Specialist Community Children's Physiotherapist

Specialist Community Children's Physiotherapist

Join to apply for the Specialist Community Children's Physiotherapist role at Your Office Toronto

4 days ago Be among the first 25 applicants

Join to apply for the Specialist Community Children's Physiotherapist role at Your Office Toronto

Get AI-powered advice on this job and more exclusive features.

About
Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust is a community focused provider of local and acute care, providing high quality services to over one million people living across the London boroughs of Lewisham, Greenwich and Bexley. With a turnover of around £700 million, we provide services at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich, University Hospital Lewisham and a range of community settings in Lewisham. We also provide some services at Queen Marys Hospital in Sidcup.

The Trust has 7,500 staff and we have recently invested in our workforce to grow our establishment across a number of key services. In 2020 we won a London NHS Parliamentary Award in recognition of a wide range of initiatives to make the organisation a great place to work. We are accredited as a flexible working employer offering a number of flexible working options for staff. We are also accredited as a London Living Wage employer for our substantive, bank and contractors.

Our hospitals provide a wide range of inpatient and outpatient services, as well as emergency and planned care. Over the last year, our emergency performance has been among the strongest in London, despite our emergency departments being among the busiest in the capital.

Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Woolwich regularly achieves the fastest ambulance turnaround times in London. The critical care unit at the hospital is one of the few in the country to meet the gold standard for consultant and junior doctor staffing.

University Hospital Lewisham has the largest stroke rehabilitation centre in the country, and the third largest specialist centre in the UK for treating blood conditions such as sickle cell. The hospital is one of the few in the country to offer opt-out HIV testing in the emergency department, ensuring that any patient who has a blood test is routinely screened for HIV.

The Trusts community services for children and adults in Lewisham are rated Outstanding by the Care Quality Commission.

The Trust is a centre for the education and training of medical students enrolled with Kings College Londons GKT School of Medical Education. We are a training centre for nurses, midwives and allied health professionals. We are pioneering new roles that will support the changing needs of our patients and are one of the largest employers of physician associates in the country.

We are committed to working with our partners to deliver the best outcomes for our local communities. This means playing an active role in the South East London Integrated Care System (ICS), and in formal partnerships including the South East London Acute Provider Collaborative, provider partnerships with our local mental health trusts and borough-based boards of the ICS in Bexley, Greenwich and Lewisham.

Job Overview
Do you want to develop your physiotherapy career within paediatrics? We are looking for an experienced, enthusiastic, self-motivated member of staff to help provide a high-quality, comprehensive and proactive clinical physiotherapy service for children and young people (0 to 19 years of age) referred to our specialist children's physiotherapy service within the community setting. If you are a qualified Physiotherapist keen to develop your clinical skills working with children with relevant community and/or paediatric experience, we would be pleased to hear from you.

We are based at Kaleidoscope, a purpose-built Children and Young People's Centre, in Catford and provide physiotherapy for children and young people in the diverse population of the London borough of Lewisham with neurodevelopmental conditions.

The successful candidate will be motivated, organised and committed to working within a team environment.

An extended DBS check and fulfilment of the physical requirement of the post are detailed in the person specification. A clean driving license is desirable, however the borough has good transport links.

Job Summary
The post holder will work within mainstream and special schools, provide early intervention to identified client groups under five and assess and treat school-age children. They will take an active part in leading physiotherapy groups for children, deliver aquatic therapy and supervise students on clinical placement. The post holder will hold a varied caseload and be able to develop their skills in postural management, neurodevelopmental interventions, specialist equipment and orthotics, rotating within areas within the service.

Within Lewisham there is a strong multidisciplinary/multiagency approach to working with children and young people, the post holder will support this and will be involved in promoting it for individual families.

We have a physiotherapy team of 13 members of staff and offer peer support, with a strong commitment to continuing professional development. The post holder will be supported by dedicated and experienced band 7 Physiotherapists. They will have opportunities to develop clinical and organisational skills in a variety of settings and to work with children of all ages from 0-19 years.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Accountable to Manager for Childrens therapy and integration via the childrens physiotherapy team leads.
• To provide a high standard of neurological and neurodevelopmental Physiotherapy assessment, treatment and advice to children, young people and carers in the community setting within Lewisham healthcare; liaising with other professionals to maximise the benefits.
• To contribute to service development including clinical governance and audit, junior staff supervision and multidisciplinary and multiagency working.

Key Result Areas

• To manage a caseload of children aged 0-19 providing a high standard of physiotherapy assessment, management, treatment and advice. The caseload consists of children with a wide range of neurological related difficulties and/or disabilities, many of whom may have complex or multiple pathology. Seen across a variety of locations within the community including Kaleidoscope, patients homes, community leisure facilities, nurseries and schools.
• To be involved in supervising junior staff and students.
• To be a source of clinical knowledge and advice on physiotherapy patient care for parents and carers, other health professionals within the multidisciplinary team and professionals working in external agencies.
• To maintain accurate statistics as directed by the team leads.

Performance

• To use well developed assessment and clinical reasoning skills in order to establish an accurate diagnosis, problem list, and prognosis in order to formulate individual and agreed care/treatment plans for a range of children and young people.
• To be responsible for reassessing patient care as treatment progresses and change treatment programmes as appropriate. To use aquatic therapy, neurodevelopmental therapy, casting and Orthotic management, use of Moving and Handling techniques and equipment, use of postural management equipment, goniometry amongst other techniques when appropriate.
• To provide moving and handling risk assessments, supported by senior staff where necessary, related to the childs physiotherapy programme in accordance with professional guidelines and government legislation.
• To be skilled in communicating and negotiating with families and children of all ages who have a range of physical disabilities and may have associated barriers to understanding, such as learning difficulties, hearing and visual impairments and language.
• To be able to diffuse potentially difficult situations with staff, patients and relatives, using well developed negotiation and interpersonal skills.
• To be able to motivate, negotiate and communicate with children of all ages and abilities in order to effectively carry out physiotherapy assessment and treatment programmes. To motivate and persuade others including staff and parents using verbal and nonverbal communication skills and written information where needed.
• To utilise other team members, in particular clinical supervisor and other senior staff, as needed to support decision making and clinical practice in particularly complex cases.
• To maintain an up to date knowledge of specialist postural equipment, aids, adaptations and resources available to enable the child with disability to function as independently as possible.
• To assess children for specialist equipment and recommend its purchase from health, education and social services. To set up and adjust specialist equipment specifically for individual children. To train parents/carers and other agencies in the use of the equipment.
• To be responsible for maintaining accurate and up to date individual patient records. To provide timely and accurate written reports and physiotherapy programmes for parents/carers, other health professionals, education and social services professionals, voluntary sector workers and solicitors as required.
• To ensure smooth organisation, to delegate and supervise established services e.g. specialist clinics, patient groups in education settings for all ages, aquatic therapy, orthotics, gym group, developmental co-ordination clinic/group (DCD), PE and individual treatment.

We reserve the right to close the post before the stated closing date, please apply early. We do not contact applicants with the outcome of the shortlisting. If you have been shortlisted, you will receive an invite to an assessment day or interview.

As a local employer and anchor institution we work closely with our community to recruit locally and we welcome applications from the widest variety of people to ensure our workforce are reflective of the local communities which we serve. We encourage all suitable candidates to apply including if you are Black, Asian or other ethnic minorities, live with a disability (visible or not) or are LGBT+. We have a number of active staff networks including Disability, LGBT+, Multicultural Inclusion and Womens staff networks to bring staff together and celebrate diversity across our whole workforce.

Please note, not all roles will meet the criteria for a skilled worker visa.

Applicant requirements
You must have appropriate UK professional registration. This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Person specification

Experience
Essential criteria

• Experience as a Physiotherapist in children and young peoples services
• To have experience in teaching other professionals and students
• Use of electronic recording systems

Desirable criteria

• Evidence of specific area of service improvement/development
• Experience working as a physiotherapist an NHS environment.
• Audit and research
• Client centred practice within a multidisciplinary environment.
• Experience of working within a community setting
• Experience of supervising junior staff, assistants or students
• Knowledge of the use of postural management equipment and orthotics
• Previous experience working in a school setting and working closely with education services

Qualifications & Training
Essential criteria

• Diploma/Degree in Physiotherapy
• HCPC Registration (Health and Care Professions Council)
• Evidence of CPD (Continuous Professional Development)

Desirable criteria

• Member of APCP (Association of Paediatric Chartered Physiotherapists)
• Member of CSP (Chartered Society of Physiotherapy)
• Student supervisor course
• Safeguarding/Child Protection training
• Post registration paediatric training

Knowledge
Essential criteria

• An understanding of child development, neurology and paediatric orthopaedic conditions.
• Knowledge of the impact of specific neurological disabilities on a child's motor performance
• Knowledge of a range of interventions whether restorative or compensatory to meet a child's motor performance needs
• Knowledge of how physiotherapy is applied to family centred and child focused practice.
• Aware of safeguarding

Desirable criteria

• Understanding of some national legislation and initiatives relating to disability and to the education, welfare and wellbeing of children and young people across health, education and social care.

Further details / informal visits contact

Name: Sarah Whiting
Job title: CYP Physiotherapy team lead/Clinical specialist
Email address: [email protected]
Telephone number: 0203 049 1452