The Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust is advertising for a ‘Director of Lived Experience’, boasting that it’s the first job of its kind in the health service. MailOnline has more.
With record backlogs, an unprecedented nurses’ strike and typical winter pressures already putting immense strain on the NHS, one might think bosses would be pumping every penny into frontline care.
But instead the cash-strapped health service has posted an advert for a £115,000-a-year ‘Director of Lived Experience’, who is capable of creating “brave spaces”.
Critics argued the six-figure role was a “kick in the teeth” to taxpayers, as millions of patients wait on the elective care backlog.
The ad, placed by the Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, boasts how it is the first job of its kind in the health service.
The NHS has previously referred to experiencing racism or discrimination or being a “white ally” and recognising white privilege as examples of a “lived experience”.
Ads for the role, posted on the NHS’s recruitment website as well as third party websites such as LinkedIn, say the successful candidate will be “interpersonally talented” and a “strategic bridge-builder”.
They must also have a “personal experience of life-altering health condition(s)” and, having used health services, then “experienced significant power imbalances”.
A supplementary document for applicants says tackling power imbalances within the Trust will be one of the main roles for the successful candidate.
“The Director will broker psychologically safe environments that allow people to co-produce and become equal partners in their care,” it reads.
Another part of the document says the director will also need to make “brave spaces” for patients and families to be able to give feedback on the organisation.
Other priorities include seeking out “seldom heard” disadvantaged groups “who may experience health inequalities”.
Joe Ventre, digital campaign manager of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said trusts could ill-afford to squander cash on “non-jobs” at time the NHS was under such financial strain.
“Well-paid non-jobs like this are a kick in the teeth for hard-pressed taxpayers,” he said.
“At a time when nurses are striking over pay and patients wait on backlogs, there can be no excuse for trusts squandering cash.
“The health service must put an end to these right-on roles and focus resources on frontline care.”
Over seven million people in England, about one in eight people, are now on the NHS waiting list for elective care, with many living in significant pain as they wait for procedures like knee and hip replacements.
Queues are expected to get even worse in response to NHS strikes, which began yesterday with up to 100,000 nurses taking to picket lines.
A successful candidate for the director of lived experience can expect a salary between £110,000 and £115,000 per year.
This amounts to around four times as much as a newly qualified NHS nurse, who earns about £27,000.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: According to the Telegraph, the NHS is hiring an “army” of Lived Experience tsars, having identified at least 20 such job titles across seven NHS trusts, being paid a total of at least £600,000. More here.
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