Patient Safety Partner Volunteer in Preston

Main area: Patient Safety Grade Volunteer

Contract: Voluntary, 12 months

Hours: Part time - 2 hours per week (1-2 hours per week dependent upon tasks)

Job ref: 125-ICB003-26

Employer: NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board

Site: County Hall, Town: Preston

Closing date: 10/02/2026 23:59

Job overview: Do you have an interest in becoming involved in how we can develop our health and care services so that they are safer for our patients? Have you got a specialist interest in patient safety? Are you or have you ever been a patient, carer, or family member of someone who has used any health and care service and want an opportunity to make a difference? Have you got between 4-8 hrs a month to spare? We are actively recruiting a Patient Safety Partner (PSP) to attend some of our patient safety meetings to represent the patients/families voice and to provide a questioning approach to develop a safer organisation. The PSP is a new and evolving fixed term role of 12 months developed by the ICB (based on guidance by NHS England) to help improve patient safety across health care in the UK.

Main duties of the job: This is a great opportunity to share your interests, experiences, and skills to help develop the new PSP role and be a part of the team here at LSC ICB. Some examples of what you might be involved with include:

• Join safety boards and team meetings.
• Talking with patients and staff about safety and what matters to them.
• Support the patient safety training of staff.
• Be part of project teams working to improve safe care and our systems.
• Support the safety team when reviewing patient safety events.
• Help us understand what we do well and how we can do this more of the time.

We can offer you ongoing training and support.

Who are we? The LSCICB was formally established as a new statutory body on 1 July 2022, replacing the eight clinical commissioning groups across Lancashire and South Cumbria. Our role is to join up health and care services, improve people's health and wellbeing, and to make sure everyone has the same access to services and gets a positive experience from treatment. We also oversee how money and resource is utilised to ensure that funding is spent to ensure health services are effective, consistent and of high standard. Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB is a complex organisation serving a population of over 1.8 million people. Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB) strives to be diverse, inclusive and a place where we can all be ourselves. We particularly encourage applications from people who identify as Minority Ethnic, LGBT+, Disabled and Veterans who are under-represented across the ICB.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities: As a Patient Safety Partner, you will join one or more governance committees concerned with patient safety, risk, and quality. In addition, you may be able to support delivering safety training. Whatever activity you undertake, your role will be to:

• Bring the voice and needs of patients, families, carers and the public, into committees in a way that provides appropriate challenge and fosters learning and change.
• Consider complex issues affecting patient safety across the ICB footprint that directly inform relevant strategy and policy.
• Interact with other PSPs and staff in a large multi-professional meeting format.
• Be prepared to put forward ideas of how PSPs can support the improvement of patient safety across all three organisations and work with staff to put these in place.

Other essential tasks:

• Receive and read meeting papers prior to attending (approx. half a day).
• Attend the Quality committee meeting monthly (approx. 2-4hrs).
• Attend the System Quality group bi-monthly (approx. 2hrs).
• Attend a pre-meet and post-meeting de-brief with the Associate Director of Patient safety (approx. 1hr).
• Maintain the strict confidentiality of the meeting, its members and content at all times both pre, during and post meetings.

As the role develops there will be the opportunity to get involved in other activities to support patient safety. Initially we are looking for someone for between 4 and 8 hrs a month.

What we are looking for: We are looking for a person who has the resilience to listen to complex and sometimes challenging information and make rational and objective decisions that will represent the needs and interests of patients, and ultimately improve the quality of patient care. You will need to have the time to read through meeting papers in advance of the meetings and come ready with comments or questions that will aid the group to think through the patient perspective. You will need to have an awareness of the range of experiences and perspectives that different people within our communities might have. You will also have the confidence to sit alongside senior officers/Executives from across the ICB doctors and support staff and treat everyone as an equal partner in the decision-making of the group. We would also expect that the person appointed would be confident to appropriately challenge and question the group members around patient safety.

What Skills, Knowledge and Experience are helpful in this role?

• Understanding of and a broad interest in patient safety.
• Able to communicate well in writing and comprehend complex reports.
• Able to understand and evaluate a range of information and evidence.
• Confidence to communicate well verbally with people at all levels of the organisation about strategic issues, as an advocate for patient safety.
• Empathy skills – the ability to see things from both organisational and patient perspectives.
• An ability to remain objective where necessary.
• Ability to plan time to prepare for meetings and attend them.

Person specification Skills:

• Able to review, digest and comprehend a range of information and opinions.
• Experience of putting forward views on behalf of wider community/patients.
• Good verbal and written communication skills and ability to confidently speak in large groups.

Lived experience:

• Lived experience of using NHS healthcare services.

Knowledge:

• Understanding of and a broad interest in patient safety.

The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.