Children's Physiotherapist

This role is a frontline clinical role delivering specialist physiotherapy assessment and intervention to babies and children in the community in the London Borough of Haringey. The post holder will deliver care to children and young people from infancy up to 18 years of age in a range of settings. You will work as part of a physiotherapy team which sits within a wider MDT and multiagency framework.

The team takes pride in enabling children to achieve better outcomes by delivering evidence based and compassionate care.

Interviews for this post will be face to face .

Main duties of the job

• To provide assessment and physiotherapy intervention to children and young people in a range of settings in collaboration with the child, family and other professionals.
• To document patient care accurately and in accordance with professional and trust guidelines.
• To safeguard children within the scope of the role.
• To engage in quality improvement
• To engage in CPD to improve your own practice and the service offer.
• To train and develop other staff.
• To engage in research where appropriate,
• To provide cover when other members of the team are unavailable.
• To report incidents and near misses in line with trust processes.

About us Whittington Health serves a richly diverse population and works hard to ensure that all our services are fair and equally accessible to everyone. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the way we look after our staff. We aim to employ a workforce which is as representative as possible of this population, so we are open to the value of differences in age, disability, gender, marital status, pregnancy and maternity, race, sexual orientation, and religion or belief. The Trust believes that as a public sector organisation we have an obligation to have recruitment, training, promotion and other formal employment policies and procedures that are sensitive to these differences. We think that by doing so, we are better able to treat our patients as well as being a better place to work.

Job responsibilities To carry a personal clinical caseload maintaining a high level of professional competence and demonstrate developing clinical expertise.

To undertake comprehensive assessment of children with complex developmental, neurological and specialist orthopaedic conditions. Investigative and analytical skills should be used to formulate individualised management and treatment plans incorporating a wide range of treatment skills and using clinical reasoning.

To provide physiotherapy treatment of children using clinical reasoning and utilising a wide range of treatment skills and options and provide ongoing treatment programmes.

To provide specialist advice and assessment for the provision of appropriate aids and equipment and monitor their use.

To administer specialist standardised and structured assessments, interpret results and contribute to accurate diagnosis and prognosis within the team responsible for the childs care.

To assess and treat individual children with complex needs, in their homes and school or clinic setting, working as part of the multi-disciplinary team, and liaising closely with education staff and parents/carers.

To use a range of communication strategies to overcome barriers to communicating e.g. language, communication difficulties or cognitive impairment and English as a second language, to engage and motivate the child and their family/carers in their Physiotherapy treatment.

To attend meetings necessary to co-ordinate multi-agency care of the child e.g. transition planning, child protection.

To make referrals to other services as required to meet the child or familys identified needs.

To keep accurate and adequate records, and write reports and discharge summaries as required, ensuring that confidentiality and information-sharing standards are met as in Trust and professional standards.

To communicate complex clinical information and care plans to parents, carers, and staff in other agencies, for them to understand and carry out effective treatment or management of the child.

To establish relationships with community services and facilities, and to assist children and their families to make links with resources available to them.

To work effectively with clients, carers, and colleagues around individual case management, providing advice, guidance and support as necessary and involving them in the planning and prioritisation of care wherever possible.

To reflect on clinical practice; adequately identifying strengths & needs of clients, reviewing their response to therapy and providing evidence of sound clinical judgement.

To monitor and review the progress of children on caseload and facilitate the development or modification of packages of care / targets as appropriate using evaluation/outcome measurement tools.

To adapt practice to meet individual client/carers circumstances, considering cultural and linguistic backgrounds.

To produce accurate, & detailed reports, therapy programmes, advice and information as necessary in a timely manner.

To respond to the requirements of the 1996 Education Act, The Childrens and Families Act 2014 and the SEND Code of Practice (2015), by completing written advice for children who may have Special Educational Needs.

To refer children to other Health, Education or Social Services professionals as necessary.

To undertake home visits, as necessary, in compliance with Home Visiting Safety Policy

COMMUNICATION AND RELATIONSHIP SKILLS:

To be able to gather information that may be sensitive or complex and analyse it as part of a full assessment of a clients strengths and difficulties.

To work closely with clients and carers using empathy, tact, reassurance and active listening to complete assessments, discuss results, and agree treatment options.

To develop skills in motivating clients/carers to engage in the therapeutic process.

To negotiate and manage conflict effectively in a range of settings, with support and supervision from line manager.

To deal with initial complaints sensitively, avoiding escalation where possible

To form effective therapeutic relationships with clients and/or carers who may be under stress and/or having challenging behaviour.

To provide training to a variety of audiences on aspects of physiotherapy.

KNOWLEDGE, TRAINING & EXPERIENCE:

To identify own training needs as part of the Professional Development Review and in supervision with the Band 7 physiotherapist.

To keep up to date with current clinical developments through reading, attendance at courses, meetings and Specific Interest Groups

To attend clinical supervision

To maintain up to date professional registration at all times.

Person Specification Qualifications and Training

• Degree in Physiotherapy
• CPIPS Trained with User ID
• Training in any of the following: AIMS, HINE, Bayleys, MABC, Prechtl

Experience

• At least 18 months post graduation experience in a Band 5 post
• Completion of a paediatric placement as a student or completion of a Band 5 rotation in paediatrics
• Experience working with children with disabilities either as a student, Band 5 or in another post or voluntary position
• At least 6 months experience of working in a Band 6 post within the NHS or equivalent

Knowledge of Assessment

• Can undertake a comprehensive subjective and objective physiotherapy assessment
• Can use a standardised assessment
• Can analyse the assessment findings to identify strengths and areas of deficit and reflect this in the documentation
• Has used one or more named paediatric standardised assessments
• Can use a recognised framework to assess a child holistically
• Can assess a child for equipment
• Can assess a child for orthotic intervention
• Can undertake a joint assessment with another member of the MDT

Intervention

• Can identify appropriate, evidence based interventions for a patient with neurological impairments
• Can identify appropriate interventions for patients with MSK conditions
• Can describe main physiotherapy interventions for a child with a neurological disorder
• Can describe how to progress an intervention for a child
• Can describe how to evaluate an intervention
• Demonstrates holistic approach to interventions

Knowledge of child development

• Has knowledge of normal child development inc. gross and fine motor, language and social development
• Has completed training on child development
• Can describe normal sequences of gross motor development
• Has experience treating children with developmental delays
• Knows when children may show delays in areas such as speech, fine motor and social development

Knowledge of Disabilities

• Has basic knowledge of common paediatric presentations such as cerebral palsy, neuromuscular conditions and musculoskeletal and orthopaedic conditions.
• Has experience treating a child with cerebral palsy, orthopaedic or msk conditions.

Safeguarding

• Can demonstrate knowledge of own responsibilities in safeguarding children
• Has been involved in safeguarding processes with an adult or a child

Audit and quality Improvement

• Can explain what clinical governance means
• Has undertaken QI project and can explain the processes involved

Communication

• Has clear spoken and written English
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