Deputy Lead Education & Training Technician – Aseptic Services - Liverpool

Job overview

The Aseptic Manufacturing Service involves the production of medicines such as Parenteral Nutrition (PN), Centralised Intravenous Additive Services (CIVAS), Cytotoxic agents and Clinical Trial Investigational Medicinal Products. We have a highly regarded Aseptic Production Unit (APU) at the Trust with a new Manufacturing site licensed in June 2023.

As a Deputy Lead Education & Training Technician in Aseptic Services, you will work closely with our Lead Education & Training Facilitator to deliver training programmes at site, ensure training compliance with the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and facilitate externally led training courses to ensure a highly skilled and developing workforce.

You will facilitate theoretical and practical training across the aseptic manufacturing team. The post holder will be training new operators how to manufacture critical medicinal products for patient delivery, driving timely reassessments of our existing team members and training the team how to make new products in line with clinical demands and/ or using new automated equipment.

You will work closely with our Production and Operational Management team to facilitate the production activity on site, and you will work with the Quality Assurance team to ensure the quality and standard of training across the team.

Your input will be vital for workforce configuration & growth and ensuring the delivery of high quality and safe aseptically prepared products.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will contribute to the running of an efficient and effective manufacturing service by contributing to the training of the aseptic team for the production and the distribution of sterile parenteral medicines.

The post holder will lead on the development and implementation of aseptic training for aseptic services staff using nationally recognised Level 2 and Level 3 frameworks and undertake the day-to-day line management and responsibility for aseptic staff undertaking such courses.

The post holder will engage with National leads (including Quality Assurance Leads) to help develop, establish and deliver taught courses that allow for workforce growth within Aseptic Services and support continuing professional development programs for all pharmacy staff involved in aseptic preparation and dispensing of medicines.

The post holder will support the delivery of education and training for pharmacy support staff, student pharmacy/ science technicians, qualified pharmacy/ science technicians and science graduates undertaking nationally recognised accredited courses, and actively seek to further develop the roles and skill mix of the team members.

Working for our organisation

Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust comprises Aintree University Hospital, Broadgreen Hospital & Royal Liverpool University Hospital.

We are part of NHS University Hospitals of Liverpool Group, formed on 1 Nov 2024 from the coming together of LUHFT and Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust. The Group was born from a shared aim to improve the care we provide our patients.

UHLG is one of the largest employers in the region, with over 16,800 colleagues dedicated to caring for our communities - from birth and beyond.

For the 630,000 people across Merseyside, we are their local NHS. We provide general and emergency hospital care, alongside highly specialised regional services for more than two million people in the North West.

Liverpool Women’s Hospital specialises in the health of women and babies, delivering over 7,200 babies in the UK’s largest single site maternity hospital each year. The Royal Liverpool University Hospital is the largest hospital in the country to provide inpatients with 100% single bedrooms and focuses on complex planned care and specialist services.

For roles at Liverpool Women’s, visit their careers page.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

With significant experience of training delivery within a GMP healthcare setting, the post holder will be capable of working under pressure, prioritising to deadlines and multi-tasking.

Please refer to the Job Description and Person Specification for further details.

Person specification

Qualifications

• NVQ Level 3 Pharmacy Services or Science Manufacturing Technician or equivalent
• A member of the GPhC, Science Council or equivalent
• Attendance of Aseptic Preparation and Dispensing of Medicines Course (APDM) or equivalent

• NVQ Level 2 Pharmacy Services, Science Manufacturing Technician or equivalent
• BTEC Accredited Checking Technician
• NVQ A1 workplace assessor
• Internal Quality Assurance Assessor (Internal Verifier) - or working towards or equivalent
• Technical Qualification – Pharmaceutical Technology and Quality Assurance (PTQA)

Experience

• Substantial experience in aseptic services and demonstrable experience in of Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP)
• Substantial experience in education and training of Pharmacy Staff
• Experience of working in a team
• Experience in the preparation of aseptic products

• Experience of using automated equipment

Skills

• Excellent mentoring skills organisation and prioritisation skills
• Excellent leadership skills
• Excellent written and oral communication skills
• Excellent people skills
• Good management skills
• Ability to motivate self and others
• Self-motivated, reliable, proactive and conscientious
• Ability to review and adapt plans as circumstances dictate
• Ability to adapt to change
• Ability to use different IT applications
• Ability to respond to non-routine queries and escalate when outside limitations

Knowledge

• Knowledge of QAAPs Aseptic Services standards
• Knowledge of GPhC requirements for pre-registration pharmacy technicians and pre-registration requirements for science technicians
• Knowledge of the Orange Guide and Eudralex V4
• Knowledge of COSHH
• Knowledge and application of SOPs, quality assurance systems and GxP

Other

• Accurate and methodical with good attention to detail
• Can lead by example and demonstrate a positive and optimistic attitude
• Be forward thinking and proactive
• Demonstrates enthusiasm for developing a service
• Willingness to learn
• Friendly, empathetic and reliable team worker able to relate to all grades of staff
• Ability to work alone or within a team
• Commitment to work
• Self-motivated and ability to motivate others
• Ability to work as per departmental weekend, evening and bank holiday rotas

Please ensure you check the email account (including junk/spam boxes) from which you apply regularly as we will use this to contact you regarding your application.

Posts advertised to ‘internal staff’ are open to employees of hospitals within University Hospitals of Liverpool Group and you should confirm your employment within your application form.

Note: Under current Home Office Immigration Rules we are currently unable to offer right to work visa sponsorship for Band 2 and 3 roles with a salary of less than £25,000 pa as they do not meet the UK Visas & Immigration criteria.

Only those applicants who demonstrate clearly how they meet our person specification will be shortlisted for interview.

We reserve the right to close any vacancies from further applications when we have received a minimum number of applications from which to make a shortlist. Please ensure you apply without delay if you wish to be considered for this role.

Candidates applying for the role of Healthcare Assistant on the staff bank should note that due to the nature of the role, workers must be aged 18 or above when commencing in post. Applicants are therefore welcome from those aged over 18 or within 3 months’ of their 18^th birthday.

Not all roles are suitable for every flexible working opportunity all of the time. Flexible working options may include reduced hours, compressed hours, fixed shifts, time back in lieu and home working.

The Trust is committed to promoting equality and diversity; we value the contribution of individual talent, skills, knowledge and experience and aim for a workforce demography representative of the local community. We encourage applicants from the following groups that are currently under-represented in our workforce black, Asian and minority ethnic, lesbian, gay, bisexual and Transgender (LGBTQ+), disabled, male and age 16-24.

Bank posts require upfront payment. DBS applications submitted from 2nd December will be subject to the new DBS fee of £26.50 (standard) and £54.50 (Enhanced).

From April 2017, Skilled visa applicants and their adult dependant(s) will be required to provide a criminal record certificate from each country they have lived in consecutively for 12 months or more in the past ten years.

Applicants requiring sponsorship may wish to determine the likelihood of obtaining sponsorship for this position by assessing themselves against the criteria on the gov.uk website - https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa.

This organisation has a zero-tolerance approach to the abuse of children, young people and vulnerable adults. All staff must ensure they adhere to the organisations safeguarding children and adults’ policy and comply with the Local Safeguarding Children and Adult Board procedures.

Staff should be mindful of their responsibility to safeguard children and adults in any activity performed on behalf of the organisation in line with the requirements of statutory guidance and legislation.

All employees (and volunteers)are expected maintain their safeguarding knowledge and skills by completing mandatory safeguarding training which includes understanding and recognising the signs of abuse and neglect and taking appropriate action.

As an organisation, we have adopted the Merseyside Domestic abuse workplace scheme which supports our staff who are experiencing Domestic Abuse /any forms of sexual violence.

If you have any personal requirements that will enable you to participate in our recruitment process please contact a member of the Recruitment Services by phone on 0151 706 4666 at the earliest opportunity to ensure that measures can be put in place to enable your application for this post.

Please note: new entrants to the NHS will commence on the first pay point of the relevant band.