Mortuary & Bereavement Services Manager
3 days ago
London
Guy’s and St Thomas’ is among the UK’s busiest and most successful NHS foundation trusts. We provide a full range of hospital and community services for people in south London and as well as specialist care for patients from further afield including cancer, renal, orthopaedic, respiratory and cardiovascular services.Guy’s is home to the largest dental school in Europe and a £160 million Cancer Centre opened in 2016. As part of our commitment to provide care closer to home, in 2017 we also opened a cancer centre and a kidney treatment centre at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup. St Thomas’ has one of the largest critical care units in the UK and one of the busiest emergency departments in London. It is also home to Evelina London Children’s Hospital.Evelina London cares for local children in Lambeth and Southwark and provides specialist services across south east England including cardiac, renal and critical care services. We lead a number of specialist service networks aiming to ensure children are treated locally where possible, but have access to specialist expertise when they need it. Our community services include health visiting, school nursing and support for families of children with long-term conditions. Our adult community services teams deliver care at the heart of the local communities we serve, working in partnership with GPs, local authorities and other healthcare and voluntary sector organisations. Working with our partners in Lambeth and Southwark, we are focusing on new ways of working to improve care for local patients.In February 2021 the Royal Brompton and Harefield joined Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, bringing together world-leading expertise in the care and research of heart and lung disease. Our merger provides a once in a generation opportunity to build a lasting, world-renowned heart and lung centre, providing the highest quality care for patients and conducting world-leading research.We have a reputation for clinical excellence and high quality teaching and research. We are part of King’s Health Partners, one of eight accredited UK academic health sciences centres. In partnership with King’s College London we have dedicated clinical research facilities including an MHRA accredited Phase I clinical trials unit.Patients are at the heart of everything we do and we pride ourselves on ensuring the best possible patient experience as well as safe, high quality care. We are proud to have one of the lowest mortality rates in the NHS. Following a comprehensive Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection in 2019 we maintained our overall rating of ‘good’. Our adult community services achieved a rating of ‘outstanding’.The commitment of our 23,500 staff is key to our success. We are one of the largest local employers and we aim to develop and support all our staff so they are able to deliver high quality, safe and efficient care. The 2019 NHS staff survey results show that we have one of the most engaged and motivated workforces in the NHS. We know this has a positive impact on the care provided to our patients.We have one of the most ambitious capital investment programmes anywhere in the NHS.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Job overviewThe Mortuary & Bereavement (M&B) Manager is accountable to the General Manager. The purpose of the M&B Manager is to be the professional lead for Mortuary and Bereavement Services across the Trust and take the lead on ensuring that quality standards and regulatory compliance is met across all Trust sites.They will work closely with operational teams to ensure the effective delivery of services to patients in accordance with agreed objectives, targets, quality standards, controls and resource constraints. The M&B Manager will be expected to support the General Manager in the delivery of Trust objectives and ensuring national targets are achieved.The post holder will support the Clinical Director and General Manager with the development and delivery of a strategic vision and ensure service changes meet internal and external expectations and standards.The post holder will need to understand the business requirements and implement plans for service improvement using modernisation techniques and involve patients to ensure changes to services meet patient’s expectations as well as ensuring the required capacity to meet key clinical performance targets.Main duties of the job- Lead and manage mortuary and bereavement services across all Trust sites, ensuring high‑quality, compliant and safe practice.Oversee performance, KPIs, audits and readiness for inspections (HTA, CQC), taking action to resolve issues and maintain standards.- Work with clinical and operational teams to ensure effective service delivery, facilities, and support for patient pathways.- Provide professional and technical leadership, guiding staff, managing workforce planning, and overseeing recruitment, development and performance.- Handle complaints, risk management, incidents, and governance processes, ensuring learning and improvement.- Manage budgets, financial planning, income capture and cost‑improvement initiatives.- Lead service redesign, change projects and modernisation work in line with Trust strategy.- Liaise with internal teams and external agencies (Coroner, funeral directors, police, other Trusts) on all aspects of care of the deceased.Working for our organisationGuy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust comprises five of the UK’s best known hospitals – Guy’s, St Thomas’, Evelina London Children’s Hospital, Royal Brompton and Harefield – as well as community services in Lambeth and Southwark, all with a long history of high quality care, clinical excellence, research and innovation.We are among the UK’s busiest, most successful foundation trusts. We provide specialist care for patients including heart and lung, cancer and renal services as well as a full range of local hospital and community services for people in Lambeth and Southwark.We have a long tradition of clinical and scientific achievement and – as part of King’s Health Partners – we are one of England’s eight academic health sciences centres, bringing together world-class clinical services, teaching and research. We have around 22,700 staff, making us one of the largest NHS Trusts in the country and one of the biggest employers locally. We aim to reflect the diversity of the communities we serve and continue to develop new and existing partnerships with local people, patients, neighbouring NHS organisations, local authorities and charitable bodies and GPs.We strive to recruit and retain the best staff as the dedication and skills of our employees lie at the heart of our organisation and ensure that our services are of the highest quality, safe and focused on our patients.Detailed job description and main responsibilities· Establish and build agreements within the team to ensure the delivery of the services provided.· Ensure area has a quality management framework that complements the Trust use of key performance indicators across a number of metrics, using service line reporting/management to ensure timely and accurate capture of information from which metrics reported.· Work closely with the Service Managers, Histopathologists and Designated Individual to ensure effective support services are in place for all clinical areas.· Ensure facilities and other resources are available to meet service needs, including analysing and managing space requirements.· Ensure all policies and procedures are adhered to as required by the Trust.· Responsible for achievement of national and local service targets in conjunction with Directors and General Manager; monitor performance against targets, identify areas of concern and take remedial and preventative action as appropriate putting in place plans to improve performance where required.· Respond to any service target breaches in line with Trust standards and put in place remedial plans to ensure such events do not occur again· As a member of the management team, contribute to the annual Business Plan, ensuring staff involvement, in line with Trust objectives.· Manage the analysis of data so that the Management team has access to timely and accurate information on all key performance indicators.· Lead on the development of reporting processes from relevant information systems and integrating them into the performance management function.· Provide information across the Trust on performance within Directorate, including reporting performance to the Board.· Promote a positive image of the department both externally and internally.· Participate in and contribute to Trust wide initiatives and projects as appropriate.· Build effective networks with other departments, working in collaboration to support efficient patient flow.- Advise and liaise with non-departmental staff (i.e. clinicians, ward staff, staff in other Trusts, bereavement teams) re all aspects of care of the deceased.- Advise and liaise with external agencies (i.e. Coroner, funeral directors, social services, police officers, GM Mass fatalities team) re clinical aspects of care of the deceased.Management and Leadership· To provide professional leadership and management of the mortuary and bereavement services across GSTT. To ensure an effective service, in line with local and national policy.· To provide technical advice in the area of specialised anatomical pathology technology and care of the deceased patients to the organisation.· To be an active member of the Trust’s End of Life Care Committees, providing guidance and assurance on mortuary activities.· Support workforce plans which anticipate service changes and developments and which address recruitment, retention and workforce supply issues to minimise the impact of these on service delivery.· Work with Lead Clinicians, Matrons and Head of Nursing, multi-disciplinary team to identify requirements for posts and sources of funding and to make decisions regarding funding for changes to roles.· Lead and support organisational change and wider organisation to ensure efficient service delivery and productivity and compliance with Trust and NHS targets; this could include consultation with staff and promoting new ways of working, implementing new policies and procedures.· Full line management responsibilities including recruitment, induction, appraisal, development and retention of staff as well as managing sickness and absence, disciplinary and performance issues that may arise.· Responsible for developing and motivating staff through effective personal leadership, ensuring views and decisions are communicated both up and down the management structure.· Chair disciplinary, grievance and other formal panels, as and when required.Quality, Risk and Governance· Lead on resolving complaints and concerns from patients, staff, suppliers, other internal and external service providers and partner organisations; as part of the engagement with patients strategy ensure mechanisms are in place for capturing and sharing compliments.· Lead on investigating and responding to complaints in line with Trust Policy.· Ensure adherence to control processes and risk management arrangements including developing specific polices/procedures as appropriate.· Develop systems for the monitoring of compliance with internal and external governance and best practice requirements.· To ensure the mortuaries are compliant with HTA codes of practice, and all appropriate CQC standards.· To ensure that mortuary is ready for inspections, including Care Quality Commission and Human Tissue Authority .· Responsible for ensuring the audit schedule is implemented across the mortuary sites· Responsible for reporting and investigating non-conformances in the mortuary service, including completing and reviewing error logs and subsequent actions.· To keep up-to-date with current Mortuary and Bereavement practices and guidance from the Health and Safety Executive and any other professional bodies e.g. Human Tissue Authority and DoH.· To ensure lessons are learned from post-event analysis, proactive risk assessments and timely dissemination.· Financial Management· Manage delegated budget responsibilities for area, ensuring income capture, adherence to agreed budget plans, identifying savings and implementing plans to reduce costs as appropriate.· Work with the Finance Manager to ensure budgets are up to date and accurate, identify changes to budgets as required.· Identify costs pressures, service development and cost improvement plans, develop business cases to meet requirements and present to local Performance Review Meetings, Clinical Operations Group and Trust Management Executive as required.· Ensure compliance with Trust standing financial instructions.Strategy, Change and Service Improvement· Identify opportunities for service redesign, focusing on a patient centred approach to delivery; work to develop and lead plans to improve and develop services.· Participate in Trust and area wide programmes that contribute to the modernisation of patient services.· Investigate processes and define root cause problems in order to make service improvements in line with Trust strategy and modernisation initiatives.· Support the General Manager with the creation of an environment that is responsive to the changing needs and strategy of the Trust including AHSC developments, changing patterns of healthcare and healthcare commissioning.· Act as management lead for the implementation of NSF’s and other initiatives· Responsible for the delivery of agreed change and service improvement projects and initiatives.· Work with colleagues to assist in the development and implementation of R&D, teaching and training programmes as required.· Responsible for regular audit/surveys to support and inform service development.Person specificationKnowledge/QualificationsEssential criteria- • Relevant Masters, equivalent professional qualification or equivalent experience.- • Evidence of recent Continuing Professional Development.- • RSPH Certificate & Diploma of Anatomical Pathology Technology, or RSPH Level 3 and 4 Diploma in Healthcare Science (Anatomical Pathology Technology)Desirable criteria- • Completed e-learning MEO core training modules- • Prince 2 qualification or equivalent experience- • Understanding of lean methodologyPrevious experienceEssential criteria- Supervision, training and teaching Healthcare professionals- • Evidence of managing success...