Milton Keynes Palliative & End of Life Care Transformation Lead

We are seeking a dedicated individual to play a vital role in shaping the strategic design and direction of palliative and end of life care services across Milton Keynes. This is an exciting opportunity for anyone wanting to further develop their career in system level strategic transformation, and who holds a special interest in palliative and end of life care. The postholder will thrive on innovation and collaboration with a passion for promoting equity and reducing inequalities in palliative and end-of-life care. Hosted by Willen Hospice, and working closely with the Integrated Care Board and local partners from both statutory and non-statutory sectors, the mission is to enhance patient outcomes and the sustainability of palliative and end of life care (PEoLC). This role will support Integrated Care System priorities, reduce health inequalities and help ensure people receive the right care, in the right place, at the right time, including alternatives to hospital where possible.

Main duties of the job

• Lead the development of a shared vision and system-wide program for Palliative and End of Life Care in Milton Keynes.
• Provide strategic leadership to statutory and nonstatutory organisations to improve coordination and quality of PEoLC.
• Support delivery of national and local priorities including the NHS Long Term Plan and the Ambitions for Palliative and End of Life Care.
• Lead and support transformation projects and collaborative initiatives across the system.
• Analyse national policy and guidance and translate this into local service improvement.
• Promote equality, inclusion and reduction of health inequalities, working with people with lived experience.
• Build strong relationships across NHS providers, hospice, VCSE organisations and local authorities.
• Develop robust business cases, progress reports, and briefings for the ICB PEoLC Program Board.
• Lead and co‑ordinate project task and finish groups, managing risks, dependencies, and delivery to quality standards.

About us

Set in the tranquil grounds of Willen Lake, Willen Hospice is the leading provider of specialist palliative care in the Milton Keynes area. We offer round‑the‑clock, expert care to local patients with a life‑limiting illness, both in their own homes and in our In‑Patient Unit. Our passionate staff and volunteers make sure our care is personalised to each patient’s needs and supports their loved ones too. We have a thriving Therapeutic & Wellbeing service providing counselling, physiotherapy, activity groups and more, and a specialist Lymphoedema service. As a registered charity, we raise vital funds through our dedicated Business Development team and our growing portfolio of high street and online shops, to ensure our care stays free of charge.

Job responsibilities

• Accountable to: Director of Clinical Services Willen Hospice.
• Responsible to and for NHS Central East ICB Palliative and End of Life Care (PEoLC) Clinical Lead.
• Support the strategic design and direction of palliative and end of life care services across Milton Keynes working in collaboration with local and regional partners across the statutory, non‑statutory and VCSE sectors.
• Supported and hosted by Willen Hospice.
• Hours of work: 22.5 hours Mainly 9‑5 with some flexibility, and opportunity for hybrid working.
• Location: Hybrid working, when in location to work from a MK partner base.
• Contract: 12 months.

Overview

Through a MK partner oversight committee, the MK PEoLC Clinical Transformation Lead will work collaboratively to deliver palliative and end of life care services to the residents of Milton Keynes that are coordinated, integrated and of the highest quality, providing care wherever they call home and offering, where possible, an alternative pathway to hospital.

Job Purpose:

The Milton Keynes PEoLC clinical Transformation Lead will:

• Lead the development of a shared vision and clarity of purpose to reflect PEoLC national and local priorities.
• Provide strategic leadership and support to statutory and non‑statutory organisations in terms of PEoLC to enable enhanced coordination of care.
• Support delivery of Integrated Care System (ICS) priorities in line with the national priorities of PEoLC, the vision of the NHS Long Term Plan and the Ambitions for Palliative and End of Life Care.
• Provide a leadership role to develop a platform that supports commissioners in their role towards joint contracting that leads to care redesign and performance improvement initiatives.
• Reflect local and national priorities (Quality, Access, and Sustainability) in a Milton Keynes PEoLC Programme work plan and provide the forum to achieve those objectives.
• Work closely with other PEoLC ICB Stakeholders to ensure a collaborative approach and lead/share key pieces of work.

Role activities:

As the Milton Keynes Transformation Lead the post holder will work alongside leads from providers across Milton Keynes and with the ICB Palliative and End of Life Care SRO, to improve the outcomes for patients and the sustainability of PEoLC and:

• Develop an understanding of the local assets, needs, and inequalities, to support the development of PEoLC strategic plans using the Ambitions Self‑Assessment Framework.
• Raise the profile of PEoLC across the local policy and broader strategic agendas.
• Support the statutory core responsibility of ICB to ensure that system wide accessible high quality, safe palliative and end of life care, tailored to the needs of the individual (Health and Care act 2022) is available.
• Provide an innovative, ambitious, and solution‑focused approach to unblocking barriers and leading the transformation of services to meet the individual needs of patients and address inequalities in care provision.
• Support the strategic direction of new and widened collaborative opportunities to transform and develop of sustainable PEoLC services.
• Develop and support local, regional and national networks to share PEoLC best practice and learn from others' successes.
• Empower people with lived experience and local subject matter experts to co‑produce local services for local people.

Key job specifics and responsibilities:

Promoting equality and reducing inequalities. The PEoLC programme will consider the following:

• To work with people of lived experience and aim to reduce health inequalities and inequities of access to services.
• To uphold organisational policies and principles on the promotion of equality.
• To create an inclusive working environment where diversity is valued, everyone can contribute, and everyday action ensure we meet our duty to uphold and promote equality.

Working with Others

To develop relationships and links with:

• Key Milton Keynes PEoLC providers – Willen Hospice, CNWL MKUH and SCAS.
• Regional PEoLC Strategic Clinical Network (SCN) team.
• ICB PEoLC programme team.
• Voluntary/Community or Social Enterprise (VCSE) representation.
• People with lived experience of palliative and end of life care (as patient or carer).
• Local authority (e.g., social care) representative.

Key accountabilities:

Operational

• Support the strategic delivery of ICS priorities, as well as support the national priorities of PEoLC and the vision of the NHS Long Term Plan.
• Provide strategic leadership and support to statutory and non‑statutory organisations in terms of PEoLC to enable enhanced coordination of care.
• Analyse and interpret and present National policy recommendations and guidance to mixed audiences, generating a range of options for comparison and debate.
• Gain consent to share very sensitive information about performance and change.
• To support the identification and sharing of best practice in commissioning and service transformation.
• Make formal presentations to large groups on specific projects.
• Manage allocated resources for projects.
• Maintain programme records (including risk logs) and undertake complex audits, surveys related to programme.
• Attend regular national and regional shared forums.

Project Management

• Develop a shared vision and clarity of purpose to reflect PEoLC national and local priorities.
• Lead and co‑coordinate project task and finish groups in the delivery of project plans, allocating tasks as appropriate, identifying risks, issues and dependencies, considering best practice and current options and ultimately making decisions in the best interest of the project.
• Pro‑actively manage stakeholders, respond to and resolve conflict between different stakeholders when this arises through facilitation or other appropriate mechanisms.
• Be responsible for a high standard of work supporting the delivery of projects on time, to quality standards and in a cost‑effective manner.
• Maintain the project initiation document and associated plans with regular team meetings to monitor progress and resources.
• Ensure the flexibility of the project if required to meet conflicting/changing requirements.
• Responsible for the planning and organisation of numerous events/meetings.
• Ensuring communication tools are used to their maximum value for circulating the minutes, agenda and presentations in a timely manner.
• Demonstrate effective stakeholder management across different departments and at all levels.
• Ensure that the projects maintain business focus, have clear authority and that the context, including risks, are actively managed in alignment with the strategic priorities of NHS.
• Ongoing monitoring of expenditure against budget and ensuring the appropriate documentation is available for scrutiny where appropriate.
• Responsible for making recommendations, providing advice and able to prepare strategic reports/briefings for the Head of Department, Steering/Reference Groups and others as required.

Information Management

• Drafting reports summarising status on issues, appraising outcomes, and providing progress reports for meetings including the ICB PEoLC programme board.
• Collate as required, qualitative and quantitative information and lead appropriate analysis to develop robust business cases and contribute to project outcomes.
• Analyse, interpret and present data to highlight issues, risks and support decision making.

Policy and Service Development

• Proposes changes to own function making recommendations for other service delivery.
• The post holder will need to maintain a good knowledge of emerging policies from government departments. This will assist in the thinking and definition of the strategy discussions for the PEoLC programme and stakeholders.

Key working relationships:

• Provide strategic leadership and support to statutory and non‑statutory organisations in terms of PEoLC across Milton Keynes to enable enhanced coordination of care.
• Provide and receive highly complex, sensitive and contentious information, presenting information, to a wide range of stakeholders in a formal setting.
• Deal with resulting potentially aggressive/antagonistic situations as required.
• Nurture key relationships and maintain Central East wide PEoLC networks internally and externally, including regional and national networks.
• Ensure close liaison with the Communications and Stakeholder team on public relations and marketing activities.
• Link with managers and members of other functions, to address inter‑dependencies and ensure alignment.
• Apply a structured change management approach and methodology for the impact of any change.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Educated to Masters level or equivalent level of experience working at a senior level, supported by a project management qualification for example PRINCE 2, Agile or Managing Successful Programmes.
• Registered healthcare professional with relevant professional registration (such as nurse, occupational therapist etc.) or a manager with relevant healthcare experience.

Experience

• Experience of cross organisational or system wide transformation.
• Extensive knowledge of PEoLC Policy, NHS Long Term Plan and the PEoLC Ambitions.
• Must understand the background to and aims of current healthcare policy and appreciate the implications of this on engagement.
• Should have an appreciation of the relationship between the Department of Health and individual provider and commissioning organisations.
• Communicate highly complex, sensitive or contentious information, negotiate with senior stakeholders on difficult and controversial issues, and present complex and sensitive information to large and influential groups.
• Ability to negotiate on difficult and controversial issues including contracting, performance and change.
• Problem solving skills and ability to respond to sudden unexpected demands.
• Ability to analyse complex facts and situations and develop a range of options.
• Takes decisions on difficult and contentious issues where there may be a number of courses of action.
• Strategic thinking ability to anticipate and resolve problems before they arise.
• Demonstrated capability to plan over short, medium and long‑term timeframes and adjust plans and resource requirements accordingly.
• Must be able to use initiative to decide relevant actions and make recommendations to Manager, with the aim of improving deliverables and compliance to policies.
• Ability to make decisions autonomously, when required, on difficult issues, working to tight and often changing timescales.
• Experience of identifying and interpreting National policy.
• Experience of researching best practice (globally, private and public sector), interpreting its relevance and processes/ practices which could be implemented successfully to achieve system reform (advising on policy implementation).
• Working knowledge of Microsoft Office with intermediate keyboard skills.

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.