Senior Clinical Support Manager

NHS Ayrshire & Arran; National (MD); Hybrid; USD 57,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

The Scottish Ambulance Service is recruiting Senior Clinical Support Managers (SCSM) for the Integrated Clinical Hub (ICH). This 24/7 role provides clinical leadership across the national hub, coordinating a team of clinicians to ensure safe patient care and effective escalation during high-demand periods.

Successful candidates will have extensive post-registration experience, strong leadership, and IT literacy, with a willingness to travel between Ambulance Control Centres.

Qualifications

• Significant post‑registration clinical experience in ambulance, acute, or primary care.
• Strong leadership and decision‑making under pressure.
• IT literacy and driving licence; travel between sites is required.

Responsibilities

• Provide a continuous national overview of patient demand, clinical risk and service pressures.
• Lead multidisciplinary teams across the Integrated Clinical Hub.
• Support governance processes, including adverse event reviews and learning initiatives.
• Coordinate national escalation levels and clinical interventions.
• Promote patient safety, quality improvement and continuous learning.

Skills

Leadership

Clinical governance

Decision making

Communication

Tools

Clinical IT systems

Job description

Senior Clinical Support Manager (SCSM) - Integrated Clinical Hub (ICH)

Band 7 | Permanent Positions

3 Rostered Posts and 1 Relief Post

36 Hours per Week

Ability to work a 24/7 rotational shift pattern comprising 12-hour shifts (0700-1900 and 1900-0700)

Flexible Base: East, North or West Ambulance Control Centre (ACC)

The Scottish Ambulance Service is committed to supporting flexible and agile ways of working where operationally appropriate. Hybrid working arrangements will be considered for successful candidates.

Due to the operational nature of the Senior Clinical Support Manager role and the requirement to maintain effective support, oversight and business continuity across the Ambulance Control Centre environment, one designated working location must be aligned to an Ambulance Control Centre (East, North or West ACC).

We welcome discussions regarding flexible working arrangements and will seek to support individual needs whilst ensuring the requirements of the service are met.

The Scottish Ambulance Service Integrated Clinical Hub (ICH) is seeking highly motivated, experienced and dynamic clinicians to join our national team as Senior Clinical Support Managers (SCSM).

We are recruiting 4 x full time, permanent positions, comprising:

• 3 x rostered
• 1 x relief

This is an exceptional opportunity to undertake a clinical leadership role within a complex, fast-paced and evolving operational environment where patient safety, clinical governance and service delivery are paramount.

As a Senior Clinical Support Manager, you will provide operational clinical leadership, ensuring that clinical and operational decisions are safe, proportionate, patient-centred and aligned with organisational priorities.

You will play a key role in maintaining clinical oversight of demand, supporting escalation management, and ensuring effective risk mitigation during periods of sustained system pressure.

The Role

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Senior Clinical Support Manager within the Integrated Clinical Hub. This 24/7 role will have overall clinical responsibility for navigating the right patient to the right clinician to optimise their clinical care, work alongside ACC Duty Managers and SOM teams to review and set National Escalation Levels, co-ordinate a national team of clinicians to ensure clinical safety for patients.

Remote health assessment and telephone triage is at the forefront of patient care with significant development ongoing in this specialist field to equip skilled practitioners to provide first class clinical care for the people of Scotland.

You will work as part of the Integrated Clinical Hub clinical team, supporting Clinical Advisors, Advanced Practitioners and GPs working within ICH provide excellent emergency care to the patients of Scotland. The post holder will ensure that decisions made by the Control Centres are operationally and clinically appropriate, legally compliant and delivered within the Service’s quality, performance and governance frameworks.

You will primarily be responsible as a senior point of contact for all clinical issues highlighted within the ACC. As operational lead for the team of clinicians on shift you will manage and mitigate presenting clinical risks ensuring that patient safety is always maintained and whilst on shift, will have responsibility for SAS National Escalation.

Your focus will be on the impact and safety within the national incident stack, improving the quality of the patient experience and through your decision making contribute to ensuring positive health outcomes for patients, this will be achieved by supporting and coordinating the clinicians including the GPs, Advanced Practitioners, Clinical Advisors, Timed admission Hub, future remote hubs and Clinical Support roles to focus on the most appropriate patients within the waiting stack and prioritise accordingly.

You will liaise with the Clinical Duty Managers, Duty Managers and SOM to ensure ongoing welfare support to all clinicians within the Hub and support the wider ACC – supervisors and duty managers.

The Person

You should possess a significant breadth of knowledge and experience of the operation of both the Scottish Ambulance Service and the contribution that the Ambulance Control Centre undertakes to support the service with wider challenges.

It is essential you possess excellent interpersonal communication and decision-making skills, with the confidence to advise both clinical, and non – clinical stakeholders, during times of high pressure. The ability to negotiate effectively to achieve your vision will be vital.

We are seeking a candidate with a high level of planning, organisational and analytical skills, along with the ability to effectively self-manage, prioritise workloads and understand balancing risk. You should be able to demonstrate strong leadership, ideally within the clinical setting, and can build, motivate, mentor and lead teams, with a commitment to improve the quality and standards of care, procedures, technology, and support cultural change.

The candidate should have significant, demonstrable post registration experience, with previous experience in an ambulance service, acute or primary care setting. Previous telephone triage experience is preferable but not essential. You must also be IT literate and possess a driving licence, as travel between sites is essential.

Key Responsibilities

• Providing a continuous national overview of patient demand, clinical risk and service pressures.
• Managing and mitigating clinical risk within the live demand stack.
• Supporting operational and clinical decision-making during periods of escalation and business continuity challenges.
• Providing leadership, support and professional guidance to multidisciplinary teams across the Integrated Clinical Hub.
• Participating in national operational calls and major incident responses.
• Monitoring national escalation levels and coordinating appropriate clinical interventions.
• Supporting governance processes, including adverse event reviews, complaint investigations and learning initiatives.
• Using operational intelligence, performance data and clinical judgement to support service delivery and patient outcomes.
• Promoting a culture of patient safety, quality improvement and continuous learning.
• Contributing to the ongoing development of the Integrated Clinical Hub and wider service transformation initiatives.

About You

We are looking for experienced clinicians who can demonstrate strong leadership, sound clinical judgement and the ability to make effective decisions in high-pressure environments.

As a Senior Clinical Support Manager, You Will

• Influence patient care and outcomes at a national level.
• Develop advanced leadership and operational management skills.
• Contribute directly to patient safety, risk management and service improvement.
• Work alongside experienced clinical and operational leaders.
• Support the management of major incidents, critical events and periods of heightened demand.
• Help shape the future delivery of care within the Integrated Clinical Hub.
• Play a key role in driving innovation, improvement and clinical excellence across the Scottish Ambulance Service.

Informal Enquiries

For An Informal Discussion Regarding The Role, Please Contact

• Michael Newins
  Advanced Practitioner Clinical Duty Manager
  Email: [e-mail]
• Claire Blaikie
  National Clinical Hub Manager
  Email: [e-mail]

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.

As part of the pre-employment checks for a preferred candidate, NHS Scotland Boards will check your entitlement to work in the UK. It can be evidenced through a number of routes including specific types of visa as well as EU settled and pre-settled status. To find out more about these routes of permission, please refer to the GOV.UK website here.

Please note that SAS is NOT licensed to issue certificates of sponsorship under current UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) regulations. Applicants must have the right to work in the UK without requiring sponsorship to work with us.

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.