Specialist physiotherapist | Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust

If you are an energetic and motivated Physiotherapist with a commitment to excellence in clinical practice and successful outcomes for people with a learning disability, then this role will appeal to you.
You will have the necessary clinical experience to manage complex cases within the community and work alongside primary care services. With strong communication skills, a solution focused approach, you will work alongside other dedicated members of the multi-disciplinary team developing a network of support and resilience within the service.
This exciting opportunity will enable the successful applicant to work with the Sefton community learning disabilities team. You will work amongst a range of multidisciplinary professionals including Support workers, Nursing, Occupational Therapy, Speech and Language Therapy, Physiotherapy, Psychology, Psychiatry and Intensive support team.
The post holder will provide physiotherapy assessment, diagnosis, and treatment for adult service users with a Learning Disability, as an autonomous practitioner.
• To provide physiotherapy advice, guidance and information to service users and health and social care professionals. To act as clinical lead for Postural Care physiotherapy across Specialist LD division.
• To participate in the delivery of a specialist LD Physiotherapy by managing a caseload of clients with complex learning disabilities.
• To provide professional supervision to other staff /students as appropriate including appraisal and professional development particularly mandatory training.
• To contribute to the planning, development and evaluation of learning disability services, including contributing to defined projects.
As an autonomous practitioner to manage a specialist case load providing assessment, identification and treatment of the health needs of adults with a learning disability.
Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 1.4 million people across our region and are also commissioned for services that cover the North West, North Wales and the Midlands.
We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities.
At the heart of all we do is our commitment to ‘perfect care’ – care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. We’re currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce cost as we do so.
Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.
Job Purpose:
The post holder will provide physiotherapy assessment, diagnosis, and treatment for adult service users with a Learning Disability condition, as an autonomous practitioner. To provide physiotherapy advice, guidance and information to service users and health and social care professionals. To act as clinical lead for Postural Care physiotherapy across Specialist LD division. To plan, deliver and evaluate the service in liaison with the Physiotherapy Strategic and Professional Lead.
Principal Responsibilities:
Clinical
1. To be professional and legally accountable for all aspects of own work to ensue a high standard of clinical care.
2. To undertake comprehensive assessment of service users and use advance clinical reasoning skills and analysis of non clinical issues to form accurate diagnosis and prognoses in a wide range of highly complex conditions with multipathology, chronic and /or terminal presentation.
3. To formulate individualised condition management and short and long term plans, utilising a wide range of treatment skills and strategies; to create, implement and monitor specialised programmes of care.
4. To assess capacity, gain valid information consent and have the ability to work within a legal framework with the service users who lack capacity to consent.
5. To use effective communication skills in the explanation of complex pathologies and negotiation and delivery of palliative or rehabilitative treatment to service users with cognitive/intellectual impairment e.g., acute/chronic mental health conditions.
6. To provide spontaneous and planned advice, teaching and guidance to service users, relatives, carers and health and social care professionals.
7. To use specialist skills to de-escalate situations where service users become physically or verbally aggressive.
8. To be responsible for maintaining accurate and comprehensive service user treatment and intervention records in line with the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy professional standards.
9. To refer to and recommend, in conjunction with the Wheelchair Services the provision of specialist seating systems and wheelchairs.
10. To work in partnership with the Appliance Department in the provision of specialist orthoses as required.
Organisational
11. To plan and organise effectively and efficiently with regard to service user caseload and use of time. To prioritise and balance other service user related and professional demands and ensure these remain in accordance with those of the department.
12. To be responsible for the allocation, supervision, and clinical training of physiotherapy students to gradate level. To liaise with university lecturers and complete assessments and appraisals.
13. To respond proactively to the needs of the service user by organising and co-ordinating multi agency activities e.g., case reviews, Care Programme Approach.
14. To be responsible for the prescription, authorisation and ordering of service user orthoses and appliances and their review.
15. To contribute to and take responsibility for the interpretation and the implementation of Government Policies to develop and enhance the Physiotherapy service to service users e.g., National Service Frameworks, White Papers, in liaison with the Physiotherapy Professional Lead.
16. To comply with and contribute to Departmental and Organisational Policies and to be involved with reviewing, updating, and implementing as appropriate.
17. To adhere to the Trust’s rights-based approach, taking into account service user choice.
18. To take responsibility for ensuring your own personal safety and that of service users and staff within inpatient and community services. Co-ordinate appropriate assessments and action plans to address any issues affecting the safety of staff or others.
19. To take reasonable care for the health and safety of yourself and any others that may be affected by your acts or omissions at work.
20. To ensure that you are familiar with the terms and conditions of your post.
Professional
21. To develop effective working relationships with other professionals within the Trust and externally, in order to enhance the delivery of care to services users.
22. To manage and lead on research into specific areas of clinical practice and service delivery. To undertake the collection of data for use in service audit and research projects.
23. To be responsible for maintaining own competency to practice through additional training and clinical professional activities and to maintain a portfolio which reflects personal development.
24. To attend mandatory and in-service training programmes and to deliver training sessions and presentations both internally and externally.
25. To participate in the staff appraisal scheme and formulation of Personal Development Plans as both appraiser and appraisee.
Generic Responsibilities for all staff:
All post holders will agree to:
• Commit to the vision of supporting Mersey Care in becoming a leading organisation in the provision of community services, mental health care, addiction services and learning disability care, and in doing so fully utilise their skills and experience to support the objectives of the Trust.
• Role model the values of the Trust – Continuous Improvement, Accountability, Respectfulness, Enthusiasm and Support– in all activities and interactions with employees, service users and other stakeholders
• Challenge the stigma associated with mental health and learning difficulties.
• Comply with the Duty of Candour, defined by Francis as: 'The volunteering of all relevant information to persons who have or may have been harmed by the provision of services, whether or not the information has been requested and whether or not a complaint or a report about that provision has been made.’
• Work across professional and organisational boundaries to improve services for all.
• Maintain their specific knowledge base and develop new skills.
• Value the contribution of the patient/ service user voice.
• Operate within any organisational codes of practice or those from a relevant professional body.
• Respect equality and diversity across all areas of working practice and communications with staff, service users and other stakeholders.
• Take responsibility for the accurate and timely collection and recording of data and ensuring all personally identifiable information is protected and used only for the purposes for which it was intended.
• Comply with all health and safety legislation and local policies and procedures.
• Adhere to all organisational policies.
• Have knowledge and understanding of technology in the workplace which is sufficient to maintain their efficiency and also how technology can empower service users in a digital environment.
• Comply with the NHS Constitution in relation to the staff responsibilities that it sets out for NHS employees.
• Attend a one day Just and Learning & Civility and Respect training workshop.
• Be an ambassador for Just & Learning and Civility & Respect following the training.
• Positively advocate the just and learning culture within your team.
• Be a confident supporter and implementer of the Trust CARES Values including Civility & Respect within your team.
• Support their team/services to create a positive environment for Just and Learning Culture.
• Participate in Just and Learning Culture events.
• Bring Just and Learning Culture updates/information to the attention of team members and other MCT colleagues they work with.
• Support and encourage the sharing of concerns about the safety and quality of care with senior leaders with the aim of improving safety and quality.
• Actively participate in creating an open culture within your team so that concerns and difficulties can be discussed safely and respectfully.
• Speaking up in the event that they are exposed to incivility between colleagues in the workplace #iwillspeakup.
• Listening and understanding others who have concerns and taking a collaborative approach to work towards a solution to improve civility and respect.
This job description is intended as an outline indicator of general areas of activity and will be reviewed in light of the changing needs of the Trust in consultation with the postholder.
This advert closes on Tuesday 13 Feb 2024