Health and Therapy Assistant

Are you passionate about helping people regain independence at home after a hospital stay? Our Home First service in Brighton is looking for caring, motivated, and proactive Bank Health & Therapy Assistants to join our friendly, dedicated team. You'll work alongside nurses, paramedics, and therapists to deliver safe, effective, and person-centred care that supports smooth discharges from hospital to home. Operating 7 days a week, 365 days a year (8am-8pm), we provide short-term reablement care that helps people regain strength, confidence, and daily living skills. In this hands-on role, you'll encourage recovery, promote independence, and provide compassionate care in people's homes. If you're enthusiastic about helping others and want to make a real difference as part of a supportive, multidisciplinary team, we'd love to welcome you to Home First.

Main duties of the job:

• Support individuals with personal care, therapy exercises, and health monitoring as they work towards their recovery goals.
• Work closely with our nurses, therapists, and paramedics to deliver safe, person-centred care in line with each individual's personalised plan.
• Take observations, assist with wound care, support rehabilitation programmes, help with medication, venepuncture, and ensure therapy and mobility equipment is used safely and effectively.
• Observe and record people's progress, sharing updates with your team so that care remains responsive and effective.
• Encourage, motivate, and empower people to build confidence and regain independence in their daily lives.

We’ll support you every step of the way – providing full training, the opportunity to complete your Care Certificate, and ongoing development through our competency framework. This role offers an excellent foundation to grow your skills and open pathways into nursing, therapy, and other healthcare professions within Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust.

About us:

We are the main provider of NHS community services across East and West Sussex, with 6,000 staff serving 1.3 million people. We deliver essential care to adults and children, helping them manage their health, avoid hospital admissions, and reduce hospital stays. Our Trust vision is to provide excellent care at the heart of the community. We offer opportunities across medical, clinical, support, and corporate services.

Why work for us?

• Positive 2023 NHS Staff Survey results, highlighting compassionate leadership and wellbeing.
• Varied environments: community hospitals, patients' homes, and bases across Sussex.
• Flexible working options: part-time, flexi-time, annualised hours, and flexi-retirement.
• Excellent training, development, and research opportunities.
• Cost-effective workplace nurseries in Crawley, Hove, and Brighton.
• Active EMBRACE, Disability & Wellbeing, LGBTQIA+, and Religion & Belief network.
• Beautiful Sussex location near the South Downs and coast.

Our values: Compassionate Care, Working Together, Achieving Ambitions, Delivering Excellence guide everything we do. We embrace diversity and encourage applications from all backgrounds, particularly from ethnically diverse, disabled, and LGBTQIA+ individuals. We aim to create an inclusive environment and support reasonable adjustments during recruitment.

This post may close early if sufficient applications are received.

Job responsibilities:

For a detailed job description and main responsibilities please see the attached supporting documents. You will need to be able to drive with a full UK licence and access to a vehicle due to the geographic area covered by the team. We often receive a high number of applications for this role so please be aware that the vacancy may close earlier than stated.

Person Specification:

• General standard of education to GCSE level or equivalent NVQ level 2 or equivalent (in health and social care applicable subject), or be willing to undertake.
• Evidence of consistent pattern of learning from education, training and experience.
• Able to use recognised IT packages e.g. Microsoft Office including Excel.
• Able to use IT systems and keyboard skills including accurate data recording skills.
• Car driver (Valid Driving License for use in the UK).
• Access to a vehicle for work purposes.

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.