First Contact Physiotherapist

About the job

Do you want to work for the UK's only musculoskeletal organisation that has been independently certified as a Great Place to Work ?

Who We Are:

Founded only in August 2020, Primary Care Physio has scaled rapidly and is one of the fastest-growing clinical service providers in the UK. Underpinned by our reputation for quality and sustainable care, we have already been established as England's largest national specialist first contact physiotherapy and podiatry provider who is purely focused on supporting NHS Primary Care Networks (PCNs) and their GP practices to deliver high-quality and tech-enabled NHS primary care FCP solutions.

Our services are recognised as best-in-class for our industry, recently winning the 'Best in Primary Care & Diagnostics' LaingBuisson 2023 award.

Through our talented employed team of over nearly 400 employed First Contact Practitioners & Advanced Practitioners, who are supported by experienced and Health Education England-trained FCP clinical supervisors, we have been commissioned by c 200 NHS Primary Care Networks (PCNs) to deliver an integrated and local FCP managed service. We now serve 1000+ GP practices and a patient population of over 9 million.

We conduct over 1 million patient consultation appointments per year.

You can find out more about our team here:

You can read what our team have to say about us here:

Role Profile

First Contact Physiotherapists (FCP) are qualified autonomous clinical practitioners working in GP practices who can assess, diagnose, treat, and manage musculoskeletal (MSK) problems and undifferentiated conditions, and where appropriate, to discharge a person without a medical referral. FCPs working in this role can be accessed directly by self-referral or staff in GP practices can direct patients to them to establish a rapid and accurate diagnosis and management plan to streamline pathways of care.

Key Responsibilities

Clinical Practice

• Assess, diagnose, triage and manage patients taking responsibility for the management of a complex caseload. You will progress and request investigations (such as x-rays, and blood tests) and referrals to facilitate diagnosis and choice of treatment.

• Develop and make use of your full scope of clinical practice, including skills relating to independent prescribing, injection therapy and investigation.

• Manage complex interactions, including working with patients with psychosocial and mental health needs, referring to social prescribing when appropriate.

• Deliver programmes of supported patient self-management, in ways that facilitate behavioural change, optimise individuals’ physical activity, mobility, fulfilment of personal goals and independence, and that minimise the need for pharmacological interventions.

• Provide care which is tailored to the individual needs. This would include, appraising the impact pf individuals’ clinical status on their general health, well-being, employment status (including in relation to function, physical activity, mobility, and independence).

• Support patients to set their own goals and be confident in their approach to self management. • Communicate effectively and appropriately, with patients and carers, complex sensitive information regarding diagnosis, pathology, prognosis and treatment choices supporting personalised care. • Involve patients in decision making and supporting adherence as per NICE guidance. • Ensure accurate data is entered daily onto the data app to report utlisation of the FCP service. • Request Patient feedback (PSQs) so that patient satisfaction can be monitored and shared with the PCN.

Evidence, Research, and Development

• Develop relationships and a collaborative working approach across the PCN supporting the integration of pathways in primary care.

• Work as part of an MDT in a patient facing role, using your expert knowledge of MSK issues, to create stronger links for wider MSK services through clinical leadership, teaching and evaluation skills.

• Support research and audit programmes to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of our FCP service.

• Streamline the pathway of care by providing a responsive service so that patients receive timely access to care.

Leadership

• Lead, manage and contribute to service delivery.

• Implement all aspects of clinical governance for own practice, including undertaking audit and evaluation, supervision and training.

• Communicate effectively and appropriately, with patients and carers, complex and sensitive information regarding diagnosis, pathology, prognosis and treatment choices supporting personalised care.

Facilitating learning

• Provide feedback and support to other PCN clinical team members on appropriate referral criteria.

• Critically reflect on own practice, and continue to develop your skills.

Key skills and attributes

• Ability to work under pressure, and stay calm, in a fast-paced and changing environment.

• Strong clinical problem-solving and analytical skills, including the ability to identify when to refer a patient to another service or for diagnostics. March 2025, Primarycarephysio Ltd (“Primary Care Physio”) FCP Job Description

• Ability to critically reflect on your own professional developmental needs, and is motivated to progress your clinical development (with support).

• Strong communication and interpersonal skills, with an ability to work cohesively with a wider team.

• Able to follow legal, ethical, professional and organisational policies/procedures and codes of conduct.

• Office skills including the use of IT programmes, databases and other modern/tech based ways of working and collaborating.

Experience, knowledge and qualifications

• Fully HCPC and CSP registered practicing Physiotherapist (essential).

• Minimum 5 years post-graduate clinical experience (essential).

• Minimum 3 years of clinical experience delivering musculoskeletal assessment and treatment (essential).

• An up-to-date CPD portfolio demonstrating that you have knowledge of the musculoskeletal core capabilities framework for first point of contact practitioners and the four pillars of advanced practice, in addition to identifying your developmental needs against these (essential).

• An up-to-date understanding of Health Education England’s Roadmap to Practice (essential). • Completion of some level 7 MSc learning (desirable).

• Previous clinical experience of first contact triage clinical work; even if in the private sector (desirable).

• Previous experience of working in a GP practice (desirable).

• Previous experience of using EMIS / SystmOne (desirable).

• Qualified injection therapist and / or independent prescriber (desirable).

This role profile is not exhaustive and you may be directed to complete other tasks as required. These duties will be always be reasonable and deemed within the expectations of your position.

General Terms (applicable to all Primary Care Physio posts)

• Ensure that your conduct does not fall below the standards detailed in Primary Care Physio’s Code of Conduct.

• To safeguard Children and Adults and to act on any concerns to ensure that each situation is appropriately assessed and investigated.

• Adhere to all Primary Care Physio’s policies and procedures.