Job summary
- Main area
- Diabetic Eye Screening
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 7
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week (Core hours Monday to Friday 09:00 to 17:00, with occasional evening and Saturdays on-call)
- Job ref
- 196-LIS9669
- Employer
- Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Diabetic Eye Screening Offices, Conybeare House, Guy's Hospital Campus
- Town
- London
- Salary
- £54,320 - £60,981 per annum inc. H.C.A
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 15/07/2025 23:59
- Interview date
- 23/07/2025
Employer heading

Surveillance Manager and Grading Lead
NHS AfC: Band 7
Guy’s and St Thomas’ is among the UK’s busiest and most successful NHS foundation trusts. We provide a full range of hospital and community services for people in south London and as well as specialist care for patients from further afield including cancer, renal, orthopaedic, respiratory and cardiovascular services.
Guy’s is home to the largest dental school in Europe and a £160 million Cancer Centre opened in 2016. As part of our commitment to provide care closer to home, in 2017 we also opened a cancer centre and a kidney treatment centre at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup. St Thomas’ has one of the largest critical care units in the UK and one of the busiest emergency departments in London. It is also home to Evelina London Children’s Hospital.
Evelina London cares for local children in Lambeth and Southwark and provides specialist services across south east England including cardiac, renal and critical care services. We lead a number of specialist service networks aiming to ensure children are treated locally where possible, but have access to specialist expertise when they need it. Our community services include health visiting, school nursing and support for families of children with long-term conditions.
Our adult community services teams deliver care at the heart of the local communities we serve, working in partnership with GPs, local authorities and other healthcare and voluntary sector organisations. Working with our partners in Lambeth and Southwark, we are focusing on new ways of working to improve care for local patients.
In February 2021 the Royal Brompton and Harefield joined Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, bringing together world-leading expertise in the care and research of heart and lung disease. Our merger provides a once in a generation opportunity to build a lasting, world-renowned heart and lung centre, providing the highest quality care for patients and conducting world-leading research.
We have a reputation for clinical excellence and high quality teaching and research. We are part of King’s Health Partners, one of eight accredited UK academic health sciences centres. In partnership with King’s College London we have dedicated clinical research facilities including an MHRA accredited Phase I clinical trials unit.
Patients are at the heart of everything we do and we pride ourselves on ensuring the best possible patient experience as well as safe, high quality care. We are proud to have one of the lowest mortality rates in the NHS. Following a comprehensive Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection in 2019 we maintained our overall rating of ‘good’. Our adult community services achieved a rating of ‘outstanding’.
The commitment of our 23,500 staff is key to our success. We are one of the largest local employers and we aim to develop and support all our staff so they are able to deliver high quality, safe and efficient care. The 2019 NHS staff survey results show that we have one of the most engaged and motivated workforces in the NHS. We know this has a positive impact on the care provided to our patients.
We have one of the most ambitious capital investment programmes anywhere in the NHS.
Job overview
The South East London Diabetic Eye Screening Programme (SELDESP) is responsible for approximately 130,000 people with diabetes across Lambeth, Southwark, Lewisham, Bromley, Bexley and Greenwich. Our team comprises Administrators, Failsafe officers, Screeners, Graders, Surveillance Practitioners and Optometrists, all of whom are passionate about providing a high quality patient experience.
The post holder will be part of the SELDESP Senior Management Team and will have the opportunity to contribute to key decisions, work on service and quality improvement projects and influence the operational management of the programme. The post holder will be line managed and supported by the Deputy Programme Manager and work collaboratively with the Programme Manager, Clinical Lead, and clinical and administrative team leaders.
Main duties of the job
We are seeking a motivated individual who is experienced in ROG and OCT grading . Applicants should have extensive experience and a good understanding of DESP screening pathways and standards.
Excellent communication skills are essential, as the post holder will liaise with the SELDESP team to ensure the smooth running of the programme, building relationships with a range of stakeholders.
The post holder will be adaptable, responding to events and queries. They will be organised and accountable with good judgement on when to make independent decisions and when to seek support.
Applicants need the ability to analyse grading data, identifying themes and outliers and creating actions. Applicants should be passionate about teaching, able to deliver training to a large team of Screener Graders.
The post holder will line manager a team of Surveillance Practitioners and Optometrists.
The post holder will be responsible for the capacity and demand management of the surveillance and grading pathways, ensuring that sufficient SLB, OCT and grading capacity is provided to meet local and national standards.
The post holder will play a crucial role in patient safety and service improvement, risk identification, investigation of incidents, audits and local policy.
Working for our organisation
Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust comprises five of the UK’s best known hospitals – Guy’s, St Thomas’, Evelina London Children’s Hospital, Royal Brompton and Harefield – as well as community services in Lambeth and Southwark, all with a long history of high quality care, clinical excellence, research and innovation.
We are among the UK’s busiest, most successful foundation trusts. We provide specialist care for patients including heart and lung, cancer and renal services as well as a full range of local hospital and community services for people in Lambeth and Southwark.
We have around 22,700 staff, making us one of the largest NHS Trusts in the country and one of the biggest employers locally. We aim to reflect the diversity of the communities we serve and continue to develop new and existing partnerships with local people, patients, neighbouring NHS organisations, local authorities and charitable bodies and GPs.
We strive to recruit and retain the best staff as the dedication and skills of our employees lie at the heart of our organisation and ensure that our services are of the highest quality, safe and focused on our patients.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Clinical and Technical
1. Responsible for the delivery of screening and monitoring using digital retinal photography, SLB and OCT in line with national and local standards;
2. Independently analyse retinal images and OCT scans presenting with a complex variety of appearances and grade in line with local protocols;
3. Grade digital retinal images to Referral Outcome Grader (ROG) level. Making clinical decisions for onward referral or monitoring;
4. Explain the results of screening to patients; educate and advise them with regards to modifying damaging lifestyles;
5. Conduct screening clinics at any of the sites as required, demonstrating the highest standards in all skill areas.
Service Planning and Management
1. Lead the operational management of the surveillance arm which includes the business planning in consultation with the Programme Manager and Clinical Lead;
2. Manage change, development and expansion of the surveillance services in conjunction with the Programme Manager;
3. Ensure that clinics are delivered in an efficient manner and action is taken to resolve technical problems, unavailability of staff and other issues;
4. Identify service improvements and implement processes to maximise the number of patients accepting surveillance to minimise the number of DNAs;
5. Responsible for drafting new clinical protocols and procedures and ensuring that clinical documents across the service are updated as required;
6. Responsible for the procurement and maintenance of all medical devices used by the service, including arranging regular testing to ensure all assets meet national standards;
7. Manage the resolution of patient complaints relating to the surveillance service and implement service changes arising from complaints
8. To ensure integration of the surveillance services with other eye care and diabetes services in conjunction with the Programme Manager and Clinical Lead;
9. Support the Service Manager in liaising with and supporting general practices and other organisations and locations involved in retinal screening;
10. Ensure that Trust Policies and Procedures are adhered to at all times and ensure that staff within the team are using safe practice;
11. Work with the Programme Manager to raise the profile of the services offered within the surveillance arm;
12. Develop a strategy to reduce inequalities of access to surveillance services;
Staff Management and Leadership
1. Full line management responsibilities for the surveillance team, including managing sickness and absence; disciplinary; carrying out appraisals; delivery of training; recruitment and retention
2. Assist in a skills analysis of the whole team to identify team members’ skill gaps and that training manuals or access to training are provided to ensure that all competencies are met and that the workforce is appropriately accredited;
3. Participate in clinical supervision to for the surveillance team;
4. Deputise for the deputy programme manager in their absence
Quality and Quality Assurance
1. Maintain a robust quality assurance system for the surveillance service
2. Ensure that all surveillance delivered consistently meets national quality assurance standards
3. Ensure the appropriate reporting and investigation of any clinical and non-clinical incidents relating to the surveillance service, feeding back where appropriate to team members and patients, and to continually develop effective preventative strategies to minimise incidents in the future.
Information and Resources
1. Ensure that procedures are in place for systematic data collection to facilitate the measurement of quality and activity.
2. Provide quarterly reports to the Clinical Lead and Programme Manager against standards
3. Collaborate with other service managers to prepare and submit the annual report
4. Advise on the development and deployment of complex imaging systems to meet local objectives.
Research, Audit, Education and Development
1. Lead on clinical audit and quality improvement projects to develop the service
2. Continually monitor the quality of grading across the programme, providing regular reports and implementing improvement plans where required
3. Engage patients and the public in the improvement and redesign of the Retinal Screening Service.
Person specification
Previous experience
Essential criteria
- Extensive experience as a senior grader, ROG and OCT grading
- Experience of line managing and developing staff
- Experience of developing training programmes and training staff in screening/grading
Desirable criteria
- Ability and experience in conducting SLB examinations
Education/ Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Diploma in Health Screening
- Accreditation in Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) assessment and grading
- Educated to degree level or equivalent knowledge, skills and experience
Desirable criteria
- Teaching and/or training qualification or equivalent experience
- Certificate in Assessing Vocational Achievement (CAVA)
Physical Requirements
Essential criteria
- Ability to operate a retinal screening camera, OCT scanner and Slit Lamp Bio-microscope
Applicant requirements
The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Louise Batten
- Job title
- Deputy Programme Manager
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 07894 709 114
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