Matron

Job responsibilities

Provide expert clinical leadership for palliative and end-of-life care for babies, children, and young people (018) with life-limiting conditions. Act as a regional specialist, offering advanced clinical assessment, complex symptom management, and evidence-based prescribing. Lead the Symptom Management Nursing Service, ensuring high standards of care, regulatory compliance, and robust clinical governance. Collaborate across multidisciplinary teams, drive service improvement, and support education, research, and quality initiatives to promote excellence in paediatric palliative care.

Responsibilities

• Advocate for and support parents, children and young people and for the nursing profession, acting as a positive role model.
• Provide clinical presentations to EACH Clinical Governance Committee as requested.
• Provides professional leadership to ensure continuous CQC readiness and regulatory compliance, embedding robust governance, audit and quality improvement processes to meet and exceed regulatory standards.
• Actively support service evaluation, provide qualitive and quantitative data of activity to contribute to the reporting process of clinical governance.
• Collaborates with the Strategic Leadership Team on strategic decision making, service improvement and change management.
• Supports the development and implementation of clinical strategies and service redesign initiatives to enhance care.
• Provide compassionate, inclusive leadership, adapting style to suit individual team members.
• Provide holistic and evidence based advanced nursing care to children and young people with complex palliative care, pain and symptom control needs as an integral part of the EACH multidisciplinary team and MCN/NHS palliative care team.
• Oversee, with other Matrons, the Symptom Management Nursing Service EACH caseload and the standard of clinical care provided within the hospice and community.
• Deliver clinical leadership expertise and act as an expert adviser, being visible and accessible in clinical areas as a point of contact for symptom control and management advice for children and young people across the continuum of care in the full range of settings
• Develop and maintain highly specialist level palliative nursing care knowledge and skills across a range of procedures and practices including medicines management and ensuring clinical hazards are identified and any risks managed, completing RAHAs when necessary.
• Review and evaluate comprehensive symptom management plans, coordinating and supporting their implementation and use across EACH and within the MCN.
• Act as an Independent Non-Medical Prescriber within scope of professional practice and qualification, in line with organisational policy and clinical governance requirements, ensuring safe, evidence-based prescribing and ongoing maintenance of competence.
• Provide Designated Prescriber Practitioner (in line with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society eligibility), support to an EACH nurse undertaking Independent Prescribing course and mentorship once staff member qualifies.
• Participate, where required, in the 24/7 clinical on call delivering the Symptom Management Nursing Service across the EACH and working collaboratively with the on call medical practitioners in the MCN who provide specialist level telephone advice.
• Independent Prescribers must fulfil the Royal Prescribing Society Competency framework and complete an annual prescribing declaration.
• Oversight and support decision making for members of the EACH multi-professional team and MCN to coordinate safe transfer for end of life care.
• Provide expert clinical advice, leadership and support to Care Coordination Teams, with accountability for overseeing clinical activity and approving clinical incident reviews.
• Ensure that learning from incidents is effectively identified, disseminated, and embedded into practice. Where individual learning needs are identified, implement appropriate supportive and developmental measures to enhance professional practice and improve patient care outcomes, working alongside their line manager and clinical educator.
• Provide oversight of the CNSs in their clinical support for care coordination/key working/lead professional role responsibilities.
• Be an active member of the Locality Leadership Team, coordinating roles within the team such as visibility and meeting attendance and chairing of meeting e.g Locality Multi professional Meeting (LMPM).
• Act as deputy chair for the EACH Central Panel Meeting, ensuring that all decisions comply with the EACH eligibility policy.
• Provide clinical nursing leadership for the regional MCN and other local networks including the development of end of life care pathways and chairing MDT meetings as required.
• Attend or ensure representation from EACH at local Palliative Care forums and Child Death Overview Panels (CDOP).
• Support GP trainees at base site and oversee their quality improvement projects.
• Ensure symptom management service and clinical standards and resources across EACH are deployed where required, ensuring sustainability of service.
• Provide line management for the Symptom Management Nursing Service at designated locality and Lead Research Nurse by designated Matron
• Deliver and participate in management supervision and annual appraisal ensuring challenging objectives are set and achieved and a personal development plan is agreed.
• Ensuring staff wellbeing through promotion of clinical supervision and consultation and other strategies deployed across EACH.
• Fulfil professional clinical supervision and continuing professional development and mandatory training requirements. Adopt a reflective approach to personal practice and learn from experience.
• Keep up to date with professional developments in nursing and childrens palliative care.
• Develop an awareness of own personal responses in relation to the maintenance of a safe environment and identification of potential risk for all personnel babies, children, young people, families and significant others.
• Lead and participate in relevant Quality and Safety (Q&S), responsible for chairing a designated Q&S group.
• Actively seeking new knowledge and innovations to create appropriate changes to clinical practice.
• Oversee and update clinical polices and Standard operating Procedures (SOPs) and suggest new SOPs if a new area of clinical care is needing to be delivered.
• Lead and oversee clinical audits as per EACH audit program and suggest new audits if there is an area of clinical practice where an audit needs to be implemented.
• Provide integrative complementary therapies within scope of professional practice and qualification, in accordance with organisational policy, clinical governance frameworks and evidence-based standards, ensuring patient safety, informed consent and ongoing maintenance of competence. (For those with relevant qualification).
• Ensure an awareness and observation of Fire and Health and Safety Regulations.

Qualifications

Essential

• Current UK NMC Registration NMC Registered Nurse (Child, Adult)
• RN Child / RSCN - Registered Nurse specialising in Children's Nursing
• Evidence of specialist clinical and theoretical knowledge in childrens palliative care and symptom management.
• Independent and supplementary prescribing qualification within paediatric palliative care or willingness to work towards qualification.
• Knowledge of current legislation relating to children & young people including best practice in safeguarding children
• If providing integrative complementary therapy, evidence of up to date CPD and current membership of appropriate professional body.

Desirable

• Advanced Clinical Practice at Masters level
• Leadership Course
• Advanced level communication skills
• Mentorship qualification

Experience

Essential

• Experience of significant post-registration experience in paediatric services, working at Band 7 or above
• Experience of leadership and management within a clinical area
• Experience of working with paediatric palliative care patients
• Experience of nursing and MDT working providing care in multiple clinical setting i.e. hospice, community and hospital.
• Experience of assessment, development, implementation, delivering and evaluation of plans of complex care with developed range of clinical skills
• Experience of managing staff and resources on a day to day basis, including management supervision, mentoring and appraisal
• Evidence of providing mentorship and development to staff and students
• Experience of teaching / presentation across wide range of professional level and settings
• Experience of recruitment and interview processes

Desirable

• Evidence of participation in research and practice development activity

Skills & Abilities

Essential

• Highly developed written and oral communication skills
• Enthusiastic, flexible attitude and dedicated approach to work
• Ability to manage own time and workload
• Ability to make highly developed autonomous clinical decision making
• Ability to recognise the impact of advanced disease or acute deterioration in a BCYP condition when analysing and interpreting the clinical situation
• Highly developed skills of prioritising need and workload across the clinical teams
• Ability to reflect on practice and positively receive constructive feedback to improvement professionally
• Ability to show initiative, problem solve and find solutions
• Ability to chair meetings/ discussions of the multidisciplinary team
• IT literate (e.g. word processing and E-Mail and virtual consultation platforms, use of Excel and Microsoft Teams)

Other Requirements

Essential

• Current full, valid driving license and own transport
• Commitment to own continuing professional development
• Able and willing to work on a rota basis, including evenings and weekends including on call stand by clinical care ie: able to respond out of hours

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.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).