Job Description

Patient Safety Specialists are designated to provide dynamic senior patient safety leadership.



They provide visibility and expert support to the patient safety work in their organisations.



Lead the local implementation of the NHS Patient Safety Strategy.



Lead patient safety 'insight', 'involvement' and 'improvement' activity and ensure that systems thinking, human factors understanding and just culture principles are embedded in all patient safety processes.



Promote patient safety thinking beyond why things go wrong, to the maximisation of why things routinely go right.



Support leads to ensure all staff are trained in Level 1 of the patient safety syllabus.



May be asked by the NHSE National Patient Safety Team to raise local awareness of an urgent national safety concern or help them in understanding a local issue.



Work closely with others with specific patient safety responsibilities. Support an aligned approach to safety improvement.



Involved in PSS networks at system, regional and national level.



Share good practice and learn from each other. Provider-level PSSs support ICB PSSs and Region PSSs in system related safety issues as required and vice versa.



Responsible for implementing and overseeing MCFT Patient Incident Response Framework policy and plan.



Ensure processes are in place for disseminating lessons learnt, including supporting in the management of significant events reporting and conduct of patient safety learning reviews.



Lead on developing and implementing patient safety systems, processes, and initiatives in line with new and future national requirements and organisational needs.



Act as lead reviewer on significant events reviews and ensure reviews carried out are appropriately allocated and acted upon by trained and objective staff to improve safety and ensure good governance. Provide expert advice to learning reviews.



Promote a systems approach to significant events reviews.



Support with patient safety improvement projects using project management methodology and specialist clinical knowledge.



Responsible for analysing complex patient safety data, highlighting trends, and making recommendations to address identified deficits in patient safety and/or compliance and ensuring agreed actions are followed through.



Ensure that lessons learnt are periodically evaluated for effectiveness.



Support local monitoring systems to ensure compliance with national standards and contracts and performance requirements.



Develop and deliver education programmes for patient safety.



Support the development and implementation of the Trust's response to the NHS Patient Safety Strategy and its requirements, and support Patient Safety Improvement Programmes that are being implemented.



Act as the Trust Patient Safety Specialist in line with the National Strategy and engage with personal development to ensure knowledge is robust and apply this expertise across the organisation.



Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 1.4 million people across our region and are also commissioned for services that cover the North West, North Wales and the Midlands.



We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities.



At the heart of all we do is our commitment to 'perfect care' - care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. We're currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce cost as we do so.



Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.

The post holder will:

Lead on or participate as part of the patient safety review team on significant events which require review and make recommendations, as required, regarding improvements to support patient safety.



As part of the patient safety team, monitor the shared learning relating to patient safety including those arising from themed reviews, significant events and address outstanding actions with the Divisional Teams as required. Lead or contribute to sharing lessons learnt from patient safety and triangulating this information with other divisional risk and governance teams.



Explore opportunities that will lead to the safer provision of care to patients and manage these projects accordingly. Work with patient safety partners to enable making improvements with patients and clinicians in mind.



Develop and deliver patient safety education and training. This includes, but is not limited to, delivering training in patient safety awareness, reporting, and managing adverse incidents, patient safety risk identification and management, incident investigations and an awareness of Duty of Candour.



Be clinically current and able to review patient safety from a clinical perspective whilst also considering patient experience, outcomes, and effectiveness.



Maintain clinical skills to ensure clinical credibility and to enable relevant information and modes of communication/methods of delivery are considered during the training process.



Provide expert advice as a registered health or social care professional and act as support on matters relating to patient safety within Divisions/Sites and support local staff in identifying, articulating, and developing mitigations where clinical risks are identified and escalate these to the risk managers and governance teams for further consideration.



Ensure that robust safety solutions generated through safety improvement projects are implemented, tracked and evaluated.



Maintain an up-to-date and comprehensive knowledge of patient safety practices in accordance with the principles of continuing professional development and ensure that this knowledge is applied locally to improve patient safety.



Responsible for ensuring that all significant events are reviewed to the appropriate standard, in line with the National framework, and monitoring recommendations to ensure they are acted upon in line with the Trust's Policy for the Patient Safety Incident Response. Expert advisor on the grading of incidents, responsible for identifying compliance and escalating issues where necessary.



Follow through on information obtained from staff reporting significant events and ensure that immediate actions are taken to minimise any risks to patients, staff or Trust property.



Ensure there are robust systems of communication in place to engage the participation of all clinicians and associated health professionals in patient safety. This will include communicating with staff about the lessons learnt through the patient safety agenda.



Expertly obtain, manage, and provide advice on issues of a highly sensitive, contentious or political nature and escalate cases of concern as appropriate.



Support the development of robust learning mechanisms across the Trust and within Divisions.



Contribute to the Divisional, Trust and Executive patient safety panel meetings as required and ensure that the meetings are effective in identifying risk to patient safety and continuously improving patient safety.



Responsible for identifying themes that indicate an issue relating to patient safety and contributing to the development of audit tools for Trust-wide and or local clinical audit programmes to determine the current status against standards, as required.



Develop a PSIRF training programme which support the methodologies of the organisation, aligned to the Patient Safety Incident Plan (PSIRP) Coordinate and deliver the PSIRF training, with the support of the patient safety team, with the aim of providing staff with the skills and knowledge to undertake Patient safety learning reviews into significant events, as identified through the local and national priorities, using the PSIRF review techniques and tools.



Provide expert advice and mentoring to staff on safety improvement methodology and systems/PSIRF patient safety learning review methodology.



Monitor the quality and timeliness of review of significant events reported by staff and take action to ensure improvements in performance, identifying and escalating as required.



Lead of the quarterly audit of the quality of significant events data in the incident investigation system (harm fields, grading of incidents, staff feedback, uploading of associated documents, lessons learned, etc.). Support MIAA audits and ensure the implementation and adherence to recommendations and actions.



Develop and present PSIRF reports for various committees in the organisation and external stakeholders including Executive and Quality Committee, ICB quality and contract requirements.



Promote and support the inclusion of service users or providers and their representatives in patient safety.



With the relevant Lead/Manager/ Director/ Head of Patient Safety, take the lead or support on specific patient safety improvement projects at Trust, Division and Department level and in accordance with project management methodology, including facilitating multi-disciplinary and multi-agency project teams and chairing project meetings.



Support and encourage staff, clinicians and health care professionals throughout the change process including the need to consider staff opinions and situations to overcome potentially significant barriers to change.



Ensure efficient use of resources and excellent management of multiple complex budgets as required. Contribute towards work required for various quality initiatives and Trust priorities on an ongoing basis and consider sustainability and efficiency.



GENERIC RESPONSIBILITIES FOR ALL STAFF

All post holders will agree to:

Commit to the vision of supporting Mersey Care in becoming a leading organisation in the provision of community services, mental health care, addiction services and learning disability care, and in doing so fully utilise their skills and experience to support the objectives of the Trust.



Role model the values of the Trust - Continuous Improvement, Accountability, Respectfulness, Enthusiasm and Support- in all activities and interactions with employees, service users and other stakeholders.



Challenge the stigma associated with mental health and learning difficulties.

Comply with the Duty of Candour, defined by Francis as:

'The volunteering of all relevant information to persons who have or may have been harmed by the provision of services, whether or not the information has been requested and whether or not a complaint or a report about that provision has been made.'



Work across professional and organisational boundaries to improve services for all.



Maintain their specific knowledge base and develop new skills.



Value the contribution of the patient/ service user voice.



Operate within any organisational codes of practice or those from a relevant professional body.



Respect equality and diversity across all areas of working practice and communications with staff, service users and other stakeholders.



Take responsibility for the accurate and timely collection and recording of data and ensuring all personally identifiable information is protected and used only for the purposes for which it was intended.



Comply with all health and safety legislation and local policies and procedures.



Adhere to all organisational policies.



Have knowledge and understanding of technology in the workplace which is sufficient to maintain their efficiency and also how technology can empower service users in a digital environment.



Comply with the NHS Constitution in relation to the staff responsibilities that it sets out for NHS employees.



Attend a one day Just and Learning & Civility and Respect training workshop.



Be an ambassador for Just & Learning and Civility & Respect following the training.



Positively advocate the just and learning culture within your team.



Be a confident supporter and implementer of the Trust CARES Values including Civility & Respect within your team.



Support their team/ services to create a positive environment for Just and Learning Culture.



Participate in Just and Learning Culture events.



Bring Just and Learning Culture updates/ information to the attention of team members and other MCT colleagues they work with.



Support and encourage the sharing of concerns about the safety and quality of care with senior leaders with the aim of improving safety and quality.



Actively participate in creating an open culture within your team so that concerns and difficulties can be discussed safely and respectfully.



Speaking up in the event that they are exposed to incivility between colleagues in the workplace #iwillspeakup.



Listening and understanding others who have concerns and taking a collaborative approach to work towards a solution to improve civility and respect.



This job description is intended as an outline indicator of general areas of activity and will be reviewed in light of the changing needs of the Trust in consultation with the postholder.