Early Years Practitioner, Universal Therapies Service

Job overview

This is an exciting opportunity to work with a range of health, early years, social care and voluntary sector professionals to provide an innovative, family centred public health service.

The Early Years Practitioner is a member of the skill mix team who will assist AHPs (OT, Physio or SLT) to identify, assess, and meet the health needs of both the individual child and family within the wider community in Enfield.

The aim will be to support and work with health visiting team and team of Allied Health Practitioners to provide an enhanced universal therapy offer to preschool children in Enfield. The project will focus on improving outcomes for 0-5 year olds’ from identified high risk groups such as deprived areas.

Main duties of the job

• To assist the AHPs to deliver a model of early prevention and intervention improve outcomes for children aged 0- 5 years and enhance school-readiness.
• To support AHPs with training early years professionals on how refer into the new provision.

• To undertake home visits or other community outreach work as delegated by the project lead.

• To undertake screening assessments as part of this new provision and to organise and run targeted intervention groups.

• To undertake other relevant duties as delegated by the Health Visitor/project lead as part of this new provision.

• To be familiar with Family Hubs and local programmes and facilitate and signpost parents in accessing the Children Centre services and Community Services as well as other local initiatives to support with speech and language development.

• To act as a source of information for parents and professionals about the referral pathways to the core speech and language therapy services.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To assist the AHPs to deliver a model of early prevention and intervention improve outcomes for children aged 0- 5 years and enhance school-readiness.
• To support AHPs with training early years professionals on how refer into the new provision.

• To undertake home visits or other community outreach work as delegated by the project leads.

• To undertake screening assessments as part of this new provision and to organise and run targeted intervention groups.

• To undertake other relevant duties as delegated by the Health Visitor/project lead as part of this new provision.

• To be familiar with Children’s Centres and local programmes and facilitate and signpost parents in accessing the Children Centre services and Community Services as well as other local initiatives to support with speech and language development.

• To act as a source of information for parents and professionals about the referral pathways to the core speech and language therapy services.

Communication

• Dealing with sensitive or contentious information
• To participate in identified meetings as directed and feedback information as appropriate.
• To participate in multi-agency working and develop links with local nurseries/Schools and local GP surgeries in order to facilitate effective information sharing.
• To assist in developing and maintaining good working relationships with all colleagues, clients and carers.
• To be conversant with the Trust’s Child Protection Procedures, referring any concerns to the Health Visitors or School Nurses.

Patient/Customer Care (if applicable) (both direct and indirect)

• To undertake home visits as delegated by the Health Visitor/Project lead
• To identify and refer to relevant professionals to meet the needs of children and families
• To Undertake Universal developmental reviews as part of the Healthy child    Programme and to assist Health Visitor/School Nurse with enhanced developmental reviews as required

People (HR) Management

• To participate in local induction of other staff

Information Management

• Regular requirement to create reports
• Responsible for the maintenance of own record keeping on Patient record information system (RIO) and to adhere to record keeping standards in accordance with Trust guidelines.

Policy Development

• To participate and contribute to research, audit and evaluation of new ways of working.
• To adhere to all Trust policies, procedural guidelines and current legislation

Service Development

• To participate and contribute to developing practices or protocols

Personal development

• To take part in the annual appraisal of work activities, agreeing objectives

and a personal development plan in line with the Trust’s   Policy

• Attend mandatory training and other training programmes as requested by the line manager/ Professional development lead or as directed according to Service needs
• Attend management and safeguarding supervision as per Trust policy

Systems and Equipment

• To maintain equipment and report to senior staff when there is any malfunction
• To be aware of Health and Safety hazards in the working environment and report them to a senior member of staff. To be aware of Trust policies and procedures with regard to Health and Safety.

Effort, Mental and Environment

Physical effort

• Frequently exerts light/moderate physical effort, for short periods
• Frequent short periods of driving

Mental effort

• Frequent concentration to complete assessment and analysis of client need
• Work pattern altering to meet service need and prioritising work issues accordingly with changes faced
• Car driving for liaison with agencies and to attend meetings and training
• Sitting moderate periods in the office when using visual display units / writing records / correspondence

Emotional effort

• Occasional exposure to distressing/highly distressing circumstances
• Dealing with difficult family situations or circumstances
• Discussing concerns and negotiating outcomes re safeguarding children with colleagues, primary and secondary care professionals

Working conditions

• Occasionally dealing at times with difficult people/scenarios involving colleagues and primary and secondary care
• Frequently driving within wide geographical area for visits/meetings in all weather      conditions
• Frequently sharing offices and hot desking
• Frequently needing to work flexibly in a variety of community settings
• Occasional unpredictable and diverse work across a spectrum of scenarios
• Occasionally exposed to unpleasant working conditions and occasionally exposed to highly unpleasant working conditions such as:
• Road traffic hazards
• Inclement weather
• Lone working / working in isolation

This job description is subject to periodic review.