Job Introduction
As a Team Sister within our Community Transfer of Care Hub, you will play a pivotal role in supporting patients to leave hospital safely and receive the right care in the right place at the right time.
Based at Gravesham Community Hospital, you will be part of a newly established and growing service that manages referrals into the Discharge to Assess pathways across Dartford, Gravesham, Swanley and Medway.
Working at the heart of system-wide discharge planning, you will help ensure patients experience smooth transitions from hospital to community services, assessment beds or their own homes, supporting our Home First approach wherever possible.
This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced registered nurse or therapist with a passion for complex discharge planning, leadership and service improvement. You will work closely with acute hospitals, social care teams, community services and care providers to improve patient flow and deliver the best possible outcomes for patients and their families.
Package Description
You will be joining a small, supportive and friendly team based at Gravesham Community Hospital, within walking distance of the train station and local amenities.
This is an exciting time to join the Community Transfer of Care Hub as the service continues to develop and strengthen discharge pathways across the local health and care system.
As part of HCRG Care Group, you will receive:
- NHS Agenda for Change Band 6 salary with an NHS pension
- Membership of My Reward Hub, giving you discounts on everyday purchases, plus cashback and voucher offers for treats and essentials
- Access to your wages as you earn them, helping cover life's emergencies and avoid overdraft fees or high-interest borrowing
- Online and in-person wellbeing support, including mental health services, activity challenges, financial wellbeing tools, coaching and counselling
- Access to e-learning, bespoke career pathways and professional development opportunities through our ‘Outstanding’ Learning Enterprise team
- An open, just culture where you're encouraged to contribute ideas, backed by ringfenced innovation funding each year
- The pride of working for an organisation where the majority of our rated services hold ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ ratings from the Care Quality Commission
- Free tea, coffee and milk at your base location
The service operates 7 days a week:
- Monday to Friday: 8am to 5pm
- Weekends and Bank Holidays: 9am to 5pm
Main Responsibilities
In this role, you will provide operational, clinical and professional leadership to colleagues within the Community Transfer of Care Hub, supporting the day-to-day management of patient flow and discharge planning across the discharge pathways.
You will oversee complex discharge cases, support integrated discharge nurses and healthcare assistants, and ensure patients receive safe, timely and person-centred care.
Working collaboratively with acute hospitals, local authorities, social care teams, care providers and community services, you will help remove barriers to discharge and improve patient outcomes across the system.
You will also act as a specialist resource for discharge planning, providing expert advice on funding pathways, continuing healthcare processes, safeguarding, homelessness assessments and complex care arrangements.
Alongside your clinical responsibilities, you will contribute to service development, quality improvement, audit activity and workforce development.
Key responsibilities include:
- Supporting the day-to-day operational management of the Community Transfer of Care Hub
- Providing leadership, guidance and supervision to nurses, therapists and healthcare assistants
- Managing and supporting complex discharge planning across all discharge pathways
- Leading on challenging cases including homeless patients, safeguarding concerns and complex care packages
- Acting as a clinical link with acute hospitals, social care, GPs and partner organisations
- Supporting patient flow, bed management and discharge performance reporting
- Reviewing and supporting Continuing Healthcare, one-to-one funding and placement decisions
- Investigating failed discharges and identifying learning opportunities
- Contributing to service transformation, audit, quality improvement and clinical governance activities
- Supporting recruitment, induction, appraisal and professional development within the team
The role will involve travel across hospital, community, care home and patient home settings.
Person Specification
Essential
- Registered Nurse (NMC) or Registered Allied Health Professional (HCPC)
- Degree or Diploma in a relevant healthcare profession
- Recognised mentorship, teaching or assessing qualification
- Evidence of ongoing Continuing Professional Development
- Significant post-registration clinical experience
- Extensive experience of discharge planning and discharge pathways
- Experience working across health and social care systems
- Knowledge of Continuing Healthcare, Care Act 2014 and Mental Capacity Act 2005
- Experience leading and supporting teams
- Experience managing complex patient cases and clinical risk
- Strong communication, negotiation and conflict resolution skills
- Ability to work autonomously and make decisions under pressure
- Experience supporting service improvement and change management initiatives
- Excellent organisational and workload management skills
- Full UK driving licence and access to a vehicle for work purposes
Desirable
- Management qualification or equivalent
- Leadership development programme
- Experience managing budgets or financial processes
- Experience of service redesign or transformation programmes
- Strong presentation and training delivery skills
About the Company
We change lives by transforming health and care. Established in 2006, we are one of the UK's leading independent providers of community health and care services, working with health and care commissioners and communities to transform services with a focus on experience, efficiency, and improved outcomes. We deliver and transform adult and children community health services, primary care services including urgent care, sexual health, dermatology and MSK services as well as adult social care and wellbeing services. Across England, we support communities of many millions and directly help more than half a million people each year, guided by our simple values: we care, we think, we do. We're committed to equal opportunities and welcome applications from a broad, diverse range of people who want to join our team. We're a Disability Confident Committed company, so we work to provide facilities, work environment adjustments and technical solutions to be as inclusive of everyone. While it doesn't happen often, sometimes a role is very popular and we'll need to close it earlier than the date we've shown here. If you're keen to join our team, we'd love to hear from you so please apply as soon as you can. As you'd expect, safeguarding and protecting the children, young people and vulnerable adults that we work with is of the utmost importance so we have policies and procedures in place to promote safeguarding and safer working practices and everyone who joins the team is subject to a safer recruitment process, including the disclosure of criminal records and vetting checks.
