Job overview
Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (BHRUT) is a large teaching Trust located in Northeast London. Our Vision is to provide outstanding healthcare to our community, delivered with pride. The oncology department at BHRUT serves a population of approximately 750,000. The living with and beyond cancer team are a multi-disciplinary team providing personalised care and support for patients living with a cancer diagnosis.
The team have been recognised Nationally for innovation in delivery of virtual health and wellbeing and an exciting opportunity has arisen for a Band 4 support worker to join us. You will be responsible for providing support for patient's wellbeing while they receive cancer treatments, holistic needs assessment and care planning and assisting with delivery of a range of health and wellbeing information and support.
If you are passionate about supporting cancer patients to have the best experience of care, we would love to hear from you. Cancer services are mainly located on the Queen’s Hospital site in Romford. Romford is an historic market town with excellent road links as well as an easy rail commute into London. There are frequent trains from London Liverpool Street to Romford and the fastest train only takes 15 minutes. Trains also stop at Stratford where the upcoming cross-rail service will make commuting to Romford even easier. The hospital is a 15 minute walk from the train station but there are frequent bus services that drop right outside the main entrance. Romford is an ideal location as there is equal access to central London as well as nearby countryside. There are quality schools in the area and the Trust offers on site car parking.
Main duties of the job
The purpose of this post is to part of the Personalised cancer care (PCC) team. The aim of the team is to develop and provide personalised care and support to people who have had a cancer diagnosis, their family friends and carers. This is in line with NHS England, NHS Improvement and the Northeast London Cancer Alliance personalised care and support interventions.
The NHS Long Term Plan for Cancer states that “by 2021, where appropriate every person diagnosed with cancer will have access to personalised care, including needs assessment, a care plan and health and wellbeing information and support.”
Working for our organisation
We’re an organisation that is getting better and better. We were the most improved Trust in England for A&E performance in 2023/24; we’re no longer in special measures; and Matthew Trainer, our Chief Executive, has been named the top CEO by the Health Service Journal. Our improvements are driven by a determination to deliver care we’re proud of and that our patients are happy with.
Many of our 8,000 staff – who come from 146 different countries - live in the three diverse London boroughs we serve and the majority are from black, Asian and minority ethnic groups. More than 400 of them are on apprenticeship programmes and we’re proud to be a London Living Wage employer.
We operate from two main sites - King George Hospital (KGH) in Goodmayes and Queen’s Hospital in Romford. We have two of the busiest emergency departments in London – more than 300,000 people visited our A&Es in 2023.
Patients across north east London are benefitting from two new state of the art theatres at KGH and our Community Diagnostic Centres at Barking Community Hospital and St George’s Health and Wellbeing Hub will significantly increase the number of scans that can be carried out.
We’re looking forward to introducing an electronic patient record next year. This will mean the records of any patient visiting one of the seven hospitals run by BHRUT and Barts Health will be accessible to the clinical teams. It’ll make things easier for staff and will be better for patients.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
For further information on this role, please see the attached detailed Job Description and Person Specification.
The person specification listed below is not the full specification requirements for the role. Please ensure you review the full specification on the job description prior to submitting your application.
Applicants are advised to read all the information on the advert and the supporting information before completing and submitting an application. As you complete your application please ensure you clearly demonstrate how you meet the criteria in the person specification for this post by adequately completing the supporting information section of the application form.
All new staff appointed at the Trust are subject to a probationary period.
Further details regarding the post may be obtained by contacting the manager as per the contact details above.
Person specification
Experience/ Knowledge
Essential criteria
1. Awareness of/Knowledge of relevant cancer treatments, interventions and terminology
2. Experience of working in a health care setting for a minimum of two years
3. Experience of managing priorities under pressure, to meet service needs and strict deadlines
Desirable criteria
4. Experience of facilitating groups
Education/ Qualifications
Desirable criteria
5. NVQ 2/3 in Health or Social Care or equivalent experience
6. Basic communications training e.g. Sage and Thyme
Applicant requirements
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.