Chief Pharmacist - Jersey (salary available on request)

Job description

Job responsibilities

1. Provide expert, timely, and relevant advice to Ministers, the Partnership Board, and senior colleagues across the health and care system, influencing strategies relevant to pharmaceutical services to support safe, effective, integrated, high-quality, and cost-effective care. This includes clinical standards and safety, regulatory compliance, safe and efficient medication use, value for money, legal and ethical standards, workforce planning, integrated services, safeguarding, and education and learning.

2. Lead the development and review of pharmaceutical policies, protocols, and guidelines in collaboration with stakeholders, promoting evidence-based practice to improve patient safety, experience, and outcomes, including medicines optimisation and high-cost drugs. Champion improvements in service design and delivery, leveraging technology and digital interventions to enhance services, access, and professional practice.

3. Devise systems, processes, and arrangements to ensure pharmacists are empowered, resourced, and supported. Promote recruitment, retention, training, performance evaluation, and professional development of the pharmaceutical workforce, continually improving professional standards.

4. Lead improvements in clinical governance, ensuring delivery of evidence-based care, adherence to pharmacy regulations, and high professional, legal, ethical, and clinical standards. Implement robust governance assurances, including audits, policies, best practice advice, and improvement actions.

5. Act as a visible, values-driven role model, balancing functional and technical responsibilities with compassionate leadership. Create an inclusive, positive, and engaging work environment that enables colleagues to excel and deliver optimal outcomes. Encourage constructive challenge where activities do not align with shared values.

6. Use relationship management skills to manage multiple stakeholder interests, building partnerships across the health and care system, including HCJ colleagues, the Local Pharmaceutical Committee, Primary Care Body, and community pharmacists. Provide visible, strategic leadership to optimise health outcomes, resource utilisation, and system integration.

7. Lead the identification and management of strategic, operational, corporate, and clinical risks and opportunities in pharmaceutical services, developing mitigation strategies and overseeing implementation across primary care, end-to-end pathways, and patient care.

8. Fulfil statutory functions of the Islands Chief Pharmacist under relevant legislation, including Misuse of Drugs (Jersey) Law 1978, Medicines (Jersey) Law 1995, Pharmacy and Poisons (Jersey) Law 1952, and associated orders, working with national regulatory bodies (MHRA, GPhC) as appropriate.

9. Lead licensing of pharmacy premises, and the licencing of controlled drugs, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and wholesale dealers pending introduction of new, fit-for-purpose regulatory and licencing frameworks, including advising on associated legislation and standards.

10. Support the Medical Director in statutory duties, including promoting health, illness prevention, tackling health inequalities, substance use services, and emergency planning. Foster collaboration across government and non-government pharmacy services to implement evidence-based pathways that improve health and wellbeing of Islanders.

11. Championing safe and effective medication use within HCJs settings, ensuring compliance with legal and ethical standards, optimising medication safety, and leading system-wide initiatives to enhance care and service quality.

12. Undertake other duties and responsibilities of a similar nature as required, ensuring high-quality, safe, integrated, and sustainable pharmaceutical services across the Island.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• - Current, clear registration as a Phar macist with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC)
• - Master of Pharmacy (MPharm) degree (four-year programme) or recognised equivalent.
• - Successful completion of 52 weeks of GPhC-accredited Foundation Training (formerly pre-registration training) and Pass in the GPhC Common Registration Assessment (national registration exam)
• - Postgraduate Diploma in Clinical Pharmacy or Pharmacy Practice OR a Postgraduate Masters degree (MSc) in Clinical Pharmacy,
• OR a Doctoral-level qualification (PhD) OR substantial equivalent clinical experience
• - Postgraduate qualification in Management or Leadership
• - Eligibility for registration with the Jersey Care Commission (JCC) at the point of appointment.
• - Evidence of maintaining fitness to practise through mandatory Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

Desirable

• - A recognised Health leadership qualification

Knowledge

Essential

• - Breadth and depth of knowledge, along with personal credibility and demonstrable understanding of leading pharmaceutical services within a whole system, to provide expert advice and guidance, support and challenge.
• - Understanding of pharmaceutical professional issues, practice and
• education, in both acute and community settings.
• - Extensive knowledge of pharmaceutical regulatory requirements, legal, ethics and professional standards.
• - A detailed practical understanding of medicines safety, optimisation and management.
• - Knowledge and experience of ambiguous and emerging working practices, opportunities, innovations and global trends.
• - Extensive knowledge of the patient safety agenda (including safety systems, reporting and monitoring), and of medicines optimisation and management.

Desirable

• - Understanding of the current structure of the health and care system in Jersey, including funding, commissioning and regulatory arrangements.
• - Knowledge of methods of developing evidence-based practice.
• - Knowledge and understanding of the challenges that face Jersey
• for the future.

Experience

Essential

• - Significant Pharmaceutical experience in different clinical settings, including within a large / complex health care provider organisation.
• - Proven experience of delivery of strategic, transformational change at a system level.
• - Experience of devising and implementing regulatory systems and of overseeing professional, legal, ethical and regulatory standards.
• - Experience of leadership across health and care systems, including managing relationships with different groups and types of professionals and providers.
• - Proven experience of delivering strategic, transformational change at a system level; a track record of driving improvements in quality of care and health outcomes, and developing and delivering solutions at scale.
• - Extensive post-qualification experience in executive-level health or care leadership.
• - Demonstrable experience of working in a senior role in a highly sensitive political environment.
• - Experience of developing and sustaining an inclusive culture, working in partnership within a complex stakeholder environment subject to significant public and political scrutiny, including working
• closely with politicians, government, voluntary sector, business and
• customers / the public.

Desirable

• - Experience of implementing digitally-enabled services.

Technical / Work based Skills

Essential

• - Skilled in leading pharmaceutical services, including managing complex pharmacy professional and regulatory issues.
• - Ability to build pharmaceutical profession capability, in order to maintain public safety, wellbeing and confidence and support Jerseys economy and community.
• - Skilled in encouraging innovation, creativity and implementation of evidencebased practice; leading on relevant issues, thinking creatively and understanding relationships between interested parties.
• - Ability to manage complex professional and regulatory issues.
• - Sound knowledge of and commitment to corporate and clinical governance, with skills to assess, develop and embed new systems and standards of corporate and clinical governance.
• - Strategic thinker, with demonstrable understanding of strategic decision making, interpreting and scrutinising data and evidence, planning, data, risk management, performance management
• and assurance; utilising advanced knowledge, experience and judgement to analyse and interpret highly complex and multifaceted problems and to generate practical solutions.

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.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

UK Registration

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

Employer details

Employer name

Health and Community Services

Address

Jersey General Hospital

The Parade

St. Helier

Jersey

Channel Islands

JE1 3QS

Jersey

Employer's website

https://www.gov.je (Opens in a new tab)