Job summaryAre you an experienced clinical pharmacist looking for a new challenge in diabetes and multi-morbidity care? A rare opportunity has arisen for a Specialist Pharmacist to join the launch of the Diabetes Neighbourhood Health Programme a new, integrated model of diabetes care being developed across south and east Leeds.
This role sits within the Tier 2 Neighbourhood Support Team, working alongside two Band 7 Clinical Lead Nurses for Diabetes, a Specialist Dietitian, a Specialist Podiatrist and a Registered Nurse development post. The team works into general practice across the initial Beeston and Middleton and Hunslet PCN footprints, and interfaces closely with the Tier 3 Clinical Oversight Group (Consultant Diabetologist, Consultant Pharmacist, Highly Specialist Pharmacist, Diabetes Matron and Clinical Psychologist) and specialist Tier 4 services at Leeds Teaching Hospitals.
Working pattern: this is a 0.4 WTE post 15 hours per week based in the community across the multi-neighbourhood footprint, with flexibility in the working pattern to be agreed at appointment. There is genuine scope to shape how the Tier 2 pharmacy offer is delivered and evaluated over the three-year development period. Initially this post is for 1 year.
If you are motivated by working across tiers, driving equity into everyday prescribing, and contributing to a genuinely new model of care from the outset, we would love to hear from you.
Main duties of the jobYou will hold a patient-facing caseload within the Year 1 cohort adults aged 18 to 67 living with diabetes and two or more other long-term conditions. Your focus is the medicines-optimisation side of complex multimorbidity, particularly cardio-renal-metabolic disease, as an independent prescriber working within an experienced multi-disciplinary team.
The day-to-day mix includes advanced clinical consultations, MDT participation, running joint clinics with Practice Diabetes Leads in the footprint practices, and providing Advice and Guidance to primary care colleagues within tight response times. There is a regular rhythm of Tier 2 MDT case discussion and weekly Tier 3 MDT participation, giving structured access to specialist opinion and peer learning.
Alongside the clinical caseload, the post-holder plays an active role in cascade education across Tier 1 and Tier 2, contributes to quality-improvement work on medicines safety and equity of prescribing, and supports the development of the model as it scales across the multi-neighbourhood footprint towards citywide delivery in Year 3.
Active outreach and engagement with people in deprivation deciles 1 to 3 and named priority groups is a core expectation, not a bolt-on. The role is well-suited to someone who wants to work in a person-centred, trauma-informed way and to build genuine partnerships with community and third-sector delivery partners.
About usSouth and East Leeds General Practice Group brings together general practices across the south and east of Leeds to deliver joined-up primary care, PCN services and integrated community programmes. As one of the hosting partners for the Diabetes Neighbourhood Health Programme, we work in close partnership with Leeds Community Healthcare Trust, Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust, the West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board and our neighbourhood Primary Care Networks to deliver a genuinely place-based model of care.
You will be joining a team that is comfortable with new ways of working, collaborative across professional and organisational boundaries, and committed to reducing health inequalities in some of the most under-served neighbourhoods in the city. The culture is honest about the challenges of complex multimorbidity, patient-centred in its everyday decision-making, and generous with peer support and shared learning.
We support flexible working, protected CPD time, professional supervision and access to formal advanced-practice development pathways. You will have regular clinical supervision, access to Consultant Pharmacist mentorship, and structured opportunities to contribute to service evaluation, research and Year 2 business-case development.
Job responsibilitiesThe Specialist Pharmacist (Band 8a) is the operational medicines lead within the Tier 2 Neighbourhood Support Team. Responsibilities include independent prescribing across the injectable formulary insulin and subcutaneous GLP-1 initiation, titration and ongoing management, and use of CGM and Flash data for titration. The post delivers complex medicines optimisation in cardio-renal-metabolic multimorbidity, including CKD stages 3b to 5, heart failure, SGLT2i optimisation, polypharmacy review and deprescribing, psychotropic-metabolic review, hypoglycaemia causation and steroid-induced hyperglycaemia management. The post-holder contributes to the Tier 2 MDT and the weekly Tier 3 MDT, provides Advice and Guidance to primary care within 24-hour urgent and one-week routine SLAs, leads joint clinics with Practice Diabetes Leads, delivers TARGET education, contributes to medicines safety and quality improvement, and supports supervision and workforce development.
Please see attached job description for more detail.
Person SpecificationExperienceQualificationsPersonal Qualities and AttributesThis post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.Applicants must have current UK professional registration.