Patient Safety Partner

The Patient Safety Partner (PSP) is a new and exciting role to work with the trust to enhance our response to patient safety incidents.

A PSP is actively involved in the design of safer healthcare at all levels in the organisation. This includes in safety governance e.g. sitting on relevant committees to support compliance monitoring and how safety issues should be addressed, providing appropriate challenge to ensure learning and change and in the development and implementation of relevant strategy and policy. The PSP should ensure that any committee / group of which they are a member considers and priorities the service user, patient, carer and family perspective and champions a diversity of views.

The Patient Safety Partner role is one of the ways patients, carers and other lay people support the Trust to ensure our care is safe, kind and centred around the needs, wants and preferences of our patients and communities. Patient Safety Partners provide a different and independent perspective on patient safety. By reinforcing the patient voice at all levels in an organisation and across integrated care systems, patient safety partners can support a patient-centred approach to safer healthcare.

We are initially seeking to recruit two Patient Safety Partners. These will be the first of what we are hoping will be a diverse group, representing all ages, ethnicities, genders 2 and backgrounds across our communities, who will fulfil a crucial role in our planning, governance and management by being actively involved in patient safety at all levels. These voluntary roles require attendance at a minimum of one meeting every month and other activity between meetings. The roles do attract an involvement payment and reimbursement for reasonable expenses.

As a PSP you will join one or more governance committees concerned with patient safety, risk and quality. PSP's will work alongside NHS professionals - both clinical and non-clinical to ensure that decisions are considered from a patient perspective.

PSP’s perform a very different role from that of a governor in a Foundation Trust or a traditional NHS volunteer; however, individuals working in these roles can also be a PSP.

Candidates will have a natural curiosity and be comfortable asking questions on topics of patient safety that may be highly sensitive to ensure that patient safety is the best it can be. They will have insight and empathy to consider the issues from a wide variety of perspectives, including those that may be different to their own.

Other essential tasks:

• Receive and read meeting papers prior to attending (approx. half a day)

• Attend a meeting (approx. half a day twice a month).

• Attend a pre-meet and post-meeting de-brief with the Trust's Patient Safety Specialist (approx. 1 hr).

• Maintain the strict confidentiality of the meeting, its members and content at all times both pre, during and post meetings.

Remuneration

In line with the guidance from NHSE, Patient Safety Partners will be reimbursed the following amounts for any task we ask them to undertake. This includes meetings, training, reading documents and preparation for meetings.

• £25/hour for up to three hours

• 4 hours: £75

• 8 hours (or a day): £150

• Public transport travel expenses

HOW TO APPLY

An electronic or paper application form will be available and shortlisting will commence in late November 2022. We will rely on the information you provide in the application form to assess whether you have the skills and experience required for this role.

The closing date for applications is 25th November 2022.