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Consultant in Specialist Palliative Care – Community
NHS Medical & Dental: Consultant
Main area Medical and Dental Grade NHS Medical & Dental: Consultant Contract Permanent Hours Full time – 10 sessions per week Job ref 409-S8316726
Site MWL Trust – Community Town Prescot Salary £113,565 – £150,569 per annum Salary period Yearly Closing 14/11/2026 23:59 Interview date 04/12/2026
After applying via NHS Jobs, your submitted application will be imported into our preferred Third-party recruitment system. All subsequent information regarding your application will be generated from apps.trac.jobs. You will not be able to track the progress of your application or receive messages through the NHS Jobs website, and furthermore, as an employer, we will not be able to respond to any e-mails sent to us via the NHS Jobs website. By applying for this post you are agreeing to “name of trust” transferring the information contained in this application to its preferred applicant management system. If you are appointed to a post information will also be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system.
Job overview
This full-time substantive Consultant in Palliative Medicine post is an exciting opportunity to join the motivated and dynamic Community Specialist Palliative Care Team (CSPCT) in St Helens and Knowsley. The main aims of the post are to improve the consistency of consultant cover within the community, increase the capacity for medical domiciliary visits for complex patients, and work strategically with primary care and acute trust services to develop improved pathways of care and reduce avoidable hospital admissions.
The post holder will work within the wider specialist palliative care service (SPS) in St Helens and Knowsley with consultant colleagues working in the community, Whiston Hospital and Willowbrook Hospice.
Applicants are required to hold Membership of the Royal College of Physicians (UK or equivalent qualifications), to be fully registered with the General Medical Council, and to be on the Specialist Register or due to obtain their CCT within six months of the date of interview.
Main duties of the job
The post is full time (10 PA) with 7.5 DCC (including 1.5 PAs for clinical admin) and 2.5 SPA subject to agreement as below. 1 PA = 4 hours.
WORKING WEEK
LOCATION
TYPE OF WORK
MONDAY
AM
Admissions meeting
Community Clinical Meeting
Domiciliary visits and advice
1.0 DCC
PM
Domiciliary visits and advice
Non-core SPA – primary care and acute trust liaison and education
0.5 DCC
0.5 SPA
TUESDAY
AM
Admissions meeting
Domiciliary visits and advice
1.0 DCC
PM
Outpatient clinic (including 0.25 clinical admin time)
1.0 DCC
WEDNESDAY
AM
Admissions meeting
Clinical advice
Cross boundary MDT meeting and clinical admin
0.5 DCC
0.5 DCC
PM
Core SPA including appraisal and revalidation, CPD, mandatory training, clinical governance activities
1.0 SPA
THURSDAY
AM
Core SPA including appraisal and revalidation, CPD, mandatory training, clinical governance activities
0.5 SPA
0.5 SPA
PM
Domiciliary visits and advice
Clinical admin
0.75 DCC
0.25 DCC
FRIDAY
AM
Admissions meeting
Community Clinical Meeting
Domiciliary visits and advice
1.0 DCC
PM
Domiciliary visits and advice
Clinical Admin.
0.5 DCC
0.5 DCC
Working for our organisation
Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves a population of over 600,000 with a workforce of over 10,500 dedicated and skilled staff across 21 sites.
Our services:
Acute Care
Providing emergency and maternity services at Whiston, Southport and Ormskirk hospitals, and medical and surgical specialties across all our sites.
Primary Care
Providing primary care services at Marshalls Cross Medical Centre situated in St Helens Hospital.
Community Services
Providing adult community services for St Helens and a wheelchair service in Chorley, South Ribble, and West Lancashire. Our inpatient unit at Newton Community Hospital is where patients needing acute hospital beds can continue rehabilitation. We also provide urgent care at our Urgent Treatment Centre located in St Helens town centre.
Specialist Regional Services
We provide the Mersey Regional Burns & Plastic Surgery Unit at Whiston Hospital and the Spinal Injuries Unit at Southport Hospital to more than 4 million people across the whole of Merseyside, West Lancashire, Cheshire, Isle of Man and North Wales.
Achievements:
- Rated Outstanding by CQC Inspection August 2018
- Top 100 places to work in the NHS (NHS Employers & Health Service Journal)
- National Preceptorship Accreditation (2023) for Nursing & AHP Preceptorship Programme.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Core SPA time for full-time consultants is 1.5 PAs per week for professional activity to support revalidation, personal appraisal, personal job planning, mandatory training, and participation at consultant and governance meetings.
Non-core SPA time is objective based and is offered after the purpose and content is agreed between the consultant and the clinical director. It should align with Trust objectives and have evidence of output.
SPA activity must be relevant to the Trust and individual’s needs, and must be agreed at the job planning session in line with the Medical Workforce (Non-Training) Job Planning Policy.
It is a requirement of the post that holders comply with Trust policies and procedures, have (and maintain) GMC registration / licensing and participate in a formal CPD programme (The Trust supports the requirements for Continuing Medical Education as laid down by the Royal College of Physicians and are committed to providing time and financial support for these activities). The post-holders must also participate in regular medical audit and in annual appraisal and job planning with the Clinical Director or one of the other qualified appraisers within the Trust. The Trust supports doctors going through the revalidation process and access to the RCP online CPD scheme. The Trust has a policy to support access to mentorship.
On-Call
The job plan includes a 1:8 non-resident senior on call responsibility (weekday and weekend) which attracts an 5% availability supplement. This provides primarily telephone support to specialty grade doctors for the Hospice in-patient unit, and the Community and Hospital Services via the 24-Hour Advice Line. Should the post holder be required to attend any site they will be compensated with time off in lieu.
Please find attached detailed job description and person specification for main responsibilities and requirements.
Person specification
Our Values
- We are Kind
- We are Open
- We are Inclusive
Qualifications
- Full GMC registration and on Specialist Register or within six months of receipt of Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT) at time of interview
- Applicants that are UK trained, must ALSO be a holder of a Certificate of Completion of Training (CCT), or be within six months of award of CCT by date of interview. Applicants that are non-UK trained, will be required to provide evidence of equivalence to the UK CCT on successful application
- MBBS or equivalent medical qualification
- MRCP or equivalent medical qualification
- MD/PHD or equivalent medical qualification
Knowledge and Experience
- Experience of the practice of specialist palliative care at a senior level and leadership of the multidisciplinary team
- Knowledge of clinical governance
- Able to lead Clinical Audit
- Experience of teaching/educational supervision
- Proven leadership skills, including experience in managing change and motivating teams
- Understanding of NHS structure and function
- Understanding of the regulations that relate to and the requirements of CQC.
- Research experience
- Experience of NHS finance and commissioning
- Experience of clinical networks acting as a representative of an organisation
- Engagement with management training/management course or qualification
Skills
- Advanced Communication Skills
- Ability to drive service improvement
- Strategic thinker
- Excellent IT skills and knowledge of electronic patient record systems.
- Commitment to continuous personal development
- Ability to plan and prioritise own workload
- Commitment to Partnership working
Other
- Current Driving licence/use of car for work purposes
- Full indemnity cover
Thank you for considering an application to work for Mersey West Lancashire NHS Trust. MWL is an exciting and forward-thinking NHS Trust who are one of the best places to work for in England.
Given sometimes we receive a high volume of applications to work for us, please be aware, that we may close a vacancy earlier than stated should a sufficient number of applications be received from which a shortlist can be confirmed. Therefore, you are advised to apply at your earliest convenience.
The Trust may contact you during the recruitment process for your feedback on your experience. We always aim for continuous improvement in our practice.
Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion
We actively cultivate a professional environment of fairness, equality, dignity, and respect for all individuals. We welcome individuals from all backgrounds and value the unique skills, perspective and experience you bring. We are grounded in the belief that diversity enhances our collective strength, fostering innovation and excellence within our workforce. We welcome all applications irrespective of people’s race, disability, gender, sexual orientation, religion/belief, age, gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy/maternity and in particular those from under- represented groups.
As a Disability Confident Leader, we commit to offering an interview to all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the job (the essential criteria) listed in the personal specification. If you wish to apply under this Guaranteed Interview Scheme, please indicate this on the online application form.
If you are having difficulty completing an online application, or require any disability reasonable adjustments, to the application process, please contact Recruitment@merseywestlancs.nhs.uk
We also commit to offering an interview to all armed forces veterans who meet the minimum criteria for the job (the essential criteria) listed in the personal specification. If you wish to apply under this Guaranteed Interview Scheme, please indicate this on the online application form.
The Trust operates anonymous shortlisting where no personal information about you, including your name or personal details are shared with the recruiting manager. No equality information is shared at any time during the recruitment process with the recruiting manager or other people involved in the decision-making process.
The equality monitoring information you provide is used in the following situations: to review our recruitment practices; where a job is limited to a specific person to verify their eligibility to apply; and to offer disability reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process.Certificate of Sponsorship
Following the recent update on UK immigration policy for those on a Health and Care Visa or Skilled Worker Visa, please click here to check your eligibility before applying for this post as we may be unable to provide sponsorship.
eVisa UpdateFor successful candidates on selected work and study visa routes, who have completed and paid for their applications will no longer receive a visa vignette in passport as evidence of their permission to enter the UK.Instead, you will be issued with an eVisa only, which is accessed by creating a UKVI account.Before travelling to the UK, we advise applicants to:
- Understand how to generate an eVisa share code
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
If this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Please note if applicable, applicants will be required to pay for their DBS check. Costs are deducted from salary following appointment.
If you have not already done so, you are therefore encouraged to enrol for the DBS Update Service to which a small annual fee of £13 per year applies.
Flexible Working
We actively support flexible working patterns throughout MWL. Changes made to the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook mean that:
- All employees have the right to request flexible working from day one of employment.
- There is no limit on the number of requests they can make.
- Employees have the right to make requests, have them considered, regardless of the reason.
At Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, we will consider requests for flexible working. We would also encourage you to also discuss flexible working options at interview stage.
Working for Team MWL
Staff recognition is especially important to us; as well as performance reviews and appraisals, we recognise staff through Employee of the month. Along with supporting you to achieve your career goals we offer a generous pension scheme, unsocial hours payments (where applicable), 27 days annual leave on commencement (pro rata) and access to a range of NHS discounts. Our Staff Health and Wellbeing programme offer a variety of services.
The Trust is a non-smoking across all our sites. Failure to follow this rule could lead to disciplinary action. For more information, see the Smoke Free NHS website.
You will be expected to undertake the Trusts’ commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults.
You must ensure that your application, including personal statements and behaviour examples, are truthful and factually accurate. Please note plagiarism can include presenting the ideas and experience of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own.
The Trust will not accept applications which are found to be AI generated and will check all applications against AI detection software.
Additional Information
Before applying, we encourage you to review the Trusts Values and Behaviours which are We are KIND, We are OPEN, We are INCLUSIVE, which can be found here .
An applicant guide to help and support you with your application and what to expect during your recruitment journey can be accessed in the supporting documents.
Good luck with your application. We hope to welcome you to Team MWL very soon.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
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.
Name Dr Penny Shepherd Job title Consultant in Community Palliative Medicine Email address pennys@willowbrookhospice.org.uk Telephone number 0151 430 8736
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