EPRR Officer & Business Continuity Lead

Job summary

Would you be interested in joining the EPRR team at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust? The team is a proactive service supporting all clinical and non-clinical departments in Planning, Exercising, Training, Testing and responding to Emergency Preparedness, Resilience and Response & Business Continuity situations. As a team, we offer an on-call service to support the Trust's on-call management and clinical teams. We welcome applicants that fully meet the Job Description and Personal Specification as a Band 7. We can offer development in the post from a B6 to B7 with support and development plans including key milestones.

The EPRR team function is to enable the organisation as a Category 1 responder to meet the full statutory duties under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004, ensuring alignment of the Trust's Business Continuity Planning and NHS England Core standards for EPRR, and to evolving national guidance. Business Continuity Planning ensures that the Trust is able to deliver service through integrated emergency management planning, ensuring that threats to operational delivery from both internal and external sources can be managed and business as usual restored effectively using the Recovery process.

The EPRR Officer supports the Head of EPRR for the delivery of Emergency Planning and Business Continuity Management, ensuring that EPRR risks are proactively managed and that learning from incidents is implemented.

Main duties of the job

To Support the Head of EPRR to review and update Trust resilience plans, with specific responsibility for producing and managing the Trust Business Continuity Plan and other supporting functional and risk specific plans, with an interest in CBRN Training and Development of CBRN Pathways.

To Support the ongoing development of the Trust Business Continuity implementation and planning processes to ensure that the Trust can provide appropriate response and recovery through its business continuity plans. Ensure ongoing evaluation, benchmarking and updating.

To Support the Head of EPRR to develop online and face-to-face training and exercising programmes across all key areas of risk and command and control, to drive improvements in performance. Maintain appropriate records, reports and action plans for improvements with an interest in CBRN Training and delivery of training to the CBRN team. Training will be provided for specialist train the trainer for CBRN. With the ability to work and travel across all Trust sites to support teams, deliver training and respond to incidents with the ability to cross sites with own transport is essential to deliver the role. Some working from home in line with the current Trust vocation by Location Plan. Being part of the Trust's EPRR on-call service with other members of the team.

About us

Our purpose is simple - Putting Patients First. We are looking for exceptional colleagues who can help us achieve this.

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust is a large acute and specialised hospital trust that provides a range of local acute services to the residents of Worcestershire and more specialised services to a larger population in Herefordshire and beyond.

The Trust operates hospital-based services from three sites in Kidderminster, Redditch and Worcester.

Our workforce is over 7,000 strong, and our caring staff are recognised as providing good and outstanding patient-centred care. You could be one of them.

We are committed to recruiting the best people to work with us to achieve our Vision - working in partnership to provide the best healthcare for our communities, leading and supporting our teams to move 4ward. Our 4ward behaviours, which we ask all staff to demonstrate, underpin our everyday work and remain firmly at the heart of all we do.

Our objectives are simple:

• Best services for local people
• Best experience of care and best outcomes for our patients
• Best use of resources
• Best people

Better never stops, and our Clinical Services Strategy provides a clear future vision for our Trust, our hospitals, our services and our role in the wider health and care system.

We are proud to have achieved Timewise accreditation - this means we are committed to embedding flexible working within our organisation as a flex positive employer.

Date posted: 14 March 2025

Pay scheme: Agenda for change

Band: Band 7

Salary: £46,148 to £52,809 a year. Will consider B6 with development opportunities to B7.

Contract: Permanent

Working pattern: Full-time, Flexible working

Reference number: C9365-25-0241

Job responsibilities

Operational Management

Together with the Head of EPRR, is a subject matter expert for EPRR and business continuity planning (BCP) and specifically planning, policy and EPRR BCP development.

Regularly review and update incident response action cards.

Support the CBRN Team in ED with training and development of the response to CBRN, Hazmat incidents.

Participate in supportive duty EPRR out of hours support to the on-call teams for declared incidents.

Contribute to and lead specified work streams for the annual EPRR / BCP work plan for the WHAT.

Support delivery of EPRR / BCP projects, ensuring all projects and developments are delivered to time in a cost-effective manner.

Assist in the production of annual and ad-hoc EPRR / BCP reports to the Head of EPRR & AEO.

On an ongoing basis, collate evidence for and support the preparation, delivery, and coordination of the annual EPRR assurance process (NHS EPRR Core standards).

Develop and participate in tests and exercises to ensure plans are in place, understood and can be effectively activated and utilised within WAHT, involving colleagues across all Divisions and External Partners (where appropriate) including the on-call teams.

To coordinate with all directors and senior managers to ensure the maintenance of the organisations Business Continuity Management (BCM) framework that allows for identifying and managing risks that could disrupt normal service.

To support delivery of training and materials to members of WHAT.

To be able to drive between trust sites for training and delivery of EPRR Agenda including responding to incidents.

Service Development

Support the development of EPRR and BCP policies and procedures.

Support with reviewing and where necessary proposing and drafting changes to EPRR and BCP, policies, procedures.

Support the Head of EPRR with the development of the On Call Managers Training Program.

Contribute to the EPRR agenda for WAHT, working closely with key stakeholders including other ICBs / ICSs, NHS England and Improvement, Providers, Local Authorities and UK Health Security Agency across the range of emergency preparedness work streams.

Organisational Development

To promote an open, honest, collaborative, and can-do culture in line with the Trust's 4Ward behaviours.

To enhance the performance, motivation and support departments with the delivery of service using BCP & Specialist EPRR Skills.

Support in preparation changes to departments with input into new ways of working to incorporate EPRR & BC Planning.

Risk Management

To ensure that risk management is a key component of operational planning and management within EPRR.

To ensure that the Head of EPRR is informed of all areas of risk, strategic and operational, relating to any incident issues.

To be familiar with, and follow, provisions of the Trust's health and safety policy and all other policies, procedures and safety rules of the Trust and of the specific workplace. To comply with the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Management of Health and Safety Regulations 1992 and other safety regulations.

Theme trending from the actions logs for the purpose of learning and debriefing from all incidents.

Business continuity

Lead the development and implementation of Business Continuity systems.

Ensure alignment of the trust plans to ISO22301.

Support divisional teams and subject matter experts in development of plans.

Maintain the trust BC register.

Complete internal BC audits.

Support the roll out of new systems including digital, Clinical, non-clinical systems.

Support with mitigations to projects.

Specialist EPRR on-call Service 24/7

Take part in the EPRR specialist on-call rota.

CBRN support and advice when on call (Training Provided as part of the role).

Act as Tactical advisor to the director on call & Log keeper in the event of a declared incident.

Support and lead on Recovery [post incident outside working hours].

Support with External Tactical coordinating group as trust representative to the local resilience forum.

Person Specification

Experience Essential

• Previous EPRR experience.
• Experience of managing incidents, including exposure to solving a range of operational and strategic problems.
• Experience of designing and implementing policy at Local team level.
• Experience of preparing reports.
• Proven track record of delivering against set objectives and achieving key organisational targets, demonstrating continuous and quality improvements.
• Experience of incorporating patient/user views into the provision of hospital services and capacity management team.
• Experience of developing BCP.
• Experience of the development of training and testing Training Plans.

Desirable

• Experience of providing training courses.
• Experience of Emergency Planning.
• Experience of redesign or change management.

Qualifications Essential

• Diploma in Management or other equivalent area.
• Teaching qualification to deliver EPRR Training.

Desirable

• Degree or equivalent experience.
• Evidence of continuous professional development.
• Dip HEPRR.

Knowledge & Skills Essential

• Able to effectively work across organisational boundaries.
• Ability to communicate effectively demonstrating sensitivity / understanding to a wide range of different people / organisations.
• Ability to construct a reasoned and convincing case demonstrating thinking and application.
• Ability to resolve conflict in an effective but non-aggressive manner.
• Ability to motivate and inspire staff.
• Ability to use Microsoft Word, Excel and patient information systems.
• Ability to lead change in the face of resistance.
• Able to chair meetings and achieve successful outcomes.
• Understanding of IT systems.

Desirable

• Able to act as a catalyst for change, encouraging innovation and creativity in service redesign.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This 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.

Employer details

Employer name: Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust

Address: Charles Hastings Way, Worcester, Worcestershire, WR5 1DD

Employer's website: https://www.worcsacute.nhs.uk/