Commissioning Officer - IPFR

Commissioning Officer - IPFR The closing date is 16 December 2025

THIS POST IS FIXED TERM/SECONDMENT for 12 MONTHS DUE TO MATERNITY COVER

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN APPLYING FOR THE SECONDMENT POSITION, YOU MUST OBTAIN PERMISSION FROM YOUR CURRENT LINE MANAGER PRIOR TO APPLYING FOR THIS POST.

Main duties of the job The role has five key areas of responsibility:

• Managing requests for treatment that should not normally be undertaken by the NHS due to limited or no evidence of effectiveness.
• Ongoing development of the IPFR panel, including recruitment and training of panel members.
• Managing requests for NHS treatment that needs to be undertaken elsewhere in the UK or European Union because of its specialist nature.
• Managing prior approval requests for routine NHS treatments that fall within and without the health board's contractual framework.
• Establishing protocols and policies for non contractual activity for services provided by other UK health providers.

About us Cardiff and Vale University Health Board is one of the largest Integrated Health Boards in the UK, employing over 17,000 staff, providing over 100 specialist services. Working across 6 hospital sites, we have a diverse range of career opportunities to offer. Serving over 500,000 people living in Cardiff and the Vale, we are focussed on the health and care needs of our local population whilst working with our partners to develop regional services. Together we are committed to improving health outcomes for everyone, delivering excellent care and support.

Our mission is "Living Well, Caring Well, Working Together", and our vision is that every person's chance of leading a healthy life should be equal. Our 10 year transformation and improvement strategy, Shaping Our Future Wellbeing, is our chance to work collaboratively with the public and our workforce to make our health board more sustainable for the future.

Job responsibilities Managing Individual Patient Funding Requests (IPFR)

Provide accurate, appropriate and sensitive complex advice and information, on a daily basis, to members of the public, clinicians and other health professionals about individual patient funding requests;

Ensure appropriate communication with patient representatives e.g. Assembly Members, Members of Parliament, stakeholders and other organisations with regard to individual patient funding requests;

Provide and receive highly complex sensitive and contentious information in relation to individual patient funding requests and manage this appropriately in line with Data Protection and Caldicott requirements;

Improve and maintain a comprehensive and confidential records management system for individual patient funding requests;

Obtain and analyse a range of highly complex and sensitive clinical and non clinical information in order to prepare patient treatment request summaries, present them for decision at a monthly panel meeting and record decisions;

Undertake detailed background research on a wide range of treatments and drug therapies in order to inform request summaries and contribute to discussions at panel meetings;

Where appropriate, notify doctors, clinicians, providers, health professionals, and patients in relation to the outcome of requests, including managing the sensitive issue of non approval of funding;

Ensure UHB staff are up to date on policy and process requirements and provide in house training on this as required;

Liaise with the Welsh Health Specialised Service Committee (WHSSC) in relation to commissioning responsibilities and the patient funding interface;

Ensure monitoring progress reports/minimum data sets are received from healthcare providers on a regular basis for patients receiving treatment out of area and co ordinate this information into a regular monthly activity report;

Working closely with the UHB Finance Directorate, participate in commissioning discussions and inform the contracting process by identifying areas of concern and proposing solutions; ensure data processing/invoicing is validated and suitably authorised within the allocated budget in accordance with the Local Health Board Standing Financial Instructions.

Recruitment of IPFR panel members from clinical UHB employees and lay members.

Provide training of IPFR panel members, both directly and via the commissioning of training from external providers.

Promoting Clinical and Economic Effectiveness Close liaison with Clinical Board senior managers to ensure effective communication on IPFR issues and working with them to address areas of concern.

Undertake detailed research on a wide range of clinical topics and provide briefings on issues / develop proposed policy statements for use across the health board.

Working closely with information and finance colleagues, manage the monthly reporting against Interventions Not Normally Undertaken (INNU), analysing activity levels, identifying areas of concern and proposing solutions.

Monitor activity against NCA protocols in conjunction with Finance and work with Clinical Boards to ensure activity remains within agreed levels.

Work with colleagues in All Wales Therapies and Toxicology Centre (AWTTC) to collect evidence on outcomes for approved IPFR requests to inform future All Wales cohort decisions on medicines.

Input complex and sensitive information into the AWTTC IPFR database to allow for regular generation of reports.

Maintain the local electronic archive system in line with information governance guidelines.

Undertake a qualitative assessment of all material to create a physical and digital archive appropriately indexed that enables swift retrieval of patient records.

Use of advanced digital packages in order to undertake all word processing duties, including databases, spreadsheets, graphical displays and the preparation of presentations.

Respond appropriately to Freedom of Information requests.

Produce a detailed timeline (chronology) of key events and decisions to aid the organisation's internal review for Concerns or Freedom of Information Requests.

Produce and present quarterly IPFR and NCA reports for the bimonthly Tactical Commissioning meetings.

Contribute to and maintain information held on risk logs and asset registers.

Contribute specialist knowledge to the Commissioning Team Annual Report.

Undertake internal quality assurance checks and provide a quarterly file for independent quality assurance review panel.

Represent Cardiff and Vale UHB at the All Wales IPFR Network and support the network to standardise practice across Wales and share good practice.

Work with All Wales Network to produce All Wales policies and procedures, ensuring the legal and ethical framework relating to healthcare is considered.

The post holder will need to be especially flexible to adapt to changing priorities and to adapt to different daily demands.

Develop and maintain strategic links with wider NHS Wales, broader public service and third sector communications teams as well as developing close working relationships with stakeholders.

Ensure commissioning function is outcomes focused and person centred.

Maintain an up to date knowledge of prevailing and ongoing NHS initiatives affecting the Health Board, ensuring an understanding of the current social and economic climate and the pressures faced by public sector organisations.

Horizon scanning to inform colleagues of new / emerging treatments and technologies so that the health board can respond accordingly.

Provide support to and represent individual patient funding at the Tactical Commissioning Meetings.

Work with Clinical Boards to develop protocols and reporting systems for small cohort non contractual activity (NCA).

Staff Management Line manage the Administrator for Individual Patient Funding Requests, ensuring that the IPFR system, as a whole, functions properly and efficiently.

Have delegated authority for any IPFR budget and authorise spending against agreed limits.

Person Specification Qualifications

• Educated to Degree plus Postgraduate Diploma
• Evidence of CPD
• Knowledge and understanding of the NHS in Wales and England and its commissioning, contracting and clinical governance processes
• Knowledge and understanding of the current social and economic climate and the pressures faced by public sector organisations
• Postgraduate Qualification or relevant healthcare qualification
• Knowledge and understanding of the legal & ethical framework relating to healthcare provision

Experience

• Experience of working in the NHS or other public sector organisation
• Experience of working within an NHS service commissioning or contracting team
• Experience of providing and receiving highly complex, sensitive and contentious information
• Experience of dealing with sensitive enquiries from patients, relatives and clinicians and of communicating difficult news
• Experience of partnership working with other agencies across the health and social care sectors
• Experience of managing or supervising staff
• Project management
• Previous experience in a medical records or clinical environment

Skills

• High level oral and written communication skills with the ability to sensitively communicate difficult messages to patients and to liaise effectively with clinicians
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