Job overview
Our busy Children’s Department covers two sites – Queens Hospital in Romford and King George’s Hospital in Ilford.
We deliver a comprehensive range of general medical and surgical services to our local population and have two inpatient wards, one with a co-located 4 bedded HDU, a day unit with a POSCU and haematology service, two outpatients’ departments with a GP ‘hot clinic’, a team of Clinical Nurse Specialists and a Children’s Community Nursing team.
Our 32-cot level 2 NICU has community and outreach teams to support babies on discharge.
We have two ED’s for children, one on each site, and their combined attendances are among the busiest in the country with over 62,000 children’s attendances each year.
Our Children’s team is expanding and is led by our Senior Nursing Team. When you come here, you’ll always be learning; developing your knowledge and ensuring your skills are kept fully up to date. You will be supported by Clinical Nurse Educator, Advanced Neonatal Nurse Practitioners and Quality managers, together with a friendly multidisciplinary team and a corporate training and development team. We have in house leadership programmes and work with a range of universities to ensure you can progress through academic pathways to support your career development.
We know it takes happy, motivated staff to produce patient satisfaction, so we’re investing in making our hospitals great places to work. It’s about living our values: Passion, Responsibility, Innovation, Drive and Empowerment – the PRIDE at the heart of all we do.
Applications are then invited for a Band 3 Play Worker within The Child Health Department. You must have excellent communication skills, an ability to work as part of the multi-disciplinary team and have a positive attitude to service developments. So, if you are enthusiastic, dynamic, and a highly motivated individual who is committed, caring and compassionate come and join our fantastic team. Your professional development will be encouraged and supported.
Main duties of the job
To support the Play Specialist in the provision of high quality and wide range of normal and therapeutic play activities to children and young people in a variety of settings within the hospital environment.
Working alongside the Play Specialist team you will:
1. Maintain a safe, child-focused environment where play occurs naturally.
2. Provide play for the normalization of children attending hospital as an in or outpatients.
Use your knowledge of child development through to adulthood when selecting recreational / play activities.
Working for our organisation
We’re an organisation that is getting better and better and our improvements are driven by a determination to deliver care we’re proud of and our patients are happy with.
They are benefitting from a new electronic patient record (we were the last acute trust in London to introduce one) and our maternity services have been rated good by the Care Quality Commission.
We operate from two main sites – KGH in Goodmayes and Queen’s Hospital in Romford. We have two busy emergency departments with more than 346,000 people visiting them last year. We’re campaigning to secure the £35m we need to transform the A&E at Queen’s and get rid of corridor care.
We’re proud of our regional Neurosciences Centre, Radiotherapy Centre and Hyper Acute Stroke Unit. We’re also part of the North East London Cancer Alliance.
We run a Women’s Health Hub in Ilford; an Ageing Well Centre in Hornchurch; and Community Diagnostic Centres (CDC) at Barking Community Hospital and at St George’s Health and Wellbeing Hub. These CDCs are open 12 hours a day, 7 days a week.
The majority of our 8,400 staff – who come from 146 different countries - live in the three diverse London boroughs we serve and are from black, Asian and minority ethnic groups. Many can work flexibly and more than 400 of them are on our Ofsted accredited apprenticeship programmes. We’re proud to be a London Living Wage employer.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
For further information on this role, please see the attached detailed Job Description and Person Specification.
The person specification listed below is not the full specification requirements for the role. Please ensure you review the full specification on the job description prior to submitting your application.
Applicants are advised to read all the information on the advert and the supporting information before completing and submitting an application. As you complete your application please ensure you clearly demonstrate how you meet the criteria in the person specification for this post by adequately completing the supporting information section of the application form.
All new staff appointed at the Trust are subject to a probationary period.
Person specification
Education/ Qualifications
Essential criteria
3. NNEB/ NVQ Level 3 or equivalent training involving childcare and development.
Desirable criteria
4. Documented evidence of continuing professional development and training
Experience/ Knowledge
Desirable criteria
5. Experience of working with children and/or young people and their families in a health care setting.
6. Experience of working with children and/or young people with special needs including those with challenging behaviours.
Applicant requirements
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.
If you have problems applying, contact
Address Queen's Hospital
Rom Valley Way
Romford
Essex
RM7 0AG
Telephone 01708 435000 5936