Deputy Director of Infection Prevention

Job summary

A new opportunity has arisen for the Deputy Director of Infection Prevention Control at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, joining the already well established Infection Prevention Control Team.

The Deputy Director of Infection Prevention Control (DDIPC) has a strategic leadership and management responsibility for the ongoing development and sustainability of a high quality and innovative infection prevention and control service for the Trust.

Main duties of the job

Key duties are to provide leadership and strategic direction in the following areas:

Development and delivery of strategy and improvement programmes to achieve national infection reduction targets; Achieving excellent clinical infection prevention practices by all staff groups; Safe, effective and compliant standards for the decontamination of medical devices; Achieving legal requirements for food safety, and ensuring these are maintained; Improving environmental cleanliness, to meet and exceed minimum national standards standards antimicrobial stewardship; emergency planning in relation to infectious agents; infection outbreak and incident management; water and ventilation safety; nursing leadership

Improving Diversity and Inclusive Recruitment:

As part of the Trust's aim to improve diversity across the Trust, positive action is being taken and all applications for this post from BAME, Disabled and LGBT+ candidates can request to be considered under an expanded Guaranteed Interview Scheme if they meet the minimum criteria as specified in the person specification for this role.

Applicants will be prompted in the application form to declare if they wish to be considered under this expanded Guaranteed Interview Scheme, and their response would be visible to the Shortlisting Panel.

If you have any queries about expanded Guaranteed Interview Scheme, please contact Rob Saunders (HR Manager - Recruitment) in confidence via email

About us

Our purpose is simple - Putting Patients First. We are looking for exceptional colleagues who can help us achieve this.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust is a large acute and specialised hospital trust that provides a range of local acute services to the residents of Worcestershire and more specialised services to a larger population in Herefordshire and beyond.

The Trust operates hospital-based services from three sites in Kidderminster, Redditch and Worcester

Our workforce is over 7,000 strong, and our caring staff are recognised as providing good and outstanding patient-centred care. You could be one of them.

We are committed to recruiting the best people to work with us to achieve our Vision - working in partnership to provide the best healthcare for our communities, leading and supporting our teams to move 4ward. Our 4ward behaviours, which we ask all staff to demonstrate, underpin our everyday work and remain firmly at the heart of all we do.

Our objectives are simple:

Best services for local people Best experience of care and best outcomes for our patients Best use of resources Best people

Better never stops, and our Clinical Services Strategy provides a clear future vision for our Trust, our hospitals, our services and our role in the wider health and care system.

We are proud to have achieved Timewise accreditation - this means we are committed to embedding flexible working within our organisation as a flex positive employer.

Job description

Job responsibilities

The Deputy DIPC, working within the wider Corporate Team, will have significant Trust wide responsibility and will be accountable for the strategic, operational and budgetary management of the Infection Prevention (Corporate) Team. The post holder is the lead nursing/midwifery advisor on infection prevention across the Trust.

The post holder will undertake a full portfolio of director responsibilities as agreed and delegated by the Executive Director (Chief Nursing Officer/ DIPC) and will be responsible and accountable for providing comprehensive and strong professional leadership, guidance advice, support and direction in relation to infection, prevention and control to the Nursing and Allied Health Professionals.

The post holder will have significant Trust wide responsibility with respect to developing, leading and directing the Trusts programme to reduce healthcare-associated infections as established in national trajectories and locally as established in the Quality Improvement Strategy (QIS).

The strong leadership, support and the development of the Infection Prevention Control Team in association with the Lead Infection Prevention Control Microbiologist/Infection Control clinicians is a central core function of this role as the DDIPC. The post holder will lead (on behalf of the DIPC/ CNO) effective health economy working and the joint interface with primary care and the public health agenda, driving improvement for joint improvement trajectories and monitoring the commissioning targets for Trust reports.

The DDIPC will support and drive nursing research opportunities and oversee the delivery of a robust IPC education programme for all Trust staff both clinical and non-clinical. Collaborating with the DIPC, Deputy Chief Nursing Officers, Divisional Directors of Nursing/Midwifery and Matrons, and the Divisional triumpherates, the DDIPC will provide strategic leadership and expertise to support the review of themes and trends from incidents, performance metrics, infection rates and RCA outputs, which will inform the teams service objectives, and research and education strategy.

The DDIPC will be the Trust wide lead for decontamination as required in the health and care act, liaising with facilities and estates leads to ensure safe systems, processes and governance are appropriately established and maintained. The post holder will also provide the professional lead regarding water safety and ventilation. The post holder will be expected to provide the strategic leadership across all of these areas ensuring on behalf of the DIPC/CNO that all statutory requirements are met and associated actions are delivered, working with Estates, Facility leads and Lead Microbiologists who are experts in their field on these agendas.

Responsibility for the strategic, operational and budgetary management of the infection prevention services across the Trust. Leads on and accountable for the governance and strategic leadership on infection prevention control across the three hospital sites to work collaboratively with operational and support teams to ensure the risk of infection to patients, staff and visitors is minimised whilst ensuring patient flow and capacity is kept at an optimal level.

The post holder will identify and share best practice and lead on internal peer review and where external benchmarking and horizon scanning highlights the requirement for innovation in working models, the post holder will have a key responsibility in reviewing and developing IPC practice. The Deputy DIPC will be professionally and managerially responsible and accountable to the Chief Nursing Officer. Links with the Corporate Management Team will be developed through the CNO to deliver the overall service objectives.

The DDIPC will work closely with the Divisional Leadership Teams to ensure there is collaborative working in relation to the Infection Prevention Control agenda. This role will ensure that clear support and accountability arrangements are in place to enable divisional objectives to be achieved which are robust and managed effectively.

The post holder will work in support of the DIPC to provide assurance to the Trust Board that best practice is embedded and embraced at all levels of the organisation and that this be reflected in performance against key IPC indicators, patient safety and patient experience.

In partnership with the DIPC and the Trusts Divisional and Executive Teams, the post older will drive the development of IPC Strategy, develop and ensure the engagement of all staff groups, and patients and external stakeholders when appropriate, to ensure the culture of the whole health economy is one that puts patient safety at the centre of clinical care .

The post holder will be part of the Director on call rota.

Further detail is provided in the full Job Description.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

Registered General Nurse First degree or equivalent professional, expert/specialist knowledge in infection prevention. Masters level qualification Evidence of Continuous Professional Development and attendance at relevant formal structured courses, either short or long term. Post Graduate Management development/qualification.

Skills

Essential

Significant clinical skills with the competency to use evidenced based practice in terms of managing safe clinical services. Able to think strategically and have ability to analyse and solve complex problems. Ability to translate and integrate evidence based research/ guidelines into the development of local pathways of care. Able to analyse complex data, diagnose problems, identify solutions and undertake benefits analysis. Advanced decision making skills. Comfortable with presenting sensitive and contentious information at Board level. Ability to undertake research to ensure evidence based service development. Ability to think plan and deliver strategically. Ability to analyse complex clinical issues/problems, identify necessary action and make recommendations and follow these through. Proven ability to work across organisational boundaries, develop networks and alliances, project a vision and obtain ownership and commitment from stakeholders. Ability to use motivational, negotiating and reassurance skills to overcome any barriers to understanding. Ability to demonstrate vision and direction. Highly developed verbal communication skills ie. Able to demonstrate effective engagement and provision of information of a highly technical, highly complex, highly sensitive nature in an understandable format to all stakeholders. Can demonstrate emotional leadership skills in complex situations and apply these appropriately. Highly developed written communication skills. Good organisational skills. Highly developed keyboard and computer skills, with working knowledge of databases, spreadsheets and presentation packages. Highly developed leadership/ influencing skills with the ability to enthuse, motivate and involve individuals and teams and have them understand the Trusts Board/team performance expectations.

Experience

Essential

In depth professional knowledge of nursing and staff management acquired through training and experience over extended period. 5 years extensive management experience in a strategic infection prevention nursing role with a track record of achievement. Extensive management/leadership in infection prevention nursing at Board or just below Board level. Extensive senior managerial experience with budgetary and management of staff and services. Considerable experience and highly developed clinical skills which are used in the day to day management of an acute trust. Demonstrate involvement with innovative practice developments and evidence of managing resources in a complex environment. Ability to think, plan and deliver strategically. Complaints management and experience of the litigation process. Extensive experience of effective partnership/multi agency/cross agency working in support of local and national strategy. Extensive experience of developing and implementing strategic, long term planning in infection prevention, and operational plans resulting in improved outcomes. Extensive experience of leading and successfully implementing service improvement/redesign programmes in a multi-disciplinary environment/ across a range of services. Developing and delivering governance systems including management and mitigation of risk. Extensive experience of effective patient/public/customer involvement. Extensive experience of implementing quality systems and benchmarking. Extensive experience of policy development and implementation across a range of services. Has significant experience and knowledge at a senior management level in a complex service organisation. Demonstrable experience of collaborative or facilitative approaches to effective partnership working with other public, private and voluntary sector organisations at a senior level. Proven track record and have demonstrable formal research expertise, knowledge and skills. Evidence of continued professional development-reviewing current practice and research developments within specialist area and application to clinical practice.

Desirable

Please see PS

Improving Diversity and Inclusive Recruitment

Essential

As part of the Trust's aim to improve diversity across the Trust, positive action is being taken and all applications for this post from BAME, Disabled and LGBT+ candidates can request to be considered under an expanded Guaranteed Interview Scheme if they meet the minimum criteria as specified in the person specification for this role. Please declare here if you wish to be considered under this expanded Guaranteed Interview Scheme and this response would be visible to the Shortlisting Panel.

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