Site Capacity & Flow Lead in Brighton

Are you ready to take the next step in your clinical leadership career and make a real impact on patient flow and experience across acute and community services? We are looking for an enthusiastic and proactive Site Capacity & Flow Lead to join our evolving Transfer of Care Hub (ToCH) team. This is a high-visibility role based primarily at Princess Royal Hospital, with an expectation of regular and visible presence at Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton. You will play a pivotal part in driving effective and timely discharge planning, focusing particularly on supporting and facilitating "pull" patients into Pathways 1 and 2 for Community Services. Your leadership will also extend across all pathways to ensure safe, streamlined patient flow and reduced length of stay.

What you’ll be doing:

• Acting as a key member of the ToCH team, working closely with the Operational Head of Service and ToCH Leads to develop strategy and improve system-wide discharge processes.
• Providing clinical expertise to support decision-making, problem solving, and safe, timely discharge planning.
• Providing on site visible leadership.
• Leading and coordinating twice-daily huddles to review patients and prescribe ongoing care needs, ensuring patients are discharged to the right place at the right time.
• Supporting evidence-based discussions and decision-making for patients requiring ongoing bedded pathways.
• Driving service improvement through reflective practice, clinical supervision, and audit.
• Offering effective line management and leadership to SCFT staff on and across both sites.
• Deputising for the Operational Head of Service - ToCH when required.

About us:

We are the main provider of NHS community services across East and West Sussex, with 6,000 staff serving 1.3 million people. We deliver essential care to adults and children, helping them manage their health, avoid hospital admissions, and reduce hospital stays. Our Trust vision is to provide excellent care at the heart of the community. We offer opportunities across medical, clinical, support, and corporate services.

Why work for us?

• Positive 2024 NHS Staff Survey results, highlighting compassionate leadership and wellbeing.
• Varied environments: community hospitals, patients' homes, and bases across Sussex.
• Flexible working options: part-time, flexi-time, annualised hours, and flexi-retirement.
• Excellent training, development, and research opportunities.
• Accredited Living Wage Employer, we ensure fair pay for all our staff.
• Cost-effective workplace nurseries in Crawley, Hove, and Brighton.
• Active EMBRACE, Disability & Wellbeing, LGBTQIA+, and Religion & Belief networks.
• Level 3 Disability Confident Leader and Veteran Aware Trust.

Our values—Compassionate Care, Working Together, Achieving Ambitions, Delivering Excellence—guide everything we do. We embrace diversity and encourage applications from all backgrounds, particularly from ethnically diverse, disabled, and LGBTQIA+ individuals. We aim to create an inclusive environment and support reasonable adjustments during recruitment. This post may close early if sufficient applications are received.

Job responsibilities:

• To produce TOCH updates for the named individual site, being the first line of escalation to system challenges and pressures including producing appropriate performance reports for the system.
• Lead on the named site operational and performance meetings including daily calls/huddles and being the identified SCFT lead for site MADE events (for all pathways).
• To work closely with matrons and managers of in-patient Intermediate Care Units, Urgent Community Response teams and Virtual Ward teams to ensure optimal use of capacity ensuring patients are transferred to the most appropriate SCFT community service.
• This includes having responsibility for mapping patients into available SCFT beds and (where appropriate) Brighton & Hove contracted beds.
• To contribute to the development of the Trust's operational policies relating to patient flow and discharge.
• To interpret and translate into operational practice national and local best practice guidance with respect to maximising patient flow.
• To work collaboratively with external stakeholders and partner organisations to address urgent care local pressure, system surges and escalation ensuring capacity is fully utilised.
• To support ward staff and patients and their families to agree discharge/transfer plans providing practical solutions to prevent unnecessary delays.
• Provide key leadership and effective line management and recruitment of designated staff within the Capacity and Flow team.
• To be responsible for the financial management of an identified Capacity and Flow team budget.

Person Specification:

Qualifications and Professional registration:

• Current NMC registration, or Health Care Professional Qualification.
• Evidence of CPD Management qualification.
• Evidence of Continuing Professional Development.
• Up to date NHS policy initiatives, changes and developments.
• Post graduate diploma or masters equivalent knowledge gained through experience.

Experience:

• Experience of operational management.
• Knowledge and experience of Bed Management and Discharge Planning.
• Experience of working with the wider health and social care system, including acute providers, to develop systems of care that respond to requirements.
• Experience of delivering challenging performance agendas and ability to demonstrate significant performance improvements.
• Experience of working with a defined performance framework set by commissioners and regulators and delivering required performance standards.
• Experience of managing and leading change in complex operational environments.

Skills and Knowledge:

• Highly developed communication skills (written, oral, presentational and interpersonal).
• Proven conceptual, analytical and problem-solving abilities.
• Able to make and take decisions after analysis of options and implications.
• Able to engage and motivate people in different settings.
• Able to secure commitment from others to change programmes and able to use persuasion and influence to enthuse others to develop and improve services.
• Ability to work as a team member.
• Able to multi-task, prioritise and continue to function to a high standard when under pressure.
• Able to build effective working relationships at all levels within and outside the Trust.
• Able to use Microsoft Word & IT literate to produce reports.

Other requirements:

• Access to a vehicle to travel between sites.
• Resilient.
• Calm and rational approach to situations where conflict is likely.
• Clarity of thought and articulate in presenting ideas.

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.