Job responsibilities
Join us in making every moment matter
At Acorns Childrens Hospice, we provide specialist palliative care for children, and young people with life-limiting and lifethreatening conditions, and we support their families through every step of their journey, and through transition.
Our work is defined by compassion, expertise, and an unwavering belief that every child deserves comfort, dignity, and the chance to experience joy.
We are now seeking an exceptional Advanced Clinical Practitioner (ACP) to bring their expertise to Acorns and further develop specialist skills in paediatric palliative care. Joining our dedicated team, youll play a key role in helping us continue to deliver the exceptional care that children, young people and families across our communities depend on.
Why Join Acorns?
As one of the UKs leading childrens hospices, Acorns offers a uniquely warm, supportive, and hopeful environment. Here, your advanced clinical skills will have a profound and immediate impact in supporting children with complex needs, guiding families through challenging decisions, and shaping the future of specialist paediatric palliative care..
What Youll Do
As an ACP at Acorns, you will:
- Draw on your existing clinical expertise while being fully supported to develop advanced skills in paediatric palliative care, enabling you to make a meaningful difference to the children and families we support.
- Act as a senior clinical leader, promoting safe, evidencebased, childcentred care.
- Provide expert autonomous clinical assessment, diagnosis, and treatment for children with highly complex, lifelimiting and life-threatening conditions.
- Lead on advanced care planning, symptom management, and urgent clinical decisionmaking.
- Build strong, trusting relationships with families, supporting them with sensitivity, honesty, and compassion.
- Build strong working relationships with hospitals, community teams, and specialist services to ensure every family receives seamless, individualised support.
- Engage in research, audit, and quality improvement to enhance care pathways.
- Offer education, coaching, and clinical leadership to colleagues across the service.
What Were Looking For
Wed love to hear from you if you are:
- A qualified Advanced Clinical Practitioner (or nearing completion of ACP training)
- Experienced in paediatrics, with an interest in palliative care, complex care, community care, or a related specialty.
- Willing to build on previous experience to develop skills and knowledge in relation to paediatric palliative care.
- Confident in managing complexity, with strong clinical reasoning and autonomy.
- An exceptional communicator who can offer families reassurance, clarity, and emotional support.
- Committed to delivering holistic, childcentred care aligned with Acorns values.
- Passionate about continuous learning, service development, and collaborative working.
What Acorns Offers
- The chance to make a profound difference to children and families every day.
- Support and guidance to develop the knowledge and skills required to work within palliative care.
- A compassionate, supportive, and expert multidisciplinary team.
- Protected time for CPD and strong clinical governance.
- Opportunities to innovate, lead, and shape the future of paediatric palliative care.
- A working culture rooted in kindness, growth, and wellbeing.
- Employee discounts from leading retailers including the Blue Light Card
- Generous contribution to group personal pension plan (7.5%) or continuation of current NHS pension scheme
- NHS pension scheme life assurance or Acorns group life assurance scheme
- Health cash plan
- Gym membership and equipment discount scheme
- Bike2Work scheme - save up to 42% on bikes and equipment
- Wellbeing, legal and financial support
- Annual leave entitlement increases with length of service
If youre motivated by care that truly transforms lives, we would love you to join our Acorns family. Apply today and help us deliver extraordinary care to extraordinary children.
Interviews are scheduled to be held on 1 May
You need to be eligible to work in the UK to be considered for this role. We are committed to safeguarding children and vulnerable adults and therefore any successful candidate will be subject to an enhanced DBS check for children and will be asked to provide two satisfactory references. In addition, candidates will be asked to provide evidence of immunisation against specific diseases or confirm their willingness to receive the necessary vaccinations.
As a UNICEF Gold Rights Respecting organisation we are committed to ensuring that the United Nations Convention for the Rights of the Child is embedded into both culture and practice within the organisation. As an employee you will be a Duty Bearer for Childrens Rights and support all children to be Rights Holders.
Find out about our culture, career development, benefits and more here: Why work for Acorns?
