Staff Nurse – Strengthening Families Team

Overview

This is an exciting opportunity to work in our Healthy Child Programme (HCP) 0-19 (Health Visiting and School Nursing). You will be part of the Strengthening Families team supporting babies, children and young people who are on child in need or child protection plans. You will be supported by senior Strengthening Families practitioners who are qualified health visitors and school nurses.

The team is part of the wider HCP 0-19 service which focuses on delivering public health services to babies, children and young people and their families. Our focus is on prevention, promotion and protection. There are great career progression opportunities within the service, including an opportunity for professional development and secondment to undertake a degree in Specialist Community Public Health Nursing to qualify as a health visitor or school nurse.

Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust is an integrated Trust and the only provider of NHS acute care in Walsall, serving a population of 284,300, providing inpatient and outpatient services at the Manor Hospital as well as a wide range of services in the community. The Trust has state-of-the-art facilities including a Critical Care Unit, Neonatal Unit, Obstetric Theatre, and Integrated Assessment Unit. A new Urgent Emergency Care Centre was opened in March 2023 to improve emergency care facilities and capacity.

Responsibilities

• Plan, co-ordinate and review your own caseload in conjunction with the team, ensuring workload is appropriately prioritised and managed.
• Ensure effective communication with babies, children, young people, parents, carers and others, including those whose first language is not English; liaise with and coordinate interpreting services.
• Undertake holistic health assessments and plan, implement and evaluate evidence-based nursing care for individual babies, children, young people and their families.
• Support development, planning, implementation and evaluation of health education and promotion packages using evidence-based materials and methods.
• Contribute to multi-agency processes to assess and develop care plans to support health and wellbeing.
• Have knowledge of local services in health and partner agencies and, where appropriate, liaise and refer to multi-disciplinary teams and other specialist services.
• Where appropriate, take on the role of lead professional to coordinate delivery of care plans for children and young people (e.g., Children on plans).
• Provide clinical advice, information and support regarding babies, children and young people with long-term conditions, disability or specific health problems to minimise negative impacts on their lives and promote health gain and social inclusion.
• Support the development, planning, implementation and evaluation of health-promoting activities with individuals and groups (e.g., sexual health and relationships, emotional health, growth, healthy lifestyles).
• Develop and maintain effective communication networks and work collaboratively with key partners, health workers, statutory and voluntary agencies to promote public health priorities.
• Plan, deliver and evaluate group work for children, young people and/or parents (e.g., emotional health groups, parenting groups).
• Plan, deliver and evaluate training sessions to early years settings, schools and other agencies.
• Act as a role model through practice with a positive attitude and presentation.
• Attend regular team and service meetings to share information and maintain effective teamwork.
• Provide mentorship to learners and supervise team members as directed by the Clinical Team Leader, commensurate with knowledge and skills.

Qualifications / Requirements

• The ideal applicant will have experience of child safeguarding and working with partners in early years, education, social care and the voluntary sector.
• A commitment to keeping babies, children and young people safe and well is essential.
• You will be supported to develop your knowledge and skills in safeguarding.
• There are opportunities for professional development and secondment to undertake a degree in Specialist Community Public Health Nursing to qualify as a health visitor or a school nurse.