Access Team LeadNHS

Job summary

Make a difference at the most important time of life

Were looking for a senior nurse ready to play a pivotal leadership role at the heart of our hospice services.

• Salary: £49,338.85 - £56,461.82 per annum
• Location: Taunton & Yeovil
• Hours: 37.5 hours full-time (with participation in on-call rota). Part time hours can be considered.
• Working Pattern: 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, Monday to Friday. There may occasionally be a need to work outside of these hours.

As Advice Line Team Lead, you will lead two complementary teams: the Advice Line, staffed by qualified nurses who provide specialist clinical advice, and the Central Referral Centre, where administrators screen incoming calls and referrals to ensure they reach the right service.

This is a role where you can make a meaningful impact ensuring patients and families receive the right care, at the right time, in the right place.

You'll also lead your team through a period of development, strengthening performance, and building a positive, accountable and supportive team culture.

Main duties of the job

You will lead and develop a high-performing team, driving forward service innovation while maintaining responsive, compassionate care for patients and families.

Key aspects of the role include:

• Leading the triage and referral process, ensuring timely, safe and appropriate responses
• Providing clinical advice for palliative and end of life care needs
• Managing team performance, rotas, recruitment and development
• Using data and quality improvement methods to enhance service delivery and patient experience
• Working collaboratively with internal teams and other external healthcare services to ensure coordinated care

You will also play a key role in supporting service transformation and ensuring the new model is sustainable, effective, and responsive to demand.

Job description

Practice and leadership

• Provide day-to-day operational leadership for the Access Team through transition to business-as-usual, including recruitment, induction, rota/off-duty planning, and performance oversight.
• Role model specialist palliative and end of life care practice, embedding consistent triage standards, documentation quality, and person-centred decision-making.
• Provide clinical leadership to support safe, timely triage and advice line activity, including escalation decisions and complex case review.
• Create and sustain a positive, inclusive working culture, supporting wellbeing, resilience and psychological safety within a team working with distressing and end of life situations.
• Use service data, feedback and quality metrics to identify priorities, manage demand and capacity, and drive continuous improvement.
• Take and analyse a clinical history in a relevant, succinct and logical manner, remotely and/or face to face.
• Use specialist assessment and clinical reasoning to triage, assess, plan and coordinate care for people with palliative and end of life care needs.
• Apply knowledge of community, hospice and system resources to support timely, appropriate pathways and care in the place of choice where possible.
• Use physical assessment and clinical reasoning skills to inform safe advice, professional communication and high-quality documentation.
• Undertake non-medical prescribing within scope of practice and in accordance with organisational policy (where qualified).
• Recognise and manage palliative care emergencies, following agreed escalation pathways.
• Support advance care planning and treatment escalation planning, sharing information through appropriate IT platforms.
• Act as a specialist resource to colleagues and partners on palliative and end of life care, supporting safe decision-making, timely escalation and consistent standards across the system.

Communication

• Support delivery of the hospice digital strategy to enhance access, coordination and clinical workflows.
• Contribute to, organise and/or chair multidisciplinary meetings as required (e.g., Primary Care Network meetings, Gold Standards Framework, internal MDTs), ensuring clear actions and follow-up.
• Maintain effective working relationships with community services and partners (e.g., rapid response, district nursing, Hospital at Home, GP practices and voluntary sector) to enable timely, coordinated care.
• Use advanced communication skills to manage complex and sensitive conversations, including uncertainty, deterioration, dying and bereavement; support shared decision-making and informed choice.
• Anticipate and address barriers to communication, supporting the team to develop and apply effective communication strategies.
• Provide and/or facilitate a robust framework of clinical supervision and reflective practice that supports resilience and high-quality care.
• Ensure contemporaneous, accurate electronic records and information sharing in accordance with professional standards and organisational policy.
• Identify potential risks to self and others in work activities, environments and processes.
• Understand specific risks associated with lone working and follow the lone working policy when conducting home visits.
• Manage identified risks in the best way possible and keep the team informed and engaged.
• Work in a way that complies with legislation and hospice policies and procedures on health, safety and risk management.
• Report actual or potential problems that may put health, safety or security at risk and suggest solutions.
• Support and challenge others in maintaining health, safety and security at work.
• Work within the safeguarding framework for the protection of vulnerable adults and children.

Education and training

• Maintain expert clinical knowledge and skills through evidence-based practice, critical reflection and continuing professional development in line with NMC requirements (including revalidation).
• Develop, deliver and evaluate education programmes internally and externally, aligned to service priorities and learning needs.
• Support the induction and ongoing development of staff, including competency frameworks, supervision, coaching, and contribution to appraisal/PDR processes.
• Provide mentorship and learning opportunities for students and colleagues across disciplines, including clinical placements and inter-professional learning.
• Promote and participate in audit, service evaluation and (where appropriate) research activity; support the team to engage with audit cycles, implement learning and demonstrate improvement.
• Ensure compliance with mandatory training and support staff to meet role-specific developmental pathways and professional requirements.

Reporting and data

• Ensure high-quality data capture and reporting that describes service demand, activity, outcomes and quality.
• Use data, audit findings and feedback to identify themes, risks and improvement opportunities; contribute to plans that improve performance and patient/carer experience.
• Work with the Head of Service to produce regular performance updates, KPI reporting and narratives that support strategic decision-making and service development.
• Support governance requirements including incident learning, audit cycles, service evaluation and assurance reporting as required.

About us

At St Margarets Hospice Care, youll be part of a compassionate, forward-thinking organisation where your work truly matters.

We offer:

• The opportunity to lead innovative service development
• Opportunities for community working, connecting directly with patients and their families
• A supportive, inclusive working culture focused on wellbeing
• Ongoing professional development and education opportunities
• The chance to make a real difference to patients and families at the most important time of their lives

Holiday entitlement

• 33 days including bank holidays, rising to 35 days after 1 year, and increasing with length of service (pro-rata if part-time)
• For Band 5+ clinical roles, annual leave entitlement may include reckonable service from previous clinical roles at Band 5 or above, where joining us directly from the NHS or another hospice.
• Ability to buy and sell annual leave

Pension scheme

• NHS pension continuation where applicable*
• 6% employer / 5% employee contribution for non-NHS staff

Additional Benefits

• Life assurance cover (2x salary)
• Health Cash Plans
• Employee Assistance Programme with 24/7 GP access, counselling, wellbeing support, and legal/financial advice
• Blue Light Discount Card
• Enhanced maternity leave*
• Excellent learning and development opportunities
• Free on-site parking in Yeovil and Taunton
• Opportunities to volunteer and support fundraising initiatives

*Eligibility criteria applies