Senior Assistant Technical Officer

Transformation Unit; Liverpool; Hybrid; GBP 26,000 - 27,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible working options

Job summary

Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (LUHFT) is recruiting a Rotational Senior Pharmacy Assistant (Band 3) to provide patient‑centred pharmacy services across multiple sites. The role requires NVQ Level 2 in pharmacy services or equivalent, strong leadership and training abilities, and a flexible approach to weekend and bank holiday work.

Salary reflects Band 3 NHS scales and is paid pro rata.

Qualifications

• NVQ Level 2 in pharmacy services or equivalent is required.
• Experience in a hospital pharmacy environment is advantageous.
• Ability to lead and train other staff within a rotating, patient‑facing service.

Responsibilities

• Dispense and issue medicines following department policies and safety procedures.
• Supervise pharmacy assistants and coordinate workload across dispensaries and stores.
• Participate in weekend, evening and bank holiday rotas as required.
• Train and support staff to maintain quality standards and comply with regulations.

Skills

Communication skills

IT literacy

Teamwork

Leadership

Training others

Priority setting

Supervision

Education

NVQ Level 2 Pharmacy Services or Pharmacy equivalent

Tools

Pharmacy computer systems

Job description

Main area Senior Pharmacy Assistant - Rotational Grade Band 3 Contract Permanent Hours

• Full time
• Part time

37.5 hours per week (Core working hours 08.45 - 17.00 Monday - Friday (late shifts and weekends on a rota basis)) Job ref 287-DTC-136-26

Employer Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site Aintree University Hospital Town Liverpool Salary £25,760 - £27,476 per annum, pro rata Salary period Yearly Closing 29/10/2026 23:59

Senior Assistant Technical Officer

Band 3

Job overview

Are you an experienced pharmacy assistant who has completed NVQ level 2 in pharmacy services or equivalent?

At LUFHT may have the perfect opportunity for you.

We are looking for a Rotational Senior Pharmacy Assistant who can act as a great role model, provide excellent training and demonstrate our trust values.

You must be able to show great leadership qualities, a broad experience of working in a pharmacy and knowledge and understanding of working in a hospital.

We want to recruit a Senior Pharmacy Assistant who is enthusiastic, motivated who will work to our professional standards to provide an efficient and patient focused service.

All levels of experience within a Pharmacy Assistant role will be considered and salary will be dependent.

You may be required to rotate across all sites of LUHFT.

Main duties of the job

In the role as a Senior Pharmacy Assistant you must have excellent communication skills, attention to detail and be flexible as you will you will work within our dispensaries and stores alongside pharmacy teams including, pharmacy assistants, pharmacy technicians and pharmacists.

You will be required to supervise work of pharmacy assistants ensuring work is prioritised appropriately and play a key role in training and development of staff to maintain a quality and standards of work.

You will be required to participate in evening, weekend, and Bank Holiday working in keeping with the Pharmacy Directorate arrangements and the needs of the Trust.

Working for our organisation

Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust comprises Aintree University Hospital, Broadgreen Hospital & Royal Liverpool University Hospital.

We are part of NHS University Hospitals of Liverpool Group, formed on 1 Nov 2024 from the coming together of LUHFT and Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust. The Group was born from a shared aim to improve the care we provide our patients.

UHLG is one of the largest employers in the region, with over 16,800 colleagues dedicated to caring for our communities - from birth and beyond.

For the 630,000 people across Merseyside, we are their local NHS. We provide general and emergency hospital care, alongside highly specialised regional services for more than two million people in the North West.

Aintree University Hospital is the single receiving site for adult major trauma patients in Cheshire and Merseyside and hosts a number of regional services including an award-winning stroke facility. Broadgreen Hospital is home to elective surgical, diagnostic and treatment services, together with specialist patient rehabilitation. Liverpool Women’s Hospital specialises in the health of women and babies, delivering over 7,200 babies in the UK’s largest single site maternity hospital each year. The Royal Liverpool University Hospital is the largest hospital in the country to provide inpatients with 100% single bedrooms and focuses on complex planned care and specialist services.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Key Responsibilities

1. Dispense and issue medicines from the Pharmacy Department including extemporaneously prepared products, controlled drugs, unlicensed medicines and clinical trials, in accordance with the policies, procedures and safe systems of work, which prevail in the department at the time.
2. Order and supply pharmaceuticals as part of the ward stock top-up service.
3. Load medicines received into the automated dispensing machine.
4. Take lead responsibility for reception duties and direct workload and queries in the most appropriate staff members within the department and elevate if required.
5. Input data into the Pharmacy computer system to ensure all appropriate records are made and kept up to date.
6. Receive medicines into the Pharmacy Department and ensure that documentation and computer entry is carried out in a timely and accurate manner.
7. Investigate and resolve delivery discrepancies, liaising with invoicing staff, and suppliers, making appropriate records of all investigations and outcomes keeping line manager fully briefed about key operational matters.
8. Ensure that all pharmaceutical preparations are stored appropriately.
9. Rotate stock at the point of goods receipt.
10. Deal with more complicated enquiries referring to line manager if they are not commensurate with role.
11. Ensure that all unused medicines (if appropriate) returned to the pharmacy are recycled in accordance with the safe systems of work and always participate in the safe disposal of medicines in accordance with departmental procedures.
12. Manually handle IV fluids, bulk feed deliveries and manoeuvre cages and tote boxes for delivery towards/departments, outside clinics
13. Deliver medicines to ward and departments as required.
14. Deal with frequent interruptions eg telephone enquiries from internal and external customers.
15. Fix the robot when basic errors occur.
16. Participate in daily stock count.
17. Issue medicines which are on “To-Follows” list.
18. Participate in development and project work in line with the objectives of the Trust and Pharmacy Directorate
19. Check picked stock items to ensure accuracy of medicines supplies on top up.
20. Train, supervise and assess support workers.
21. Deliver robot error training for pharmacy assistants and other staff who are new to the department in line with standard training plan.
22. Deliver training to pharmacy assistants and other staff as they rotate through areas of practice .
23. Deal with ad hoc stock requests as they arise (by telephone or portal) from wards/departments and outside clinics. These may be urgent and will need to be prioritised appropriately.
24. Supply emergency orders
25. Support pharmacy assistants with NVQ level 2 training where appropriate.
26. Prioritise work so that services meet their objectives.
27. Together with other members of staff to ensure that procedures are carried out in accordance with current legislation and regulations in respect of the Health and Safety at Work Act, COSHH and that other pertinent recommendations and standards are complied with.
28. Participate and co-operate in weekend, Bank Holiday, Statutory Holiday, early morning and evening services as per departmental arrangements.
29. Undertake other reasonable duties commensurate with this role as required. This may be subject to change to meet the needs of our patients.
30. Work across site where required.
31. The post holder will be expected to adapt to changes that may occur, which may affect the current practices within the Pharmacy Department, such as the introduction of new equipment, procedures, policies, and hours of working

Person specification

Skills

• Clear and accurate written communication skills
• Clear and accurate verbal communication skills
• Ability to use different IT applications
• Ability to work in a busy environment to meet deadlines whilst paying attention to detail
• Ability to work alone or part of a team
• Methodical with attention to detail
• Ability to adapt to change
• Ability to show initiative and work efficiently
• Able to supervise and prioritise tasks for others and prioritise team workflow
• Ability to set routines and implement new working procedures
• Ability to train others
• Ability to respond to non-routine queries and elevate when outside limitations

Other

• Enthusiasm for the position
• Can use own initiative and shows attention to detail
• Interest in pharmacy service provision
• Proactive
• Friendly, empathetic and reliable team worker able to relate to all grades of staff
• Willingness to learn
• Commitment to work
• Reliable and flexible to the needs of the service
• Self-motivated and ability to motivate others
• Ability to work as per departmental weekend, evening and bank holiday rotas

Knowledge

• Knowledge of procedures for own pharmacy area – on the job training, experience to NVQ3 or equivalent level
• Knowledge of stock control systems and storage of medication
• Numerate – able to carry out simple calculations
• Knowledge of hospital pharmacy supply and discharge planning
• Able to relate to all grades of staff within a multidisciplinary team

Experience

• Demonstrable experience working in a pharmacy environment
• Experience of working in a team
• Experience of dispensing prescriptions OR the preparation of aseptic products

Qualifications

• NVQ Level 2 Pharmacy Services or Pharmacy equivalent

Note: Under current Home Office Immigration Rules we are currently unable to offer right to work visa sponsorship for Band 2 and 3 roles with a salary of less than £25,000 pa as they do not meet the UK Visas & Immigration criteria.

The Trust is committed to promoting a healthy work-life balance and achieve fair, equitable and consistent practice. We welcome flexible working requests and will consider a variety of flexible working arrangements from day one of your employment. Not all roles are suitable for every flexible working opportunity all of the time. Flexible working options may include reduced hours, compressed hours, fixed shifts, time back in lieu and home working.

The Trust is committed to promoting equality and diversity; we value the contribution of individual talent, skills, knowledge and experience and aim for a workforce demography representative of the local community. We encourage applicants from the following groups that are currently under-represented in our workforce black, Asian and minority ethnic, lesbian, gay, bisexual and Transgender (LGBTQ+), disabled, male and age 16-24.

Trust policy requires that the cost of submitting & processing the successful applicant/s DBS application be recovered via salary deduction following start in post. The amount of £25.70 (standard disclosure) or £46.70 (enhanced disclosure) will be deducted from salary, in manageable monthly instalments for up to 3 months following commencement of employment. Bank posts require upfront payment.

From April 2017, Skilled visa applicants and their adult dependant(s) will be required to provide a criminal record certificate from each country they have lived in consecutively for 12 months or more in the past ten years.

Applicants requiring sponsorship may wish to determine the likelihood of obtaining sponsorship for this position by assessing themselves against the criteria on the gov.uk website - https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa.

This organisation has a zero-tolerance approach to the abuse of children, young people and vulnerable adults. All staff must ensure they adhere to the organisations safeguarding children and adults’ policy and comply with the Local Safeguarding Children and Adult Board procedures.

Staff should be mindful of their responsibility to safeguard children and adults in any activity performed on behalf of the organisation in line with the requirements of statutory guidance and legislation.

All employees (and volunteers)are expected maintain their safeguarding knowledge and skills by completing mandatory safeguarding training which includes understanding and recognising the signs of abuse and neglect and taking appropriate action.

As an organisation, we have adopted the Merseyside Domestic abuse workplace scheme which supports our staff who are experiencing Domestic Abuse /any forms of sexual violence.

If you have any personal requirements that will enable you to participate in our recruitment process please contact a member of the Recruitment Services by phone on 0151 706 4666 at the earliest opportunity to ensure that measures can be put in place to enable your application for this post.

Our statement on modern slavery

We have zero tolerance of slavery and human trafficking and are committed to maintaining and improving systems, processes and policies to avoid complicity in human rights violation and to prevent slavery and human trafficking in our supply chain.

The Trust policies, procedures, governance and legal arrangements are robust, ensuring that proper checks and due diligence are applied in employment procedures to ensure compliance with this legislation. We also conform to the NHS employment check standards within our workforce recruitment and selection practices. This strategic approach incorporates analysis of the Trust’s supply chains and its partners to assess risk exposure and management on modern slavery.

Please note: new entrants to the NHS will commence on the first pay point of the relevant band.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Application numbers

Name Sharon Leahy Job title Lead Pharmacy Technician Dispensary Services Email address [e-mail] Telephone number 0151 529 2219 Additional information