Lead First Contact Physiotherapist Practitioner

South Sefton Primary Care Network (PCN) is seeking a Lead First Contact Physiotherapist (FCP) Practitioner to champion innovation, elevate clinical standards, and shape the future of musculoskeletal (MSK) care within our community.

In this pivotal role, the Lead FCP Practitioner will be responsible for delivering advanced MSK assessment, diagnosis, and management at the initial point of contact in primary care—ensuring patients receive timely, expert support without the need for GP referral.

The post holder will provide advanced clinical expertise and leadership across the PCN, supporting the development, implementation and evaluation of a high-quality FCP service. This will include leading on service integration, workforce development and collaboration with wider system partners to ensure patients receive timely, safe and effective care.

A key aspect of the role will be improving the integration of Phio digital pathways to enhance triage and treatment, ensuring patients are directed to the most appropriate intervention at the earliest opportunity. By embedding digital solutions alongside face-to-face care, the Lead FCP will help optimise clinical capacity, patient experience and outcomes.

The role combines clinical practice with service leadership, quality improvement and education, ensuring the FCP service contributes effectively to the PCN's vision of proactive, population-focused and integrated neighbourhood care.

South Sefton Primary Care Network (PCN) is a large Primary Care Network, covering four localities in South Sefton with a population of around 160k.

PCNs are groups of GP practices working with a wide range of partners to improve the health of their population. Key to this purpose is strengthening general practice provision through working together, where it makes sense to do so and working as part of integrated care teams which work collaboratively for and with local people in each locality.

Sefton Primary Healthcare is a GP Federation made up of practices in South Sefton. A GP Federation is a group of general practices that work together to share resources, expertise and services to deliver high quality, patient focused services for it communities.

As a federation we work together to offer additional and improved services to meet the needs of our residents. We work together to provide support for our practices through the sharing of resources and services, for example with recruitment and training. We hold regular member practice meetings to come together and raise issues and review our priorities and progress. We work closely with South Sefton Primary Care Network to improve the local health and care offer of our residents.

The two organisations have recently joined together in a single legal entity and it is envisaged that this role will work across both PCN and Federation priorities as we bring these together.

Clinical Practice

1. Act as an autonomous, expert clinician in the assessment, diagnosis, triage, and non-surgical management of MSK conditions, as a first point of contact for patients, without prior GP referral.

2. Utilise differential diagnosis skills to rule out serious pathology, formulate management plans, and refer appropriately (e.g. for imaging, specialist opinion, red flag conditions).

3. Use clinical reasoning to decide on investigations, interpret results, and integrate findings into management plans.

4. Provide a mix of interventions: manual therapy, exercise prescription, activity advice, injection if qualified, pain education, self-management strategies.

1. Integrate Phio digital pathways into clinical workflows — e.g. review and act on Phio-generated triage outputs, ensure digital assessments feed into clinical decision-making, and ensure seamless transitions between digital and face-to-face care.

2. Monitor patient progress, adjust management plans, and discharge or refer on when clinically appropriate.

3. Maintain accurate, timely clinical records consistent with organisational, legal, and regulatory standards.

4. Support continuity of care, including collaboration with GPs, community services, and secondary care teams.

Service Development, Integration & Improvement

1. Lead the design, development and expansion of the FCP service across the PCN, aligning with neighbourhood care strategies and the pioneer neighbourhood model.

2. Embed and optimise Phio's digital triage and treatment pathways within the broader MSK service — identifying opportunities for improving patient flow, reducing duplication, and enhancing efficiency.

3. Work collaboratively with PCN leadership, GP practices, ICB/ICS, community services, and specialist providers to co-design integrated MSK pathways.

4. Monitor activity data, clinical outcomes, patient experience, waiting times and other performance metrics; use this data to drive continuous quality improvement.

5. Lead audits, service evaluations, and project work (e.g. pilots, pathway redesign).

6. Provide oversight of resource allocation, capacity planning and service resilience.

Leadership, Supervision & Team Development

1. Provide clinical leadership, mentorship, supervision, and performance support to other FCPs, physiotherapists, and MSK staff within the PCN.

2. Lead or facilitate regular team meetings, case reviews and clinical governance forums.

3. Support recruitment, induction, and ongoing professional development of MSK staff.

4. Act as a role model, promoting innovation, evidence-based practice, and quality improvement culture.

Education, Training & Knowledge Sharing

1. Deliver training and educational sessions to GPs, practice teams, allied health professionals, and other ARRS roles on MSK assessment, pathways, use of Phio/triage tools, referral criteria, etc.

2. Act as a clinical supervisor or mentor to FCP trainees, students or less experienced physiotherapists.

3. Contribute to the development of learning materials, guidelines, protocols and standard operating procedures.

4. Keep abreast of emerging evidence, best practice, and innovations in MSK care and digital health, and disseminate learning across the PCN.

Governance, Quality & Risk Management

1. Lead on clinical governance for the FCP service: incident reporting, complaints handling, audit, risk management, safe practice, and escalation processes.

1. Ensure compliance with regulatory and professional standards (HCPC, CSP, data protection, equality & diversity, safeguarding).

2. Participate in peer review, quality assurance, and continuous professional development.

3. Ensure that service protocols, policies, and pathways are up to date, evidence-based, and aligned with local and national guidelines.

4. Support risk assessments and ensure proactive mitigation of clinical, operational or digital risks (e.g. in the interface between Phio and face-to-face care).

Population Health & Strategic Contribution

1. Use population-level data and intelligence to identify MSK needs and inequalities in the PCN population, helping to target services or outreach.

2. Contribute to strategic planning, commissioning processes, and system-level decision-making around MSK services and digital innovation.

3. Engage with patient and public involvement (PPI), feedback loops and co-design principles to refine the service.

4. Represent the FCP service in forums, meetings or committees across the PCN, neighbourhoods, and ICS/ICB structures.