Job Description

Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust is seeking a dynamic Lead Tobacco Dependence Treatment Specialist, this pivotal Band 8a role offers a unique opportunity to spearhead transformative change in tobacco dependence treatment for our service users and staff.



Anchored within our Acute and Crisis services, you will be the single senior point of contact for tobacco dependence treatment within the Trust. You will ensure robust policy and best practice are embedded within core inpatient services (including mental health acute & crisis, forensics, and prisons) and aligned through collaboration across diverse directorates including our children & young people, learning disabilities, community mental health and community physical health directorates. You will be spearheading the delivery of comprehensive Ottawa model services to achieve 100% coverage for all inpatient smokers and significantly improve support for mental health patients post-discharge, ensuring vital continuity of care and reducing relapse rates . Ultimately, you will drive a cohesive, Trust-wide strategy and approach to tobacco dependence, making a tangible difference to the health of our service users and staff.

Strategic Development & Delivery:

Leading the strategic development, promotion, and delivery of effective, evidence-based interventions to support Tobacco Dependence Treatment across Oxleas.

Service Management:

Delivering a specialist stop smoking service, including managing a highly skilled team of specialist tobacco dependence advisors and overseeing budget management.

Performance & Quality:

Driving the achievement of key performance indicators, contributing to reducing smoking prevalence and health inequalities, and managing data to ensure annual quit targets are met.

Policy & Infrastructure:

Ensuring tobacco dependence policy and practice are aligned across all service lines.

Leadership & Collaboration:

Providing strategic leadership on tobacco dependence for service users and staff, working in partnership with the Public Health team, and leading on the procurement of treatments with pharmacy and finance.

Training & Development:

Ensuring team members achieve relevant competencies (e.g., NCSCT), delivering specialist training, and promoting the service at a strategic level.

Engagement & Marketing:

Recruiting smokers to the service, marketing the service, and implementing a marketing and communications strategy.

Policy Development:

Leading the development of tobacco dependence treatment policies, guidance, and pathways across all Oxleas services.



Oxleas offers a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people in community and secure environment settings. Our services include community health care such as district nursing and speech and language therapy, care for people with learning disabilities and mental health care such as psychiatry, nursing and therapies. Our multidisciplinary teams look after people of all ages and we work in close partnership with other parts of the NHS, local councils and the voluntary sector and through our new provider collaboratives. Our 4,300 members of staff work in many different settings including hospitals, clinics, prisons, secure hospitals, children's centres, schools and people's homes.



We have over 125 sites in a variety of locations in the South of England. In London we operate within the Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley Greenwich and into Kent. We manage hospital sites including Queen Mary's Hospital, Sidcup and Memorial Hospital, Woolwich, as well as the Bracton Centre, our medium secure unit for people with mental health needs. We are the largest NHS provider of prison health services providing healthcare to prisons within Devon, Dorset, Bristol, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, Kent and South London. We are proud of the care we provide and our people.



Our purpose is to improve lives by providing the best possible care to our patients and their families. This is strengthened by our new values:



We're Kind



We're Fair



We Listen



We Care

Operational Management & Service Delivery:

Delivering a specialist stop smoking service, ensuring it is high quality, accessible, and client-centred.



Managing a highly skilled team of specialist tobacco dependence advisors, including recruitment, supervision, and ensuring PDPs are completed.



Managing the stop smoking service budget and ensuring services are delivered within allocated funds.



Overseeing the recruitment of smokers and marketing the service effectively.



Ensuring the team achieves NCSCT competencies in tobacco dependence treatment for mental health services.



Refer to job description attached