Associate Practitioner Histology

Band 4

Main area

Histopathology

Grade

Band 4

Contract

Permanent

Hours

Full time - 37.5 hours per week (Histopathology works an extended working day over 7 days a week)

Job ref

287-DTC-34-26-A

Department name

LUH - 1 General Staffing (AFC posts)

Site

Liverpool Clinical Laboratories

Town

Liverpool

Salary

£27,485 - £30,162 per annum

Salary period

Yearly

Closing

03/03/2026 23:59

Job Overview

An opportunity has arisen for the post of Associate Practitioner (Band 4) within Histopathology at Liverpool Clinical Laboratories. This is a permanent role and is an opportunity for an existing member of staff in either LCL or LUHFT to obtain a set of highly technical laboratory skills, whilst contributing to cancer and other patient care.

This post is essential for the day to day running of the service and the successful candidate will receive the training necessary to work with other staff within the team to deliver the highest quality standard of patient care.

The directorate receives greater than 65,000 cases per year and is the largest provider of specialist Cellular Pathology services within Cheshire and Merseyside. The department consists of over 100 members of staff, including Medical Laboratory Assistants, Associate Practitioners, Biomedical Scientists, Consultant Pathologists, pathology trainees and administrative and managerial staff working together to deliver the specialist Cellular Pathology service at LCL for Cheshire and Merseyside

The department's operating hours are 07:00 to 19:00 Monday to Friday and 08:00 to 16:00 Weekends and Bank Holidays.

Main duties of the job

The Successful Candidate Will Undertake All Routine Tasks Within The Histology Laboratory According To Departmental Standard Operating Procedures And Policies. These Tasks Include

• Paraffin wax embedding

Microtomy of all specimens

Haematoxylin and Eosin, and special staining

Freezing of human tissue for frozen sections, immunofluorescence and lipid stains

Equipment maintenance

Quality control procedures

Preparation of staining solutions and reagents

Safe disposal of a range of hazardous and non-hazardous laboratory waste

Monitoring and receipt of consumables and reagents

Working for our organisation

Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust comprises Aintree University Hospital, Broadgreen Hospital & Royal Liverpool University Hospital.

We are part of NHS University Hospitals of Liverpool Group, formed on 1 Nov 2024 from the coming together of LUHFT and Liverpool Women's NHS Foundation Trust. The Group was born from a shared aim to improve the care we provide our patients.

UHLG is one of the largest employers in the region, with over 16,800 colleagues dedicated to caring for our communities - from birth and beyond.

For the 630,000 people across Merseyside, we are their local NHS. We provide general and emergency hospital care, alongside highly specialised regional services for more than two million people in the North West.

Aintree University Hospital is the single receiving site for adult major trauma patients in Cheshire and Merseyside and hosts a number of regional services including an award-winning stroke facility. Broadgreen Hospital is home to elective surgical, diagnostic and treatment services, together with specialist patient rehabilitation. Liverpool Women's Hospital specialises in the health of women and babies, delivering over 7,200 babies in the UK's largest single site maternity hospital each year. The Royal Liverpool University Hospital is the largest hospital in the country to provide inpatients with 100% single bedrooms and focuses on complex planned care and specialist services.

For roles at Liverpool Women's, visit their careers page.

Detailed Job Description And Main Responsibilities

See Job Description for further details:

To participate in the activities of the department. Primarily providing the technical support of the diagnostic service to the Trust and other users, in accordance with departmental protocols and under appropriate supervision.

• To participate in the routine work of the main histology laboratory in accordance with departmental protocols.
• Receive specimens into the department ensuring correct patient
• identification and accessioning.
• Assist the pathologist and BMS staff during cut-up
• Store specimens safely and appropriately prior to and after processing.
• To embed processed surgical and postmortem material ensuring correct
• Microtomy - simple sectioning of large blocks, sectioning levels from biopsy material, serial sectioning of material and macroscopic quality control of sections produced.
• Haematoxylin & Eosin (H&E) staining - manual and automated methodologies.
• Initial quality control checks.
• Preparation of staining solutions and reagents.
• Safe disposal of a range of hazardous and non-hazardous laboratory
• waste i.e. paper, chemicals, glass, human tissues.

All staff should be familiar with relevant IT systems and security policies and procedures.

All staff are personally responsible for record keeping. A record is anything that contains information in any medium e.g. paper, tapes, computer information, etc. which have been created or gathered as a result of any NHS activity.

Please ensure you check the email account (including junk/spam boxes) from which you apply regularly as we will use this to contact you regarding your application.

Only those applicants who demonstrate clearly how they meet our person specification will be shortlisted for interview.

Person specification

Other

Essential criteria

• Manual dexterity
  
  

Skills

Essential criteria

• Ability to work as a member of a team
• Flexible and adaptable approach to work
• Good organisational skills
• Good verbal communication skills
  
  

Desirable criteria

• Computer literate
  
  

Knowledge

Essential criteria

• Demonstrate an understanding of patient confidentiality
  
  

Desirable criteria

• Show an awareness of H&S requirements
• Should be able to demonstrate an understanding of the post applied for
  
  

Experience

Essential criteria

• Demonstrable previous experience of working in a laboratory
  
  

Desirable criteria

• Previous experience of working in a clinical setting
  
  

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• A levels/BTEC or equivalent
  
  

Please ensure you check the email account (including junk/spam boxes) from which you apply regularly as we will use this to contact you regarding your application.

Posts advertised to 'internal staff' are open to employees of hospitals within University Hospitals of Liverpool Group and you should confirm your employment within your application form.

Note: Under current Home Office Immigration Rules we are currently unable to offer right to work visa sponsorship for Band 2 and 3 roles with a salary of less than £25,000 pa as they do not meet the UK Visas & Immigration criteria.

Only those applicants who demonstrate clearly how they meet our person specification will be shortlisted for interview.

We reserve the right to close any vacancies from further applications when we have received a minimum number of applications from which to make a shortlist. Please ensure you apply without delay if you wish to be considered for this role.

Candidates applying for the role of Healthcare Assistant on the

staff bank should note that due to the nature of the role, workers must be aged 18 or above when commencing in post. Applicants are therefore welcome from those aged over 18 or within 3 months' of their 18^th birthday.

The Trust is committed to promoting a healthy work-life balance and achieve fair, equitable and consistent practice. We welcome flexible working requests and will consider a variety of flexible working arrangements from day one of your employment. Not all roles are suitable for every flexible working opportunity all of the time. Flexible working options may include reduced hours, compressed hours, fixed shifts, time back in lieu and home working.

The Trust is committed to promoting equality and diversity; we value the contribution of individual talent, skills, knowledge and experience and aim for a workforce demography representative of the local community. We encourage applicants from the following groups that are currently under-represented in our workforce black, Asian and minority ethnic, lesbian, gay, bisexual and Transgender (LGBTQ+), disabled, male and age 16-24.

Trust policy requires that the cost of submitting & processing the successful applicant/s DBS application be recovered via salary deduction following start in post. The amount of £26.50 (standard disclosure) or £54.50 (enhanced disclosure) will be deducted from salary, in manageable monthly instalments for up to 3 months following commencement of employment. Ba

nk posts require upfront payment.

From April 2017, Skilled visa applicants and their adult dependant(s) will be required to provide a criminal record certificate from each country they have lived in consecutively for 12 months or more in the past ten years.

Applicants requiring sponsorship may wish to determine the likelihood of obtaining sponsorship for this position by assessing themselves against the criteria on the gov.uk website - https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa.

This organisation has a zero-tolerance approach to the abuse of children, young people and vulnerable adults. All staff must ensure they adhere to the organisations safeguarding children and adults' policy and comply with the Local Safeguarding Children and Adult Board procedures.

Staff should be mindful of their responsibility to safeguard children and adults in any activity performed on behalf of the organisation in line with the requirements of statutory guidance and legislation.

All employees (and volunteers)are expected maintain their safeguarding knowledge and skills by completing mandatory safeguarding training which includes understanding and recognising the signs of abuse and neglect and taking appropriate action.

As an organisation, we have adopted the Merseyside Domestic abuse workplace scheme which supports our staff who are experiencing Domestic Abuse /any forms of sexual violence.

If you have any personal requirements that will enable you to partici

pate in our recruitment process please contact a member of the Recruitment Services by phone on 0151 706 4666 at the earliest opportunity to ensure that measures can be put in place to enable your application for this post.

Please note: new entrants to the NHS will commence on the first pay point of the relevant band.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Application numbers

This vacancy may close early if it receives a high number of applications. Please complete and submit your application in good time to avoid disappointment.

LNKD1_UKTJ