Specialist Health Visitor, Children with Special Needs & Disabilities

Job overview

The Specialist Health Visitor works alongside the Camden MOSAIC service.  This is an integrated service for children and young people with disabilities and their families. It aims to enable families to help their children to participate in family and community life.

MOSAIC (Making Our Services All Integrated in Camden) provides the skills and professionals needed to support the needs of children and young people with disabilities. It is a joint service provided by CNWL and the London Borough of Camden.

The service provides assessment, diagnosis and therapeutic intervention from a range of health professionals to create a 'team around the child'.

Main duties of the job

The postholder will:

Act as a lead professional/key worker for identified children with complex additional needs who require an MDT approach to care and are referred to MOSAIC CDT. Provide health visiting expertise and liaison within the multidisciplinary team.

Use specialist public health knowledge and skills to support families and provide advice and signposting about continence, behaviour and sleep issues for children with special needs.

Act as the lead professional for families in the Child Development Team that have a child protection plan or where safeguarding concerns have been raised.

Provide information to families about all community resources including Early Support, Children Centre Services and Local Offer amongst others.

Be the lead professional for delivery of the Healthy Child Programme as appropriate, where post holder is the lead Health Visitor and as in agreement with Universal HV team. e.g MOSAIC CDT or on the Down Syndrome Pathway

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Clinical

Provide specialist advice to Health Visitors and other community practitioners in supporting children with disabilitities.

Act as the first point of contact for those children referred and accepted to MOSAIC CDT or the Down Syndrome Pathway and undertake the initial contact for onboarding and access to waiting supports.  Ensure relevant information from initial assessment is shared with CDT staff/Down Syndrome team. Participate in the multidisciplinary assessments and reviews where appropriate.]

To link with the complex care team when necessary and attend discharge planning meetings for children referred to MOSIAC CDT from hospital, as required.

To identify services from which families may benefit, assisting parents in their choices of service and make appropriate referrals.

To make any additional relevant referrals to enable families to access the necessary support, eg opthalmology, early help.

To act in accordance with the CNWL Safeguarding Children & Young People Policy & the London Child Protection Procedures; taking prompt action in relation to children where there is cause for concern

To support families and staff within CDT where there are safeguarding concerns and attend case conferences and core group meetings.

To support work alongside the MDT Coordinator and MOSAIC Service Manager with transition planning for  children moving from the CDT to School Health where staff member has been involved.

Ensure that contemporaneous records of all contact with children, young people, and their parents / other professionals involved in the care of the child or young person are maintained.

Recording and providing information activity and service data as required.

Advising and supporting parents and children on strategies to promote good health.

Demonstrate advanced verbal and communication skills and the ability to communicate difficult or sometimes distressing information effectively on occasions, to clients, families and colleagues.

2. Partnership Working

• Work closely with partner agencies and the Special Educational Needs team in order to provide relevant and up to date information about their services, to families on how to access their supports e.g. SENDIAS, EYIT. T    To  signpost families towards the key working services e.g. Family Workers, Early Help, Information and Engagement Team and Family Hubs. To ensure clarity about the role of the Specialist Health Visitor with parents/carers and other colleagues within the health service, local authority and voluntary agencies.
• To work in partnership with paediatric and therapy colleagues to identify priorities and support management of health and developmental needs. P   Participate in decision making panels as appropriate eg triage panel, as required
• To work closely with other members of the wider MOSAIC Team, participating in team meetings, and supporting objective setting, clinical governance priorities and the overall functioning of the team.
• To attend CDT Clinical Lead meetings and other relevant working groups and participate in service improvements and redesigns as required.

3. Educational

• Facilitate the personal and professional development of staff by participating  in training and education programmes for staff within CNWL, partner agencies, using expertise on issues relating to children with special needs and related issues.
• To provide a training to pre and post registration students and trainees in MOSAIC services.
• To be responsible for own professional development and keep up-to-date with best evidence based practice.
• Participate in quality improvement projects as identified by the team leaders in health Visiting and MOSAIC
• To act as a resource within MOSAIC and Health Visiting services concerning current development within the service, taking forward initiatives to share best practice, acting as a clinical role model within the team by demonstrating high levels of clinical practice.
• Contributes to and participates in the development of audit, evidence based practice, clinical governance activity and research where appropriate..
• Encourage carer/user feedback and involvement to inform the development of the service.