Assistant Practitioner

Are you looking for opportunities to develop your career and be part of a unique and dynamic integrated care team?

Do you want to be part of developing and shaping a new integrated care service in Harrow?

An exciting new opportunity for an experienced Band 3 or a current band 4 to join the newly restructured Harrow Integrated Care Community Service.

The Harrow Integrated Care service provides services to Harrow. The post holder will work closely with the team leads, clinicians to develop the service and maintain close working relationships with both acute and community services.

We require an organised experienced Therapy Assistant/Assistant Practitioner who can demonstrate clinical skills in Physiotherapy & Occupational Therapy to work at band 4 level. The ability to work alone in a community multidisciplinary team and support junior staff is essential to this role.

The Assistant Practitioner (AP) will provide a mixture of general and specific care to a group of patients under the guidance and supervision of a registered allied health professional. The AP will work in a variety of settings including community inpatient rehabilitation units, Care homes and patient/carers own homes.

The post holder will be expected to become proficient and competent in their area of practice by undertaking competency assessments specific to the area of clinical practice. The AP will promote optimum independence and individualised client centred care to a delegated non-complex caseload.

The post holder will also support the Harrow Short term rehabilitation team to deliver against key performance indicators and maintain quality of the service.

Central London Community Healthcare (CLCH) is one of the largest community healthcare organisations in London and Hertfordshire, providing our services to diverse communities/boroughs in 11 London Boroughs - Barnet, Brent, Ealing, Hammersmith & Fulham, Harrow, Hounslow, Kensington and Chelsea, Merton, Richmond, Wandsworth, Westminster - and Hertfordshire.

**The Assistant Practitioner is expected to**:

- To be actively involved in carrying out specific Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy assessments and interventions with clients independently as delegated by an Occupational Therapist/Physiotherapist and compliment and provide continuity of work of the qualified staff
- To independently complete basic Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy and Multi disciplinary Falls Assessments with clients, incorporating analytical, investigative, and physical skills.
- To independently complete basic activity of daily living assessments, incorporating analytical, investigative, and physical skills; these could include personal ADL’s, hot drink, and meal preparation.
- To independently carry out basic assessments of mobility and transfers and prescribe appropriate equipment and educate carers and patients in the safe and appropriate use of this equipment, maintenance, and fitting of equipment
- To assist in completing risk assessment of the environment and safety within the home under the guidance of senior team members following local and Trust policies, incorporating analytical, investigative, and physical skills
- To provide assessment, review, and rehabilitation to patients within an inpatient rehabilitation setting. Also supporting with access visits and discharge visits where appropriate
- To develop the knowledge, understanding and necessary skills to be able to treat specific, non-complex conditions
- To be able to prioritise and manage clinical responsibility for a small, varied non-complex caseload and organise this efficiently and effectively using good organisational and time management skills
- To carry a caseload on non-complex clients not seen by therapists, but where a therapist has made initial contact with the referrer and the client
- To take responsibility for own clients from admission to discharge
- To communicate effectively will Occupational Therapist/Physiotherapist staff identifying client’s problems, intervention plans and change to their health/function
- To independently complete graded exercise/rehabilitation programmes to carers and report back to senior staff team members; including adapting basic treatment programmes
- To demonstrate and teach exercises/rehabilitation programmes to carers and report back to senior members of staff
- To identify when intervention in required from a Physiotherapist/Occupational Therapist
- To develop the necessary skills and understanding of other services in public, private and voluntary sectors, to be able to refer clients on to appropriate services
- To develop the knowledge and skills to be able to provide advice on Health Living to clients
- To ensure that written and electronic records and data are maintained, submitted at regular intervals, and adhere to Trust and service standards
- To ensure full multi-disciplinary documentation is completed for multi-disciplinary caseload
- To attend team meetings, case conferences