Specialist Physiotherapist: Paediatric Respiratory Medicine

We are an award-winning organisation providing care at two main hospital sites - Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and West Middlesex University Hospital, and a number of community-based services across London, such as sexual health and HIV clinics. With 6,700 members of staff, we are proud to care for a diverse population of one million people. We are committed to ensuring that our workforce is just as diverse with a strong mix of skills and abilities. Our staff are at the very heart of our organisation and we recognise the valuable contribution that each and every person working at the Trust makes.

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an experienced and motivated Physiotherapist to join the Paediatric Respiratory service within West London Children’s Healthcare (WLCH) working with Dr. Michelle Chatwin and Ruth Wakeman. This specialist Band 7 role offers the opportunity to work within a highly skilled multidisciplinary team delivering advanced respiratory physiotherapy care to infants, children and young people with complex respiratory and long-term ventilation needs across acute and community pathways.

WLCH brings together paediatric services across Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, providing outstanding opportunities for cross-site collaboration, service development, education and research. We are looking for an enthusiastic clinician with significant paediatric respiratory experience, excellent clinical reasoning skills and a passion for delivering high-quality family-centred care.

In return, WLCH offers:

• Outstanding learning and development opportunities
• Access to specialist clinical supervision and leadership development
• Opportunities to participate in research and innovation through Imperial College London and the Centre for Paediatrics and Child Health (PaeCH)
• A supportive multidisciplinary working environment
• Opportunities to work across diverse specialist paediatric services
• Access to NHS pension and staff benefits schemes

Main duties of the job:

The successful candidate will independently manage a complex clinical caseload across inpatient and outpatient settings, delivering evidence-based respiratory physiotherapy interventions and contributing to multidisciplinary care planning. The role requires advanced clinical reasoning, specialist respiratory skills and the ability to work collaboratively with children, families, carers and multidisciplinary teams across acute and community services.

The post holder will work as a Band 7 Specialist Physiotherapist within the Paediatric Respiratory and Long-Term Ventilation service across West London Children’s Healthcare (WLCH). The role involves providing highly specialist physiotherapy assessment, treatment and management for infants, children and young people with complex respiratory, neuromuscular and long-term ventilation needs. The post holder will also provide leadership and supervision to junior staff, assistants and students, contribute to service development and quality improvement initiatives, and support education, audit and research activities within the specialty.

The role includes participation in weekend working and the physiotherapy on-call rota following completion of competency-based training and induction. This is an excellent opportunity to join a progressive and research-active paediatric service within a unique integrated children’s healthcare organisation committed to improving outcomes for children and young people across North West London.

Person specification:

Education / Qualifications:

• Degree (or equivalent) in Physiotherapy
• State registration with the Health Professions Council
• Evidence of CPD through maintenance of a portfolio, especially in the relevant clinical area
• Clinical Educators course or equivalent
• Membership of the Professional Organisation
• Membership of Professional special interest groups relevant to speciality
• Management skills or leadership training

Experience:

• Significant recent clinical experience in the relevant clinical area, with a broad base of clinical experience at Band 6 level or equivalent
• Significant experience of working as an integral member of a multidisciplinary team and inter-agency working
• Experience of multidisciplinary goal planning, development of care pathways, and using outcome measures
• Experience of organising and implementing training programmes for therapists, MDT members, support workers, students and apprentices
• Experience of service development and change management, implementing evidence-based practice in speciality, and on-call and weekend working in an acute hospital (where required)
• Previous Band 7 or equivalent experience in a relevant post, and leadership of a therapy team
• Recent, relevant work in an NHS environment
• Experience of using clinical governance framework to monitor and improve quality of patient care
• Clinical research experience
• Experience of planning and managing service improvement activities

Skills / Knowledge / Abilities:

• Advanced knowledge of relevant conditions, assessment and treatment approaches, and the evidence base of the relevant therapy area, including knowledge of psychosocial and cultural factors influencing health and illness behaviours and ability to remain updated with professional practice and research
• Advanced clinical reasoning, problem solving, and ability to make sound judgments and reliable decisions in demanding situations, alongside ability to seek guidance when required and maintain awareness of personal limitations
• Ability to organise, prioritise, delegate, and manage time effectively, cope with work pressures and stressful environments, and manage emotional or aggressive patients or carers using effective interpersonal strategies
• Strong communication and leadership skills, including advanced communication with patients, carers and colleagues, ability to establish and maintain working relationships, present information clearly in written and oral formats, and ability to lead, motivate, supervise, mentor, coach, and pass on knowledge to others
• Understanding of clinical governance, audit, data protection, equality and health and safety policies, alongside ability to analyse activity and outcome data, maintain accurate patient notes, demonstrate competent IT skills, and uphold a professional manner, clear vision of role, and fluency in written and spoken English
• Knowledge of recent NHS developments and their impact on service provision
• Advanced computer skills for presentation and data analysis
• Negotiation and conflict resolution skills

Values and Behaviours:

• Demonstrates ability to meet Trust values

Other requirements:

• Able to take part in a weekend service and/or 7 day on call rota and/or 7 day service
• Able to work flexibly according to the needs of the service
• Able to meet the requirements of the role with any reasonable adjustments

Important: There may be some occasions when we have to close a vacancy earlier than the advertised closing date, this will be due to a high volume of applications. You are therefore advised to submit your application as early as possible to avoid disappointment.