Community Pharmacy/PCN Engagement Lead

Community Pharmacy/PCN Engagement Lead

£40,000 - £44,000 (37.5 hrs per week, Monday - Friday)

12-month Fixed Term Contract.

Community Pharmacy Experience is required. Ideal for Pharmacist, Dispenser or Technician.

Hybrid/Flexible working from home, with a requirement to attend Barlow House, M1 3DZ (occasionally).

Access to a car is required. Traveling throughout Greater Manchester and visiting different locations is key to this role. (Mileage will be reimbursed as per expenses policy).

Applications close: 29th December 2024

Interviews: 15th and 17th January 2025.

The post holder will be employed by the Greater Manchester Community Pharmacy Provider Board and hosted by Greater Manchester’s Community Pharmacy Provider Company; CPGM Healthcare Limited (CHL) and will be embedded within the Primary Care Team within GM Integrated Care.

The post of Community Pharmacy PCN Engagement Lead is one of three new roles which have been agreed to support implementation of community pharmacy advanced services across Greater Manchester. These three roles will be recruited to at the same time and include:

• 2 x Community Pharmacy PCN Engagement Lead (Described in this specification)
• Band 4 Project Support Assistant

The role will be line managed by the Programme Manager, and the post holder will also work closely with a member of CHL as a representative of the host organisation.

Most of the work assigned to the post holder will be designated by the Greater Manchester Community Pharmacy Advanced Services Implementation Group, and the post holder will be accountable to this group for completion of key milestones.

The post holder will support on a number of projects of work, specifically the implementation and delivery of a portfolio of community pharmacy advanced services as agreed between the NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care Primary Care team and Community Pharmacy Provider Board.

The post holder will develop, manage, and successfully deliver complex, high value-projects and initiatives. They will take direct responsibility for the successful delivery of most elements to agreed levels of time, budget, and quality.

The post holder will manage, deploy and co-ordinate resources effectively, ensuring that programme / initiative necessities are fully identified, including staffing, financial and ICT requirements.

The post holder will ensure that change is managed effectively by working with relevant programme teams and key stakeholders across the Greater Manchester Integrated Care System.

The post holder will play a key role ensuring the implementation and delivery of the GM Community Pharmacy Contractual Framework portfolio and its high-profile programmes to support the achievement of joint working between providers, commissioners, and sectors in service of regional and national strategic priorities.

The post holder will develop channels of engagement between community pharmacy and PCNs and build partnerships that supports integrated clinical pathways for patients.

The post holder will be expected to lead on specific work within this programme and support the relevant programme lead as necessary.

The post holder will be expected to work flexibly and support CPPB organisational priorities as defined by the Community Pharmacy Advanced Services Implementation Group.

The post holder will manage the significant and ongoing work required to support the continued engagement of general practice and PCNs with community pharmacy services.

The post holder will work collaboratively with community pharmacy and general practice to co-create new ways of working, leaning into the NHS GM GP/CP interface principles to ensure that concerns are raised, addressed, and resolved. This may include facilitating local events.

Roles and Responsibilities

Support development of relationships between general practices within the PCN and community pharmacies within Greater Manchester. To be the Community Pharmacy champion by attending PCN meetings, gathering information on behalf of the pharmacies and sharing that information. Facilitating collaborative working between community pharmacy and PCN’s to improve delivery of pharmacy services in line with local and national priorities.

As PCN Community Pharmacy Engagement Lead your immediate responsibilities will be to:

• Work across the designated Primary Care Networks (PCN) and general practices within the PCN to integrate community pharmacy services as part of the Primary Care Access Recovery Plan (PCARP) for the Integrated Care Board (ICB), including aligning clinical pathways.
• Agree local arrangements with general practice for delivering the Pharmacy First Service, including an appropriate standard operating procedure (SOP) and a protocol for referral and escalation into the service.
• Contribute to PCN clinical meetings and other key PCN meetings to represent community pharmacy, as appropriate.
• Work closely with the key members of PCN staff to discuss, understand and be able to describe how community pharmacy services (for example Pharmacy First) can support their PCN to achieve local targets aligned to national and local NHS priorities.
• Help to develop channels of engagement between community pharmacy, GP practices and PCNs and building partnership that support integrated clinical pathways for patients.
• Identify and share best practice and identify and find solutions for barriers.
• Work with other leads ensuring consistency, sharing of knowledge, experience, and produce case studies.
• Ensure that the interests of patients and the community remain at the heart of PCN and general practice decisions irrespective of providers within the scope of the role.
• Work closely with the key members of PCN staff and general practice to discuss, understand and be able to describe how commissioned community pharmacy services can support their PCN to achieve local targets aligned to national and local NHS priorities.
• Embed the community pharmacy voice within the PCN and general practice ensuring sustainability.
• Support general practice and PCN’s to embed referrals to community pharmacy into their BAU to ensure continuity of provision.

Skills/Knowledge

• Need for self-motivation, initiative and good team working skills.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, both written and verbal.
• Working collaboratively to create new ways of working.
• Being inclusive, supportive, and empowering.
• Problem solving skills and ability to respond with solutions.
• Knowledge of how community pharmacy referral pathways operate between general practice and community pharmacies.
• Adaptable, flexible, efficient, resilient, and determined.
• Manage time effectively, demonstrating a powerful desire to make improvements and a difference by focusing on goals.
• Effective leadership to influence positive change in culture and relationships.
• Stakeholder management
• Able to identify and share good practice.
• Analytical insight to identify appropriate solution.
• Demonstrates an understanding of Neighbourhood working.
• Embodying the values of the NHS.
• Achieving delivery of results.
• Evidence of working with a range of healthcare professionals in a complex and changing environment.
• Strong negotiating and influencing skills.

Key Working Relationships

• Operate effectively in a flexible and demanding environment and proactively engages with NHS staff and service providers especially:
• Community Pharmacy PCN Project Lead.
• Greater Manchester ICB Community Pharmacy Clinical Lead
• Community Pharmacy Provider Board
• Community Pharmacy Greater Manchester
• Community Pharmacy Greater Manchester Locality Leads
• Community pharmacies, their pharmacists and wider pharmacy team.
• GPs, Practice Managers, other healthcare professionals and administrative practice staff working in primary care.
• PCN Clinical Directors, PCN Managers and Medicines optimisation pharmacy teams.
• Other Community Pharmacy PCN Engagement Leads within the locality.
• Other NHS health and social care providers and key influencers in general practice and community pharmacy that can impact delivery and /activity.

Key Deliverables

• Work collaboratively with key stakeholders within the PCN, community pharmacy, GP practice, and the ICB and have a presence within these networks through attendance at locality and PCN meetings.
• Support the implementation and delivery of Pharmacy First to improve access and free up appointments in general practice.
• Increase utilisation of EMIS local services to send Pharmacy First referrals across PCNs as a mean to simplify the referral process.
• Work with PCNs, GP practices and Community pharmacies to introduce and embed referrals to Community Pharmacy Hypertension Case-Finding Service
• Work with PCN’s GP practices and Community Pharmacies to introduce and embed referrals to Community Pharmacy Contraception Service as a pathway to improve access for women that require oral contraception and freeing up capacity in general practice.
• Support PCNs to achieve local targets aligned to national pharmacy PCARP priorities and the Pharmacy First
• Increasing the number of practices sending referrals and volume of referrals into Pharmacy First across their locality.
• Support the reduction of variance in the utilisation of community pharmacy clinical service across PCNs, standardising operations, implementing, and establishing sustainable pathways.
• Be familiar with all the training and support materials that are available to both general practice and community pharmacies and to share it in a way that missed opportunities are minimised.
• Increase in the total number of consultations undertaken in community pharmacy for Pharmacy First, Hypertension Case finding and the Contraception Service.
• Evidence of collaborative working and partnership with the other locality Community Pharmacy PCN Engagement Leads.

The post holder will be a key member of the NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care Primary Care Team and Community Pharmacy Provider Board and will play a crucial role in achieving the goal of delivering, implementing, and embedding an exciting and challenging portfolio of Community Pharmacy Advanced Services. The programme mainly covers the Community Pharmacy contractor group but due to the matrix working approach of the team there will be opportunities to work with colleagues across broader disciplines such as General Practice, Dentistry, Optometry, Urgent Care, and Inpatient services.

The Primary Care Team is responsible for leading and supporting on all elements of the commissioning cycle including:

• Service specification development.
• Procurement.
• Contract management /monitoring.
• Service evaluation and review.

The NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care Primary Care Team also plays a key role in the transformation of primary care and supporting Greater Manchester with the delivery of local place-based delivery plans working in collaboration with all partners.

Our Organisation

The Health and Care Act 2022 has made it easier for health and care services around the country to communicate with each other and work better together locally. Our new system, the Greater Manchester Integrated Care Partnership, is made up of two parts:

Greater Manchester Integrated Care Partnership Board (GM ICB)

All the different health and care organisations across Greater Manchester meet together to discuss the big issues affecting the health of people in the city-region and work together on improvements. They will link in with wider partners including the voluntary sector and community groups.

NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care (NHS GM IC)

This new organisation, overseen by a Board, is in charge of the NHS money and making sure services are in place to put plans into action. Made up of representatives from the NHS and the local council, they’re responsible for making decisions about health services in their area. You may see this abbreviated to ‘NHS Greater Manchester’ or ‘NHS GM’.

The partnership will operate at three levels: neighbourhood, locality and Greater Manchester and will have a single vision and strategy. Hospitals, GPs, community services, voluntary services and others will come together to form ‘provider collaboratives’ within all 3 levels, helping to join care and help people live well across our ten boroughs.

Community Pharmacy Provider Board (CPPB)

The GM Community Pharmacy Provider Board (CPPB) draws together the community pharmacy sector and contractors across Greater Manchester on a single partnership platform to align the interests of community pharmacy with the ICS agenda and provide a unified voice for the sector in the GM ICS to support integrated health and social care within Greater Manchester.

The CPPB reach extends to the Primary Care Board (PCB) to collaborate with representatives from Dentistry, General Practice and Optometry to support development of strategies and proposals for wider Primary Care through unified representation within the GM ICS

CPPB has reset its strategic priorities and assessed the enablers required to successfully partner with the GM ICS. As a part of this collaborative effort, CPPB have identified the delivery, implementation, and embedding of the portfolio of Community Pharmacy Advanced Services as a key strategic priority for 2024/25 and 2025/26.

CPGM Healthcare Limited (CHL)

CHL is Greater Manchester’s Community Pharmacy Provider company – a not-for-profit provider organisation set up by Bolton and GM Local Pharmaceutical Committees (LPCs) in 2016 to actively develop partnerships with commissioners and other health care providers to seek out new opportunities for community pharmacy to meet the needs of our population. CHL empowers community pharmacies across Greater Manchester to maximise the delivery of high quality, patient centred services which are sustainable for the future.

CHL is a core member of CPPB and provides administrative and secretariat support to CPPB, along with acting as the host employing organisation for any individuals recruited by CPPB to support delivery of its strategic priorities.

NHS Greater Manchester Integrated Care Partnership

The Greater Manchester Integrated Care Partnership is helping organisations work better together with people and communities.

We want people across all our boroughs to stay well, whatever their age, and whatever issues or conditions they might be managing. We’re bringing together all the different organisations that support people’s health and social care, so that services can join up and act faster when people need support.

Integrated care means starting with the person, understanding they’ll have different needs as they move through life, and connecting them with the right care.

We’re working together with partners across the region to make Greater Manchester a place where everyone can live well. We want to give children the best start and support older people to live as independently as possible. We want everyone to have the care and support they need, when they need it, and feel able to take an active role in their own wellbeing.

Applications Close on Sunday 29th December 2024.

Interview dates are currently scheduled for 15th and 17th January 2025.