Job summary
Band 7 Physiotherapy Practitioner - Specialising in Self-Referral
Maternity leave cover until March 2026
The Trust has a fantastic opportunity for an individual who aspires to work as a MSK Physiotherapy Practitioner in an exemplar MSK Interface Service. We are seeking a committed, enthusiastic, and compassionate individual to join our Joint Health Service to deliver the highest quality care to our patients.
This post is an exciting opportunity to learn new skills and become part of a growing team. You will be based in the Therapy Outpatient Service at the Trust.
We will be looking for a willingness to learn, a can-do attitude. You will provide direct clinical care which encompasses assessment, treatment and management of undifferentiated and undiagnosed conditions with no prior triage.
The Therapy Outpatient Services constantly strive for the best outcomes possible for the population that it serves placing the person at the heart of all we do. With an excellent reputation for our quality of service, supervision, commitment to professional development, postgraduate training, and strong multidisciplinary multiagency culture this is a great place to progress your skills and career.
Please be aware that we may close a vacancy earlier than stated should a sufficient number of applications be received, you are therefore advised to apply at your earliest convenience.
Main duties of the job
The successful applicant will be enthusiastic, hardworking, and motivated with excellent clinical, communication, organisational and time management skills, as well as being open in their treatment approach to provide a holistic patient intervention. The successful applicant will be able to demonstrate enhanced clinical reasoning, using current evidence for the management in this specialist field.
A flexible approach to day-to-day tasks is essential, to meet the demands of the service. Our philosophy is to keep the patient at the heart of everything we do. We look for people who are willing to go the extra mile, not because they are asked to, but because they are committed to being part of a healthcare team that delivers an excellent caring service to our patients.
This role will enable you to consolidate your current skills and knowledge by participating in CPD. We have an excellent staff supervision system enabling our staff to be committed to developing both their service and them.
Flexibility and adaptability are required. Applicants may be expected to travel between bases and when necessary.
In return we offer:
- A friendly and supportive environment
- A clear and comprehensive programme of clinical supervision
- Dedicated CPD time
- Flexible working patterns and Family Friendly Policies
About us
The Secretary of State has approved the partnership between St Helens & Knowsley and Southport & Ormskirk Hospitals.
From 1st July we have come together as a single organisation under the name Mersey & West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.
The Trust delivers acute hospital care, intermediate care, community, and primary care services to a population of over 600,000 people with a combined workforce of around 9000 dedicated and skilled staff from 17 locations including Whiston, Southport & Formby, St Helens, Ormskirk and Newton hospitals.
The Trust provides regional services for burns, plastic surgery and spinal injuries to more than 4 million people across Mersey and West Lancashire, Cheshire, the Isle of Man and North Wales.
Our Vision is to deliver 5 Star Patient Care:
- CAREthat is evidence based, high quality and compassionate
- SAFETY that is of the highest standards
- COMMUNICATION that is open, inclusive and respectful
- SYSTEMS that are efficient, patient centred and reliable
- PATHWAYS that are best practice and embedded, but also respect the individual needs of patients
Our achievements include:
- Trust rated Outstanding by CQC Inspection August 2018
- Top 100 places to work in the NHS (NHS Employers & Health Service Journal)
- Awarded National Preceptorship Accreditation (2023) for our Nursing & AHP Preceptorship Programme
Please see our Wellbeing & Benefits booklet for more information on our staff benefits. Accessible version available upon request.
Job description
Job responsibilities
This post will be subject to an Enhanced DBS (with barred list for vulnerable adults and childrens disclosure).
Interviews will take place w/c 21st July, 2025
KEY DUTIES
- To work within Trust clinical guidelines, HCPC and Registrant Body guidelines and to have a working knowledge of national and local standards and monitor own and others quality of practise against these
CLINICAL & PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES
- To communicate complex patient and service-related information effectively to Health and Wellbeing and local authority colleagues and third sector agencies.
- Use complex communication skills and knowledge when working with patients, their families and other provider agencies.
- To involve the patient and the family/carers in all relevant discussions about their management and decisions that are made about treatment techniques and facilitating patient involvement in the planning, development, delivery and evaluation of the service.
- To assess capacity, gain valid informed consent and have the ability to work within a legal framework with patients who lack capacity to consent to treatment.
- Delivering high level and complex triage, clinical assessment, diagnostics, treatment and evaluation of the needs within the trust.
- Providing leadership; promoting a learning culture for colleagues and other agencies; leading service innovations and demonstrating high level problem solving.
- Ensuring excellence in service delivery through personal and service development, underpinned by evidence-based practice and research, embedded in the quality assurance agenda.
- Driving innovation; managing the change process to ensure your service continues to be flexible and proactive to reflect the needs of the trust.
- To triage patients with complex needs.
- To undertake complex clinical assessments of patients/ service users within sphere of advanced practice.
- To determine a clinical diagnosis and make high level decisions regarding appropriate treatment/ care plans.
- Implement complex care/ interventions according to clinical need.
- Evaluate complex care/ interventions based on evidence from clinical outcomes and best practice.
- To provide advanced clinical advice, support and training to patients/ service users, families, carers and professional colleagues to improve their journey and their health and wellbeing.
- To be professionally accountable for all aspects of own work including the management of patients in your care.
- Registered practitioners who are non-medical prescribers are accountable for their prescribing activities by ensuring they are aware of their Professional accountability and any restrictions or special considerations in their prescribing practice.
- To develop and maintain the high-level clinical skills required to work as an advanced practitioner.
Job description
Job responsibilities
This post will be subject to an Enhanced DBS (with barred list for vulnerable adults and childrens disclosure).
Interviews will take place w/c 21st July, 2025
KEY DUTIES
- To work within Trust clinical guidelines, HCPC and Registrant Body guidelines and to have a working knowledge of national and local standards and monitor own and others quality of practise against these
CLINICAL & PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES
- To communicate complex patient and service-related information effectively to Health and Wellbeing and local authority colleagues and third sector agencies.
- Use complex communication skills and knowledge when working with patients, their families and other provider agencies.
- To involve the patient and the family/carers in all relevant discussions about their management and decisions that are made about treatment techniques and facilitating patient involvement in the planning, development, delivery and evaluation of the service.
- To assess capacity, gain valid informed consent and have the ability to work within a legal framework with patients who lack capacity to consent to treatment.
- Delivering high level and complex triage, clinical assessment, diagnostics, treatment and evaluation of the needs within the trust.
- Providing leadership; promoting a learning culture for colleagues and other agencies; leading service innovations and demonstrating high level problem solving.
- Ensuring excellence in service delivery through personal and service development, underpinned by evidence-based practice and research, embedded in the quality assurance agenda.
- Driving innovation; managing the change process to ensure your service continues to be flexible and proactive to reflect the needs of the trust.
- To triage patients with complex needs.
- To undertake complex clinical assessments of patients/ service users within sphere of advanced practice.
- To determine a clinical diagnosis and make high level decisions regarding appropriate treatment/ care plans.
- Implement complex care/ interventions according to clinical need.
- Evaluate complex care/ interventions based on evidence from clinical outcomes and best practice.
- To provide advanced clinical advice, support and training to patients/ service users, families, carers and professional colleagues to improve their journey and their health and wellbeing.
- To be professionally accountable for all aspects of own work including the management of patients in your care.
- Registered practitioners who are non-medical prescribers are accountable for their prescribing activities by ensuring they are aware of their Professional accountability and any restrictions or special considerations in their prescribing practice.
- To develop and maintain the high-level clinical skills required to work as an advanced practitioner.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Diploma / Degree in Physiotherapy
- Current HCPC registration
- Evidence of relevant post-graduate study at MSc level/ or equivalent
Knowledge & Experience
Essential
- Extensive post graduate experience with band 6 MSK / Physiotherapy Outpatient experience
- Demonstrate specialist MSK knowledge to promote & deliver a culture of evidence-based practice within the team and design credible clinical care pathways & guidelines
Desirable
- Previous experience of working in either Orthopaedic clinic or MSK Interface service
- Membership of special interest group relevant to specialty
- Relevant research and audit experience
- Good knowledge of clinical governance / competency frameworks and their application to Advance Physiotherapy practice
- Experience of joint working with external organisations e.g. academic institutions, AHSN E.g., service re design, evidence-based practice, clinical pathways, research or audit.
Skills
Essential
- Demonstrate Specialist MSK Physiotherapy clinical skills and knowledge - advanced clinical reasoning in MSK Physio assessment, diagnosis and treatment
- Possess excellent communication and interpersonal skills
- Awareness of current NHS Policies & Frameworks /relevant quality indicators in clinical specialty
- Ability to manage change in a flexible, diplomatic and positive manner
- Ability to maintain & develop own clinical role and be aware of professional and clinical boundaries
- Ability to delegate appropriately, supervise student/assistants and clinical staff whilst supporting leads and managers as necessary
- Excellent teaching and presentation skills to support development of other team members in specialist MSK Physiotherapy assessment and treatment
- Ability to promote & positively represent the service and organisation within and outside of the Trust E.g. CCGs / GP`s
- Possess excellent time management / prioritization skills
- Demonstrate flexible work practices to meet changing demands of the service
Desirable
- Ability to design, implement and interpret clinical audit / research
Other
Essential
- The post includes a combination of complex physical, emotional and mental activities
- The post holder may be required to work across sites including hospital / community settings.
- To exert moderate physical effort during the treatment of patients regularly throughout the day e.g. lifting equipment, moving and manoeuvring patients, applying physiotherapy manual therapy techniques. The post holder will also need highly specialized manual handling / dexterity skills in order to perform joint and soft tissue injection therapy
- The post holder will experience frequent and sustained periods of intense concentration when assessing complex patients and requesting specialist investigations / interpreting results in order to make an accurate diagnosis and devise an effective treatment plan for patients on a day-to-day basis
- Conveying complex information in a comprehensible and practical way to clients, families and carers where there may be significant barriers to understanding/learning.
- Prioritising clinical work responding to unpredictable demands on time e.g. responding to serious radiological incidental findings & urgent referrals alongside normal clinic list
- The post holder will often have to overcome barriers to communication such as illiteracy, learning difficulties, hearing and sight impairment, language and may have to work with interpreters.
- Communication with and have direct contact with a wide variety of people, including health, social care and education professionals, patients, carers, the public.
- Daily involvement with chronically and terminally ill patients and their carers.
- The post holder will be exposed to sensitive, emotional and distressing circumstances, including terminally ill patients and abusive patients/carers
- The post holder may have to deliver bad news regularly E.g. giving a diagnosis of serious disease to the patient and their family
- Daily exposure to unpleasant working conditions, including body odours, bodily fluids and open wounds. Occasionally exposed to verbal and physical aggression and people under the influence of alcohol and drugs.
- Daily encounter unpleasant smells and sights, with possible exposure to bodily fluids including blood / aspirated joint fluids e.g. Injection Therapy
- Ability to fulfill the travel requirements of the post
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Diploma / Degree in Physiotherapy
- Current HCPC registration
- Evidence of relevant post-graduate study at MSc level/ or equivalent
Knowledge & Experience
Essential
- Extensive post graduate experience with band 6 MSK / Physiotherapy Outpatient experience
- Demonstrate specialist MSK knowledge to promote & deliver a culture of evidence-based practice within the team and design credible clinical care pathways & guidelines
Desirable
- Previous experience of working in either Orthopaedic clinic or MSK Interface service
- Membership of special interest group relevant to specialty
- Relevant research and audit experience
- Good knowledge of clinical governance / competency frameworks and their application to Advance Physiotherapy practice
- Experience of joint working with external organisations e.g. academic institutions, AHSN E.g., service re design, evidence-based practice, clinical pathways, research or audit.
Skills
Essential
- Demonstrate Specialist MSK Physiotherapy clinical skills and knowledge - advanced clinical reasoning in MSK Physio assessment, diagnosis and treatment
- Possess excellent communication and interpersonal skills
- Awareness of current NHS Policies & Frameworks /relevant quality indicators in clinical specialty
- Ability to manage change in a flexible, diplomatic and positive manner
- Ability to maintain & develop own clinical role and be aware of professional and clinical boundaries
- Ability to delegate appropriately, supervise student/assistants and clinical staff whilst supporting leads and managers as necessary
- Excellent teaching and presentation skills to support development of other team members in specialist MSK Physiotherapy assessment and treatment
- Ability to promote & positively represent the service and organisation within and outside of the Trust E.g. CCGs / GP`s
- Possess excellent time management / prioritization skills
- Demonstrate flexible work practices to meet changing demands of the service
Desirable
- Ability to design, implement and interpret clinical audit / research
Other
Essential
- The post includes a combination of complex physical, emotional and mental activities
- The post holder may be required to work across sites including hospital / community settings.
- To exert moderate physical effort during the treatment of patients regularly throughout the day e.g. lifting equipment, moving and manoeuvring patients, applying physiotherapy manual therapy techniques. The post holder will also need highly specialized manual handling / dexterity skills in order to perform joint and soft tissue injection therapy
- The post holder will experience frequent and sustained periods of intense concentration when assessing complex patients and requesting specialist investigations / interpreting results in order to make an accurate diagnosis and devise an effective treatment plan for patients on a day-to-day basis
- Conveying complex information in a comprehensible and practical way to clients, families and carers where there may be significant barriers to understanding/learning.
- Prioritising clinical work responding to unpredictable demands on time e.g. responding to serious radiological incidental findings & urgent referrals alongside normal clinic list
- The post holder will often have to overcome barriers to communication such as illiteracy, learning difficulties, hearing and sight impairment, language and may have to work with interpreters.
- Communication with and have direct contact with a wide variety of people, including health, social care and education professionals, patients, carers, the public.
- Daily involvement with chronically and terminally ill patients and their carers.
- The post holder will be exposed to sensitive, emotional and distressing circumstances, including terminally ill patients and abusive patients/carers
- The post holder may have to deliver bad news regularly E.g. giving a diagnosis of serious disease to the patient and their family
- Daily exposure to unpleasant working conditions, including body odours, bodily fluids and open wounds. Occasionally exposed to verbal and physical aggression and people under the influence of alcohol and drugs.
- Daily encounter unpleasant smells and sights, with possible exposure to bodily fluids including blood / aspirated joint fluids e.g. Injection Therapy
- Ability to fulfill the travel requirements of the post
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.
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
Additional information
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.
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
