IUCS Head of Clinical Delivery

Clinical leadership and patient care

Lead clinical delivery across the Urgent Care Coordination Hub, 111 Clinical Assessment Service, care navigation, out-of-hours GP appointments and home visiting. Be visible to staff and take responsibility for the standard and safety of the care patients receive. Practise autonomously as an ACP. The clinical element of the role will focus mainly on 111 clinical assessment and telephone consultations, with occasional face-to-face appointments or home visits where service need requires. Assess patients who contact the service by telephone. Take a relevant history, identify urgency and risk, make a reasoned clinical-decision and arrange the appropriate next step, including advice, treatment, an appointment, referral or escalation. Use clear communication and safety-netting in remote consultations. Explain the plan, what to expect and when to seek further help, taking account of the patients circumstances and ability to access the recommended care. Give colleagues senior clinical advice and support. Where a patient needs care beyond the services capability, arrange escalation or transfer and make sure the receiving team has the information it needs. Keep records accurate, obtain consent and assess capacity where needed. Maintain professional competence and bring relevant changes in guidance into the service's practice. Ensure effective utilisation of allocated financial budget. Monitor and maintain staffing levels and skill mix, on a day-to-day basis, responding appropriately to unexpected circumstances.

Clinical staff and their development

Line-manage the IUCS clinical workforce, including ACPs, UCPs, telephone practitioners and trainee ACPs. Support recruitment and onboarding. Work with the Education Team so new staff understand the service and are suitably trained for their role. Mentor clinical staff and provide additional support to trainee ACPs when an educator or clinical mentor is unavailable. Hold appraisals and performance reviews, give regular feedback and address concerns about practice, conduct, productivity or capability. Be clear about what needs to improve and follow NEMS policies and procedures when further action is needed. Agree each clinicians scope of practice and supervision arrangements. Identify gaps in skills or confidence and arrange the support needed to address them. Make time for regular one-to-ones about staff wellbeing, workload and ideas for service development. Organise clinical supervision and chair regular meetings for the clinical team. Set out the clinical staffing and skill mix required to deliver the service. Work with the Operational Service Manager and Rota Team to cover and escalate any risk to safe delivery. The Operational Service Manager coordinates rotas and leads sickness and annual leave processes. Quality, safety and patient experience: Take responsibility for clinical safety and quality across IUCS. Pay particular attention to telephone assessment, clinical decision-making, safety-netting, referral and handover arrangements, and act on safeguarding concerns. Make sure the service is ready for CQC inspection, with current evidence-based practice, sound local arrangements and staff who understand their responsibilities. Work with the Clinical Governance Lead and Governance Team on incidents, complaints and patient feedback. Provide clinical information and help the service act on learning. The Governance Team coordinates formal investigations; the Head of Clinical Delivery makes sure local actions are completed. Gather and review patient and carer feedback in good time. Work with senior clinical staff to understand what it says about care across IUCS and make changes where needed. Involve patients and carers when services are reviewed or developed. Speak up for an individual patient when their concern needs to be heard. Support the Governance Team in presenting IUCS information at the monthly Patient Safety Steering Group. Contribute to clinical audits when required and use the findings to improve care.

Service performance and development

Monitor the response to out-of-hours GP appointments and home visits. Use service information to understand pressures and risks, and agree action with the Operational Service Manager and Medical Lead where responsibilities overlap. Maintain an overview of the clinical services finances. Identify pressures early and explain their effect on staffing, capacity or care. Contribute clinical and workforce information to service planning and business cases. Keep up to date with developments in NHS 111, integrated urgent care, primary care, integrated care systems and NHS England guidance. Consider what they mean for IUCS and bring forward changes that will improve care or service delivery. Lead agreed changes to clinical practice across the service. Work with colleagues and partners to improve pathways between telephone assessment, care navigation, appointments, home visiting, community services and hospital care. Work with local and national healthcare providers to improve patient pathways and develop service models. Explain how NEMS services contribute to care across the wider health system. Partnerships, guidance and

NEMS leadership

Represent IUCS in clinical discussions with NHS 111 partners, EMAS, the ICB, primary care and secondary care providers. Work with the Medical Lead on matters requiring wider medical or system-level decisions. Attend and present at the weekly IUCS Management Meeting. Chair the meeting when the usual chair is absent. Attend and contribute to the monthly Clinical Performance Group, and chair where required. Attend Senior Leadership Team meetings on a rolling rota, representing the departments local leaders. Participate in regular interface meetings with urgent care partners and hospital teams. Support the Governance Team in presenting information about IUCS and following up agreed actions. Lead the drafting and review of departmental SOPs and policies. Arrange medical review and sign-off, submitting them for executive approval where required. Develop clinical guidelines with the Medical Lead, who provides final clinical sign-off.