Job summary
Fixed Term until 31/03/2024
Following the
investigation into maternity and neonatal services at Shrewsbury and Telford
Hospital Trust, the Ockenden report recommended that maternity services must
ensure that women and their families are listened to and heard".
To meet this
recommendation, the Mid and South Essex Integrated Care Board is recruiting to
and piloting an exciting new role - an independent advocate.
The postholder
will support families where concerns have been raised about maternity or
neonatal care and/or there has been an adverse outcome. Other aspects of the
role include assisting families in the navigation of services, providing advocacy
at meetings with clinicians, supporting improvements in communication between
families and health professionals where there has been a breakdown of
relationships, and to support the family's understanding of what is being
communicated.
The Independent
Advocate will also support families to navigate through the complaints or
incident investigation process where an adverse outcome has occurred.
The successful
candidate will be an individual who has an extensive experience of advocacy
work and is able to work independently. It is essential that for women and
families voices to be heard, and therefore for the role to be effective, the
advocate must be viewed as independent from maternity provider trusts. As a
result, we are looking to recruit someone from who has not been a clinician
within maternity services at MSEFT.
Main duties of the job
The Independent Senior Advocate (ISA) will help parents-to-be, new
parents and families to be listened to and heard by their maternity and
neonatal care providers. In the pilot phase they will focus on supporting women
and families where an adverse outcome has occurred. ISAs can provide support
and help navigate the healthcare system, providing advocacy when they have a
concern about their care. ISAs will be available to attend follow up meetings
with clinicians, where concerns about maternity or neonatal care are discussed,
aiming to break down barriers to being listened to and heard. The ISA can
support people to navigate formal complaints processes.
Main duties
They will provide leadership ensuring the voice of the service user
remains front and foremost in all referrals. Working with colleagues in the
Local Maternity and Neonatal System (LMNS), to establish mechanisms to receive
and record referrals from women and families where concerns have been expressed
about their care, responding to referrals and being available for follow-up
meetings with clinicians. They will help women and families navigate
complexity, signposting to appropriate sources of advice and support.They will
regularly report to LMNS and Trust level boards, providing robust feedback and recommendations
to improve service user experience and patient safety.
They will ensure there are strong links, between their findings and clinical governance within maternity.
About us
Mid and South
Essex ICB is a statutory organisation responsible for the planning and delivery
of local health and care services, across Mid and South Essex and is part of
the wider integrated care system. Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) are partnerships
of health and care organisations that come together to plan and deliver joined
up services and to improve the health of people who live and work in their area.
The headquarters for the organisation is
Phoenix Court, Basildon, but there is a hybrid model of working, which includes
working across Mid and South Essex and home working.
We are passionate about creating an inclusive workplace that promotes
and values diversity. We know through experience that the different
ideas, perspectives and backgrounds create a stronger and more creative work
environment that delivers better patient outcomes. We welcome applications
irrespective of peoples age, disability, sex, gender, identity and gender
expression, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, sexual orientation or other
personal circumstances. We have policies and procedures in place to ensure that
all applicants are treated fairly and consistently at every stage of the
recruitment process, including the consideration of reasonable adjustment for
people who have a disability.
Unfortunately, the organisation does not have a Sponsorship licence.
Job description
Job responsibilities
ROLE SUMMARY
The Mid and South Essex Integrated Care System comprises of the Integrated Care Board (ICB), which is a statutory NHS body and the Integrated Care Partnership (ICP). The ICS brings together local partner organisations to improve population health and establish strategic priorities within the NHS.
The Mid and South Essex Local Maternity and Neonatal System (LMNS) is the maternity arm of the ICB and is a partnership of organisations, including service user representatives, working together to deliver improvements in local maternity services. The role of Independent Senior Advocate is being piloted within MSE, following recommendations made within the Ockenden report (2022), and in conjunction with NHS England.
The Independent Senior Advocate (ISA) helps parents-to-be, new parents and families to be listened to and heard by their maternity and neonatal care providers. The ISA will provide support to eligible women and their families, navigating the healthcare system and providing advocacy when they have a concern about the care they are receiving.
COMPETENCY BASED KEY DELIVERABLES
- Provide leadership in ensuring the voice of the service user remains front and foremost in all referrals.
Referrals
- Liaise with colleagues in the LMNS to establish mechanisms to receive and record referrals from women and families where concerns have been expressed about their maternity or neonatal care.
- Respond to referrals and be available to women and families, to join follow-up meetings with clinicians.
- Build an understanding of the concerns expressed by women and families and reflect that understanding back to women and families to help them feel listened to.
- Manage complex cases simultaneously and taking decisions independently on substantial casework. To establish and maintain systems to record details of each case referred for support.
- To work collaboratively with ISAs working in neighbouring areas, to maximize availability to women and families.
- The postholder will be responsible for delivering specialist training as part of the advocacy service role delivery (and to line manage any additional members of the advocacy team as the role develops).
Navigation
- To act as a trusted individual working between women and families, with their consent, and clinicians and the maternity & neonatal Trusts, aiming to break down barriers to being listened to and heard.
- Help women and families navigate complexity, signposting to appropriate sources of advice and support both within and external to the NHS where necessary.
- To work towards resolving concerns and driving brokering improvements early in the pathway, set out for example in Personalised Care and Support Plans, so that care better meets a womans needs and there is less likely to be ongoing poor experience.
- To ensure that women and families are aware of their rights and options and explain the options open to them. Where necessary to help women and families navigate through formal complaints processes where an adverse outcome has occurred, signposting to other resources.
Governance and reporting
- Regularly report to LMNS and Trust level boards, providing robust feedback on both individual events and trends, providing recommendations to improve service user experience and patient safety.
- Ensure that there are strong links with two-way feedback, between the ISA findings and clinical governance within maternity. Establish regular reporting to local Quality and Safety Groups and other appropriate forums (including but not limited to the LMNS Safety Forum and Steering Board, MSE System Quality Group, MSEFT Maternity Assurance Committee).
- Where necessary, and with the Senior Responsible Officer for the LMNS, escalate unresolved cases of concern, to Trust Boards and through the national network of ISAs.
- Prepare and present information and reports to LMNS and Trust level boards on an agreed basis.
- Implements local policies and/or guidelines for the advocacy service and contributes/proposes relevant governance changes which may impact within own locality and regionally. This will identify the aims of the service, the purpose of the role, provide clear deliverables and where appropriate Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to ensure the service demonstrates positive outcomes, impact and added value.
- Delivers advocacy in line with the National Advocacy Quality Performance Mark.
Data and information
- Contribute to the evaluation of the Independent Senior Advocates, maintaining and making available information about referrals from women and families, outcomes of cases and monitoring data.
- Gather information on local case trends, to enable shared learning through NHS England regions and the national network of Independent Senior Advocates.
Stakeholders
- Build positive working relationships with senior clinical colleagues in the Trusts they will be working alongside, including but not limited to, Directors and Heads of Midwifery, the Medical Director for Womens and Childrens services, the Lead Midwife for Engagement and Experience, and senior obstetricians, to build trust and open communication.
- Develop active working relationships with the chair of the local Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership (MNVP), to maximise the potential for collaborative working.
- Build and maintain effective working relationships with Trust Non-Executive Directors, Maternity, Obstetric and Neonatal Safety Champions and with the Patient Advice and Liaison Services (PALS).
Communication
- Communicates and presents highly complex, sensitive and/or contentious information to a wide range of internal and external stakeholders. Where necessary, to have robust and challenging conversations with clinicians, advocating on women and families behalf.
- Contribute to providing information about the ISA role amongst local organisations, to ensure that women and families who need to access their service know their options.
- Develop effective communication with relevant local organisations (e.g. Healthwatch, local advocacy groups), to ensure their role is well understood, and to ensure that women and families from groups who are least likely to express concerns about their care feel more able to do so.
- Be required to communicate complex and contentious information and decisions with colleagues, system partners and the public.
Equality & diversity
- Recognise, respect and address the needs of service users who face particular barriers when seeking access to services, including those from minority backgrounds and those with protected characteristics.
Job description
Job responsibilities
ROLE SUMMARY
The Mid and South Essex Integrated Care System comprises of the Integrated Care Board (ICB), which is a statutory NHS body and the Integrated Care Partnership (ICP). The ICS brings together local partner organisations to improve population health and establish strategic priorities within the NHS.
The Mid and South Essex Local Maternity and Neonatal System (LMNS) is the maternity arm of the ICB and is a partnership of organisations, including service user representatives, working together to deliver improvements in local maternity services. The role of Independent Senior Advocate is being piloted within MSE, following recommendations made within the Ockenden report (2022), and in conjunction with NHS England.
The Independent Senior Advocate (ISA) helps parents-to-be, new parents and families to be listened to and heard by their maternity and neonatal care providers. The ISA will provide support to eligible women and their families, navigating the healthcare system and providing advocacy when they have a concern about the care they are receiving.
COMPETENCY BASED KEY DELIVERABLES
- Provide leadership in ensuring the voice of the service user remains front and foremost in all referrals.
Referrals
- Liaise with colleagues in the LMNS to establish mechanisms to receive and record referrals from women and families where concerns have been expressed about their maternity or neonatal care.
- Respond to referrals and be available to women and families, to join follow-up meetings with clinicians.
- Build an understanding of the concerns expressed by women and families and reflect that understanding back to women and families to help them feel listened to.
- Manage complex cases simultaneously and taking decisions independently on substantial casework. To establish and maintain systems to record details of each case referred for support.
- To work collaboratively with ISAs working in neighbouring areas, to maximize availability to women and families.
- The postholder will be responsible for delivering specialist training as part of the advocacy service role delivery (and to line manage any additional members of the advocacy team as the role develops).
Navigation
- To act as a trusted individual working between women and families, with their consent, and clinicians and the maternity & neonatal Trusts, aiming to break down barriers to being listened to and heard.
- Help women and families navigate complexity, signposting to appropriate sources of advice and support both within and external to the NHS where necessary.
- To work towards resolving concerns and driving brokering improvements early in the pathway, set out for example in Personalised Care and Support Plans, so that care better meets a womans needs and there is less likely to be ongoing poor experience.
- To ensure that women and families are aware of their rights and options and explain the options open to them. Where necessary to help women and families navigate through formal complaints processes where an adverse outcome has occurred, signposting to other resources.
Governance and reporting
- Regularly report to LMNS and Trust level boards, providing robust feedback on both individual events and trends, providing recommendations to improve service user experience and patient safety.
- Ensure that there are strong links with two-way feedback, between the ISA findings and clinical governance within maternity. Establish regular reporting to local Quality and Safety Groups and other appropriate forums (including but not limited to the LMNS Safety Forum and Steering Board, MSE System Quality Group, MSEFT Maternity Assurance Committee).
- Where necessary, and with the Senior Responsible Officer for the LMNS, escalate unresolved cases of concern, to Trust Boards and through the national network of ISAs.
- Prepare and present information and reports to LMNS and Trust level boards on an agreed basis.
- Implements local policies and/or guidelines for the advocacy service and contributes/proposes relevant governance changes which may impact within own locality and regionally. This will identify the aims of the service, the purpose of the role, provide clear deliverables and where appropriate Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to ensure the service demonstrates positive outcomes, impact and added value.
- Delivers advocacy in line with the National Advocacy Quality Performance Mark.
Data and information
- Contribute to the evaluation of the Independent Senior Advocates, maintaining and making available information about referrals from women and families, outcomes of cases and monitoring data.
- Gather information on local case trends, to enable shared learning through NHS England regions and the national network of Independent Senior Advocates.
Stakeholders
- Build positive working relationships with senior clinical colleagues in the Trusts they will be working alongside, including but not limited to, Directors and Heads of Midwifery, the Medical Director for Womens and Childrens services, the Lead Midwife for Engagement and Experience, and senior obstetricians, to build trust and open communication.
- Develop active working relationships with the chair of the local Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership (MNVP), to maximise the potential for collaborative working.
- Build and maintain effective working relationships with Trust Non-Executive Directors, Maternity, Obstetric and Neonatal Safety Champions and with the Patient Advice and Liaison Services (PALS).
Communication
- Communicates and presents highly complex, sensitive and/or contentious information to a wide range of internal and external stakeholders. Where necessary, to have robust and challenging conversations with clinicians, advocating on women and families behalf.
- Contribute to providing information about the ISA role amongst local organisations, to ensure that women and families who need to access their service know their options.
- Develop effective communication with relevant local organisations (e.g. Healthwatch, local advocacy groups), to ensure their role is well understood, and to ensure that women and families from groups who are least likely to express concerns about their care feel more able to do so.
- Be required to communicate complex and contentious information and decisions with colleagues, system partners and the public.
Equality & diversity
- Recognise, respect and address the needs of service users who face particular barriers when seeking access to services, including those from minority backgrounds and those with protected characteristics.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Educated to masters level or equivalent level of experience of working at a senior level.
- Advocacy qualification and counselling training, or equivalent level of experience.
Experience
Essential
- Thorough knowledge and understanding of maternity and neonatal services.
- Extensive experience of advocacy
- Extensive knowledge of specialist areas acquired through post graduate diploma or equivalent experience or training plus further specialist knowledge
- Must have an understanding of the background to and aims of current healthcare policy.
- Evidence of complex relationship building with senior stakeholders
Skills
Essential
- Extensive advocacy skills. Able to communicate effectively at all levels (including listening & hearing) and with compassion.
- Demonstrable experience of effective active listening.
- Ability to work autonomously and to self-motivate
- Ability to recognise and overcome barriers on behalf of women and their families.
- Ability to prioritise conflicting and changing demands.
- Highly developed communication skills with the capability to analyse, review and make sense of highly complex, sensitive, or contentious information.
- Ability to understand a broad range of complex information quickly and making decisions where opinions differ or there is no obvious solution.
- Ability to work without supervision, working to tight and often changing timescales.
- Experience of managing difficult and challenging conversations
Knowledge / Understanding
Essential
- Understanding of issues surrounding equality and diversity and of the differences between people, including the barriers faced by marginalised communities
- Ability to operate in a value-driven style consistent with the values of public services and specifically with the new organisational values
- Works well with others, is positive and helpful, listens, involves, respects, and learns from the contribution of others.
- Consistently looks to improve what they do, look for successful tried and tested ways of working, and also seeks out innovation. Self-awareness in teams of emotional intelligence, biases and personal triggers with cultural sensitivity and awareness.
- Demonstrates honesty and integrity and promotes organisational values.
Partnership Working / Leadership
Essential
- Commitment to and focused on quality, promotes high standards in all they do.
- Works across boundaries, looks for collective success, listens, involves, respects, and learns from the contribution of others. Actively develops themselves and supports others to do the same.
- Values diversity and difference; operates with integrity and openness
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Educated to masters level or equivalent level of experience of working at a senior level.
- Advocacy qualification and counselling training, or equivalent level of experience.
Experience
Essential
- Thorough knowledge and understanding of maternity and neonatal services.
- Extensive experience of advocacy
- Extensive knowledge of specialist areas acquired through post graduate diploma or equivalent experience or training plus further specialist knowledge
- Must have an understanding of the background to and aims of current healthcare policy.
- Evidence of complex relationship building with senior stakeholders
Skills
Essential
- Extensive advocacy skills. Able to communicate effectively at all levels (including listening & hearing) and with compassion.
- Demonstrable experience of effective active listening.
- Ability to work autonomously and to self-motivate
- Ability to recognise and overcome barriers on behalf of women and their families.
- Ability to prioritise conflicting and changing demands.
- Highly developed communication skills with the capability to analyse, review and make sense of highly complex, sensitive, or contentious information.
- Ability to understand a broad range of complex information quickly and making decisions where opinions differ or there is no obvious solution.
- Ability to work without supervision, working to tight and often changing timescales.
- Experience of managing difficult and challenging conversations
Knowledge / Understanding
Essential
- Understanding of issues surrounding equality and diversity and of the differences between people, including the barriers faced by marginalised communities
- Ability to operate in a value-driven style consistent with the values of public services and specifically with the new organisational values
- Works well with others, is positive and helpful, listens, involves, respects, and learns from the contribution of others.
- Consistently looks to improve what they do, look for successful tried and tested ways of working, and also seeks out innovation. Self-awareness in teams of emotional intelligence, biases and personal triggers with cultural sensitivity and awareness.
- Demonstrates honesty and integrity and promotes organisational values.
Partnership Working / Leadership
Essential
- Commitment to and focused on quality, promotes high standards in all they do.
- Works across boundaries, looks for collective success, listens, involves, respects, and learns from the contribution of others. Actively develops themselves and supports others to do the same.
- Values diversity and difference; operates with integrity and openness
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.
