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Highly Specialist Physiotherapist in Palliative Care
Band 7
Main area Community Specialist Palliative Care Grade Band 7 Contract Permanent Hours Part time - 26.5 hours per week (worked over 4 days ideally may be flexibility for discussion or shorter hrs over 5 days) Job ref 844-7282208
Site Wirral Hospice St John's, 2nd Floor Town Higher Bebington Salary £46,148 - £52,809 pa pro rata Salary period Yearly Closing 10/07/2025 23:59
Wirral Community Health & Care NHS Foundation Trust's common purpose:
We will support you and your community to live well.
Our values:
Compassion
Supportive and caring, listeningto others.
Open
Communicating openly, honestly and sharing ideas.
Trust
Trusted to deliver, feeling valued and safe.
Wirral Community Health & Care NHS Foundation Trust provides high quality community health and care services which are responsive to the needs of our local population. Services are delivered by our dedicated and innovative multi disciplinary professionals and supported by equally committed staff behind the scenes. We strive to continue developing and improving our services by working with and listening to our populations, partners, commissioners and staff.
WCHC offers you a great opportunity to be a part of a talented, passionate and committed team delivering excellent community based services across Cheshire and Merseyside.
Job overview
We are looking for a motivated and experiencedHighly Specialist Physiotherapist to join our dynamic Community Specialist Palliative Care Team, which includes Occupational Therapy, Dietetics, and Clinical Nurse Specialists. This is a fantastic opportunity to be part of a forward-thinking, compassionate team delivering outstanding care to patients across the Wirral.
In this pivotal role, you will provide expert physiotherapy assessment, intervention, and care planning for patients with advanced, life-limiting conditions—supporting them to remain in their preferred place of care, typically in their own homes. Our specialist palliative care approach ensures that patient needs, goals, and preferences are always central.
What we’re looking for:
An experienced Physiotherapist, ideally with specialist skills or strong interest in palliative care.
A confident communicator with excellent organisational and leadership skills.
A collaborative, compassionate team player who thrives in a multidisciplinary setting.
Someone who can balance complex caseloads and competing priorities with professionalism and empathy.
A physiotherapist deeply aligned with the values and purpose of Wirral Community Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust.
If you’re ready to bring your expertise and passion to a team that values innovation, compassion, and excellence in care, we’d love to hear from you.
Join us—and help us deliver the right care, in the right place, every time.
Main duties of the job
We are looking for a highly motivated individual with a minimum of 5 years previous experience of working as an autonomous practitioner in the community/palliative/specialist palliative care setting. The right candidate needs to be organised and able to prioritise and be proficient in their role, so they can manage their own caseload of patients. Ability to be involved in training of other staff. In addition, to having excellent communication and interpersonal skills as well as excellent leadership skills, the ability to be proactive and able to motivate others.
In the role the successful candidate will be responsible and be professionally accountable for all aspects of clinical work for patients and referring onwards as needed to other Health / Social Care Professionals, care workers and/or departmental specialists by following agreed pathways.
Working for our organisation
Wirral Community Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust has been rated as Good by CQC (Dec 2023) with some outstanding areas.
As an aspiring outstanding Trust we have numerous policies and procedures in place which provide standard organisational ways of working, in line with organisational objectives, relevant legislation and requirements. Policies allow for continuity and consistency within the Trust. Employees must abide by and adhere to all Wirral Community NHS Trust’s policies, at all times.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Please see job description for full list of roles and responsibilities
Clinical Duties
The post holder will provide high standards of competent and effective clinical care with evidence based, measurable outcomes and can deliver this care as an autonomous practitioner.
• To be responsible for the assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation of Highly Specialist physiotherapy rehab intervention to patients who are palliative, living with life limiting diseases.
• To be able to demonstrate clinical reasoning at a HighlySpecialist level including differential diagnosis of complex presentations.
• Be involved in daily management of complex palliative patients and planning own workload/visit allocation
• Provide care in a range of settings within Wirral to include community, patient homes, nursing and residential homes and possibly day care centre and third sector organisations.
• Active involvement in the development and provision of structured and specialised on-going Rehabilitation programmes with patients, relatives and carers and nursing and residential home staff.
• Liaise at a Highly Specialist level with Consultants, G.P.’s, Nurses, other Health / Social Care Professionals, Nursing Home and hospital staff to discuss, plan and implement multi-disciplinary care plans for individual patients with a complex range of needs.
• To be aware of evidence- based practice, local and national guidelines and to support the development and implementation as local policy and practice to demonstrate this knowledge in the management of complex cases.
• Make appropriate, timely secondary referrals to other Health / Social care Professionals, services and agencies to meet the individual needs of the complex patient.
• To have individual responsibility and be professionally accountable for all aspects of clinical work for patients, delegating as necessary and referring onwards as needed to other Health / Social Care Professionals, care workers and/or departmental specialists by following agreed pathways.
• Provide education advice to patients, relatives and carers and other professionals as necessary.
• The post holder will attend meetings with other Health / Social Care Professionals, their teams and other groups to discuss update and implement new pathways policies and procedures across agencies as necessary.
• To have appropriate hand eye co-ordination.
• Maintain high levels of concentration during patient contact time
• To be competent in the assessment, demonstration and fitting of equipment where necessary to improve clinical outcomes and independence, both within the nursing/residential home or patients own home environment.
• To have the capability to move and handle and find solutions for patients with complex moving and handling needs of complex neurology, wheelchair users or confined to bed, possibly in confined spaces.
• Actively participate in MDT meetings and to take delegated responsibility for actions from those meetings including policy, clinical or service development commensurate with the skills of a specialist practitioner.
• To support the service in its responsibility for the maintenance, security, rotation and ordering of stock.
• Adhere to department and Trust Standard Operating Procedures, protocols, policies and guidelines.
• Build and maintain healthy interpersonal relationships with colleagues, patients, GP’s and other health / social care professionals, working effectively as a member of the multidisciplinary team and always promoting the service/department.
• To actively contribute to the development of the service, and to the identification and implementation of quality improvements and initiatives.
• Provide supervision and support the development of junior staff through mentorship to staff and students and be responsible for the completion of summative assessment.
• Carry out treatments, which include kneeling, crouching, bending, lifting, moving weights and equipment, maintaining static / awkward postures for short periods of time, several times a day, daily.
Communication and Administration
• Excellent communication / interpersonal skills with individuals and groups of patients may be required to provide complex or sensitive information. Be able to communicate clearly with a variety of health and social care professionals. Ability to influence and use assertiveness skills effectively to deal with contentious situations.
• To accept responsibility for establishing and maintaining healthy interpersonal relationships within the work environment with patients, colleagues G.Ps, Health Visitors, Community Nurses, Nursing Home staff etc and work effectively as a member of the multi-disciplinary team particularly around complex cases.
• To gain informed consent in accordance with Trust policy.
• To maintain high quality and accurate records of all patient consultations, telephone consultations and related work carried out at each clinical session.
• To prepare high quality clinical reports demonstrating objective assessment and measured outcomes
• To accurately report consultation activity using Trust data capture systems.
• To attend and actively contribute to departmental meetings.
• Liaise with and return telephone calls to other members of the team and to write to G.P.'s and hospital consultants regarding patient management and discharge summary.
• To ensure that all information relating to clients and staff gained through employment with the Trust is kept confidential according to Trust record keeping policy and Caldicott guidelines.
• Give service presentations and training to GP’s, other healthcare professionals and outside agencies using appropriate aids (power point etc.).
• Fully conversant with Microsoft and other computer application.
Person specification
QUALIFICATIONS AND PROFESSIONAL TRAINING
* Physiotherapy degree or recognised equivalent qualification
* Registered member of HCPC
* Evidence of successful completion of specialist short courses at a postgraduate equivalent level with an accompanying portfolio of evidence/experience.
* Registered member of CSP
EXPERIENCE & KNOWLEDGE
* Minimum of 5 years qualified with relevant specialist experience
* Can manage own caseload of complex problems independently
* Knowledge of current trends in the management of clinical specialist area
* Experience of supervising / mentoring junior staff / students
* Experience of training others in specialist area
* Experience of project management
SKILLS & ABILITIES
* Can use a variety of assessment techniques
* Demonstrates specialist clinical skills
* Competent computer skills and ability to utilise Information Technology
* Demonstrate analytical and reflection skills
* Understands and can use the principals of prioritisation
* Knowledge and experience of clinical governance/audit
* Able to demonstrate good leadership and the abilities to motivate others.
* Physical ability to undertake on a repetitive basis sit to stand and mobility rehabilitation for patients with markedly reduced balance.
* Experience in supporting staff and their development
* Access to transport for work purposes.
PERSONAL QUALITIES
* Demonstrates excellent interpersonal skills, including observation, listening and empathy
* Can convey ideas and information in a confident and easily understood manner, both written and verbal
* Adaptable to a varied and frequently changing work environment
* Able to work in difficult, distracting environments, with challenging clients and where intense levels of concentration are required
* Demonstrate ability to be a good team member.
* Developed skills in negotiation and problem solving.
* Able to relate the values of the organisation to everyday practice.
* Excellent organisational skills.
* Ability to motivate and inspire others.
By applying for this post you are agreeing to Wirral Community Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust transferring the information contained in this application to its preferred applicant management system. If you are appointed to a post information will also be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Record system.
For further information explaining how we use your information in line with GDPR please see our ‘Guidance for applicants’ document under the section 'Additional documentation'.
We are a Disability Confident and Mindful Employer.WCHC is committed to recruiting and supporting a diverse workforce and we welcome applications from all sections of the community, regardless of disability, age, sex, race, religion, sexual orientation, maternity/pregnancy, marriage/civil partnership or transgender status. We are committed to having a team that is made up of diverse skills, experiences and abilities. We actively encourage BAME, LGBTQ+ and disabled applicants and value the positive impact that difference has on our teams. We are committed to equality and diversity within our workforce and are keen to support reasonable adjustments to support our new and existing staff.
We are proud to support our Armed Forces Community as aVeteran Aware NHS Trust and are pleased to share that we recently achieved Bronze Award accreditation, in the Defence Employer Recognition Scheme. We support the armed forces as an employer; recognising the experiences and skills ex-military personnel have gained through their service.
Further Information:
Closing Dates: Candidates are advised to apply early. The Trust reserves the right to close a vacancy prior to the closing date if a high number of applications are received.
Reference Information: Please ensure your application is submitted with referees who can verify your employment/ education history over the last three years and include valid business email addresses for them. The Trust will not accept personal references from friends or family.
Salary Expectations: The Trust pays staff in line with national NHS Terms and Conditions. Relevant experience may be considered when salary offers are made. For all part-time positions, salaries are pro-rata.
Restricted Applications: Staff on the Trust's Redeployment Register will be given priority access to vacancies at their substantive band.
Flexible Working: Flexible working is very important to the Trust in both the provision of this to staff and also in staff supporting the provision of our services.
A.I. Tools: Please note, the selection processes at Wirral Community Health & Care NHS Foundation Trust are in place to ensure we recruit candidates with the right skills and values, please be advised that the use of AI in applications are monitored. We remain vigilant against candidates who misuse these tools to generate an application that doesn’t accurately reflect their skills.
English Language: In order to comply with Part 7 of the Immigration Act 2016, we are required to ensure that all employees possess "the ability to fulfil all spoken aspects of the role with confidence through the medium of English.” If you have not studied at an English speaking institute, or do not possess an English language qualification, you should provide evidence in your application of how you meet this requirement.
Student Visas: Due to Home Office immigration rules, a full time permanent vacancy cannot be filled by individuals on a Student visa. Therefore, please be advised that if you are a Student visa holder, we will not be able to offer you a full time permanent contract unless you have:
- applied for a Graduate visa
- or you will have successfully completed your course and have applied for a Graduate visa before the anticipated start date of your employment.
Wirral Community Health & Care NHS Foundation Trust is committed to discharging its statutory duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, young people and adults and will support staff to fulfil this duty.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
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.
Application numbers
This vacancy may close early if it receives a high number of applications. Please complete and submit your application in good time to avoid disappointment.
Name Charlotte Botes Job title Community Specialist Palliative Care manager Email address charlotte.botes@nhs.net Telephone number 01513280481 Additional information
Works 08.00-18.00- Monday to Thursday
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