS and in partnership with academia.
• Support workforce modernisation through the development of balanced multi-professional working for clinical scientific service development.
• Contribute to strategic service redesign, leading the introduction of new technologies, diagnostics, and innovations (either technological or non-technological) in a safe and measured manner through innovation and quality service improvement.
• Promote and lead clinical governance, quality, and safety, advocating, and implementing accreditation and professional regulation.
• Providing essential links between the NHS, academia and industry, facilitating, and participating in opportunities for NHS service transformation.
• Delivering care in line with statutory duties.

(** https://www.baaudiology.org/)

Clinical Leadership

• Responsible for the strategic and operational development of the service. Leadership of the strategic development of the service will be within the context of objectives of the organisation and national health policy. The postholder will contribute pro‑actively towards higher level planning and policy development as an advocate for Audiology and people with hearing related healthcare needs. Providing expert Audiological advice to clinicians, medical consultants, and senior managers of the organisation, and external bodies.
• Engage with stakeholders and provide leadership to ensure that the Audiology service delivered reflects the needs and preferences of service users and the population served, to ensure that the service is consistent, progressive, responsive, patient focused, safe, equitable, effective, and efficient.
• Encourage use of patient reported outcome measures (PROMS) and other indices to demonstrate the value of Audiology interventions to meet population needs. The postholder will actively promote indicators of the value of Audiology interventions and otherwise raise the profile of Audiology and the local service.
• Provide expert scientific advice and recommendations to those commissioning services to ensure the hearing related needs of the local population are met.
• Lead and motivate Audiology staff to deliver effective care, working collaboratively to achieve agreed service objectives in a changing healthcare environment.
• Contribute pro‑actively within the local healthcare science community towards common goals.
• Contribute through national scientific and professional bodies towards collaborative advancement of Audiology practice, ultimately to the benefit of service users. Ensure that scientific staff similarly contribute to advance their knowledge, skills, and scientific leadership development.

Clinical Practice

• Within their clinical competence at consultant level, provide expert direct patient care for a caseload of the most complex patients for their highly specialised area of Audiological practice, including participation in multidisciplinary teams, where they may take a lead role. They will receive and initiate consultant referrals.
• As a practicing consultant clinician, provide expert clinical advice to other clinicians/teams within and external to the Audiology service, on the care of individual patients and patient groups.
• Lead and encourage the development of an integrated Audiology service that is multi‑professional, multi‑agency, feature continuous improvement and seeks service user engagement.

Professional Practice, including quality Assurance

• Ensure high levels of professionalism in own practice, taking a pro‑active approach and encouraging the same within the Audiology Team. This will include engagement with other professionals; encouraging a culture of openness to scrutiny; contributing to innovation, and development within and beyond the organisation.
• Responsible for ensuring quality assurance systems are in place across the Audiology service, complying with stipulated national accreditation and other formal schemes (e.g., CQC and UKAS IQIPS) to provide external quality assurance. To include regular audit against standards of good practice, benchmarking activity against key performance and other indicators within a comprehensive quality assurance system.
• Ensure that the Audiology service meets nationally recognised accreditation and/or externally audited service quality standards requirements, within a locally defined quality management system or framework. Identify and progress actions to address any shortfalls and provide improvement.
• Ensure that the service has high standards of day‑to‑day governance relating to quality of care; that adverse incidents are properly investigated in line with organisational policy, that systems are put in place to learn, share, and improve against any shortfalls. To address any nonconformities that arise, using tools such as root cause analysis to mitigate risk of future incidents or shortfalls.
• To be responsible for the evaluation and auditing of the service’s quality management system to ensure demonstrable compliance with the service’s own documented standards of practice.

Scientific Practice

• Assess and specify needs of those who would benefit from Audiological interventions, with service users, clinical colleagues, and other stakeholders.
• Ensure that the Audiology service is delivered with a commitment to good governance, demonstrating excellent quality, safety, confidentiality, accountability, reliability, communication, and professional and managerial integrity. This will include the development of associated policies, their implementation and monitoring.
• Provide scientific validation and evaluation of audiological investigation and interventions. This will include application of evidence‑based and critical appraisal of practices across the service.
• Assure safe service delivery, with respect to service users and all those in the working environment.
• Provide high level expert advice on Audiological interventions, underpinned by the scientific evidence‑base.
• Ensure that the scientific service is delivered in accordance with requirements of national hearing screening programmes, NICE guidance, and national professional standards of good practice.
• Research, Development, and Innovation
• Ensure that research and evidence‑based scientific practice underpins the Audiology service and shapes service development, advancing delivery of improved care and outcomes.
• Continually improve the quality of the Audiology service by directing and planning the introduction, evaluation, and application of improved clinical procedures and technologies.
• Co‑ordinate and implement development, and innovation programmes, with ultimate goals of improved patient care. To include identifying opportunities to participate in research and multi‑centre trials through collaboration.
• Promote a culture within the service that values and supports active service‑orientated research, development, and innovation.
• Ensure that any research activity is compliant with NHS ethical and research governance requirements.

Planning

• Develop annual service level objectives, reflecting organisational objectives, seeking views of staff and other stakeholders.
• Identify opportunities for service developments/innovations, pursuing infrastructure and resources through business cases and other submissions.
• Develop and agree relevant elements of Audiology contributions towards organisational operational plans. Thereafter monitor and report on the delivery of Audiology against the operational plan within an agreed performance management framework.
• Ensure that priorities within the service objectives operational plan are communicated to staff and ensure that actions for these are reflected and monitored within the performance management process.
• Ensure effective service level safety and security for staff and those accessing the Audiology service. This will include ensuring compliance with statutory health & safety requirements.
• Ensure that any implications on the Audiology service arising from plans for other services or national initiatives and external directives that pertain to the Audiology are identified and considered. To negotiate with other parties to secure proportionate resourcing for Audiology or alternatives as required.
• Accountable for the management, delivery and development of service level agreements or contracts with external parties that specifically relate to Audiology.
• Performance Reporting, Risk Management
• Ensure effective delivery and robust reporting against scorecard targets set by the organisation, including for key national performance/access targets.
• Ensure effective systems are in place to identify, report and manage risk.
• Work with stakeholders to address and learn from issues/incidents raised by staff, service users, or other external stakeholder related to Audiology service delivery.
• Advise organisation and commissioners on planning requirements to meet strategic healthcare policy developments relevant to Audiology, including those impacting on service quality.

Financial Management

• Responsible for the management/control of the Audiology service budget, taking all reasonable measures to ensure that the service stays within budget and resources are used efficiently.
• Accountable as budget holder for the Audiology budget, procurement, and use of procured resources. Ensure that the service is compliant with the organisation’s Standing Financial Instructions.
• Contribute towards organisational financial planning. To include identifying and advising on the full range of options for managing cost pressures on the service, and any adverse clinical and other implications of doing so.
• Responsible for the management of designated Audiology charitable/trust funds.

Human Resources

• Direct the education and training of Audiology staff within the service and contribute to influence complementary career opportunities and pathways at a national level.
• Responsible for the management of all staffing resources within the service, ensuring compliance with organisational policies, including requirements for clinical staff to be registered.
• Ensure that staff are recruited, developed, and motivated to ensure they can perform well in their work, contributing fully towards improvements in the audiological service and the achievement of Audiology/organisational objectives.
• Encourage a positive culture of learning and exploitation of career development opportunities, including clinical leadership.
• Ensure effective communication and engagement is maintained with Audiology staff, organisational teams, and commissioners, regarding planning and delivery of service changes.
• Maintain and develop systems that identify poor performance ensuring that any individuals identified are appropriately supported and managed consistent with organisational policies.
• Review, plan for and maintain manpower and skill mix to ensure optimal for service needs and professional standards, contributing to organisational workforce planning for Audiology.
• Ensure that the service attains and retains external accreditation as an approved training site for Audiology professionals
• Promote the implementation of Good Scientific Practice by clinical staff within the service.

Other Personal Responsibilities:

• To discharge their duties, the post holder is expected to contribute to the development of Audiology beyond the organisation, through active participation in identified regional and national groups and bodies, where that work is ultimately beneficial and relevant to the local responsibilities described above.
• As a consultant and professional head of service, the postholder will be the professional lead and act as a point of contact for external organisations on Audiology matters. There is responsibility for successful cooperative working with other audiology professionals across the UK that is consistent with the aims of the Audiology Service.
• The post holder will undertake continued education and training and continue professional development to maintain competency and registration status as a practicing clinician.
• Alert organisational management and/or professional leads where circumstances are compromising safety standards of practice and advise on corrective action.

GENERAL:

To comply at all times with any regulations issued by the Trust, especially those governing Health and Safety at work and to ensure that any defects which may affect safety at work are brought to the attention of the appropriate manager.

It is the responsibility of all staff to minimise the Trust’s environmental impact by recycling wherever possible, switching off lights, computers, monitors and equipment when not in use, minimising water usage and reporting faults promptly.

This job description reflects the present requirements and objectives of the post. As the duties of the post change and develop, the job description will be reviewed and will be subject to amendment, in consultation with the post holder.

You are required to disclose any additional work you undertake or are planning to undertake for another employer.

PROBATIONARY PERIOD:

This post is subject to the successful completion of a probationary period of 6 months within which the notice period for both you and Bedford Hospital is four weeks.

STANDARDS:

Staff are responsible for complying with the relevant standards set by their Line Manager. A breach of such standards may lead to disciplinary action. It would be investigated fairly and appropriate steps taken to prevent a recurrence and address any wider causes.

SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN AND VULNERABLE ADULTS:

All employees and volunteers working within the Trust have a responsibility for safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults.

INFORMATION GOVERNANCE:

(This includes Patient Confidentiality, IT Security, Data Protection and Freedom of Information)

You are required to respect the confidentiality of all patients, carers and staff, by not sharing any information (including data) obtained during the course of your duties.

All staff must comply with the legal obligations and statutory requirements of the General Data Protection Act 2018, the Trusts IT Security and Information Governance Policies, Codes of Conduct and Best Practice Guidelines which are available on the staff Intranet site.

PRIVACY STATEMENT

The Trust is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal information. Information about you will be kept by the Trust for purposes relating to your employment. In accordance with the Trust’s Privacy Notice for employees, the Trust will hold computer records and personnel files relating to you which contain personal and special category data. The Trust will comply with its obligations under the General Data Protection Regulations and all other data protection legislation. The data the Trust holds will include employment application details, references, bank details, performance appraisals, holiday and sickness records, salary reviews and remuneration details and other records; which may, where necessary include special category data relating to your health, identity, data held for equality monitoring purposes, criminal offence data and data regarding DBS checks. The Trust requires such data for personnel administration and management purposes for the performance of your contract of employment and to comply with its legal obligations. The majority of information that you provide us with is mandatory to enable us to perform the contract of employment; where information is requested from you on voluntary basis, you will be advised of this and will be properly advised of your rights in respect of consent and the withdrawal of that consent.

PROMOTING EQUALITY

The Trust is committed to promoting an environment that values diversity. All staff are responsible for ensuring that all patients and their carers are treated equally and fairly and not discriminated against on the grounds of race, sex, disability, religion, age, sexual orientation or any other unjustifiable reason in the application of this policy and recognising the need to work in partnership with and seek guidance from other agencies and services to ensure that special needs are met.

INFECTION CONTROL:

You are required to comply with the Trust’s strategy regarding infection control and be aware of, and comply with, all Trust infection and prevention and control policies, to include hand hygiene, personal hygiene, environmental and food hygiene. Effective prevention and control of healthcare associated infections has to be embedded into every day practice and applied consistently by everyone. Failure to do so may result in disciplinary actions.

SMOKE FREE

The Trust implements a Smoke Free policy that applies to all staff. Staff are not allowed to smoke while wearing a recognisable Trust uniform or visible trust identification badge, and not allowed to smoke anywhere on hospital grounds. Staff are not allowed to take additional breaks in order to smoke. They may smoke during designated breaks but only out of uniform and off site. Staff contravening this policy may be subject to disciplinary procedures.

ASSISTANCE WITH TRUST PROCESSES

Any member of staff who is a manager at band 7 and above may be asked to take part in disciplinary and appeals processes in line with the Trust’s policy. Appropriate training and support will be provided by the Employee Relations Team.

Documents to download:

418-COR8316-HC_PS Head of Audiology Services

Audiology establishment

#J-18808-Ljbffr