Child & Family Practitioner

Job responsibilities

Job Summary:

To deliver therapeutic individual and group interventions with children and young people, parents and carers, establishing and evaluating goals for care.

To work with the family and the network around them.

To undertake generic emotional and mental health assessments as required.

To work as part of a multi-disciplinary team within a network of palliative care provision.

The post holder will be required to provide support across a range of settings in the community, hospital and at the hospice and across localities when required.

Responsibilities

Work in accordance with EACHs model of service delivery which places service user need at the centre of clinical work and incorporates systemic work (working with the systems around a child and family) into every assessment, formulation and intervention.

To assess a service users need for targeted therapeutic interventions and agree with them the goals for support and how these will be achieved.

To provide support to a child, young person, and adult service users and significant others using individual, group and family techniques as appropriate.

To work collaboratively to determine the preferred place of care (including face to face and virtual offers), time of day and day of week for the service user.

Monitor and evaluate progress during the course of interventions and to provide appropriate reports on this, including capturing impact and outcomes

To identify when the level of support may be beyond the scope of an individual worker and that other professional support may be needed.

To effectively liaise and communicate with professionals and outside agencies to ensure the support offered is effective and meets the needs of the service user.

To maintain clinical records using the SystmOne electronic records system.

To provide general emotional support, signposting to information and other services, creation of journey and memory work, groups, and providing practical advice and support around the time of death and into bereavement.

To support families in the decision making process regarding the hopes and wishes for the child / young person and the family during life, end of life care and into bereavement. This could include supporting the planning of the childs / young persons funeral, if appropriate. To involve the lead child / young person in decision making as appropriate.

To contribute to the planning, organisation and delivery of the annual Memory Day(s).

To contribute to the planning and/or attendance at Universal groups as identified.

Team Working

To attend multi-professional meetings, actively contributing and providing a resource to the wider care team reflecting the psychosocial needs of families.

To build relationships with service users and colleagues, as part of the multi-professional team.

To recognise and report problems and work with others to solve them.

To participate in multi-professional care planning.

To contribute to and participate in the multi-professional audit process.

To be involved in the selection, recruitment and management of volunteers to provide emotional health and wellbeing support, as required.

Professional Responsibility

Maintain an up to date knowledge of best practice in safeguarding and the identification of potential risk for all children, young people, families and significant others.

Act as a positive role model who enables change.

Maintain professional standards in accordance with the practitioners relevant professional body and work within all relevant legal, ethical and professional frameworks applicable to the practitioners professional domain.

Responsible for on-going practice development and lifelong learning by adopting a reflective approach to personal practice, participating in appraisal, clinical and safeguarding supervision, reflective practice, education and training.

Education & Governance Activities

To participate in the EACH in-service teaching programme and other training events as required.

To participate in relevant clinical governance activities within EACH.

To participate in student placement programmes where appropriate.

To contribute to EACHs audit programme, where required.

To participate in education and training both within and outside of EACH.

To provide statistical information as required.

This job description is not exhaustive and may be amended as necessary. It is intended as a guide to the duties and responsibilities of the post.

Qualifications

Essential

• A professional qualification in a relevant area of practice such as social work, mental health nursing, therapist, psychology, counselling with a relevant professional registration.
• Knowledge of child development and its influence on parent/child relationship in every stage of a childs development.
• Knowledge and ability to work therapeutically with children, young people and their parents/carers.
• An understanding of specialist palliative care
• Evidence of Continuous Professional Development (CPD)
• Knowledge of current legislation relating to children and young people including best practice in safeguarding children
• IT literate (e.g. word processing and E-Mail

Desirable

• Systemic training and/or professional qualification

Other Requirements

Essential

• Must have full drivers licence and own transport and able to travel to locations to deliver care as required.
• Evidence of commitment to own continuing professional development.

Experience

Essential

• Experience of providing emotional support/talking therapies within a systemic framework with children and adults.
• Experience of working collaboratively with teams and other agencies
• Evidence of working within a multi-disciplinary team
• Experience of maintaining professional boundaries

Desirable

• Experience in a palliative care setting
• Previous experience of working in primary care or other healthcare settings
• Experience of providing bereavement support or crisis work support
• Experience of contributing to service evaluation

Skills & Abilities

Essential

• Excellent communication skills to enable collaborative work with individuals/families which seek to gain the voice of the whole family.
• Ability to effectively and concisely communicate with a range of different individuals and groups.
• Ability to effectively communicate and deliver interventions virtually.
• Ability to prioritise need and workload and manage own time.
• Ability to make use of practice supervision
• Ability to maintain confidentiality appropriate to the setting
• Evidence of ability to work within a systemic framework
• Able to work flexibly and responsively, providing assessment and interventions according to need
• Ability to work within a time limit
• Ability to recognise problems and work with others to solve them
• Effective communication skills in all areas of practice both orally and in writing
• IT literate (e.g. word processing and E-Mail

Desirable

• Experience of SystmOne clinical records system
• Ability to identify, monitor and evaluate interventions with children, young people and their families to support wellbeing

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).