Do you:
• Have a strong clinical background in Physiotherapy for Children and Young people?
• Have leadership skills and are keen to offer clinical support to more junior staff and contribute to service development?
• Want to work flexibly within a supportive, friendly, and innovative community multi-disciplinary team?
• Want to work within a team that has links with Addenbrookes Hospital; arenowned teaching hospital and research centre in Cambridge?
If you’re answers are 'Yes', we could be the employer for you!
We have a vacancy for a dynamic Band 7 Paediatric Physiotherapist to work within an enthusiastic and well-established community paediatric physiotherapy team. This post is in the North Team based at The Oak Tree Centre in Huntingdon. We work in close collaboration with the Paediatric Occupational Therapy team and run joint clinics with the Community Paediatricians.
The successful applicant will have a caseload of children with various neurodevelopmental conditions, who will be seen in the community, clinic and special school settings.
This post is 1.0 WTE (37.5 hours) permanent
The salary will be pro-rata
Flexible working hours are negotiable with the core working day being a Tuesday
To ensure a high standard, evidence based, cost-effective physiotherapy service to children and young people (CYP) living, or at school (mainstream and specialist) in a specified geographical area
To work with other team members to co-ordinate and develop the physiotherapy service
To provide highly specialist assessment and intervention to children referred for PT including information to parents, carers and other professionals
Following assessment, to design and develop evidence-based treatment plans and management programmes
To maintain continuous professional development and inform the Clinical Lead and Team Leads of the impact of research, policy etc. on local policies/procedures
To provide clinical supervision as delegated by the Clinical Lead and Team Lead
To manage own caseload in a range of settings including providing training to staff in these settings as required
To advise and provide clinical support to other PT’s and Therapy Assistants
To supervise and allocate work to designated assistants, PT students, volunteers and less experienced PT’s
Rated ‘Outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission, we are proud to provide high quality innovative services across most of the east of England that enable people to receive care closer to home and live healthier lives.
There’s one reason why our services are outstanding – and that’s our amazing staff who, for the seventh year running, rated us incredibly highly in the national staff survey.
If you share our passion for innovative and high-quality care delivery, then please submit your application and join us on our exciting journey as a leading-edge specialist community provider. All are welcome to apply and our promise to you is a culture which prioritises staff engagement and development.
Main Duties and Responsibilities
1. Nature of work
To supervise and give training to more junior members of physiotherapy staff, provide clinical and management supervision and act as a source of specialist advice.
To provide highly specialised paediatric physiotherapy assessment and treatment for CYP living or at school (mainstream and specialist) in the specified geographical area.
To work effectively within multidisciplinary and multi-agency teams.
Where appropriate, to act as a key worker for CYP on their caseload, ensuring that there is good communication between all members of the team and that a coordinated programme is in place.
To supervise, educate and assess the performance of physiotherapy students; this would be to a graduate standard and involve working with universities to ensure the standard of practice and teaching meets the standards set down by the degree level qualification.
To work in a variety of settings such as mainstream schools, special schools, community settings, health bases (clinic-based work) and patient homes.
2. Planning
To plan their own diary and prioritise their caseload.
To work with the Physiotherapy Clinical Lead, Physiotherapy Team Leaders and other senior colleagues to coordinate physiotherapy delivery.
To support more junior colleagues in caseload and diary management.
3. Specific projects
To ensure that all CYP referred into the physiotherapy service receive an equitable service.
4. Patient contact
To hold responsibility for his/her own caseload, working without direct supervision.
To undertake initial triaging assessments of CYP; setting expectations of therapy with families, prioritising need and giving initial recommendations.
To work collaboratively in multi-disciplinary clinics e.g. Complex physical needs clinics, joint paediatrician/physiotherapy clinics, plaster clinics, Tone Management/Botulinum Toxin clinic to support the needs of CYP and their families and agree joint goals/plans for intervention.
To undertake comprehensive, highly specialised physiotherapeutic assessments of CYP including those with diverse or complex presentations considering their functioning in family, school and other environments; using advanced clinical reasoning skills and advanced communication skills.
To develop and deliver individualised therapy aims and programmes in collaboration with CYP, their families and other professionals.
To support parents/carers in developing skills to deliver the programme and ensuring their competence, when the CYP requires support.
To be responsible for reassessing CYP care as treatment progresses and make appropriate adjustments to therapy programmes, using appropriate outcome measures to guide practice.
To undertake all aspects of clinical duties as an autonomous practitioner.
To accurately and efficiently identify presenting symptoms, formulate prognoses and recommend best course of intervention.
To incorporate evidence-based practice and NICE guidelines using clinical assessment, reasoning skills and knowledge of treatment modalities available, to provide effective and cost-efficient physiotherapy for CYP.
To be responsible for discharging CYP from caseload on completion of treatment.
To delegate appropriate clinical work to therapy assistants, overseeing the safety and competence of delivery.
5. Policy development
To undertake evidence-based audit and research projects to further own and team’s clinical practice.
Make recommendations to the Physiotherapy clinical lead for changes to practice and be willing to lead the implementation of changes to practice or contribute to service protocols/pathways.
To undertake the measurement and evaluation of current practices through the use of evidence-based practice projects, audit and outcome measures, either individually or alongside Physiotherapy Team Leaders/Physiotherapy Clinical Lead. To work with colleagues to change the service protocol in line with results.
Communication
To represent the children’s physiotherapy service and /or individual CYP at the multi-disciplinary and multi-agency team meetings, to ensure the delivery of a co-ordinated multidisciplinary service, and integrate physiotherapy treatment into the management programme. This will include discussion of patient care, patient progress, entry to school, and access to the curriculum and involvement in discharge planning.
To work effectively with other members of the team around the CYP, including families, carers, education staff, other health professionals, social services and voluntary agencies.
To assess the ability of the CYP and their carers to understand the management programme and to gain valid informed consent. To work within a legal framework with CYP who lack capacity to consent to treatment.
In some instances, the post holder may be required to take on the key worker role for a CYP on the caseload, requiring liaison with other disciplines agencies and interpretation of professional jargon for the families.
To provide clear, concise written reports for other agencies for statutory processes, e.g. Education, Health and Care Plan, Tribunal cases.
Contribute to CCS’ internal communication strategies ensuring effective two-way communication and engagement within the organisation.
Contribute to CCS’ external communication strategies working with the Head of Communications to raise awareness and promote the reputation of CCS’ services.
The post holder will be required to use a range of verbal and non-verbal communication tools to communicate effectively with CYP and their carers to progress rehabilitation and treatment programmes. This will include working with CYP who may have difficulties in understanding and/or communicating. To work with families and parents who are often in a grieving process, giving difficult information to families during this time.
To communicate effectively with CYP, families and other professionals to agree joint goals for therapy.
To employ advanced communication skills to investigate and manage concerns, incidents and complaints.
Patient and Public Engagement
To contribute to ensuring that CCS responsibilities to engage and consult with patients and the public are met in line with statutory requirements
To undertake the measurement and evaluation of your work and current practices through the use of evidence-based practice projects, audit and outcome measures, either individually or with Physiotherapy Clinical Lead/Team Leaders. To work with colleagues to change the service protocol in line with results.
To manage clinical risk within own patient caseload.
To actively seek feedback from service users to help inform improvements and developments in services delivered.
Budgetary Responsibility
To be responsible for the assessment and requesting of equipment such as postural sleep systems, walking aids and standing frames, for children on the postholder’s’ caseload, considering effective use of resources.
To give advice on provision and ordering of equipment to other members of the team.
People Management
To supervise band 6 physiotherapists, physiotherapy assistants and student physiotherapists in effective use of the record keeping system (SystmOne) according to professional body and the Cambridgeshire Community Services standards.
To be involved in recruitment for new staff into the paediatric physiotherapy team.
To provide support, guidance and training to therapy assistants and more junior physiotherapy staff assessing and evaluating competence.
To encourage and support the professional development of other members of the team
Research & Development Activity
To be responsible for maintaining own competency to practice through CPD activities and maintain a portfolio which reflects personal development.
To be responsible for teaching student physiotherapists to graduate level on paediatric physiotherapeutic skills and knowledge within core clinical areas.
To teach, assess and contribute to the performance assessment and appraisal of physiotherapy assistant staff, and to teach assistants employed by education.
To maintain and develop current knowledge of evidenced-based practice in paediatric physiotherapy developing specialist knowledge of particular conditions and patient types.
To participate in the staff appraisal scheme as an appraiser and appraisee and be responsible for complying with agreed personal development programmes to meet set knowledge and competencies.
To undertake the measurement and evaluation of work and current practices through the use of evidence-based practice projects, audit and outcome measures, either individually or with other team members.
To be an active member of the in-service training programme by attendance at, and participation in, in-service training programmes, tutorials, individual training sessions, external courses and peer review.
To be competent in carrying out literature searches and to actively maintain/update specialist knowledge.
To partake in research opportunities as they arise, including application for funding where appropriate.
To undertake the collection of data for use in service audit and research projects.
To manage and undertake research into specific areas of clinical practice and service delivery using a range of research methodologies as part of MDT audit and departmental research initiatives. To work with the lead practitioner to change practise in line with the results of audit.
This advert closes on Sunday 13 Apr 2025
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