Lead Physiotherapist - Learning Disabilities

Job overview

I am Lilly one of the Service managers for the Cambridgeshire Learning Disability Partnership.  I trained as an Occupational therapist and have worked in the team for 10 years.

I love working in this service because our unique set up allows health and social care to work side by side which means we can be truly person centred for our patients. We always work to promote our patient’s right to choose and maintain their independence. Our patient group is complex and diverse, which makes this role such an exciting opportunity.

Our team is made up of both health and social care staff. We are split across 5 integrated specialist teams and also provide specialist health input to our Younger Adult Team.

If you are successful, you will maintain and manage a complex specialist caseload. This will involve visiting people in their own homes, day services, respite services and the local hospitals.  Every day is different to the next as we work with people 18+ and cover a variety of health issues including mobility issues, seating, respiratory, dysphagia, bowel management and promoting the health needs of people with learning disabilities.

We are able to provide an external enhanced supervision / mentoring model tailored to meet your needs.  The experienced learning disability physiotherapist will be commissioned to support you in your physiotherapy practice.

Main duties of the job

If you are successful, we will expect you to work autonomously and manage assessment, identification, treatment and management of specialist health needs of the clients on your caseload. This will include working with the MDT to conduct appropriate risk assessments for complex conditions relevant to physiotherapy.

You will be expected to communicate effectively and sensitively with the MDT, service users, carers and partner agencies. If you are successful, you will have the opportunity to lead in the implementation and evaluation of specialist programmes of care which support the care of individuals or groups with learning disabilities.

You will be expected to provide professional supervision to other staff and students as appropriate. As a team we also provide specialist training support to other teams and agencies, and you will be expected to support in the delivery of some of this training.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for full details of responsibilities.

• To be responsible for the delivery of a countywide specialist learning disability Physiotherapy service ensuring that the service provided is in line with the CQC regulatory requirements.
• To provide professional leadership & management to the Physiotherapy staff (and students) including recruitment, supervision, appraisal and professional development particularly mandatory training and education.
• To provide specialist Physiotherapy input into planning, development, and evaluation of learning disability services, holding responsibility for defined projects as delegated by the LDP management team.
• As an autonomous practitioner to be responsible for and manage a highly complex case load, including planning and implementing appropriate clinical interventions based on the referral evaluation, assessment, diagnoses, treatment and monitoring of individuals identified needs for adults with a learning disability.
• To lead in Multi-disciplinary/ multi-agency working within the LDP and with Key partners, to keep the patient at the centre of care, ensuring patient and carer participation in decision making.
• To provide professional leadership and management responsibility within the LDP as part of the extended Management Team.