Lead Prison Pharmacist - BSGW Region

Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust; Bishopston; On-site; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust is recruiting a Lead Prison Pharmacist to oversee pharmacy services across the Bristol prison cluster, ensuring high standards of medicines governance and safe, effective care. You will provide professional leadership to pharmacy staff, manage formulary development, and act as Responsible Person for the Wholesale Dealer’s Licence.

The role requires extensive experience in prison or hospital pharmacy, postgraduate MH/Prison health qualifications, and a strong

Qualifications

• Masters Degree in Pharmacy and GPhC registration.
• Experience managing, planning and developing pharmacy services within prisons or hospitals.
• Experience writing a formulary and leading Medicines Management.

Responsibilities

• Lead and supervise the pharmacy service across Bristol prison cluster.
• Ensure medicines governance and regulatory compliance.
• Provide professional, clinical and managerial leadership to pharmacy staff.
• Oversee Controlled Drugs and formulary management.
• Procure medicines per NHS contracts and maintain stock.
• Sign off SOPs and provide staff training and supervision.
• Report on medicines use and costs to finance and commissioners.
• Support staff development and staff adjustments as needed.

Skills

Strategic overview

Supervise staff

Pharmacy leadership

Mental health medicines knowledge

Education

Master's Degree in Pharmacy

GPhC registration

Diploma in Clinical Pharmacy or related MH/Prison Health

CPD evidence

Job description

Are you ready tounlock your potential within a challenging, creative and fast paced work environment? Do you want to work with people to build positive and productive lives, whatever their past?

This is an excellent opportunity for a Registered Pharmacist to join our team of diverse, talented healthcare professionals to deliver care that is not only efficient but deeply centred on the patient.

Our healthcare team have a real impact on promoting health and well-being to those in prison and we pride ourselves on using skills and strategies that instil hope for patient’s future resettlement back into the community. We directly deliver Mental Health, Physical Health, Pharmacy and Clinical Substance Misuse in an integrated healthcare delivery model to provide effective and responsive care to improve wellbeing and support better outcomes in the future.

This position isn't just a job; it's a chance to blend your clinical knowledge, personal skills and a commitment to delivering the highest standards of care in an environment that is as rewarding as it is challenging.

**Important Sponsorship Information for this post: We are currently unable to offer a certificate of sponsorship for this post.**

Main duties of the job

The Lead Prison Pharmacist will be responsible for the development, management and delivery of safe, effective and high-quality pharmacy services across the Bristol prison cluster. The post holder will provide professional leadership to pharmacy teams, ensure compliance with medicines legislation and governance requirements, and act as a Responsible Person for the Wholesale Dealer’s Licence.

• Lead and manage pharmacy services across HMP Bristol, HMP Ashfield, HMP Erlestoke and HMP Leyhill.
• Ensure safe, legal and effective medicines management across the prison cluster.
• Provide professional, clinical and managerial leadership to pharmacy staff.
• Oversee medicines governance, including controlled drugs, formulary management, incident reporting and risk reduction.
• Ensure services meet statutory, professional, Trust and contractual requirements.
• Support staff development, training, supervision and performance management.
• Work closely with healthcare, prison, commissioner and external partners to improve service quality.
• Act as Responsible Person for the Wholesale Dealer’s Licence, ensuring compliance with Good Distribution Practice.

Working for our organisation

Oxleas offers a wide range of NHS healthcare services to people in community and secure environment settings. Our services include community health care such as district nursing and speech and language therapy, care for people with learning disabilities and mental health care such as psychiatry, nursing and therapies. Our multidisciplinary teams look after people of all ages and we work in close partnership with other parts of the NHS, local councils and the voluntary sector and through our new provider collaboratives. Our 4,300 members of staff work in many different settings including hospitals, clinics, prisons, secure hospitals, children’s centres, schools and people’s homes.
We have over 125 sites in a variety of locations in the South of England. In London we operate within the Boroughs of Bexley, Bromley Greenwich and into Kent. We manage hospital sites including Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup and Memorial Hospital, Woolwich, as well as the Bracton Centre, our medium secure unit for people with mental health needs. We are the largest NHS provider of prison health services providing healthcare to prisons within Devon, Dorset, Bristol, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, Kent and South London. We are proud of the care we provide and our people.

Our purpose is to improve lives by providing the best possible care to our patients and their families. This is strengthened by our new values:

• We Listen
• We Care

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Key tasks and responsibilities

1. To manage and supervise the Pharmacy service and ensure that it is compliant with statutory controls, professional requirements, and local/national policies and guidance on medicines.

2. To be responsible for ensuring the safety and quality of the pharmacy service provided to Bristol cluster of Prisons.

3. To ensure the service meets the high standards of quality as defined by the service specification and if services are noted to fall short of these requirements, to take the necessary actions to improve services to meet these requirements.

4. To lead on Medicines Management within the Bristol Prison cluster, including the development and implementation of a formulary, and to report into the Trust Medicines Management committee via the OPS Chief Pharmacist, to ensure consistency across all services provided by Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust.

5. To ensure that robust systems are in place for managing prescribed medicines that have the potential to be abused, such as Controlled Drugs.

6. To be responsible for the procurement of medicines against agreed NHS PASA contracts and to ensure appropriate stockholding for the department.

7. To ensure all medicines are procured according to Trust standing financial instructions and standing orders and in accordance with relevant medicines legislation, public procurement law, national guidance and local Standing Operating Procedures (SOPs).

8. To provide managerial support and advice, and professional, legal and clinical supervision of the prison pharmacy staff as required.

9. To ensure timely reports on the use and cost of medicines are provided to the finance department, the Chief Pharmacist, and the Commissioners as required.

10. To ensure health care professionals and offenders are provided with clinically sound, evaluated medicines information. This will include signposting to appropriate services as required.

11. To support staff in their personal development and to ensure all staff are suitably qualified for the tasks they undertake.

12. To undertake any other relevant duties, as may be required by the Chief Pharmacist

Wholesale Dealers License – Duties of the Responsible Person (RP)

1. To be a RP for the purposes of the WDL and ensure GDP compliance in the pharmacy store. Responsibilities include:-

a. Ensuring that a quality management system is implemented and maintained.

b. Focusing on the management of authorised activities and accuracy and quality of records.

c. Ensuring that initial and continuous training programs are implemented and maintained.

d. Co-ordinating and promptly performing any recall operations for medicinal products.

e. Ensuring that relevant customer complaints are dealt with effectively.

f. Ensuring suppliers and customers are approved.

g. Ensuring that self-inspections are performed at appropriate regular intervals following a pre-arranged programme and that necessary corrective measures are put in place.

h. Keeping appropriate records of any delegated duties (duties, but not responsibilities, can be delegated).

i. Deciding on the final disposition of returned, rejected, recalled or falsified products.

j. Approving any returns to saleable stock.

k. Ensuring that any additional requirements imposed on certain products by national law are adhered to.

2. To be continuously contactable during working hours.

3. To sign off all standing operating procedures.

Person specification

Education/Qualifications

• Masters Degree in Pharmacy or equivalent
• Registered with the GPhC
• Diploma in Clinical Pharmacy or postgraduate qualification in Mental Health/Prison Health Services
• Evidence of CPD

Experience

• Experience of managing, planning and developing pharmacy services
• At least 5 years experience post registration of providing clinical services within prisons or hospitals
• Experience of providing clinical services to mental health or substance misuse patients
• Experience of writing a formulary

Skills/Knowledge

• Ability to take a strategic overview of a service
• Ability to supervise and train others clinically
• Specialist knowledge of mental health medicines and treatment of substance misuse

We are committed to creating an inclusive workplace that welcomes and supports individuals of all abilities. Remember, if you meet the minimum criteria for this role and you have a disability, you can be guaranteed an interview under the Disability Confident Scheme - Please ensure you select this on your application form. We would encourage you to be open about your needs so we can work with you to design a comfortable and accessible interview experience. Any information you provide regarding a disability or a need for adjustments will be treated in confidence and will only be shared with colleagues who are supporting this request.

If you require any adjustments to participate fully in the interview process, please let us know by adding the relevant details when scheduling your preferred interview date and time. Please feel free to contact the appointing manager to discuss your needs.

We encourage applicants to contact the hiring manager before their interview, if they have any questions about the role or the process. This is a great way to get clarity and prepare effectively for the interview.

If you have declared you are part of the armed forces community, you may be asked to provide evidence during the recruitment process. If you misrepresent this information, your offer may be withdrawn. For Armed Forces specific support, see our webpage: https://oxleas.nhs.uk/armed-forces-community/

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

If you choose to use AI or other tools to assist in writing your application, it's essential to personalise this information, particularly your supporting information section. While AI can help streamline the writing process, these tools cannot fully grasp the context or requirements of the job you’re applying for. There is also a risk that it can generate false or misleading information. AI-generated job applications can often be generic, impersonal and may not accurately reflect your qualifications, knowledge, skills, and experiences. It is crucial that you personalise your supporting statement by articulating these in your unique voice. Relying solely on AI to write your application or supporting information section is not advocated by Oxleas NHS Foundation Trust and could negatively impact your chances of success in the application process.

We monitor applications for any behaviour that could create an unfair advantage, and we check all references carefully. You are likely to be tested on your experience at interview, so be honest and make sure all the information in your application is correct.Please note that the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is prohibited during the interview process.

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.