Specialist Palliative Care Team Leader

Main area District Nursing Grade NHS AfC: Band 7, Contract Permanent, Hours 37.5 per week (Full time, part time and job share considered). Job ref 331-8048047-UHMB Site: Westmorland General Hospital, Town: Kendal. Salary £49,387 - £56,515 per annum, pro rata salary, period: Yearly. Closing 07/07/2026 23:59.

University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay has a firm commitment to strengthening the diversity of our workforce, and therefore welcome and encourage applications from likeminded people who can support our ambition to become effortlessly inclusive. We are particularly keen to hear from protected groups – including BAME, LGBT+ and people with a disability.

Job overview: We are very excited to be looking at appointing an enthusiastic, flexible and highly motivated Band 7 Team Leader for our Specialist Palliative Care team here at Morecambe Bay. This is an exciting time to join the Community, Cancer, Diagnostics and End of Life Division and the Specialist Palliative Care service. You will be managing the Specialist Palliative Care team which consists of the acute teams at Royal Lancaster Infirmary and Furness General Hospital and the Community teams supporting the Furness and South Lakes areas, based at Fairfield Lane in Barrow and Westmorland General Hospital in Kendal. The successful candidate will also work closely with the Clinical lead, who is one of our Consultants in Palliative Medicine, and the service Matron.

You will be responsible for the day-to-day overall operational workload for the team, ensuring timely appraisals, mandatory training compliance, sickness management and all relating human resource activity with the support of the Matron, Directorate Manager and HR/workforce team. You will work as part of a well established service which provides high quality care, advice and guidance. There is 1 x 37.5 hour post available and the hours to be worked are over 5 days per week.

Main duties of the job: The post holder will be required to work as an integral part of the Specialist Palliative Care team; flexible working will be required to meet the needs of the patients and team. Whilst working with other health care professionals the post holder will develop the ethos of integrated care across the whole system and seamless services ensuring that patient care is delivered to the highest possible standard. As the Team Lead you will work closely with the senior management team to develop an effective and highly performing team. You will liaise closely with other service providers from both statutory and voluntary agencies on a frequent basis to gather information, advise on additional care needs to ensure appropriate plans are in place. Other key relationships include GPs, hospital colleagues, community colleagues, care staff, community pharmacists. Such relationships require effective interpersonal skills and communication in identifying the needs accurately, using knowledge and experience in problem solving and identifying solutions to ensure services are co-ordinated and delivered in timely manner appropriate to the patient needs. You will be responsible for managing a small caseload of highly complex patients and working with the team to ensure high quality assessment and treatment for all.

Working for our organisation: We operate from three main hospitals – Furness General Hospital (FGH) in Barrow, the Royal Lancaster Infirmary (RLI), and Westmorland General Hospital (WGH) in Kendal, along with a range of community healthcare premises including Millom Hospital and GP Practice, Queen Victoria Hospital in Morecambe, and Ulverston Community Health Centre. FGH and the RLI have a range of General Hospital services, with full Emergency Departments, Critical/Coronary Care units and various Consultant-led services. WGH provides a range of General Hospital services, together with an Urgent Treatment Centre that can help with a range of non-life-threatening conditions such as broken bones and minor illnesses. All three main hospitals provide a range of planned care including outpatients, diagnostics, therapies, day case and inpatient surgery. In addition, a range of local outreach services and diagnostics are provided from community facilities across Morecambe Bay. Our community services for adults are provided in people’s homes, community centres, clinics, GP Practices, community hospitals and our main hospitals. Our aim is to work with people to help them remain independent, improve their health and manage their conditions through high quality care, advice and support.

Person specification:

• Registered Nurse
• Significant recent community experience
• Evidence of relevant post graduate education in related areas – which may be varied, e.g. frailty, falls, long term condition management, neurological, rehabilitation, oncology
• Community specialist practitioner course
• Previous management courses
• Previous experience of senior position band 6 within DN team
• Post graduate experience including community and acute settings
• Highly advanced levels of assessment and goal planning skills in elderly rehabilitation, frailty, falls, long term condition management and orthopaedic conditions
• Evidence of being able to practice and manage complex patients and able to evaluate effectiveness of own practice
• Awareness of current initiatives within the Local and National health economy and of applicable guidelines, frameworks, protocols
• Understanding of adult protection issues
• Good working knowledge of the Clinical Governance agenda
• Knowledge of other service providers
• Experience of audit
• Ability to travel across the Bay independent of public transport
• Teaching and communication skills
• Experience of working within an inter-disciplinary service
• Research and Development experience
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
• Ability to handle difficult emotional situations
• Ability to work as part of a team
• Ability to work independently
• Excellent organisational skills, including time management, negotiating and decision making skills
• Ability to organise workload of self and others
• IT skills
• Ability to provide professional/clinical leadership at postgraduate level

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.

Equal Opportunities: The trust promotes flexible working opportunities wherever possible to enable staff to balance their work and home life. We are committed to Equal Opportunities and aim to be Effortlessly Inclusive.