Therapies Assistant

Overview

The post holder will support the work of the Occupational Therapy, Physiotherapy and Speech and Language Therapy teams in Haringey Learning Disabilities Partnership. The post holder will be responsible for activities delegated to them and will work without direct supervision but will have immediate access to a clinician for advice and direction as required. Assistants are expected to continually improve their knowledge and skills and develop collaborative working relationships with therapy colleagues to enhance patient care. Duties are varied and include direct patient contact, administrative, and housekeeping tasks.

Responsibilities

• Manage a caseload delegated by clinicians
• Independently undertake basic assessments and interventions relevant to delegated caseload
• Support therapists with complex cases as required
• Work in partnership with patients carers, the multidisciplinary team and wider statutory, private and voluntary sector services
• Participate in activities to improve the therapy services at HLDP
• Provide support to other team members and students
• Work flexibly according to patient and service needs
• Have good communication skills and adapt communication to facilitate patients’ understanding and expression
• Be creative in use of therapy materials
• Undertake administrative duties including managing the organisation of training courses
• Have a basic theoretical knowledge and understanding of the range of difficulties associated with people with learning disabilities and of the appropriate approaches and techniques
• As a result of experience and formal training, work both indirectly and directly with adults with learning disabilities, their families, support workers, etc. to optimise the patient\’s skills, independence and quality of life
• Be aware and sensitive to social, cultural and economic issues
• Assist in the provision of training for staff and colleagues with support from therapists

Working for our organisation

Haringey Learning Disabilities Partnership is a friendly and welcoming integrated team. The service is made up of: Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists, Speech and Language Therapists, Social workers, Psychology, Psychiatry, Nursing and the Assessment and Intervention Team (AIT). As an integrated team, the service is busy and bustling, with staff going about their work, but generally able to give time to provide support to others when required.

Safeguarding

To comply with the Trust\’s Safeguarding Children and Adults policies, procedures and protocols. All individual members of staff (paid or unpaid) have a duty to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. This will require you to:

• Ensure you are familiar with and comply with the London Child Protection Procedures and protocols for promoting and safeguarding the welfare of children and young people
• Ensure you are familiar and comply with the London Multi Agency Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults Pan London Procedures
• Ensure you are familiar and comply with local protocols and systems for information sharing
• Know the appropriate contact numbers and required reporting lines
• Participate in required training and supervision
• Comply with required professional boundaries and codes of conduct

Whittington Health is committed to safeguarding all children and vulnerable adults and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment.

How to apply

Your application form should include:

• Provide only business email address for your referees — we are unable to request references from Yahoo, Hotmail, Gmail accounts.
• Make sure you include all evidence of where you meet the essential requirements in the job description as this forms the base of our shortlisting criteria.

Our processes

• Closing dates are given as a guide; we reserve the right to close adverts early, so submit your application as soon as possible to avoid delay.
• If you do not hear from us up to 3 weeks after the closing date of the job, this typically means you have not been shortlisted. If you require feedback, please contact the appointing manager detailed in the advert.
• Please check your emails regularly as all correspondence will be via trac.systems; occasionally these emails may go to Junk.
• Employment at Whittington Health is offered subject to successful completion of a 6 month probationary period for all staff with the exception of GMC Registered Doctors.

Other important information

• Applications from job seekers who require sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. Please check eligibility under the UKVI points based system.
• Applications are welcome from people wishing to job share or work flexible patterns. We are committed to equal opportunities.
• In submitting an application form, you authorise Whittington Health NHS Trust to confirm any previous NHS service details via the Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) process should you be appointed to the post.

If offered a role with one of the NLPSS partner trusts, as part of pre-employment checks identity and right to work documentation will be verified remotely using a certified identity verification service provider TrustID. You may be asked to capture images of relevant documents as well as a selfie for facial matching. TrustID will perform a digital address check using Trunarrative and Equifax. This is a soft check and does not impact credit rating. For more information, visit www.trustid.co.uk. During recruitment your identity documents may be scanned for security features. The Trust uses electronic new starter forms on Trac to collect personal details; information stored securely to set up the employee record on the ESR HR system.

Qualifications

The postholder is expected to have a level 3 QCF/DIPLOMA/NVQ qualification in health and social care, and have experience working with people with a range of health needs and acquired core therapy competencies. Development opportunities are available for candidates who do not have the relevant level 3 qualifications, pending other essential criteria being evident from the application form/interview.