Urgent Community Response Practitioner

Merseywestlancs; Knowsley; On-site; GBP 49,000 - 57,000; Full time

Job summary

Mersey West Lancashire NHS Trust is expanding its Frailty Services. We seek an enthusiastic Frailty Practitioner to join a dedicated Nursing and Medical team working in Urgent Community Response, Ambulatory and Community Frailty, and the Frailty Virtual Ward.

The post holder will assess and manage care for frail older patients in home, 24-hour care, and acute settings. You will deliver expert direct patient care, use holistic care planning, and support independence and wellbeing.

Qualifications

• Registered Nurse or Allied Health Professional with current NMC or HCPC registration.
• Educated to degree level with further Masters-level education or willingness to pursue it.
• Independent prescriber or willing to undertake training.
• Mentorship or leadership qualifications are preferred.
• Demonstrated management or leadership training or experience.

Responsibilities

• Deliver and oversee high-quality care for frailty patients in community and hospital settings.
• Screen and identify frail older patients and support care pathways across urgent and community services.
• Provide expert clinical leadership, collaborate with multi-disciplinary teams, and ensure governance and safety.

Education

Registered Nurse or Allied Health Professional with NMC/HCPC Registration

Educated to Degree level

Masters level (or willing to pursue)

Independent Prescriber (or willing)

Mentorship course/qualification

Management/leadership qualification

Job description

We want talented and enthusiastic people from all backgrounds to join #TeamMWL, with us you can learn, grow and develop yourself and your career, realising your true ambitions and aspirations.

Whatever you’re looking for in your career, you’ll find it here at MWL.

Main area Frailty Grade NHS AfC: Band 7 Contract Fixed term: 12 months (Shifts between 8am - 8pm (covering 7 day service)) Hours Full time - 37.5 hours per week Job ref 409-7826029-A

Site Whiston Hospital Town Prescot Salary £49,387 - £56,515 Per Annum Salary period Yearly Closing 02/09/2026 23:59 Interview date 10/09/2026

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

Due to the success of our Frailty Service, an exciting expansion and development opportunity has arisen. We are looking to recruit an enthusiastic and motivated Frailty Practitioner to join our dynamic team of dedicated Nursing and Medical Staff working in the Urgent Community Response (for patients 18yrs +), Ambulatory and Community Frailty and Frailty Virtual Ward.

The post holder will provide expert direct patient care, screen and identify the frail older patient in their own homes, in 24 hour care and in the acute trust. The successful candidates will help to improve pathways for patients who are experiencing an acute crisis and decompensating frailty in the community.

Main duties of the job

You will be responsible for delivering and supporting high quality care, act as an expert practitioner and a role model, offering a patient centred holistic approach to care planning and maximizing independence and well-being of those living with frailty.

The post holder will join a well-established team of Frailty practitioners, supported by Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists and Consultants.

Practitioners are working towards their Masters and supported by the Trust to do so, the successful candidate must have completed their Clinical examination and diagnostics.

Working for our organisation

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves a population of over 600,000 with a workforce of over 9000 dedicated and skilled staff across 21 sites.

We strongly believe that the communities we serve should all have access to Five Star Patient Care.

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, freeing up space for more unwell patients. 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

KEY DUTIES

• Plan and manage complete episodes of care, working in partnership with others, and delegating and referring as appropriate to optimize health outcomes and resource use, as well as providing direct support to patients and clients.
• Develop and use knowledge and skills in order that professional development can be maintained and keep professional portfolio up to date.
• Practice autonomously and be self-directed.
• Use professional judgment in managing complex and unpredictable care events and capture the learning from these experiences to improve patient care and service delivery.
• Draw upon an appropriate range of multi-agency and inter-professional resources in their practice.
• Appropriately define the boundaries of own practice, asking advice from consultant nurse or medical lead when unsure.
• To ensure that services are delivered effectively and efficiently against predetermined clinical performance targets.
• Have a proactive approach to promoting health and wellbeing, detection and prevention of vulnerability, preventing illness, reacting and responding to existing or potential ill health issues and contributing to reduction in length of stay or reducing unplanned hospital admissions.
• Conduct yourself and practice within an ethical framework based upon respect for the well- being and safety of patients and clients for the clinical case management of a defined population.
• The post-holder will collaborate with a wide range of statutory and voluntary organisations to maximise the nursing contribution in health improvement, planning and delivery of care to individuals, families, and communities.
• Actively seek and participate in peer review of own practice.
• Enable patients/clients to learn by designing and coordinating the implementation of plans appropriate to their preferred approach to learning, motivation and developmental stage In partnership with Consultant Staff, Consultant Nurse, Allied Health Professionals, and Head of Quality, develop robust governance systems by contributing to the development and implementation of evidence-based protocols, documentation processes, standards, policies and clinical guidelines through interpreting and synthesising information from a variety of sources and promoting own practice.
• Work in collaboration with others to plan and deliver interventions to meet the learning and development needs of own and other professions.
• Advocate and contribute to the development of an organisational culture that supports continuous learning and development, evidence-based practice, and succession planning; and have high-level communication skills and contribute to the wider development of those working in their area of practice by publicising and disseminating their work through presentations at conferences and articles in the professional press.
• Develop effective partnerships and positive working relationships with a variety of internal and external agencies to support seamless care provision across all agencies.

CLINICAL & PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES

• Maintain Professional Registration.
• Adhere to relevant Code of Practice of Professional body.
• Assess individuals, families and populations holistically using a range of different assessment methods, such as physical examination, ordering and interpreting diagnostic tests or advanced health needs assessment.
• Have a health promotion and prevention orientation and comprehensively assess patients for risk factors and early signs of illness.
• Be able to draw on a diverse range of knowledge in decision-making to determine evidence-based therapeutic interventions (which will include prescribing, planning treatments, reviewing medication, and actively monitoring the effectiveness of any interventions).
• Prescribe and review medication for therapeutic effectiveness, appropriate to patient needs and in accordance with evidence-based practice and national and Trust protocols and formularies.
• Work with patients and their carers to support compliance with and adherence to prescribed treatments.
• Provide information and advice on prescribed or over-the-counter medication on medication regimens, side-effects, and interactions.
• In the absence of consultant, lead the co- ordination of care, working with partner agencies and key stake holders to ensure effectiveness of outcomes for defined case mix of patients.
• Provide strategic clinical leadership in relation to area of specialty, working as an autonomous practitioner.
• Lead the co-ordination of the care for people on a defined caseload, demonstrating advance competence in highly complex decision making, assessment and the management of clinical needs within specialist area of practice and refer to specialist services as appropriate.
• Provide clinical leadership in workforce planning and skills profiling targeting resources to meet the needs of individuals, families, and communities.
• Undertake age appropriate physical and psychosocial assessment, interpreting core clinical and diagnostic findings to determine a diagnosis and develop an evidence-based plan of care.
• Instigate therapeutic interventions and treatments aimed at improving health outcomes and promoting self-care, evaluate the effectiveness of interventions, modifying plans for optimal outcomes. Referring to Medical / Nurse Consultant where needed.
• Develop a knowledge of disease processes and consequences and provides specialist clinical advice to colleagues, individuals, families, and communities.
• Provide high level anticipatory care through the early identification of disease exacerbation to reduce the likelihood of acute illness, risks and prevent hospital admission.
• Actively initiate and lead medicine management practice, review prescription, planning and adjustment of medicines, facilitating patients understanding to improve concordance with the support of their families.
• Lead the development, maintenance and monitoring of service standards ensuring clinical and non-clinical practice interventions are based on the most recent evidence available and findings are incorporated into nursing practice.
• Demonstrate advanced clinical and non-clinical interventions and act as an advisor and educator to colleagues and a variety of learners in area of specialty. Always working within scope of practice.
• Supervise and teach learners in collaboration with education providers and other key stakeholders.
• Ensure expert knowledge, skills and competency are updated and maintained through appropriate CPD, training and development opportunities to enable effective care to be delivered in line with current research-based evidence and practice.
• Ability to work autonomously, asking for help and advice when necessary.
• Ability to interact effectively with people who have different levels of communication skills.

ADMINISTRATIVE RESPONSIBILITIES

• To ensure that the recording of patient care is comprehensive, concise and in line with the NMC Record Keeping guidance.
• Ensure IT systems are current e.g., ADT to ensure that all patient information is confidential and is not disclosed to a third party except with permission of the patient or the Manager in Charge.
• To keep patient records up to date on a day-to-day basis following any interaction with patients/relatives.

TEACHING & TRAINING RESPONSBILITIES

• Improve quality and develop practice of clinical teams by sharing skills and knowledge both formally and informally.
• Be proactively involved in developing strategies and undertaking activities that monitor and improve the quality of healthcare and the effectiveness of their own and others’ practice.
• Strive constantly to improve practice and health outcomes so that they are consistent with or better than national and international standards through initiating, facilitating and leading change at individual, team, organizational and system levels.
• Continually evaluate and audit the practice of self and others at individual and systems levels, selecting and applying valid and reliable approaches and methods which are appropriate to needs and context, and acting on the findings.
• Critically appraise and synthesize the outcomes of relevant research, evaluations and audits and apply the information when seeking to improve practice

Person specification

Qualifications

• Registered Nurse or Allied Health Professional with current NMC or HCPC Registration
• Educated to Degree level
• Record of continuous managerial, educational and professional development
• Clinical Assessment and Diagnostics Qualification or willing to work towards
• Educated to Masters level, or willing to work towards
• Independent Prescriber, or willing to work towards
• Mentorship course/qualification or equivalent experience
• Recognised management or leadership course/qualification

Knowledge and Experience

• Knowledge of clinical skills required to undertake the role
• Knowledge of current professional & clinical issues
• Experience of working in the community
• Knowledge of Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults procedures
• Demonstrable knowledge of issues within nursing and the current NHS quality agenda
• Demonstrable knowledge of risk management processes and clinical governance
• Understanding of research and evidence-based nursing practice
• Awareness of how audit may influence quality of patient care
• Knowledge of and participation in audit
• Substantial post registration experience within Frailty
• Shift/Ward/Speciality leadership experience
• Evidence of undertaking professional responsibility for coordinating the patients pathway of care
• Evidence of enhanced clinical practice
• Experience of teaching and developing practice in others
• Experience of gathering and analysing complex information
• Experience of project management
• Experience of participating in research

Skills

• Excellent time management, record management and organisational skills
• Ability to work autonomously and as part of a multi-disciplinary team
• Ability to compile reports and deliver presentations

Other

• Motivated individual, commitment to personal & professional development
• Willing to undertake further study if role requires

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 [e-mail]

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 Update

For 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.