Healthcare Assistant

Main area: Healthcare Assistant Grade Band 2

Contract: Permanent

Hours: Full time/Part time (37.5 hours per week, minimum 23 hours a week)

Job ref: 188-FTHCA010225

Site: Southampton General Hospital

Town: Southampton

Salary: £23,615 pa pro rata

Closing: 18/02/2025 23:59

Job overview: Are you compassionate, caring and communicative? Would you like to be the best you can be or grow your career in a world-class teaching hospital? Have you been considering a change of occupation and looking for secure and rewarding employment? We believe our Healthcare Assistant (HCA) role offers this opportunity and our tailored training programme supports you whether you have experience or if you are new to care.

University Hospital Southampton (UHS) is one of the largest acute teaching trusts in England and provides a wide range of healthcare services to some 1.9 million people living in Southampton and South Hampshire. Our Healthcare Assistants help our nurses and doctors at UHS, by offering the highest standards of personal care and support to our patients.

Main duties of the job: Here at UHS, we recognise that Healthcare Assistants from different employment backgrounds can bring a breadth of knowledge and new ideas. We will allocate you to the area within the hospital where we have vacancies and where we feel best meets your skills and our needs following our interview process. Previous healthcare experience is desirable but NOT essential.

If you are looking to start your journey within healthcare, then we would love to hear from you. We offer continuous training and development opportunities to help you reach your potential. You’ll start your career with us by following a 2-week full-time and in-depth induction that will enable you to complete your Care Certificate, find your feet within the hospital, and quickly embed yourself as part of our team.

Our fantastic staff can teach you the required skills if you share our values, are ready to learn and:

• Be able to work a variety of shifts as part of your work roster.
• Be available to work any day from Monday to Sunday depending on your shift pattern, including bank holidays.
• Have excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Are happy to carry out a variety of tasks - including personal hygiene care to patients of all ages and backgrounds.

Working for our organisation: A Healthcare Assistant at UHS is not just a job, it’s a career opportunity that can start your exciting journey within healthcare. Our HCAs receive top industry training and development, with a tailored career programme and amazing links to support nursing or higher healthcare apprenticeships. We lead the way in benefits too – our HCAs receive:

• A minimum of 35 days paid holiday (pro rata).
• A two-week intensive induction to set you up for success in your new role.
• Guaranteed contracted hours.
• Access to extra shifts and overtime pay for those who want it.
• A mentoring team that is dedicated to our HCAs, who will help you with emotional, personal, and professional support.
• A central hospital location with great transport links and reduced fares for UHS staff.
• A generous pension scheme and life insurance.
• Access to national and local NHS discounts including popular high street and online retailers.
• Onsite subsidised restaurants, cafes and high-street shops.
• Financial awards through our refer a friend scheme.
• An internal mover process which allows you to transfer wards every six months if you wish.
• Support with flexible working requests which are regularly reviewed against the service need.

We consider both Part-Time and Full-Time applications, but you MUST be able to work a variety of shifts and days of the week as UHS operates a 24 hours a day service, 365 days of the year. Unfortunately, we cannot currently offer set shifts e.g. nights only.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities: Your main day-to-day duties will include:

• Washing and dressing patients and aiding in their personal hygiene.
• Assisting patients to access and use toilet facilities.
• Serving meals and helping to feed patients.
• Helping patients to safely move around.
• Assisting with bed making, cleaning tasks, errands, or general duties.
• Collecting pathological specimens e.g., Urine, faeces, sputum.
• Making patients and their families feel comfortable.
• Monitoring and reporting patients’ conditions by taking temperatures, pulse, respirations and weight measurements.

Please read the attached person specification and job description as this will support you in your application, and then apply via the link. If your application is successful, we will contact you to arrange a screening telephone call to discuss next steps.

If you’re the kind of person who believes in putting patients first, is always looking to improve and are a team player, then we’d love to hear from you!

Person specification:

• Qualifications: Ability to complete care certificate within 6 months of appointment. BTEC level 2 or above in health and social care. Interested in undertaking further training.
• Experience: Acute hospital setting, HCA experience, Teaching Assistant, Experience in a caring role, Understanding of acute hospital environment and the role of HCA, Ability to cope with fluctuating demands and pressures of the role, Good interpersonal skills, Ability to deal with a range of difficult situations, Empathy, Patience, dependability and motivation.
• Special requirements: Able to cover a full range of shifts the role requires.

Values and behaviours: Patients First, Always Improving, Working Together.

Please be advised that this vacancy may close earlier than stated if we receive a large number of applications. We will not accept any applications or queries via agencies, under any circumstances.

Our commitment to equality: Equality remains at the centre of our policymaking, service delivery, and employment practice, giving all employees equal opportunity to develop, apply for promotions, and have working arrangements that enable them to achieve a manageable work-life balance. UHS actively promotes a work environment free from harassment and discrimination and provides training for managers and staff to ensure this happens. We also closely monitor recruitment activity, training, development, and employment practices to ensure equality of practice with regard to race, colour, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief, gender, sexual orientation, disability, marital status and age.

How and why we use your information: The Trust is under a duty to protect the public funds it administers, and to this end may use the information you have provided on this form for the prevention and detection of fraud. It may also share this information with other bodies responsible for auditing or administering public funds for these purposes. The European General Data Protection Regulations enhances individuals’ rights and safeguards all of their data in place under the DPA.

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.