Avon & Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust

Band 8b Lead Pharmacist – Medicines Safety, Governance, R&D-Bristol

The closing date is 04 August 2025

Job summary

We are looking for an enthusiastic pharmacist with a strong background in clinical pharmacy, quality improvement & innovation to lead our medicines safety & governance agenda across the Trust. Interest and applications from experienced and forward-looking pharmacists, passionate about medicines optimisation & medicines safety, who are seeking a leadership role are welcome.

The successful candidate will be the dedicated Medicines Safety Officer, demonstrating collaborative working with the Patient Safety team, and developing strong links with both system & regional MSO networks. You will represent Pharmacy at Trust wide patient safety meetings, being an advocate for continuing the Trusts commitment to the third WHO Global Patient Safety Challenge: Medication Without Harm. You will support Trustwide medicines governance, quality improvement & practice based research.

Close working with clinical pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, nursing & medical staff, in both inpatient & community settings across the Trust is expected, and there will be a proportional clinical commitment, which can include prescribing.

You will be an integral member of the senior pharmacy team, supporting the Chief Pharmacist to set the strategic direction of both medicines optimisation in the organisation, and the pharmacy services.

You may be based at any Trust site within the geography of the organisation, & some home working is possible. The role includes on-call and some weekend and bank holiday working.

Main duties of the job

Deliver, manage and develop on the medication safety, medicines governance and pharmacy research and development agendas, including the Medicines Safety Officer role for the Trust.

Promote and ensure the safe use of medicines across the Trust, and be the main expert and advocate in this area.

Promote, undertake and lead on pharmacy led research and development, including the lead for clinical trials.

Be responsible for the monitoring systems of medication incident reporting in the Trust, and work with multidisciplinary teams to improve the reporting, learning and reduction in avoidable harm from medicines use across the Trust.

Provide pharmacy leadership, and support to the wider Trust, to deliver a medicines safety work plan promoting high quality and effective medicines safety.

Develop education and training materials, including reports relating to medicines safety and governance in the Trust. Support clinical colleagues in the undertaking of quality improvement work using established methods to sustain robust medicines safety.

Be responsible for developing, reviewing and implementing key medicines policies, procedures and governance plans for the Trust.

Contribute to the wider medicines optimisation agenda across the Trust through the focus on medicines safety, research and development, and provision of expert clinical advice.

Work closely with the Trust's Patient Safety team to ensure a consistent approach to governance and risk.

About us

We are AWP (Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust) a diverse organisation with over 5,000 dedicated staff providing inpatient and community-based mental health care. We provide services from a range of locations to approximately 1.8 million people living in Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES), Bristol, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire, Swindon, across the county of Wiltshire and in parts of Dorset. Our outstanding people promote mental health and wellbeing. The expertise and resources within AWP are dedicated to a person-centred approach for those who use our services and for all employees. We recognise that happy and fulfilled employees give better care.

At AWP we actively encourage applicants from all backgrounds; we are particularly keen to encourage applications from people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, those with disabilities and from the LGBTQ+ community. We want people to bring their unique blend of experienc, backgrounds, perspectives and knowledge to AWP, as diversity makes us stronger.

Details

Date posted

21 July 2025

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 8b

Salary

£64,455 to £74,896 a year per annum

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Full-time

Reference number

342-CS062-0725

Job locations

Calne Pharmacy Hub or Callington Road Hospital, Marmalade Lane, Brislington, Bristol

Calne or Bristol

BS4 5BJ


Job description

Job responsibilities

Please read the attached job description, and when you complete your application form make sure that it reflects the knowledge, skills and experience as described in the person specification.

Job description

Job responsibilities

Please read the attached job description, and when you complete your application form make sure that it reflects the knowledge, skills and experience as described in the person specification.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

  • Masters or equivalent degree in pharmacy, approved by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPC)
  • Current GPhC registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council
  • Postgraduate diploma/certificate/MSc in clinical pharmacy or equivalent

Desirable

  • Postgraduate qualification in mental health pharmacy
  • Membership of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society
  • Non-medical prescriber

Experience/Knowledge/ Skills

Essential

  • Significant UK hospital pharmacy experience at band 8a
  • Good communication skills, both written and oral
  • Extensive knowledge of clinical pharmacy
  • Multidisciplinary working across departments and organisations
  • Understanding of clinical goverance, risk management and medicines safety
  • Experience in delivering talks/ training to other healthcare professionals
  • Clinical pharmacy experience in mental health

Desirable

  • Experienced in writing guidelines and reports
  • Experience of web based incident reporting tools e.g. Ulysses/ Datix systems
  • Research experience

Other

Essential

  • Car driver with valid UK license or otherwise independently mobile
Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

  • Masters or equivalent degree in pharmacy, approved by the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPC)
  • Current GPhC registration with the General Pharmaceutical Council
  • Postgraduate diploma/certificate/MSc in clinical pharmacy or equivalent

Desirable

  • Postgraduate qualification in mental health pharmacy
  • Membership of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society
  • Non-medical prescriber

Experience/Knowledge/ Skills

Essential

  • Significant UK hospital pharmacy experience at band 8a
  • Good communication skills, both written and oral
  • Extensive knowledge of clinical pharmacy
  • Multidisciplinary working across departments and organisations
  • Understanding of clinical goverance, risk management and medicines safety
  • Experience in delivering talks/ training to other healthcare professionals
  • Clinical pharmacy experience in mental health

Desirable

  • Experienced in writing guidelines and reports
  • Experience of web based incident reporting tools e.g. Ulysses/ Datix systems
  • Research experience

Other

Essential

  • Car driver with valid UK license or otherwise independently mobile

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).

UK Registration

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

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).

UK Registration

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

Employer details

Employer name

Avon & Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust

Address

Calne Pharmacy Hub or Callington Road Hospital, Marmalade Lane, Brislington, Bristol

Calne or Bristol

BS4 5BJ


Employer's website

http://www.awp.nhs.uk/about-us/working-for-us/ (Opens in a new tab)


Employer details

Employer name

Avon & Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust

Address

Calne Pharmacy Hub or Callington Road Hospital, Marmalade Lane, Brislington, Bristol

Calne or Bristol

BS4 5BJ


Employer's website

http://www.awp.nhs.uk/about-us/working-for-us/ (Opens in a new tab)


Employer contact details

For questions about the job, contact:

Chief Pharmacist

Valerie McElhinney

valerie.mcelhinney@nhs.net

Details

Date posted

21 July 2025

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 8b

Salary

£64,455 to £74,896 a year per annum

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Full-time

Reference number

342-CS062-0725

Job locations

Calne Pharmacy Hub or Callington Road Hospital, Marmalade Lane, Brislington, Bristol

Calne or Bristol

BS4 5BJ


Supporting documents

Privacy notice

Avon & Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust's privacy notice (opens in a new tab)