Advanced Clinical Practitioner in Paediatric Palliative Care

Join us in making every moment matter

At Acorns Children’s Hospice, we provide specialist palliative care for babies, children, and young people with life-limiting and life‑threatening conditions and we support their families through every step of their journey, and through transition.
Our work is defined by compassion, expertise, and an unwavering belief that every child deserves comfort, dignity, and the chance to experience joy.

We are now seeking an exceptional Advanced Clinical Practitioner (ACP) to join our dedicated paediatric palliative care team and help us continue delivering the outstanding care our communities rely on.

Why Join Acorns?

As one of the UK’s leading children’s hospices, Acorns offers a uniquely warm, supportive, and hopeful environment. Here, your advanced clinical skills will have a profound and immediate impact, supporting children with complex needs, guiding families through challenging decisions, and shaping the future of specialist paediatric palliative care.

What You’ll Do

As an ACP at Acorns, you will:

• Provide expert autonomous clinical assessment, diagnosis, and treatment for children with highly complex, life‑limiting conditions
• Lead on advanced care planning, symptom management, and urgent clinical decision‑making
• Build strong, trusting relationships with families, supporting them with sensitivity, honesty, and compassion
• Act as a senior clinical leader, promoting safe, evidence‑based, child‑centred care
• Collaborate with hospitals, community teams, and specialist services to ensure seamless, personalised support
• Engage in research, audit, and quality improvement to enhance care pathways
• Offer education, coaching, and clinical leadership to colleagues across the service

What We’re Looking For

We’d love to hear from you if you are:

• A qualified Advanced Clinical Practitioner (or nearing completion of ACP training)
• Experienced in paediatrics, palliative care, critical care, community care, or a related specialty
• Confident in managing complexity, with strong clinical reasoning and autonomy
• An exceptional communicator who can offer families reassurance, clarity, and emotional support
• Committed to delivering holistic, child‑centred care aligned with Acorns’ values
• Passionate about continuous learning, service development, and collaborative working

What Acorns Offers

• The chance to make a profound difference to children and families every day
• A compassionate, supportive, and expert multidisciplinary team
• Protected time for CPD and strong clinical governance
• Opportunities to innovate, lead, and shape the future of paediatric palliative care
• Career development through our Acorns Academy offering leadership, coaching, fundraising, clinical training and more.   
• A working culture rooted in kindness, growth, and wellbeing
• Employee discounts from leading retailers – including the Blue Light Card
• Generous contribution to group personal pension plan (7.5%) or continuation of current NHS pension scheme
• NHS pension scheme life assurance or Acorns group life assurance scheme
• Health cash plan
• Gym membership and equipment discount scheme
• Bike2Work scheme - save up to 42% on bikes and equipment 
• Wellbeing, legal and financial support
• Annual leave entitlement increases with length of service 

If you’re motivated by care that truly transforms lives, we would love you to join our Acorns family.  Apply today and help us deliver extraordinary care to extraordinary children.

Interviews are scheduled to be held on 24 March

You need to be eligible to work in the UK to be considered for this role. We are committed to safeguarding children and vulnerable adults and therefore any successful candidate will be subject to an enhanced DBS check for children and will be asked to provide two satisfactory references.  In addition, candidates will be asked to provide evidence of immunisation against specific diseases or confirm their willingness to receive the necessary vaccinations.

As a UNICEF Gold Rights Respecting organisation we are committed to ensuring that the United Nations Convention for the Rights of the Child is embedded into both culture and practice within the organisation. As an employee you will be a Duty Bearer for Children’s Rights and support all children to be Rights Holders.

Find out about our culture, career development, benefits and more here: Why work for Acorns?