Person specification

Job title: Senior Improvement Advisor (Registered Nurse)

Attributes

Experience

Essential

• Registered General Nurse with all round knowledge of the health and wellbeing of adults and older people in addition to specialist skills and knowledge in one of the following areas:
  • tissue viability
  • nutrition
  • promoting continence
  • palliative and end of life care
  • frailty
• Be a senior practitioner/manager with the ability to lead and operate at a national level.
• Experience of successfully managing multi-disciplinary and multi-agency teams across health and social care.
• Be able to provide general health and wellbeing advice, guidance to all teams in across the Care Inspectorate including early learning and childcare and young people, and signpost where appropriate to specific support.
• Have current credibility in their field, be this as a practitioner or a nationally recognised role.
• Experience of working creatively with partners to develop ideas and solutions to deliver change and improvement in a range of areas.
• Experience of developing and delivering educational programmes in a variety of formats.
• Experience of leading quality improvement projects.

Desirable

• Research experience.
• Experience of evidence based policy development.
• Experience of working closely with a variety of national bodies.

Education, qualifications and training

Essential

• Educated to degree level or equivalent in Nursing.
• Registered with the NMC.
• Hold a formal qualification in an aspect of improvement science such as Scottish Improvement Leader (ScIL) programme, ROCA/PDA, EFQM or willingness to work towards this or an equivalent quality improvement qualification.
• Commitment to own CPD.

Skills and knowledge

Essential

• Enhanced professional skills in a relevant discipline with the ability to apply this into the social care context.
• Expert knowledge of the social care sector and the interface with health.
• Understanding of the importance of the involvement of people experiencing care in the co-design and co-production of quality improvement initiatives.
• Ability to work autonomously in partnership and collaborate with key stakeholders including Scottish Government, HSCPs, LAs, Health Boards and service providers in the statutory, independent and voluntary sector.
• Excellent negotiating, facilitating, influencing and coaching skills.
• Understanding of quality improvement theory/change management and its practical application in health and social care settings.
• Ability to support implementation, spread and sustainability of specific improvements.
• Ability to develop and maintain extensive internal and external communication systems.
• Ability to respectfully challenge and influence at all levels.
• Excellent communicator with the ability to translate plans into actions.
• ICT skills and ability to use Care Inspectorate systems as required.
• Politically astute.

Desirable

• Ability to set up systems to monitor improvement, analyse data and develop quality improvement solutions.

Leading others

Essential

• Ability to provide leadership, a clear sense of purpose and direction to a professional team and meet the outcomes/improvements of the programme of work.

Management of resources

Essential

• Ability to bring together the overall work of a team of staff, including staff and budget responsibilities.
• Ability to manage resources and budgets in achievement of the Care Inspectorate.
• Ability to drive continuous quality improvement and manage planning and performance processes.

Effective communication

Essential

• Articulate and positive communicator both in verbal and written communication skills.
• Ability to engage, influence and lead the development of a wide range of key stakeholder relationships, both internally and externally.
• The ability to build and guide key stakeholder strategies and manage relationships to secure delivery of the programme and sustain improvements.

Impact and influence

Essential

• Demonstrates ability to influence at all levels.
• Ability to promote, lead and implement strategies and change programmes to improve the development and quality of services and reduce health and social inequalities.
• Evidence of building positive relationships, engaging and collaborating effectively with others internally and externally and at all levels.
• Demonstrates personal resilience, being able to work flexibly under pressure with stamina and tenacity to deliver results.

Desirable

• Ability to take account of wider political and organisational sensitivities to deliver strategic objectives.

Objective decision making

Essential

• The ability to assist senior/executive management to set, in consultation with others, the overall strategic agenda objectives and performance standards for the programme.
• Demonstrates analytical and systematic approach to problem solving.
• Ability to make appropriate and realistic judgments, based on relevant, up to date and verifiable information.
• The ability to take responsibility for difficult decisions and to remain resilient against possible criticism.

Please note these are key performance outcomes to be used to recruit into the role.

Job profile

Job title: Senior Improvement Adviser - Registered Nurse (focus on health and wellbeing)

Reporting to: Quality Improvement Manager (Health and Social Care Improvement Team)

Principal working contacts

Internal

• Quality Improvement Manager and Chief Nurse
• Health and Social Care Improvement Team
• Chief Inspectors
• Head of Quality Improvement and Participation
• Quality Improvement Support Team
• Involvement and Equalities Team
• Senior Leadership Team
• Scrutiny and Assurance Service Managers, Team Managers, and Inspectors
• Policy Team Intelligence Team and Communications team

External

• Scottish Government policy leads
• Service providers and care service staff
• Other regulatory, scrutiny and improvement bodies
• NHS boards staff and agencies, local authorities, partnerships, and integrated joint boards
• National specialist groups, e.g. Continence specialists, Nutrition specialists
• Members of the public and other stakeholders
• Professional Bodies and Royal Colleges

Job purpose

Working alongside the Care Inspectorate’s Chief nurse and Quality Improvement Manager and under the umbrella of Quality Improvement and with close collaboration with Scrutiny and Assurance. The post holder will promote standards and good practice in nursing-based care and support:

• Provide all round knowledge of the health and wellbeing of adults and older people in addition to specialist skills and knowledge in one of the following areas:
  • tissue viability
  • nutrition
  • promoting continence
  • palliative and end of life care
  • frailty
• Provide general health and wellbeing advice, guidance to all teams in across the Care Inspectorate, and signpost where appropriate to specific support.
• Lead and develop aspects of the Care Inspectorate’s health and social care quality improvement functions based on current and emerging models of delivery that will facilitate improvements in practice in care services and improve the outcomes for people experiencing care.
• Build the capability and confidence of inspectors across inspection, complaints, and registration teams, in specific topic areas, supporting their learning and development and keeping the evidence base of practice current.
• To support and shape scrutiny methodology as needed.
• Develop resources to support the health and wellbeing of people experiencing care for use both internally and externally.
• Build and develop strategic partnerships across the health and social care landscape to support the delivery of health and wellbeing improvement advice and quality improvement support.

Key responsibilities

• To build capacity for health and wellbeing quality improvement in the care sector and in the Care Inspectorate, across all scrutiny and quality improvement activities.
• To ensure professional advice is provided and sourced to support the Care Inspectorate in the delivery of its scrutiny and improvement activities.
• To lead the development of specific health and wellbeing focused quality illustrations / indicators, tools and improvement support materials to support the current inspection frameworks for use by inspectors and in care services.
• To develop and maintain the relationships with national bodies/improvement bodies to co-create developments in health and social care improvement, developing guidance, sharing good practice, and expert advice and support.
• To lead in ensuring the development of effective practice materials for use by inspectors and care services.
• To advise on quality improvement design and delivery to ensure the scrutiny and improvement plan is met, and to determine impact, ensuring that health and wellbeing priorities are addressed.
• To provide expert advice and guidance to internal and external stakeholders on health and wellbeing improvement in social care.
• To promote the Care Inspectorate’s improvement work and to maintain the organisation’s reputation for supporting the development of high-quality, safe, compassionate care.
• To establish and maintain robust working relationships with stakeholders across the health and social care sectors.
• To maintain and further develop skills in quality improvement and safety including coaching, mentorship and facilitation of staff and managers both internally and externally.
• To challenge outdated and unsafe practice directly with service providers, sharing evidence from research and expert advice to shift practice and achieve the necessary improvement in care quality.
• To support the delivery of the Care Inspectorate’s corporate plan.
• Monitor, evaluate, and report on all key areas and tasks advising on progress and challenges regularly.
• To carry out any other reasonable tasks necessary to support the Care Inspectorate’s business.

Relationship management

• Work with the Care Inspectorate’s Chief Nurse, Quality Improvement Manager, Head of Improvement Support and Chief Inspectors to develop and facilitate a comprehensive approach to relationship management between the Care Inspectorate and various parts of the health and social care sector.
• Ensure effective communication of the Care Inspectorate’s quality improvement support role in social care to practitioners and managers in the health sector.
• Demonstrate a commitment to the Care Inspectorate’s aims, vision and values and to the Care Inspectorate’s overall objective of improving care in Scotland.

Other duties

This job may require extensive travel and involve overnight stays. This job profile is a broad picture of the post at the date of preparation. It is not an exhaustive list of all possible duties and it is recognised that jobs change and evolve over time. Consequently, the post holder will be required to carry out any other duties to the equivalent level that are necessary to fulfil the purpose of the job, and to respond positively to changing business needs.

The post holder will be expected to work autonomously in the main but also within a group, with agreed priorities and objectives. Objectives for this post will be agreed jointly with the relevant line manager and Head of Improvement Support and will be reviewed on a regular basis.