Bowel Cancer Screening Specialist Screening Practitioner

Employer Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site Aintree University Hospital Town Liverpool Salary £38,682 – £46,580 per annum Salary period Yearly Closing 31/10/2025 23:59

Band 6

Job overview

Bowel Cancer Screening Specialist Screening Practitioner (Nursing Role) – Band 6 – Permanent – 37.5 Hours per week

We are looking for an experienced registered Nurse who wants to make a difference and play a pivotal role in supporting patients within the Bowel Cancer Screening Programme (BCSP). If you have excellent communication skills and a desire to support patients throughout their journey of investigation, this may be the role for you.

We would welcome applications that demonstrate a basic understanding and interest in the Bowel Cancer Screening Programme and the role of the Specialist Screening Practitioner and which reflects the skills and attributes as outlined in the person specification.

The NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme is a world first amongst screening programmes and the first to offer screening to both men and women. The Merseyside and North Cheshire Programme commenced in 2006 and due to continued development and expansion of the service we are looking to appoint full time Specialist Screening Practitioners who will play a key role in supporting patients through the screening process. We cover a population of almost 1.1 million people. As part of the national programme all men & women aged 50-74 are offered to take part in 2 yearly screening.

Main duties of the job

We need a motivated and enthusiastic team player. The role is varied and ranges from conducting nurse led clinics, attending colonoscopy, processing histology outcomes and providing results including cancer diagnosis, to supporting patients through the screening process and engaging in health promotion.

Previous experience and knowledge in the following areas is desirable but not essential; screening, gastroenterology, endoscopy, colorectal, pre-assessment or oncology.

You must have excellent communication skills and be able to communicate sensitive and complex information to both patients and colleagues, including breaking significant news. The post holder will have a shared responsibility to meet the Trust, BCSP and national targets, be able to prioritise and manage their own workload and work as a team to ensure the smooth running of the service. Training will be provided for use of the BCSP IT system and the successful candidate must undertake the SSP module at level 6/7 at Liverpool John Moores University. Study time will be allocated within the roster.

Merseyside & North Cheshire BCSP is based at Aintree Hospital but the post holder will be required to travel to other sites (Warrington, Halton, and St Helens Hospitals) as necessary. Full driving license and access to own transport is essential.

The service runs from 8:30am to 4:30pm but the post holder should be flexible as later start and finish times may be required to cover clinical activity of the programme.

Working for our organisation

Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust comprises Aintree University Hospital, Broadgreen Hospital & Royal Liverpool University Hospital.

We are part of NHS University Hospitals of Liverpool Group, formed on 1 Nov 2024 from the coming together of LUHFT and Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust. The Group was born from a shared aim to improve the care we provide our patients.

UHLG is one of the largest employers in the region, with over 16,800 colleagues dedicated to caring for our communities – from birth and beyond.

For the 630,000 people across Merseyside, we are their local NHS. We provide general and emergency hospital care, alongside highly specialised regional services for more than two million people in the North West.

Aintree University Hospital is the single receiving site for adult major trauma patients in Cheshire and Merseyside and hosts a number of regional services including an award-winning stroke facility. Broadgreen Hospital is home to elective surgical, diagnostic and treatment services, together with specialist patient rehabilitation. Liverpool Women’s Hospital specialises in the health of women and babies, delivering over 7,200 babies in the UK’s largest single site maternity hospital each year. The Royal Liverpool University Hospital is the largest hospital in the country to provide inpatients with 100% single bedrooms and focuses on complex planned care and specialist services.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Provide advice, information and support for those making direct contact with the screening centre
• Be responsible for care delivery to patients identified by the screening programme and will meet the needs of patients arising as a result of:
  • Having been called to participate in screening
  • Having been identified as positive on screening
  • Needing to be assessed as fit to undertake screening colonoscopy or alternative diagnostic investigations
  • Needing to be able to make informed decisions prior to undergoing screening colonoscopy or alternative diagnostic interventions
  • Having been identified as requiring further intervention, treatment, surveillance follow-up or discharge
• To use specialist knowledge and advanced communication skills with patients and carers when breaking bad news and providing psychological support on diagnosis, treatment and symptom management
• Ensure timely access to screening colonoscopy or alternative diagnostic intervention and seamless transition to agreed pathways in primary, secondary, tertiary or out-patient care settings, during all stages of the screening pathway
• To establish effective links with local colorectal cancer multi-disciplinary teams in order to ensure that when cancer is detected, there is timely presentation and transfer of patients to the multi-disciplinary team
• Populate and maintain the BCSP local database
• Participate in ongoing data collection and quality assurance, service feedback and audit with particular responsibility for the follow-up of patients at 30 days
• Perform comprehensive assessment of patient needs, plan, implement and evaluate care according to BCSP
• Collect, collate, evaluate and report information, maintaining accurate patient records
• Work collaboratively with other professionals and organisations to ensure patient needs are met, especially in relation to referrals to local MDTs

Person specification

Qualifications

• RGN
• Diploma
• Current full UK driving licence holder
• Post-registration qualification in speciality or related field
• Teaching and assessing

Experience

• Broad range of clinical experience with specific experience in speciality
• Participated in service development and implementation of change. Application of teaching within the work area
• Evidence of teaching/mentoring within the work area

Skills

• Able to perform assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation of specialist nursing care
• Ability to communicate in a variety of settings with patients of varying levels of understanding.
• Able to present written information in a logical manner.
• Basic IT skills in word processing and spreadsheets
• Able to manage own workload and work with minimal supervision.
• Ability to develop effective interpersonal relationships with colleagues in the health care setting

Other

• Supportive of colleagues
• Well motivated
• Able to drive and travel between sites.

Please ensure you check the email account (including junk/spam boxes) from which you apply regularly as we will use this to contact you regarding your application.

Posts advertised to ‘internal staff’ are open to employees of hospitals within University Hospitals of Liverpool Group and you should confirm your employment within your application form.

Note: Under current Home Office Immigration Rules we are currently unable to offer right to work visa sponsorship for Band 2 and 3 roles with a salary of less than £25,000 pa as they do not meet the UK Visas & Immigration criteria.

Only those applicants who demonstrate clearly how they meet our person specification will be shortlisted for interview.

We reserve the right to close any vacancies from further applications when we have received a minimum number of applications from which to make a shortlist. Please ensure you apply without delay if you wish to be considered for this role.

Candidates applying for the role of Healthcare Assistant on the staff bank should note that due to the nature of the role, workers must be aged 18 or above when commencing in post. Applicants are therefore welcome from those aged over 18 or within 3 months’ of their 18th birthday.

The Trust is committed to promoting a healthy work-life balance and achieve fair, equitable and consistent practice. We welcome flexible working requests and will consider a variety of flexible working arrangements from day one of your employment. Not all roles are suitable for every flexible working opportunity all of the time. Flexible working options may include reduced hours, compressed hours, fixed shifts, time back in lieu and home working.

The Trust is committed to promoting equality and diversity; we value the contribution of individual talent, skills, knowledge and experience and aim for a workforce demography representative of the local community. We encourage applicants from the following groups that are currently under-represented in our workforce: Black, Asian and minority ethnic, LGBTQ+, disabled, male and age 16-24.

Trust policy requires that the cost of submitting and processing the successful applicant(s) DBS application be recovered via salary deduction following start in post. The amount of £23 (standard disclosure) or £43 (enhanced disclosure) will be deducted from salary, in manageable monthly installments for up to 3 months following commencement of employment. Bank posts require upfront payment. DBS applications submitted from 2 December will be subject to the new DBS fee of £26.50 (standard) and £54.50 (Enhanced).

From April 2017, Skilled visa applicants and their adult dependent(s) will be required to provide a criminal record certificate from each country they have lived in consecutively for 12 months or more in the past ten years.

Applicants requiring sponsorship may wish to determine the likelihood of obtaining sponsorship for this position by assessing themselves against the criteria on the gov.uk website – https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa.

This organisation has a zero-tolerance approach to the abuse of children, young people and vulnerable adults. All staff must ensure they adhere to the organisations safeguarding children and adults’ policy and comply with the Local Safeguarding Children and Adult Board procedures.

Staff should be mindful of their responsibility to safeguard children and adults in any activity performed on behalf of the organisation in line with the requirements of statutory guidance and legislation.

All employees (and volunteers)are expected maintain their safeguarding knowledge and skills by completing mandatory safeguarding training which includes understanding and recognising the signs of abuse and neglect and taking appropriate action.

As an organisation, we have adopted the Merseyside Domestic abuse workplace scheme which supports our staff who are experiencing Domestic Abuse /any forms of sexual violence.

If you have any personal requirements that will enable you to participate in our recruitment process please contact a member of the Recruitment Services by phone on 0151 706 4666 at the earliest opportunity to ensure that measures can be put in place to enable your application for this post.

Please note: new entrants to the NHS will commence on the first pay point of the relevant band.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Application numbers

This vacancy may close early if it receives a high number of applications. Please complete and submit your application in good time to avoid disappointment.

Name Lianne Williams and Sharon Price Job title Deputy Lead Specialist Screening Practitioner Email address lianne.williams2@liverpoolft.nhs.uk Telephone number 0151 529 3037 Additional information

Lianne Williams and Sharon Price Deputy Lead Specialist Screening Practitioners contact Tel 0151 529 3037