Macmillan Prehabilitation Specialist Physiotherapist

We are looking for an experienced and dedicated Band 7 Physiotherapist to lead the development and delivery of our Macmillan Cancer Prehabilitation and Rehabilitation Programme. The post is for 12 Months Fixed Term to cover maternity leave, working alongside an experienced team of Occupational Therapists, Dieticians, Assistant Practitioners and admin staff. This is a meaningful role at the heart of personalised cancer care. Working across primary and secondary care settings, you will screen patients prior to cancer treatment, conduct holistic needs assessments, and develop tailored care plans that address physical, nutritional, and psychological wellbeing. You will work in line with the East Midlands Cancer Gold Standards Framework and play a key role in embedding prehabilitation into clinical pathways across the organisation.

You will manage a caseload of patients with complex needs, act as a specialist resource to multidisciplinary colleagues, and contribute to the ongoing evaluation and development of the programme. The role is based at Northampton General Hospital and Kettering General Hospital, delivering care in clinics at both hospital sites, as well as at patient home addresses and community gyms, as required.

• Responsible for the development, implementation and evaluation of the dedicated Macmillan Cancer Prehab/rehab program.
• Screen patients prior to cancer treatment, providing specialist support and clinical assessment to optimise patients' physical and emotional health through needs-based prescribing of exercise, nutrition, and psychological interventions as part of the personalised care and support agenda.
• Offer targeted and specialist prehabilitation interventions for those with more complex needs in line with the East Midlands Gold Standards, referring to community services to maximise health and wellbeing, proactively identifying adjustments to maintain or enhance mobility and safety.
• Develop robust mechanisms to evaluate the effectiveness of the Macmillan program including patient feedback.

About us: University Hospitals of Northamptonshire (UHN) brings together Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Northampton General Hospital NHS Trust. As a group, we are committed to improving services for our communities through collaboration, modernising care delivery and striving for excellence. Working together enables us to share expertise, strengthen services and create greater opportunities, and there may be a requirement to work across sites depending on service needs.

• Develop a dedicated cancer prehab/rehab program, across the organisation reflecting the East Midlands Gold Standard Framework and Macmillan Investment Application.
• Implement a phased approach for cancer prehab across Northamptonshire, building on the learning from the pilot projects and regional programmes.
• Optimise cancer care for surgical tumour sites both before and after surgical intervention.
• Develop a dedicated steering group to guide the development of the prehab/rehab programme across the organisation.
• To autonomously manage a caseload of patients with complex needs, using evidence based/patient centred principles to assess, plan, implement and evaluate interventions in primary and secondary care settings to include home visits and community facilities.
• Screen patients prior to cancer treatment for physical fitness, functional ability, nutritional status, and emotional wellbeing.
• Undertake a Holistic Needs Assessments (HNA), working collaboratively with their relevant Key Worker to address both patient and carer needs.
• Use a patient centred approach to understand the individual, what matters to them and what they want to achieve.
• Generate a treatment plan to meet the patients' individual needs, stratifying into universal, targeted and specialist for each domain of intervention in line with the East Midlands Gold Standards Framework.
• Offer targeted and specialist prehab interventions for those with more complex needs in line with the East Midlands Gold Standards Framework, referring to community services to maximise health and wellbeing, proactively identifying adjustments to maintain or enhance mobility and safety.
• Demonstrate effective communication skills when imparting complex information to patients/carers, other health care professionals and agencies.
• Identify possible locations for therapy assessment and interventions including equipment required to support functioning.
• Assess functional ability to ensure patients are participating in meaningful occupation, enhancing quality of life.
• Empower patients to take control of their care in preparation for cancer treatment.
• Provide opportunities for patients to improve their physical functioning and psychological wellbeing, improving resilience to the effects of cancer treatments.
• Provide opportunities for patients to reflect on healthy lifestyles.

• BSc (Hons) /Graduate Diploma in Physiotherapy or equivalent level of education, training or experience.
• Health Care Professions Council (HCPC) Registration.
• Relevant Master’s Degree or equivalent level of education, training or experience.
• Documented evidence of continuous professional development.
• Advanced Communication Skills or equivalent level of education training and experience.

• Extensive post graduate therapy experience, working at a senior level.
• Experience of working with cancer patients.
• Proficient in managing patients with complex rehabilitation needs.
• Frameworks related to Cancer Prehabilitation/rehabilitation.
• Research and audit experience of service development.
• Experience of delivering education/prehab/rehab programmes.

• Clinical reasoning skills in the management of patients with complex needs.
• Time management and prioritisation skills.
• Ability to work as an autonomous practitioner as well as part of a multidisciplinary team.
• Excellent communication, influencing and negotiation skills.
• Analytical skills.
• Ability to critically analyse data.
• Physio Specialist Skills: MSK, balance and ROM, neuro rehab, rehabilitation and compensatory approach.

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.

University Hospitals of Northamptonshire £49,387 to £56,515 a year per annum / pro rata Contract Fixed term Duration 12 months Working pattern Reference number 265-8010917-CSS Job locations University Hospitals of Northamptonshire.