The opportunity

The Overview

The NHS Long Term Plan states that the biggest area where the NHS can save lives over the next 10 years is in reducing the incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD). CVD causes one death every three minutes in the UK, with those in the most deprived areas four times more likely to die. For the first time in 50 years, deaths from premature cardiovascular disease are on the rise. CVD is the single biggest area where the health service can save lives over the next 10 years through targeted approaches to reduce the widening of health inequalities.

The NHS Long Term Plan sets the ambitious target of preventing 150,000 cases of heart attacks, strokes, and dementia over ten years. To address this, the South West AHSN is delivering a national CVD Programme focusing on lipid management and blood pressure optimisation, which commenced in 2020/21 and will run for three years. The South West AHSN has a unique role in achieving these ambitions by working together with our regional partners and the health and care sector to implement innovative frameworks that are optimised for clinical care and self-care for people with these high-risk conditions. We support primary care networks across the South West with patient identification, diagnosis, shared decision making, medicine optimisation, monitoring and workforce training. Our primary focus is on reducing health inequalities by targeting 20% of the most deprived populations and other local priority groups.

In 2013 a small group of founding member organisations established the South West Academic Health Science Network. They were motivated by a shared ambition to accelerate the adoption and spread of innovation across our region to improve population health and generate economic growth.

Step forward nine years and that ambition has become a reality. Working in collaboration with regional partners and AHSNs across England, our work transforms lives through innovation. In the last year, our work as a network of AHSNs has benefited over 480,000 people and leveraged over £455m of investment into the health and life science sector. You can read more about the impact of our work nationally in our latest AHSN Network impact report and regional work in our annual review.

All our work is grounded in the context of our region – supporting our partners to identify and spread innovation that tackles the shared challenges we face improving health across a complex mix of rural, coastal and urban communities. Tackling health inequalities is central to that work, ensuring we support system partners to improve health equity and the health of people living across the South West region.

Our work supports our Integrated Care Systems to meet their priorities and maximises impact from local system transformation plans, the Long Terms Plan, Core20PLUS5 and the UK Life Sciences Vision.

Role profile:

The role of the Clinical Engagement Champion will include providing clinical leadership to support the delivery of the CVD Programme at the South West AHSN. 

The candidate will work closely with the South West AHSN CVD Programme Team and local CVD system leaders to support the delivery of the elements of the CVD programme. They will build on their own experiences of working across the spectrum of CVD-related factors, including high cholesterol and hypertension (preferably in the community care setting), and providing real world insight and peer support to the programme's agenda.

Key success factors

●       Track record in clinical leadership and CVD expertise

●       Proven ability to build and maintain partnerships to generate mutual benefit.

●       An accomplished communicator with the ability to guide and influence others to problem solve, make decisions and overcome challenges

Responsibilities

Clinical leadership and engagement function

●       Be a visible clinical leader and clearly articulate the quality arguments for service development and change

●       Champion the CVD Programme and provide clinical expertise and guidance to the South West AHSN and the local health system to support, develop and sustain local partnerships

●       Have a strong interest in public health and supporting people to take a greater responsibility for their own health and their own care management as appropriate

●       Support the South West AHSN CVD Programme Managers in tackling health inequalities by using expert clinical knowledge and undertaking research as required

Stakeholder engagement

●       Work collaboratively with the CVD Programme and with key stakeholders to develop a local network of interested/engaged parties

●       Foster closer working relationships with other regional AHSNs and Clinical Networks, developing opportunities for joint working where appropriate

●       Attend relevant meetings as required, and present at local conferences, to clinical departments and health systems and other interested parties as required 

●       Provide education sessions at the PCN/primary care practice level when required

Data management and reporting

●       Demonstrate high standards of integrity when dealing with shared data or information and ensure individual and organisational confidentiality/GDPR is maintained at all times

●       Support data interpretation to steer programme focus  

●       Contribute to reporting when required

Expert Interface 

●       Inform the South West AHSN CVD Programme Managers of relevant local issues that might affect the uptake, spread and sustainability of the programme. 

●       Contribute to reports, case studies and evaluation of the programme where appropriate 

●       Pro-actively support the team to develop communication materials and present the work at events and meetings for experts, lay and patient audiences 

●       Support the South West AHSN CVD Programme Managers with their CVD training and education endeavours

●       Other grade appropriate responsibilities as, from time to time, instructed by the line manager.

●       Demonstrate the values of the organisation in all your work as impact led, improvement focused and collaborative. 

Person specification:

Experience we are looking for

●       Understanding of the aims and objectives of the CVD Programme and the Core20PLUS5 Framework

●       In-depth CVD knowledge and experience including hypertension and lipid pathways

●       Knowledge of and existing relationship with CVD stakeholders and networks across the South West

●       Professional clinical registration (e.g. medical, nursing, pharmaceutical, AHP)

●       Experience of a clinical leadership role

●       Experience of working across system boundaries, e.g. in leadership role, or in change programme

●       Strong communication, organization, influencing and negotiating skills

Experience and capabilities you will develop in the role

●       Experience of working across system boundaries, e.g. in leadership role, or in change programme

●       Knowledge of Quality Improvement approaches in healthcare 

●       Experience of delivering a national NHSE Programme

●       Experience of spread and adoption of innovation in the NHS

●       Development of a wide network of contacts and professionals, particularly in the CVD area

Abilities and attributes

●       Effective stakeholder management – able to earn and maintain the trust of internal and external stakeholders at all levels and inspire through a shared purpose.

●       Effective communicator and presenter – able to engage a wide range of audiences by being compelling, credible and inspiring

●       Some flexibility to adapt working hours to meet the demands of the role

●       Ability to travel in the geographic locality of the South West AHSN

Reporting to:

Programme Manager