Band 8b Divisional Lead Pharmacist

The closing date is 01 September 2026

Job summary

We are looking for an exceptional pharmacy leader with a strong mental health clinical background to join our senior pharmacy leadership team.

This is a pivotal leadership role offering the opportunity to shape clinical pharmacy and medicines optimisation services across our mental health and community services. Working closely with the Chief Pharmacist, Deputy Chief Pharmacists and senior multidisciplinary colleagues, you will provide leadership to Clinical Pharmacists across Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire (BSW) and further develop a skilled and adaptable workforce through coaching, mentorship and professional development.

You will lead the development and delivery of innovative clinical pharmacy services and drive service improvement, support transformation programmes and promote high standards of clinical care and governance.

We are seeking an inspiring pharmacy leader with strong clinical credibility, a commitment to innovation and service development, and a passion for improving outcomes for people accessing mental health services.

As a senior leadership role, regular visibility within services and engagement with colleagues across BSW will be an important part of the post, but we are happy to consider flexible approaches that support both service delivery and work-life balance.

Join us and help transform outcomes through outstanding medicines optimisation and clinical pharmacy leadership.

Main duties of the job Participate in the pharmacy's provision of safe, effective, and responsive clinical and pharmaceutical supply services to Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust and any contracted services.

Contribute to the strategic planning of the pharmacy service and the implementation of service objectives.

Lead the development, delivery, and evaluation of clinical pharmacy services across the Trust, in line with the Trust and national medicines optimisation agendas.

Develop a competent, motivated, and versatile clinical pharmacy workforce across the service, managed within the existing budget and underpinned by technology, robust governance, and risk management.

Work with the Chief Pharmacist, Deputy Chief Pharmacists, and other Clinical Lead Pharmacists to ensure strategic plans are delivered and resources are utilised safely, efficiently, and effectively to improve financial management of treatments and medicines expenditure, patient experience, and outcomes.

Manage the Locality Lead Pharmacists and Specialist Pharmacists working in BSW, to deliver clinical services and medicines optimisation, including audit and monitoring.

Lead on the delivery and development of robust and progressive medicines optimisation, working with the multidisciplinary team to ensure medicines optimisation is embedded in the organisation at operational and practice level.

Please see the attached job description for a full list of duties and responsibilities.

About us We are the lead provider of healthcare for people with serious mental illness, learning disabilities and autism across Bath and North East Somerset (BaNES), Swindon and Wiltshire, and Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.

We aim to provide

High Quality, Compassionate Care everywhere, every day. This means our services will be safe, clinically effective and provide a positive all round experience for our patients, families and carers. And we believe passionately in treating everyone with kindness, respect and empathy.

Key to this is providing a supportive and safe environment for our 4,000 staff where we all feel welcome and able to do the best we can for those we support. Our staff and teams work incredibly hard delivering services across more than 90 locations, covering 2,200miles, to more than 1.8million people.

At AWP we actively encourage applicants from all backgrounds; we are particularly keen to encourage applications from people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, those with disabilities and from the LGBTQ+ community. We want people to bring their unique blend of experiences, backgrounds, perspectives and knowledge to AWP, as diversity makes us…