Band 5 Commissioning Officer (Primary Care)

Following a recent promotion, we are seeking to recruit someone to join our dynamic and friendly team responsible for supporting the 7 Integrated Care Boards across the South West with commissioning and contract management of Community Pharmacy and Optometry services in the South West.

You will be part of the Collaborative Commissioning Hub working with the 7 Integrated Care Boards across the South West. This is a key role within the team - the successful candidate will be principally involved in the Market Entry/Exit of Community Pharmacies alongside providing wider support to the Community Pharmacy contracting team. You will need to be willing and able to learn quickly in this fast paced role. We have offices across the South West, including but not limited to Somerset, Devon and Cornwall., The role will principally be to support the Community Pharmacy contracting team and will involve a variety of tasks including:

Tracking and progressing a range of pharmacy applications including: Change of Ownership/Consolidation/New pharmacy applications/Market Exits/ Fitness to Practice/Dispensing Doctor applications.

Liaison with PCSE (an external organisation that helps with the administration) in relation to the applications listed above.

Updating and maintaining the Pharmaceutical Lists following changes.

Supporting the management of generic inboxes - responding to Community Pharmacy contractor queries and cover for Community Optometry inbox when required.

Skills for communication on complex information and administrative matters, requiring developed interpersonal and oral/ written communication skills.

Ability to pull together comprehensive draft reports, data and letters.

Negotiating, networking and persuasive skills.

Excellent time management skills with the ability to re-prioritise.

Project management skills.

Skills for manipulating information.

Advanced keyboard skills, use of a range of software.

Ability to work without supervision. Able to work on own initiative, organising and prioritising own and others workloads to changing and often tight deadlines.

NHS Somerset Integrated Care Board (ICB), known as NHS Somerset is the statutory NHS organisation responsible for implementing a health and care strategy developed by the Integrated Care Partnership.

We also host the NHS South West Collaborative Commissioning Hub.

We encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and welcome applications from underrepresented groups. When recruiting, we are committed to equality of opportunity for all. We believe that the best organisations are those that reflect the communities they serve.

We offer flexible working from your first day of employment and we also have an agile approach to home / office-based working. Please note however, that you will be required to work from one of our offices across the South West for 2/3 days per week and that elements of the role may require you to travel to other locations across the South West, to attend in-person meetings and meet the needs of the service. Please consider this before applying.

Job Share and Secondment opportunities will be considered. If you are seeking an internal or external secondment, please seek advice from your HR teamandyou must also obtain your current line manager's permission to be released on secondment before applying, to avoid disappointment.

We also offer an excellent pension scheme and generous annual leave entitlement.