Band 4 Macmillan Cancer Support Worker

Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust

The closing date is 08 April 2025

Job summary

This is a new post funded by Macmillan Cancer Support. The Macmillan Cancer Support Worker will work as part of the personalised cancer care team supporting registered practitioners to improve holistic care for people with cancer. The postholder will support the provision of personalised cancer care interventions e.g. holistic needs assessments and health & wellbeing information/events. The postholder will be responsible for coordination of care to a specified group of cancer patients from the point of diagnosis and during their cancer treatment.The postholder will also coordinate care for a specified group of patients after their cancer treatment is complete, when they can be enabled to self-manage their follow-up care. The postholder will be required to work with clinical staff and administrative staff across all levels of seniority within the acute hospital setting. The Macmillan Cancer Support Worker will work very closely with the Cancer Clinical Nurse Specialists for a particular cancer type, e.g. breast cancer, bladder cancer, kidney cancer, upper gastro-intestinal cancer. The Macmillan Cancer Support Worker will need some prior experience working with cancer patients and excellent communication and organisational skills.

Main duties of the job

JOB SUMMARY

The post holder will form an integral part of the personalised care team and will also be integrated into one tumour-specific clinical team, e.g. breast cancer, bladder cancer, kidney cancer, upper gastro-intestinal cancer etc, supporting the cancer clinical nurse specialists (CNS) for that tumour type in their roles.

Holistic Needs Assessment and Personalised Care/Support Planning

The cancer support worker will provide cancer patients with holistic signposting to information and support that meets their individual needs at that particular time, and in the right way for them. They will speak to patients to discuss what matters to them using an approved checklist tool (HNA).

Co-ordinate health education and wellbeing support for people living with and beyond cancer

The post holder will contribute to the organisation and delivery of health and well-being events (HWBE). These involve providing approved cancer information and signposting to support services and self-management resources.

Direct support to cancer clinical nurse specialists

The cancer support worker will provide general support to the allocated CNSs to enable them to focus specialist nursing skills on complex patients. This may include referrals to other agencies and important administration such as communicating with other teams within the hospital and within primary care / community services.

About us

Please note that the role of Macmillan Cancer Support Worker may be based across the different main hospital sites; Chase Farm Hospital, Barnet Hospital, Royal Free Hospital. Flexibility will be needed and so you may wish to take this into account when considering your commute.

The post holder will form an integral part of the personalised care team and will also be integrated into one tumour-specific clinical team, e.g. breast cancer, bladder cancer, kidney cancer, upper gastro-intestinal cancer etc, supporting the cancer clinical nurse specialists (CNS) for that tumour type in their roles. The setting for this role is outpatient cancer care, however visits to see patients in inpatient wards will be needed.

The cancer support worker role involves daily and direct (e.g. face to face and telephone) communication with patients, relatives, carers, and other health and social care professionals.

Date posted

25 March 2025

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 4

Salary

£31,944 to £34,937 a year per annum inclusive of HCAS

Contract

Fixed term

Duration

23 months

Working pattern

Full-time

Reference number

391-RFL-6922355-A

Job locations

Royal Free Hospital

Pond Street

London

NW3 2QG


Job description

Job responsibilities

Please see attached job description for more information about this role and working at Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust.

Job description

Job responsibilities

Please see attached job description for more information about this role and working at Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust.

Person Specification

Royal Free World Class Values

Essential

  • Demonstrable ability to meet the Trust Values

Education & professional Qualifications

Essential

  • Educated to A level, and or NVQ Level 3 or 4 in Health and / or Social Care
  • Committed to own professional development and evidence of regular attendance at training days

Experience

Essential

  • Previous experience of working with cancer patients in a hospital environment

Desirable

  • Previous experience of working in a multidisciplinary team
  • Previous experience of customer care
  • Experience of assessing patients physical, psychological and / or practical needs
  • Experience of personalised cancer care
  • Experience of patient diagnosis and treatment pathways

Skills and aptitudes

Essential

  • Ability to communicate effectively with people of all levels, including communicating sensitive information to distressed people
  • Ability to work flexibly, planning and reprioritize workload in light of unexpected events
  • Competence in triage decision making, clinical escalation, and care priorities for a defined group of patients
  • Confident and articulate when communicating with senior healthcare professionals
  • Understanding of own limitations and role boundaries, and when to seek clinical advice and support
  • Ability to use own judgement to problem solve and use initiative
  • Ability to deal with distressing situations and high emotionality from patients and carers
  • Skilled in use of IT (Email, MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint) and hospital systems
  • Accuracy and attention to detail in data entry and report writing, and entries in medical records

Personal Qualities & Attributes

Essential

  • Ability to form professional relationships with colleagues
  • Caring, compassionate and professional nature
  • Good listener and able to demonstrate empathy
  • Flexible and adaptable to change
  • Tactful and calm
  • Approachable
Person Specification

Royal Free World Class Values

Essential

  • Demonstrable ability to meet the Trust Values

Education & professional Qualifications

Essential

  • Educated to A level, and or NVQ Level 3 or 4 in Health and / or Social Care
  • Committed to own professional development and evidence of regular attendance at training days

Experience

Essential

  • Previous experience of working with cancer patients in a hospital environment

Desirable

  • Previous experience of working in a multidisciplinary team
  • Previous experience of customer care
  • Experience of assessing patients physical, psychological and / or practical needs
  • Experience of personalised cancer care
  • Experience of patient diagnosis and treatment pathways

Skills and aptitudes

Essential

  • Ability to communicate effectively with people of all levels, including communicating sensitive information to distressed people
  • Ability to work flexibly, planning and reprioritize workload in light of unexpected events
  • Competence in triage decision making, clinical escalation, and care priorities for a defined group of patients
  • Confident and articulate when communicating with senior healthcare professionals
  • Understanding of own limitations and role boundaries, and when to seek clinical advice and support
  • Ability to use own judgement to problem solve and use initiative
  • Ability to deal with distressing situations and high emotionality from patients and carers
  • Skilled in use of IT (Email, MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint) and hospital systems
  • Accuracy and attention to detail in data entry and report writing, and entries in medical records

Personal Qualities & Attributes

Essential

  • Ability to form professional relationships with colleagues
  • Caring, compassionate and professional nature
  • Good listener and able to demonstrate empathy
  • Flexible and adaptable to change
  • Tactful and calm
  • Approachable

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such 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.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

Additional information

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such 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.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

Employer details

Employer name

Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Royal Free Hospital

Pond Street

London

NW3 2QG


Employer's website

https://www.royalfreelondonjobs.co.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)

Employer details

Employer name

Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Royal Free Hospital

Pond Street

London

NW3 2QG


Employer's website

https://www.royalfreelondonjobs.co.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)

For questions about the job, contact:

Macmillan Personalised Cancer Care Lead

Azmina Rose

azmina.rose@nhs.net

07931861991

Date posted

25 March 2025

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 4

Salary

£31,944 to £34,937 a year per annum inclusive of HCAS

Contract

Fixed term

Duration

23 months

Working pattern

Full-time

Reference number

391-RFL-6922355-A

Job locations

Royal Free Hospital

Pond Street

London

NW3 2QG


Supporting documents

Privacy notice

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