Home First Lead Practitioner

Nhs Lothian; Livingston; On-site; GBP 53,000 - 61,000; Full time

Job summary

NHS Lothian is recruiting a Lead Practitioner for the Intermediate Care team at St John's Hospital. The post holder will provide inspirational leadership, supporting a caring and skilled nursing family focused on Home First discharge planning and patient care.

The role requires expertise in admission avoidance, discharge planning, and collaboration with clinicians, patients, and families to ensure high-quality care at the interface of primary and secondary services.

Qualifications

• PVG Scheme membership/record required.

Responsibilities

• Manage the operational daily tracker of the patient cohort and oversee discharge planning.
• Provide expert assessment of care needs and lead discharge planning discussions with multidisciplinary teams.
• Promote the Home First approach in discharge planning and collaborate with health and social care partners to deliver seamless care.

Job description

Job reference: 263139
Salary: Band 7 (£52,845 - £61,466)
Job closing date: 02/11/2026
Job Type: Nursing and Midwifery
Location: St John's Hospital
Employment type: Permanent
Hours Per Week: 36
Employer (NHS Board): NHS Lothian
Department: Intermediate Care

Job Purpose

• Responsible for operational management of the daily tracker patient cohort and collaborative working that will influence service developments and innovation. This will require maintaining robust oversight of all West Lothian HSCP patients requiring formal support to facilitate discharge from the acute hospital site.
• To provide expert knowledge in relation to admission avoidance and discharge of patients as part of a multi-disciplinary/multi agency team and have responsibility for expert assessment of care needs and the development, implementation, and evaluation of care ensuring the delivery of high-quality admission assessment/discharge planning of all patients and their carers, particularly those with highly complex needs. The postholder will coordinate and lead discharge planning discussion considering the views of clinicians, patients and families.
• To promote the Home First concept of discharge planning and facilitate the prevention of admission and early supported discharge of people in West Lothian, in line with local and national objectives and the strategic aims of the HSCP working alongside acute and community partners across health and social policy services to deliver comprehensive and seamless models of care at the interface of primary and secondary care.

About the Role

We are recruiting to the post of Lead Practitioner. NHS Lothian is excited to be recruiting to a Home First Lead Practitioner at St Johns Hospital. We are looking for an inspirational leader who is caring, compassionate and motivated to join our strong, empowered and highly skilled nursing family.

Recruitment process

We use a values and competency-based recruitment process that is linked to the ambitions set out in our Strategic Plan. Within NHS Lothian, Nursing and Midwifery interviews are linked to our Nursing and Midwifery Strategic Plan. We aim to offer an equitable experience and are sharing interview questions in advance. A selection of the interview questions can be found on our Careers site:

NHS Scotland is committed to encouraging equality and diversity among our workforce and eliminating unlawful discrimination. The aim is for our workforce to be truly representative and for each employee to feel respected and able to give their best. To this end, NHS Scotland welcomes applications from all sections of society. To work in the United Kingdom, there is a legal requirement for an individual to demonstrate that they have the relevant permission to work in the country. This permission is, without exception, granted by the UK Visa and Immigrations Service.

We will fully support disabled candidates, and candidates with long-term conditions or who are neurodivergent by making reasonable adjustments to our recruitment policy and practices. This post requires the post holder to have a PVG Scheme membership/record. Please note: we anticipate a high level of interest in this position and may close the vacancy early once a sufficient amount of applications are received.