Lead Pharmacy Technician

HCRG Care Group; Chelmsford; Hybrid; GBP 36,000 - 49,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Group Pension

Weekend salary enhancement

Discounts via My Reward Hub

Earned wage access

Wellbeing support

Learning and development

Innovation funding

Job summary

HCRG Care Group in Chelmsford is seeking a Pharmacy Team Leader to lead the pharmacy service at HMP Chelmsford. You will supervise a team delivering high-quality care and medication treatment to patients within the prison setting, including Wings/House blocks, and you will coordinate with staff at all levels and external stakeholders.

The ideal candidate will hold ACT and be a registered pharmacy technician with strong leadership and autonomous practice capabilities.

Qualifications

• Qualified ACT (Accuracy Checking Technician)
• Registered pharmacy technician
• Excellent medication knowledge
• Experience in a Prison environment highly desirable
• Experience in a similar role
• Excellent communication and inter-personal skills
• Ability to build and develop relationships
• Confident and capable of autonomous practice

Responsibilities

• Lead, supervise and develop the pharmacy team, including appraisals, performance management, training, induction, and probation support.
• Manage staffing rotas and ensure the team has the skills and competencies required to deliver a safe and effective pharmacy service.
• Provide clinical leadership, assessing patients, supporting medication administration, maintaining accurate records, and referring patients where appropriate.
• Monitor team performance, conduct, and documentation to ensure compliance with professional, clinical, and organisational standards.
• Lead pharmacy meetings and safety huddles, and contribute to multidisciplinary forums such as Medicines Management, Clinical Governance, and Drug Strategy meetings.
• Support audits, quality improvement initiatives, and service development to enhance patient outcomes and operational performance.
• Work collaboratively with the Lead Pharmacist, Pharmacy Manager, and wider healthcare teams to ensure safe medicines management across the prison.
• Provide operational support as required, including wing-based healthcare duties, report writing, and attendance at legal proceedings where necessary.
• Promote a positive, professional culture, challenging inappropriate behaviours and demonstrating effective leadership, problem‑solving, and decision‑making skills.

Skills

Leadership

Communication

Relationship building

Autonomous practice

Education

ACT (Accuracy Checking Technician)

Registered pharmacy technician

Job description

As a Pharmacy Team Leader you will be part of our valued team in our Pharmacy Service, HMP Chelmsford.

Benefits

• Salary of £42,324.00 depending on experience
• Group Pension
• A competitive salary enhancement for working pattern will vary each week and will include weekend coverage
• Membership of My Reward Hub, giving you access to discounts on every day purchases like grocery shopping as well as cashback and voucher offers for treats for you and those special to you
• Access to your wages as you earn them to help cover life’s emergencies and avoid overdraft fees or high interest rates
• Online and face to face help with your mental and physical wellbeing - from healthy recipes and activity challenges through to post trauma support, legal, debt and life management help, as well career coaching and counselling Access to eLearning, bespoke career pathways and opportunities for continuing professional development through our 'Outstanding' learning and development team, The Learning Enterprise
• An open, just culture where you’re encouraged to have and implement ideas which can help us deliver our purpose: changing lives through transforming health and care - backed up by at least £100,000 of ringfenced innovation funding each year
• The pride of working for an organisation committed to the highest clinical and quality standards: with the majority of our rated services holding "good" or "outstanding" ratings from the Care Quality Commission

Working as a Pharmacy Team Leader you will provide high quality care and medication treatment to patients with clinical indications in a prison setting. This role works as part of a team delivering care to patients both within the Healthcare Centres and on the Wings / House blocks within the prison environment as well as establishing and maintaining relationships with staff at all levels, customers and other key stakeholders. Candidate must to be flexible to cover shifts including weekends as and when needed and step up to provide support to the team.

The Pharmacy Team Leader will support in the development of the healthcare service and the healthcare staff. The role will involve integrated working with all areas within the Prison and other services.

Main Responsibilities

• Lead, supervise and develop the pharmacy team, including appraisals, performance management, training, induction, and probation support.
• Manage staffing rotas and ensure the team has the skills and competencies required to deliver a safe and effective pharmacy service.
• Provide clinical leadership, assessing patients, supporting medication administration, maintaining accurate records, and referring patients where appropriate.
• Monitor team performance, conduct, and documentation to ensure compliance with professional, clinical, and organisational standards.
• Lead pharmacy meetings and safety huddles, and contribute to multidisciplinary forums such as Medicines Management, Clinical Governance, and Drug Strategy meetings.
• Support audits, quality improvement initiatives, and service development to enhance patient outcomes and operational performance.
• Work collaboratively with the Lead Pharmacist, Pharmacy Manager, and wider healthcare teams to ensure safe medicines management across the prison.
• Provide operational support as required, including wing-based healthcare duties, report writing, and attendance at legal proceedings where necessary.
• Promote a positive, professional culture, challenging inappropriate behaviours and demonstrating effective leadership, problem‑solving, and decision‑making skills.
• Undertake any other duties appropriate to the role in line with service requirements.

Please note: This list is not exhaustive and may be amended to meet the changing needs of the service. A full list of responsibilities can be found in the attached job description.

The Ideal Candidate will

• Qualified ACT (Accuracy Checking Technician)
• Excellent communication and inter-personal skills
• Ability to build and develop relationships
• Strong leadership and management skills or working towards these with support and guidance
• Strong customer service skills
• Must be confident and capable of autonomous practice
• Experience/Qualifications/knowledge: Registered pharmacy technician
• Experience in a similar role
• Experience in a Prison environment highly desirable
• Excellent medication knowledge
• Experience of working as part of a multi-disciplinary team

About the Company

We change lives by transforming health and care. Established in 2006, we are one of the UK's leading independent providers of community health and care services, working with health and care commissioners and communities to transform services with a focus on experience, efficiency, and improved outcomes. We deliver and transform adult and children community health services, primary care services including urgent care, sexual health, dermatology and MSK services as well as adult social care and wellbeing services. Across England, we support communities of many millions and directly help more than half a million people each year - guided by our simple values: we care, we think, we do.

We’re committed to equal opportunities and welcome applications from a broad, diverse range of people who want to join our team.

We’re a Disability Confident Committed company, so we work to provide facilities, work environment adjustments and technical solutions to be as inclusive of everyone.

As you’d expect, safeguarding and protecting the children, young people and vulnerable adults that we work with is of the utmost importance so we have policies and procedures in place to promote safeguarding and safer working practices and everyone who joins the team is subject to a safer recruitment process, including the disclosure of criminal records and vetting checks.

Finally, we need to let you know that the company you’ll work for is part of HCRG Care Group Holdings Limited and by applying for this job we’ll need to process and hold information about you. If you would like to know a little more about how we use your information, please see our website's privacy policy.

If you would like more information please contact:

Recruitment Advisor: Louise Ledward on 07884 659608 or [e-mail]

Hiring manager: Jignesh Chavda [e-mail]