We have an exciting and rare opportunity for a skilled clinical support worker to join our children’s learning disability team.
• Do you have experience of supporting children and young people with a learning disability?
• Are you creative in your approach in providing individualised support packages to meet the needs of children, young people and their families?
• Do you like the idea of working in a variety of settings including schools, family homes and other community venues to improve health outcomes?
If you answered yes, we’ve got the perfect role for you!
We are looking for somebody who has knowledge of children with learning disabilities; strong communication and organisation skills, and a flexible approach to ensure delivery of positive experiences for children, young people and their families.
Working in collaboration with the learning disability (LD) nurses you will provide support and advice to children and young people with a diagnosed learning disability, living in Medway. This will involve working directly with the child, or indirectly with their parents or carers, helping with a range of difficulties including sleep, challenging behaviour and continence.
You will be committed to improving health outcomes for children and young people whilst promoting independence. Using excellent communication skills, you will establish and maintain positive relationships with service users and partner agencies.
• Provide relevant advice and support packages to children, families, carers, and other professionals in collaboration with the LD nurses
• Be allocated delegated tasks, providing clear advice to children, families and other professionals
• Work effectively with other professionals to support the child and families needs
• Implement both direct and indirect programmes of intervention
• Promote self-advocacy and act as an advocate for the child and family
• Work in a variety of settings including schools, clinics and family homes
• Work flexibly and creatively to best engage and meet the diverse health needs of the school-aged population
• Participate in safeguarding as per local and national guidance
• The successful candidate will work under the direction of the registered nurses
So what else?
· This is your chance to join a progressive and innovative service in a social enterprise that is patient and staff focused - you’ll even have the opportunity to become an MCH shareholder.
· We encourage staff to get involved in exploring new ways of working and service development.
· We’ll provide well established, in-service training, one to one supervision, and appraisals with regular support.
· You’ll be able to develop your skills in a friendly and supportive team.
Would you like to work flexibly? In the NHS, we are reminded every day of how important work life balance is. As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us, for our patients and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement.
The small print
· Informal visits can be arranged on request.
· We will offer you the choice of two pension schemes; the NHS Pension scheme and the scottish widows group pension scheme.
· MCH encourages all staff to be double COVID vaccinated to protect themselves, their colleagues, their family and their patients.
Key Duties and Responsibilities
1. Communication and relationship skills
· Communicate complex and sensitive information using a behaviour change approach (making every contact count)
· Ensure all information about children, young people and families is treated confidentially and complies with local and national guidance on data protection, information sharing and governance
· Be child and young person centred, respecting individuality, dignity, and choice and to provide a high standard of care for the child’s ultimate benefit.
· Work collaboratively within a team and in a shared office space
· Communicate effectively with children, families and other professionals adapting approach to suit individual needs
· Effectively liaise with professionals and other agencies involved in the care of the child and family and maintain good working relationships
· Be caring and compassionate
· Participate in team and other meetings as required
2. Knowledge, training and experience
· NVQ level 3 or equivalent recognised qualification in childcare/early years or health & social care
· Knowledge of child development
· Experience of working with children, families and other agencies
· Understanding of sleep/behaviour/continence difficulties experienced by children
· To support the nurse to accurately assess and adjust specialist input and support to reflect the child’s needs
· Participation in clinical and safeguarding supervision relevant to role
· Responsible for maintaining up to date evidence-based skills, knowledge and competency of role requirements
· Compliance with for statutory and mandatory training
· Ability to work on own initiative and manage a caseload in collaboration with the LD nurses/clinical lead
3. Analytical and judgement skills
• Participation in developing new service initiatives
• Assess, implement and plan services under the guidance of the LD nurses and/or clinical lead
• Evaluate and adjust plans appropriately to ensure the completion of the work
• Use observation skills and provide feedback to LD nurses
• Adhere to local and national guidance in the safeguarding of children, young people and adults. Escalating concerns identified
• Support the nurses in undertaking specialised interventions reflecting the child and young person’s needs.
• Be responsible for effective identification and prompt reporting regarding welfare and safeguarding children concerns and issues.
• To support the nurse to accurately assess and adjust specialist input and support to reflect the child’s needs
• Recognition and escalation of risk
• Understand need for evidence and statistical data collection
4. Planning and organisational skills
• Organise and manage an allocated caseload in collaboration with the registered nurses
• Assist in the planning, implementing and evaluation of programmes of care for individual children and young people under supervision of the registered nurses
• Make decisions recognising the limitations of the role and seeking support as needed
• Adapt and be flexible, responding to changing needs and demands of the service
• Work under pressure and be able to manage changing priorities
• Maintain prompt and accurate records in accordance with organisational policy/procedures
• Develop and plan evidenced based resources to enhance packages of care, interventions and health promotion
• Work closely with all agencies to promote inclusion and ensure children and young people with learning disabilities are able to maximise their potential
5. Physical skills
• Utilise appropriate skills with children and young people with learning disabilities.
• Provide a wide range of interventions to meet the child’s clinical needs which may require dexterity and accuracy
• Provide practical care and sensitive support to the child or young person and their family.
• IT skills
• Ability to travel around Medway to a variety of settings including schools/clinics/family homes. This may also involve the transportation of equipment
• Presentation skills
6. Responsibility for patient / client care
• Assist in the provision of specialist learning disability support, advice, and interventions to children and young people with learning disabilities and their families
• To be child and young person centred, to respect individuality, dignity, and choice and to provide a high standard of care for the child’s ultimate benefit
• Provide direct and indirect care to children & their families in a variety of settings in collaboration with the LD nurses, using evidenced based practice
• Participate in and support registered nurses in health promotion activities and/or social prescribing
• Liaise with children and families and other professionals to ensure effective communication of care
• Adhere to local and national guidance/legislation for safeguarding children and adults; this may involve managing situations where conflicting opinions are expressed
• Maintain clinical competency and continuous professional development
• Access clinical supervision as per organisational policy
• Accurately record, monitor and report patients progress using the appropriate electronic notes system e.g. rio and appropriate legislation
7. Responsibility for policy and service development implementation
• Maintain a professional manner and act as a role model, adhering to organisational policies and protocols
• Actively promote and embed new processes within team, following direction from registered nurses/clinical lead
• Participate in clinical audit and clinical governance activities to improve standards and outcomes
• Contribute to the achievement of organisational and service objectives
• Follow organisational policies, procedures, processes and requirements, relevant to the role and comment on suggested changes where appropriate
• Work in partnership with specialist services to build progressive care pathways and improve health outcomes for children and young people
8. Responsibilities for human resources (HR)
• Participate in regular supervision
• Participate in the organisations’ appraisal programme which includes the ability to monitor and report back on objectives and identify training needs
• Attend and participate in staff meetings and in-service training programmes
• To follow organisational policies, procedures, processes and requirements
• To provide support and advice to other colleagues within the team
• To support the team in providing placements for students and other colleagues
9. Responsibilities for information resources
• Accurately record, monitor and report patients progress using the appropriate electronic notes system e.g. rio and appropriate legislation
• Knowledge of confidentiality, data protection and other relevant guidance and legislation
10. Responsibilities for research and development (R&D)
• Participate in quality initiatives and audits aimed at enhancing care and change
• Participate in the collection and reporting of data and statistics
• Actively participate in and support of evidence-based practice and clinical audit in collaboration with managers and lead clinicians.
• Ensure clinical skills and mandatory training are up to date.
11. Freedom to act
• Work autonomously and as part of a team
• Work as a member of the school health team, under the guidance of the registered nurses/clinical lead
• Plan and organise workload using initiative, escalating to line manager as required, guided by defined policies and procedures
This advert closes on Friday 20 Sep 2024
Proud member of the Disability Confident employer scheme
Disability Confident
About Disability Confident
A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to Disability Confident .