Highly Specialist Paediatric Physiotherapist: Community and Schools

Job overview

The Paediatric Physiotherapy service offers a high-quality service to children aged from birth to school leaving age who are registered with a Camden GP. The service covers nurseries and children’s centres, primary and secondary schools including special schools and resource bases,. The caseload is varied and there is much opportunity to develop specialist skills in the areas of early advice and intervention (e.g. Health Visitor clinics), Down Syndrome, DCD, Pilates and Rebound group interventions as well as hydrotherapy, orthotics and serial casting.

This post holder will be responsible for providing a high quality effective and efficient physiotherapy service to children who access the physiotherapy service.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will:

• Ensure that high standards of physiotherapy are maintained and developed that are evidence-based and reflect current practice.
• Autonomously manage a complex caseload.
• implement specialist treatment programmes using a child-centred approach
• be able to supervise junior Physiotherapy staff and students and contribute to service development (e.g. Pathway coordinator)

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To be professionally and legally accountable for all work undertaken. To work within the standards and guidelines of the team, the Trust, the CSP and the HCPC.
• To undertake specialist physiotherapy assessment of children with complex and varied needs, e.g. multiple co-morbidities, acute and chronic conditions, combined physical & cognitive impairment or delay, social and/or behavioural difficulties. (For example, children with cerebral palsy, motor co-ordination difficulties, developmental delay.) To use appropriate methods, through subjective questioning and advanced examination techniques to assess their needs.
• To independently prioritise, plan and develop treatment plans and formulate and provide a broad range of specialist treatment programmes and interventions to a diverse and highly complex paediatric caseload. To set goals for treatment with parents/carers demonstrating clinical reasoning and problem solving techniques to determine agreed outcomes.
• To be responsible for own caseload, providing high quality physiotherapy and effective case management to children to children aged 0-18 and their families in clinic, nurseries, schools and the child’s own home.
• To work as a lone practitioner in the community managing a caseload of clients with complex needs in a variety of settings; clinics, schools, nurseries, homes and other and community settings, requiring travel, adaptability and flexibility. To work autonomously in isolated community situations which vary in relation to local socio-economic and multi-cultural issues. To provide monitoring and support to therapists working as lone practitioners.
• To contribute to the identification of children with special needs and contribute to a child’s Education and Health Care Plan (EHCP) report providing advice and recommendations to Camden local authority.
• To work effectively and flexibly within an interdisciplinary framework to provide goal orientated therapy programs for children.
• To ensure the service provides high quality Physiotherapy assessment and treatment of children through standardised assessment, objective examination and clinical observations.
• To have knowledge and experience of carrying out assessment and monitoring tools such as Bayley Assessment, GMFM. Movement ABC and CPIP.
• To ensure that when indicated, the physiotherapy team provide individualised and specific moving and handling advice for children on the physiotherapy caseload in collaboration with the paediatric Occupational Therapy dept.
• To source and provide appropriate physiotherapy equipment for children to use at home using expert knowledge and skills. To make recommendations for appropriate equipment for use in the education setting.
• To use effective communication skills with parents and children with all families.

Please see attached detailed JD and PS