Primary Care Dementia Nurse Specialist

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust

Published: Published today

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust has a rich history, well-established community links and an international reputation. We deliver specialist services in the London boroughs of Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark, Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich, Wandsworth and Richmond.

We are committed to provide a high quality and specialist care to our service users and we are recognised for our care and treatment we provide. The Care Quality Commission already rates our services as ‘good’.

We launched our five-year strategy, Aiming High; Changing Lives in 2021 together with Our Care Improvement System as our quality management system methodology to make a positive impact on patient care, outcomes and staff experience. By joining SLaM, all staff will get the opportunity to be part of this exciting improvement journey supported with learning and development to harness everyone’s potential as change makers.

The trust recognises the unique and valuable contribution that people with lived experience of mental illness can bring to a role. We therefore welcome applications from people with lived experience and consider them as an asset to the Trust.

Our Values

We take pride in providing specialist care to our service users where our Trust values and our promise to be caring, kind, polite, prompt, honest, listen and do what I say I’m going to do is at the heart of everything we do. When you join us, you’ll be part of something special.

As a Trust we are happy to talk flexible working.

Job overview

The Dementia Clinical Nurse Specialist service in Southwark provides comprehensive clinical holistic assessment, review, and support for people, and their carers, who are living with a diagnosis of dementia. The nurse led service primarily offer home based assessments to support planning of care for people living with dementia in the community to stay living at home.

To achieve this, we work closely with primary care, social care, and voluntary sector organisations in the borough to foster positive networks and co-working across the borough. Building and strengthening these relationships is a key part of this role, and this is done through network meetings, MDTs, and co-location of services.

Alongside this; using knowledge as specialist nurses we promote health and wellness, as well as giving dementia education to other health professionals, social care, and voluntary organisations. We provide expert clinical guidance to our partner organisations and consult as .

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust currently has two Dementia CNS services, based in Lewisham and Southwark, and the services work closely to ensure a parity of care and access across the two boroughs. The provision is very small so the two are joined and have shared meetings on the Lewisham site.

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Undertake holistic clinical assessment of individuals living with dementia, provide expert advice and support to these individuals, whilst maintaining a small short-term caseload of patients with dementia who may need follow up visits to achieve desired outcomes.

To work with health, social, and voluntary services, and engage with the wider Southwark community, to develop and maintain working relationships and cohesive care pathways across the borough for the defined patient group.

To give expert advice, training and community engagement on dementia. This will relate to general overview of dementia, living and living well with a diagnosis, and best practice. The aim of this engagement is to upskill professionals coming into contact with those who are living with dementia, as well as wider impact education for family and carers of those living with dementia outside of direct clinical assessment.

Working for our organisation

By coming to work at SLaM, you will join an organisation with a rich history and international reputation in mental health care, with access to professional development and the chance to work alongside world leaders in their field. Our close working relationship with King's Health Partners also opens up opportunities to get involved in academic research.

We're committed to a healthy work-life balance and ensuring our staff feel valued, with a comprehensive benefits package including:

Generous pay, pensions and leave, dependent on role and length of service
Flexible working, including part-time and job share options
Career development, through mentoring, coaching, and leadership and talent programmes
Car lease schemes at competitive rates
NHS discounts of up to 10% with major retailers

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Key Responsibilities (Clinical):

To undertake direct patient care at least 70% of working hours. To practice at an advanced level, demonstrating a high level of autonomy and clinical decision making.

The post holder will liaise proactively with external organisations to provide and promote seamless patient-centred care.

Identify safeguarding concerns and report via agreed channels and seek advice through the safeguarding leadership structure

To develop a detailed knowledge of services and agencies in the borough which can support people with dementia with a range of needs and effectively signpost patients, carers and GPs to these services and build professional links.

To work alongside the voluntary sector organisations to provide expert clinical advice and guidance where there are concerns for their attendees and the services lack clinical expertise or direct access to this.

To ensure that appropriate, consistent and realistic information is provided to patients and relatives.

To provide support to carers of people with dementia

To adhere with clinical care pathways for patients with dementia.

2) Practice and Service Development:

To act as a clinical dementia expert to primary care , supporting GP practice nurses and others with practical advice, signposting to relevant community services. To actively involve service users in providing feedback of their experience of the current service and suggestions for improvements.

3) Education and Training

To educate professionals in Southwark on the range of services available for people with dementia and effective care planning, through carrying out joint work and feeding back actions from reviews

To attend meetings and conferences, locally and nationally to maintain own specialist knowledge ensuring that the post holder is fully conversant with current issues.

To participate in the training and education of nursing, medical and AHP staff within the Trust and Primary Care as .

4) Quality Improvement and Service Evaluation

To collect and present high quality data on the effectiveness of the service.

To collect key outcome measures – including rates of completed care planning for people with dementia, referral and re-referral rates, and patient experience and carer experience data.

5) Other

To undertake any other reasonable duties as requested by line manager.

The Trust is committed to providing services which embrace diversity and that promote equality of opportunity. We are a Disability Confident Employer, we welcome applicants from all sections of the community and people of all protected characteristics. We provide reasonable adjustments for candidates with a disability and are committed to treating people fairly with compassion, respect and dignity and in promoting equality and human rights. We aim to put this commitment into practice by:

Embedding our commitment to tackling inequality, eliminating discrimination and harassment; promoting equality of opportunity and fostering good relations in our everyday practice
Ensuring that all our services and all staff understand and support our commitment
We believe that people who use our services, their carers and our staff, should be treated with compassion, respect and dignity.

Welcome to your candidate journey.
Our Candidate Recruitment Information Pack is designed to help you learn more about our Trust, understand the recruitment process, and prepare a strong application. We encourage you to explore the pack and use the guidance, tips and resources available to help you feel informed, confident, and ready to showcase your best self:Recruitment Toolkit - Customer Success Test

Please note:

That all applications for this post will need to be made online
That you read and understand the Job Description and Person Specification attached to the role. Your Statement in Support should reflect the requirements specified as your application will be judged against these criteria
That the closing date listed is a guide only and that the vacancy may close earlier should sufficient number of applicants have been received. We advise that you submit your application as early as possible
That once you have submitted your application you agree to your application being transferred to a 3rd party e-recruitment system. All subsequent information regarding your application will be generated from apps.trac.jobs
That should you not have heard from us within three weeks from the closing date your application has not been successful
That priority consideration for applications may be given to at-risk NHS employees
That should you be successful and appointed, you authorise South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust to confirm your previous NHS service via an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) process
That we are a smoke-free Trust

SLaM is a Stonewall Diversity Champion , Stonewall is the largest Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Trans (LGBT) rights charity in Europe’.