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Job summary

Main area
Senior Clinical Pharmacist
Grade
Band 8a
Contract
Permanent
Hours
  • Full time
  • Part time
  • Job share
  • Flexible working
  • Home or remote working
37.5 hours per week (Monday to Friday, up to 37.5 hours per week)
Job ref
150-GM2168-COR
Employer
Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust
Employer type
NHS
Site
Brighton General Hospital
Town
Brighton
Salary
£55,690 - £62,682 Per Annum
Salary period
Yearly
Closing
23/10/2025 23:59

Employer heading

Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust logo

Senior Clinical Pharmacist - Children & Young People

Band 8a

Job overview

Are you looking for a work-life balance where you won't have weekend, on-call or bank holiday working commitments but still do something rewarding and challenging?   Are you proactive, flexible, agile in your work approach?  If so, we're looking for you to join our well-respected medicines management team to lead on Children and Young People (C&YP) services across the Trust. This role is broad and includes covering some adult/specialist services, but its focus is on C&YP services

We use electronic patient records and electronic Medicines Administration Records (eMAR) within C&YP services and  Electronic Prescribing & Medicines Administration (EPMA) within our adult Intermediate Care Units (training provided).

We're committed to ensure  our pharmacists who wish to gain an independent prescribing qualification are given the opportunity to do so in a fair and equitable way. 

Full time hours are 37.5 hours per week (general office hours) Flexible working arrangements may be discussed but will require you to work a minimum 22.5 hours per week over 3 days.   Hybrid working from home and Trust locations is supported, and there are split roles within the Trust.

This role is based at Brighton General Hospital and involves a regular presence at Chailey Heritage Foundation and occasional travel to Crawley Hospital and other sites across Sussex.

Main duties of the job

You will work with other pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and assistants, as well as other members of the multidisciplinary team to ensure the delivery of a high quality and effective medicines management service to our Children and Young People and specialist services. You will be involved in the development of pharmacy staff and C&YP service.  You will support the medicines management team as needed with a clinical service to adult bedded units.  

You will take the lead role within the Medicines Management Team, across the whole of Trust, for the particular areas of Children and Young People and Specialist services in accordance with experience, previous knowledge and personal development plan. This may include developing policy and service developments.  You will require excellent organisational, interpersonal and communication skills, and a proactive "can do approach", together with good clinical skills and knowledge. The ability to travel within the Trust's foot-print is essential

Working for our organisation

We are the main provider of NHS community services across East and West Sussex, with 6,000 staff serving 1.3 million people. We deliver essential care to adults and children, helping them manage their health, avoid hospital admissions, and reduce hospital stays.

Our Trust vision is to provide excellent care at the heart of the community. We offer opportunities across medical, clinical, support, and corporate services.

Why work for us?
•    Positive 2024 NHS Staff Survey results, highlighting compassionate leadership and wellbeing
•    Varied environments: community hospitals, patients’ homes, and bases across Sussex
•    Flexible working options: part-time, flexi-time, annualised hours, and flexi-retirement
•    Excellent training, development, and research opportunities
•    Cost-effective workplace nurseries in Crawley, Hove, and Brighton
•    Active EMBRACE, Disability & Wellbeing, LGBTQIA+, and Religion & Belief networks
•    Level 3 Disability Confident Leader and Veteran Aware Trust
•    Beautiful Sussex location near the South Downs and coast

Our valuesCompassionate Care, Working Together, Achieving Ambitions, Delivering Excellence—guide everything we do.

We embrace diversity and encourage applications from all backgrounds, particularly from ethnically diverse, disabled, and LGBTQIA+ individuals. We aim to create an inclusive environment and support reasonable adjustments during recruitment.

This post may close early if sufficient applications are received. 

 

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The Medicines Management team is ambitious for its service and staff. We are supporting  foundation pharmacist trainees and pre-registration pharmacy technicians.  We have supported some of our pharmacists to gain a prescribing qualification or management qualifications.  

The Medicines Management Team provides input into a range of medicines optimisation services including to Rheumatology, Children and Young People and Pro-active care, Medicines Optimisation in Care Homes, Virtual Wards and this supports developmental and learning as well as progression opportunities.

See attached Job Description and Person Specification for further information

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria
  • Masters degree MPharm
  • Registered pharmacist (1 year competency assessed and examined) professional registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) UK.
  • Diploma in Clinical Pharmacy or equivalent
Desirable criteria
  • MSc in Clinical Pharmacy or equivalent
  • Non-Medical Prescriber
  • Practice or Educational Supervisor or equivalent

Experience

Essential criteria
  • At least 5 years relevant post-registration experience
  • Providing clinical pharmacy services within an acute setting or similar setting with direct patient contact.
  • Experience of writing policies, procedures and protocols
  • Ability to demonstrate evidence of working in multi-disciplinary teams.
  • Experience of implementing clinical governance and continuous improvement.
  • Developing and delivering medicines management training to other healthcare professionals.
  • Involved in identifying and assessing risk to improve patient safety
  • Familiarity with the concepts of evidence based medicines.
  • Expertise of addressing and resolving legal issues related to medicines.
  • Addressing, implementing and monitoring compliance with NHS Improvement Patient Safety Alerts related to medicines
  • Experience of working with Children and Young People as a clinical pharmacist.
Desirable criteria
  • Working with a community health services setting
  • Experience of provision of medicines information and associated systems.
  • Developing and undertaking clinical and non-clinical audits.
  • Developing and writing patient group directions (PGDs)
  • Managing or advising on drug budgets and drugs costs and how to monitor these
  • Mentoring, managing or supervising pharmacy staff

Skills and Knowledge

Essential criteria
  • Excellent organisational skills
  • Ability to assimilate, analyse and interpret complex data to assess risks and improve patient safety
  • Ability to communicate effectively and develop effective working relationships at all levels
  • Ability to work independently and within a team
  • Ability to challenge
  • Ability to work under pressure and be able to make important decisions in pressured situations.
  • Ability to prioritise and manage own work and deliver within identified timelines.
  • Good written and verbal communication skills
  • Ability to apply sound professional judgement to legal and ethical issues
  • Effective influencing and negotiation skills and ability to persuade others
  • The ability to research and analyse complex information, judging the input required to arrive at robust and accurate conclusions and using these conclusions to inform decision-making
  • Computer skills including spreadsheets, presentations, electronic patient records or ECDL
  • Self-motivated and able to initiate change.
  • Methodological approach and attention to detail in terms of medicines.
  • Ability to write reports, SOP and other documents
Desirable criteria
  • Ability to generate prescribing data using epact.net

Other Requirements

Essential criteria
  • Requirement to travel cost effectively across the area covered by Sussex Community NHS Trust
  • Able to cope with interruptions when busy
Desirable criteria
  • Able to concentrate for extended periods

Employer certification / accreditation badges

We are a Living Wage EmployerCommitted to being an Inclusive EmployerVeteran AwareApprenticeships logoNo smoking policyDisability confident leaderMindful employer.  Being positive about mental health.Armed Forces Covenant Bronze Award

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Documents to download

Apply online now

Further details / informal visits contact

Name
Karen Varisco
Job title
Principal Clinical Pharmacist
Email address
[email protected]
Telephone number
01273 696011
Additional information

Contact Information

 

Karen Varisco

Principal Clinical Pharmacist

Work Telephone number: 01273 696011 X3074

Work mobile number: 07825 606914

Email: [email protected]

 

You can also contact Iben Altman, Chief Pharmacist  (email [email protected])t or Lorna Elliott, Senior Clinical Pharmacist & Medication Safety Officer (email: [email protected])

Site visits are encouraged and can be facilitated on request.

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