Head of Hospice at Home in Rotherham

The Head of Hospice at Home Care provides senior clinical and operational leadership for Rotherham Hospices 24 hour Hospice at Home service, ensuring safe, responsive and compassionate care for people in their own homes and usual place of residence. The service delivers thousands of visits each year, supporting patients and families to be cared for and to die at home where this is their wish.

Working closely with the Director of Care, the Head of Care Navigation, Head of Inpatient Unit and other partners, the post-holder will lead the Hospice at Home team to deliver high quality care, excellent symptom management and holistic support. They will support the team to work confidently and autonomously in the community, while ensuring strong links with the IPU, primary care, community nursing and hospital services.

The Head of Hospice at Home Care will oversee day-to-day operations, including oversight of workforce planning and rota principles for a 24 hour service, caseload management and service development. They will use data and feedback to drive continuous improvement and will help shape and deliver new models of community-based palliative care, including crisis response, rapid support and early intervention, so that more people in Rotherham can benefit from hospice-style care at home.

• Provide leadership for the Hospice at Home team, ensuring safe, person-centred care in patients' homes.
• Support staff working in the community, enabling effective multidisciplinary practice and clear escalation processes.
• Maintain strong clinical governance, ensuring safe practice across safeguarding, IPC and medicines management. Lead audits, evaluations and service improvements.
• Work with Care Navigation to ensure timely, equitable access and oversee strategic caseload allocation.
• Promote effective communication across Hospice at Home, IPU, primary care and community partners.
• Line manage team leads, ensuring safe staffing, rota oversight and high-quality supervision.
• Support staff development and build strong relationships with GPs, community services and system partners.
• Represent Hospice at Home internally and externally, contribute to innovative community-based palliative care models, monitor KPIs and use data to drive improvement.

Rotherham Hospice is a charity dedicated to the people of Rotherham, offering specialist palliative and end of life care to our community since 1996. We provide comprehensive, compassionate care through two primary patient services: 24-hour Hospice at Home Service. Additionally, we offer wider support to patients and their families through:

• Complementary therapies & hairdressing
• Counselling and Bereavement Support for adults, children and teenagers
• Day services with individual and group sessions
• Family memory events
• Occupation therapy and physiotherapy
• Tailored experiences for patients and loved ones

• Clinical and operational leadership of Hospice at Home:
• Provide leadership and oversight for the Hospice at Home team, ensuring safe, person-centred and holistic care in patients' homes.
• Support the team to work confidently in community settings, often as lone workers, with clear escalation and support arrangements.
• Ensure effective multidisciplinary working across nursing, Health Care Support Workers, medical staff, therapists and other professionals.
• Quality, safety and clinical governance:
• Work with the Director of Care and the Clinical Governance & Audit Facilitator to ensure robust clinical governance for Hospice at Home, including risk management, incident reporting, audit and learning.
• Ensure that staff follow policies and procedures for safe community practice, including lone working, safeguarding, infection prevention and control and medicines management.
• Lead and participate in service audits, evaluations and improvement projects focused on community-based palliative care.
• Referrals, caseload and care coordination:
• Work closely with Care Navigation to ensure timely and equitable access to Hospice at Home, including triage, prioritisation and review of caseload.
• Oversee caseload management and allocation of visits at a strategic level, ensuring that patients with the greatest need receive appropriate support.
• Promote effective communication and coordinated care between Hospice at Home, IPU, primary care, community nursing, hospital teams and other partners.
• Workforce, rota oversight and staff development:
• Line manage the Hospice at Home Nurse Manager, Health Care Support Worker Manager, Community Clinical Practice Lead, providing supervision support and challenge.
• Hold overall responsibility for ensuring safe staffing levels and skill mix across the Hospice at Home service, including agreeing rota principles, shift patterns and escalation processes.
• Oversee the maintenance and administration of rotas, visit schedules and staffing records, escalating issues to the Head of Hospice at Home Care where required.
• Support staff development and education, ensuring access to appropriate training, supervision and reflective practice.
• Community relationships and system working:
• Build strong relationships with GPs, community nursing, hospital teams, ambulance services and social care to support shared patients.
• Represent Hospice at Home in internal and external meetings as required, contributing community expertise to wider hospice and system discussions.
• Work with partners to develop and implement innovative models of community-based palliative care and support.
• Performance, evaluation and development:
• Agree and monitor key performance indicators for Hospice at Home, including activity, responsiveness, outcomes and experience.
• Use data and feedback to identify trends, gaps and opportunities, and implement improvements.
• Contribute to business cases, service proposals and reports relating to Hospice at Home and community services.

• Qualifications
• Current registration with a relevant professional body - for example NMC, HCPC with no restrictions on practice.
• Substantial post-registration experience in community nursing, paramedic practice, or a closely related field.
• Experience of leading or managing a community or outreach clinical service.
• Experience of working in patients' homes and managing risk and complexity in community settings.
• Experience of working within clinical governance frameworks and contributing to audit and quality improvement.
• Evidence of continuing professional development relevant to the role.
• Experience of leading change projects or new models of community-based care.

• Strong leadership and people management skills, with the ability to build cohesive, motivated teams.
• Excellent clinical assessment and decision-making skills, particularly in community and lone-working contexts.
• Ability to oversee rota and staffing arrangements safely.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to support staff, engage patients and families and manage difficult conversations.
• Good organisational and time-management skills, able to manage multiple demands across a 24 hour service.
• Competent IT skills, including use of electronic records, scheduling/rostering systems and Microsoft Office.
• Skills in coaching, mentoring or facilitation to support staff working in emotionally challenging environments.
• Experience of delivering training or education in palliative and end-of-life care.

• Compassionate and calm, able to support others in emotionally charged situations.
• Committed to the mission and values of Rotherham Hospice and to holistic, person-centred care.
• Inclusive and respectful, with a clear commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion.
• Resilient and reliable, able to work under pressure while maintaining professional standards.
• Open, honest and accountable, with high levels of integrity.
• Flexible and adaptable, willing to work across different community settings.
• A full UK Driving licence.

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.