Oral Health Promoters - Whittington Health Dental Service Band 5
Whittington Health Community Dental Service (CDS) operates across ten boroughs in Northwest and North Central London providing a comprehensive service for patients with complex needs, as well as evidence-based oral health promotion to key population groups, in line with national and local strategies for reducing inequalities in oral health. Northwest London and North central London has some of the highest levels of deprivation in the country, with socially diverse, multi-cultural and ageing populations. Deprivation is associated with poor oral health and wide inequalities in oral health.
We are looking for an Oral Health Promoter to join our dynamic dental team, providing care to young children and vulnerable groups in NWL boroughs, in particular Ealing and Brent and also supporting the implementation and delivery of Supervised tooth brushing programme in schools and early years settings and also working with vulnerable groups and care home programmes, along with our established core community based OHP programmes. Excellent communication skills both written and verbal, and presentational skills are essential criteria for this post.
The post holder will be expected to work closely with OHP team, members of the community dental team as well as liaising with other professional and carers in the Health Service, Social Care, Educational and Voluntary sector.
Main duties of the job
This post will be based in the Community Dental Service. The principle care groups covered by Community Dental Services are:
* children with high levels of dental decay or with special needs,
* people with profound physical, mental or medical disabilities
The purpose of this job is to contribute toward the improvement of oral health and reduction of oral health inequalities by
* Supervised toothbrushing programmes
* providing education and support
* maximising the availability of fluoride
* building skills, capacity and confidence in local people
* increasing access to local NHS dental services
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 Trustbelieves 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
Support implementation and delivery of our established core community-based OHP programmes, including:
* Supervised tooth brushing scheme
* Brushing for Life
* Fluoride Varnish
* OHP outreach for vulnerable groups
* CQC OH standards in care home
Train and support frontline staff to make every contact count, following the train the trainer model Tooth Champion training. Partner groups will include
* Schools and Early Years settings
* Social care and home-support services including care homes
* Hospital and community-based health professionals
* Charity and voluntary sector organisation
Provide oral health promotion and preventive care where appropriate to vulnerable groups and the general population in line with current guidelines such as Delivering Better Oral Health.
Work in a variety of settings including schools, children centres, nursing and residential homes, sheltered accommodation, hospital wards, day centres for adults and children with special needs.
To work with communities to identify and address barriers and opportunities for oral health improvement e.g. Children Centre HEY award, Healthy school London award etc.
Education / Qualifications
* Significant experience in primary health care in the UK, part of this should have been in a work setting with relevance to oral health education or oral health promotion
Skills & Abilities
* Ability to deal with patients and carers needs in a caring and sensitive manner.
* Ability to manage difficult or challenging behaviours in clients or patients
* Knowledge and understanding of inequalities and barriers to oral health for socially excluded and vulnerable people and their relevance to oral and general health
* Knowledge and understanding of equal opportunities and relevance to delivery of oral health initiatives
* Knowledge of evidence-based and contemporary oral health promotion and preventive strategies
* Good interpersonal and liaison skills
* Good interpersonal and liaison skills
* Good group work and training skills
* Ability to manage workload and time
* Ability to set up and implement a project within a short timescale
* Initiative and flexibility in dealing with unfamiliar issues
Knowledge & Experience
* Experience of working in primary health care in the UK
* Experience of carrying out oral health promotion activities
* Experience of delivering training sessions and presentations to groups
* Experience of project planning and implementation
* Experience of working in the Community Dental Service
* Experience of working with people with challenging behaviour and special care needs
* Experience of working with other agencies in meeting needs of patients
* Experience of involvement in community-based oral health prevention and promotion programmes
* Experience of training and supervision of staff
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
£36,943 to £44,900 a yearPer Annum Including outer HCAS
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