Job overview
Camden Learning Disabilities Service is a multidisciplinary team integrated with Adult Social Care Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, Speech and Language Therapists, Clinical Psychologists, Psychiatrists, Community Nurses and therapy assistants. The remit of the team is to provide person centred intervention for service users, which promotes independence, prevents unnecessary hospital admission, and reduces health inequalities. Intervention can take place in the service users own home or place of residence, or day services.
The successful applicant will provide specialist physiotherapy to Adults with Learning Disabilities in Camden. This includes completing assessments and creating treatment plans for a range of conditions as outlined in the Standards of Practice (ACPPLD). This role includes being the point of contact for physiotherapy at Alexandra College, our local college supporting young adults in education with learning disabilities.
Please see the Job Description and Person Specification for further details.
Main duties of the job
Provide specialist physiotherapy for adults with a learning disability where access to generic physiotherapy treatment is not appropriate for them working to the Standards of Practice (ACPPLD).
To be the main point of contact for physiotherapy with within the Alexandra College, attending fortnightly meetings, liaising with AC staff and the rest of the physiotherapy team, ensuring that reports and annual reviews are completed on time.
To hold a clinical caseload for clients including some clients from Alexandra College who have may complex needs.
To manage cases transitioning both into the college and out of the college.
Use Physiotherapy skills to treat complex muscular-skeletal physical problems which often occur in combination with other cognitive and/or sensory disabilities.
Be an active member of the multi-disciplinary team and contribute appropriately to all service requirements and developments
Working for our organisation
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.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
Camden Learning Disabilities Service is a multidisciplinary team integrated with Adult Social Care Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, Speech and Language Therapists, Clinical Psychologists, Psychiatrists, Community Nurses and therapy assistants. The remit of the team is to provide person centred intervention for service users, which promotes independence, prevents unnecessary hospital admission, and reduces health inequalities. Intervention can take place in the service users own home or place of residence, or day services.
The successful applicant will provide specialist physiotherapy to Adults with Learning Disabilities in Camden. This includes completing assessments and creating treatment plans for a range of conditions as outlined in the Standards of Practice (ACPPLD). This role includes being the point of contact for physiotherapy at Alexandra College, our local college supporting young adults in education with learning disabilities.
MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Clinical
Provide specialist physiotherapy for adults with a learning disability where access to generic physiotherapy treatment is not appropriate for them working to the Standards of Practice (ACPPLD).
To assess and treat clients in a variety of settings including; inpatient facilities, clients’ homes, residential homes, day centres, education facilities and leisure facilities including swimming pools.
To be the main point of contact for physiotherapy with within the Alexandra College, attending fortnightly meetings, liaising with AC staff and the rest of the physiotherapy team, ensuring that reports and annual reviews are completed on time.
To hold a clinical caseload for clients including some clients from Alexandra College who have may complex needs.
To manage cases transitioning both into the college and out of the college.
Use Physiotherapy skills to treat complex muscular-skeletal physical problems which often occur in combination with other cognitive and/or sensory disabilities.
Use respiratory Physiotherapy skills to assess and establish non-invasive chest management protocols for appropriate clients in conjunction with SLT and Nursing.
Improve mobility for people with physical disabilities through the assessment and provision of specialist equipment.
Work closely with other multi-disciplinary team members, carers and services to enable community inclusion and promote independence.
Be an active member of the multi-disciplinary team and contribute appropriately to all service requirements and developments
To ensure that the service user, and those who may be accessing on the service user’s behalf,have an understanding of treatment proposals and give informed consent to examination and treatment. This will necessitate the use of a range of communication approaches.
To be actively involved in the pathways within CLDS including the Falls Pathway and Complex Physical Health Needs Pathway.
To ensure that all documentation is accurate and meets the standards legally required by the CSP, Camden Council and the Whittington Health Trust.
To ensure that all actions are congruent with the principals and recommendations of ‘Valuing People (2001)’, ‘Valuing people now (2009), ‘Transforming care’ (2012), the Care Act 2014 and other key government led legislation relating to learning disabilities services.
To prioritise factors involved in a service user’s presenting condition through advanced clinical reasoning, based on specialist knowledge of current professional opinion, syndromesand prognoses, and other physical, social, and mental health issues.
To devise and manage a treatment plan, including setting goals individual toa service user’sphysical problems.
To ensure that the safety of the service users, self and other staff, is paramount at all times.
To carry out risk assessment of safe access to health promoting activities such as swimming and rebound therapy, including educating support workers to support clients in these activities.
To be familiar with and promote a 24-hour approach to postural management and to recommend appropriate specialist seating or equipment such as sleep systems or standing frames.
To carry out basic wheelchair assessments and make appropriate referrals to the wheelchair service for specialist seating. This includes training in safe management, re-evaluation of prescription and adjustments to meet the changing needs of the client.
To contribute towards specialist assessments such as continuing healthcare and housing applications.
To deliver training sessions for staff at AC, providers and other services as required.
To modify the service user’s treatment plan as appropriate following ongoing rigorous re-assessment and evaluation of progress.
To provide a comprehensive discharge report listing issues/actions/outcomes to the service user, and with their permission to all relevant others.
To be responsible for the assessment of physiotherapy equipment such as walking aids and frames and any other rehabilitative equipment, client devices and other assistive devices used and to teach clients and carers and relevant team members in the safe and appropriate use of this equipment.
To support service users and their carers to attend specialist primary secondary and tertiary care health appointments as well as mainstream services and to advocate on their behalf.
To refer to other Physiotherapy and Clinical Services (e.g. specialist wheelchair, podiatry/orthotics, District Nursing, Continence services)within the trust and other local exercise settings e.g. Prescription for Exercise programmes.
Communication
To use an extensive range ofverbal and non-verbal communication skills, including specialist Makatonsigning and total communication strategiesin a sensitive manner to promote effective communication with service users and their carers.
The use of multi-media formats (video, audio, photography) and associated IT skills to present material in accessible formats.
Professional
To be professional and legally accountable for all work undertaken.
To ensure that the provision of care is based on the current professional opinion, and to be responsible for the development and implementation of service guidelines and protocols pertaining to clinical issues.
To offer advice and support to mainstream physiotherapy services on managing clients with mild to moderate learning disability within their teams.
To actively participate in any relevant meetings and seminars
To supervise physiotherapy students on clinical placement
Management
To support the Band 8a and Band 7 Physiotherapists in the development of physiotherapy services for adults with learning disability.
To support the Band 3 Physiotherapy Technician in their role.
To assist in the prioritisation, management and monitoring of referrals, waiting lists and workload on a day to day basis.
To manage own diary and prioritise competing demands e.g. caseload, training, evaluation/audit/research, supervision, meetings, and service developments; with support from Senior staff as required.
To work across multiple office sites, including 5PS, Alexandra College and Greenwood Day Centre.
To ensure close lines of communication are developed and maintained with other clinical disciplines, management and other agencies involved in the care and support of service users.
To comply with all Camden Council and Whittington Health Trust policies and procedures and the Health and Safety at Work Act, and ensure that all staff are aware of these and do likewise.
Education
To participate actively in the in-service training and post-registration training programmes of the CLDS team, Physiotherapy service and other relevant professional networks.
To maintain and update a Continuing Professional Development Portfolio (CPD) in line with the requirements of HCPC.
To act as professional practice educator for physiotherapy students.
To participate in education programmes for client groups.
To develop a specialist knowledge base, specific to Learning Disability including assessment, clinical reasoning, outcome measures and management skills.
To comply with all mandatory training.
General
To perform such duties that may be considered necessary from time to time appropriate to grade.
To work at other sites within Camden as required.
Please see the Job Description and Person Specification for further details.
Person specification
Education/Qualification
Essential criteria
1. Degree qualification in physiotherapy
Desirable criteria
2. Evidence of Post-Graduate qualification
Professional/ Statutory Registration
Essential criteria
3. Current registration with HCPC
Desirable criteria
4. Member of the CSP
5. Member of ACPPLD
Previous Experience
Essential criteria
6. Broad range of rotational physiotherapy experience including musculo-skeletal, neurology/ rehabilitation and elderly care
7. Experience of working as an integral member of a multidisciplinary team
8. Experience of multidisciplinary goal planning, development of care pathways and using outcome measures
Desirable criteria
9. Specific experience in working with adults with learning disabilities
10. Experience of working with adults with challenging behaviours
11. Supervision of junior physios, and students
12. Experience of rebound therapy
13. Experience of aquatic therapy
Skills, Abilities and Knowledge
Essential criteria
14. Knowledge of postural management for adults with complex physical disabilities demonstrated by sound clinical reasoning and evidence based strategies
15. Knowledge of current research and legislation in the field of learning disabilities
16. Understanding of Clinical Governance and the implications for physiotherapy services including experience of quality issues and audit
17. Ability to develop relationships and effective partnerships across agencies
18. Ability to organise personal workload within an agreed work programme
19. Able to work autonomously and to act on own initiative
20. Able to work under pressure and achieve deadlines
21. Excellent communication skills, both oral and written, able to produce clear, succinct and well structured written work
22. Able to ensure that risks to clients, junior colleagues and self are minimised by taking decisive action to tackle unsafe procedures
23. Proficient in use of IT clinical systems and applications, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint
Desirable criteria
24. Knowledge of a range of approaches to the management of adults with learning and physical disabilities.
Personal Qualities
Essential criteria
25. Ability to travel independently to different locations within Camden (including patient homes), Whittington Health sites and across London
26. Able to carry out moderate to intense physical effort throughout the working day and carry out concurrent activities including therapeutic handling and manual handling
SAFEGUARDING CHILDREN AND ADULTS
To comply with the Trust’s Safeguarding Children and Adults policies, procedures and protocols. All individual members of staff (paid or unpaid) have a duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults This will require you to:
27. Ensure you are familiar with and comply with the London Child Protection Procedures and protocols for promoting and safeguarding the welfare of children and young people.
28. Ensure you are familiar and comply with the London Multi Agency Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults Pan London Procedures.
29. Ensure you are familiar and comply with local protocols and systems for information sharing.
30. Know the appropriate contact numbers and required reporting lines.
31. Participate in required training and supervision.
32. Comply with required professional boundaries and codes of conduct
Whittington Health is committed to safeguarding all children and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.