Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust

Children looked after nurse

The closing date is 18 December 2025

Job summary

Are you a caring and committed public health nurse? Do you have the skills to work with Children Looked After and Care Leavers and improve their health outcomes? Are you keen to contribute towards the development of the Children's Looked After teams.

An exciting opportunity has arisen within Knowsley, to join our team of Children Looked After nurses working with 0-25 children and young people who are Looked After.

This is a unique opportunity for an experienced registered health nurse who can demonstrate a high standard of leadership and caseload management skills, can deliver excellent health assessment, have effective communication skills working with children and young people, to join our motivated and friendly team.

The post requires a flexible approach and a willingness to travel.

You will have the opportunity to be creative and deliver training and engage looked after children, their carers and partner agencies to ensure that health needs are assessed and met for this cohort of children.

The successful applicant will be able to demonstrate experience with working with children of all ages, vulnerable groups and those with additional health needs.

The role will be supported by the Team Manager and Named Nurse for Children Looked After, with excellent opportunities for supervision, training and development.

This post is subject to an enhanced with children's and adult's barred list Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) Check

Main duties of the job

The age range of Children Looked after is 0-25 years, and it is envisaged that the Children's Looked After nurse will have contact and case manage children across this age range both male and female.

Most children and young people have experienced severe social dysfunction in their families together with significant traumatic life events, sometimes in complex combinations.

These may include family break up and dysfunction, frequent changes of home and/or school, bereavement, violence, major illness or hospitalisation, and physical, emotional and/or sexual abuse.

These factors exacerbate inherent medical issues, as well as impacting on the educational and social achievement.

Promote the physical, mental and social aspects of children and young people.

Assist in assessing care needs, planning, delivery and evaluation of care.

Ensure that the needs of these children and young people are recognized and that appropriate care is initiated by the caseload holder.

Assist in facilitating health education and health promotion for service users.

Ensure comprehensive health assessments are produced for Children Looked After, including risk assessments of young people with complex health problems based on having an in depth knowledge in this area of expertise.

The caseload holder is able to utilise skills flexibly so that interventions can be creatively thought about, and provided within the young persons home, school, area office or other appropriate setting.

About us

Mersey Care is one of the largest trusts providing physical health and mental health services in the North West, serving more than 1.4 million people across our region and are also commissioned for services that cover the North West, North Wales and the Midlands.

We offer specialist inpatient and community services that support physical and mental health and specialist inpatient mental health, learning disability, addiction and brain injury services. Mersey Care is one of only three trusts in the UK that offer high secure mental health facilities.

At the heart of all we do is our commitment to 'perfect care' - care that is safe, effective, positively experienced, timely, equitable and efficient. We support our staff to do the best job they can and work alongside service users, their families, and carers to design and develop future services together. We're currently delivering a programme of organisational and service transformation to significantly improve the quality of the services we provide and safely reduce cost as we do so.

Flexible working requests will be considered for all roles.

Details

Date posted

10 December 2025

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 6

Salary

£38,682 to £46,580 a year pro rata/per annum

Contract

Fixed term

Duration

6 months

Working pattern

Full-time

Reference number

350-CC7634423

Job locations

Manor Farm RCPC - First floor

Manor farm Rd

Huyton

L36 0UB


Job description

Job responsibilities

The post holder will provide an integrated and coordinated approach to the needs of the children and young people.

The post holder will:

Provide support and guidance to health and social care colleagues to ensure access to inclusive primary health care services.

Manage a caseload of Children Looked After as required under statutory and responsible commissioning guidance.

Practice autonomously and demonstrate evidence based clinical decision making.

Work within guidelines to identify and manage risk, reporting any identified risks to the Team Manager and Named Nurse.

Ensure the delivery of quality nursing practice within the designated area incorporating the establishment of systems and processes.

Ensure the wishes, feelings and voice of the child are captured.

Develop systems ensure young people leaving care are provided with individual information on their own health care.

Attend and contribute to meetings as necessary.

Deliver training pertaining to Children Looked after

Job description

Job responsibilities

The post holder will provide an integrated and coordinated approach to the needs of the children and young people.

The post holder will:

Provide support and guidance to health and social care colleagues to ensure access to inclusive primary health care services.

Manage a caseload of Children Looked After as required under statutory and responsible commissioning guidance.

Practice autonomously and demonstrate evidence based clinical decision making.

Work within guidelines to identify and manage risk, reporting any identified risks to the Team Manager and Named Nurse.

Ensure the delivery of quality nursing practice within the designated area incorporating the establishment of systems and processes.

Ensure the wishes, feelings and voice of the child are captured.

Develop systems ensure young people leaving care are provided with individual information on their own health care.

Attend and contribute to meetings as necessary.

Deliver training pertaining to Children Looked after

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

  • Be registered on Part 1 of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) register as a children's nurse or mental health nurse/adult nurse with significant experience working with vulnerable children and young people or Part 3as a specialist community health nurse
  • Evidence of continual professional development

Desirable

  • Have experience related to caring for babies/children and young people and relevant experience with looked after children and young people
  • Evidence of further specialised training, and maintenance of skills specific issues pertaining to young people with complex health needs and challenging behaviour
  • Evidence of recent training in Chlamydia/Sexual Health Screening
  • Evidence of recent training in administration of immunisations

Knowledge/Experience

Essential

  • Demonstrable post qualification experience of working at Band 5 with children/young people in a community setting in the NHS
  • Working with children/young people with challenging behaviour
  • Working with adolescents
  • Working within a multi- disciplinary team
  • Working within a multi-agency team
  • Identifying and working with Safeguarding Children Issues
  • Assessment and report writing
  • Knowledge of Child Protection/Safeguarding issues, policies and procedures
  • Up to date knowledge of the literature relating to the needs of the Young People and to the agencies supporting them e.g. Looked After Children, Youth Justice Board
  • Awareness of factors that contribute to good health and the importance of promoting these in line with public health policy and practice

Desirable

  • Developing and facilitating training and/or health promotion sessions

Skills

Essential

  • Excellent written, verbal and interpersonal communication skills
  • Risk assessment skills
  • Ability to adapt to clients, carers, colleagues and partners
  • Ability to assess health needs and plan, develop, implement and assess programmes of care for children/ young people.
  • Ability to communicate complex information and advice on healthcare to clients, carers and colleagues
  • Very high quality written communication skills adaptable for a wide and varying readership
  • Ability to use IT skills for report writing, use of databases and ? communication.
  • An ability to develop effective working relationships across agencies
  • Adaptability to working in a wide variety of settings
  • Must be able to transport self around the community
  • Ability to organise workload with minimal supervision

Desirable

  • Maintenance of skills in administration of immunisations
  • Maintenance of skills in Chlamydia/Sexual Health screening

Values

Essential

  • Continuous Improvement
  • Accountability
  • Respectfulness
  • Enthusiasm
  • Support
  • High professional standards
  • Responsive to service users
  • Engaging leadership style
  • Strong customer service belief
  • Transparency and honesty
  • Discreet
  • Change oriented
Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

  • Be registered on Part 1 of the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) register as a children's nurse or mental health nurse/adult nurse with significant experience working with vulnerable children and young people or Part 3as a specialist community health nurse
  • Evidence of continual professional development

Desirable

  • Have experience related to caring for babies/children and young people and relevant experience with looked after children and young people
  • Evidence of further specialised training, and maintenance of skills specific issues pertaining to young people with complex health needs and challenging behaviour
  • Evidence of recent training in Chlamydia/Sexual Health Screening
  • Evidence of recent training in administration of immunisations

Knowledge/Experience

Essential

  • Demonstrable post qualification experience of working at Band 5 with children/young people in a community setting in the NHS
  • Working with children/young people with challenging behaviour
  • Working with adolescents
  • Working within a multi- disciplinary team
  • Working within a multi-agency team
  • Identifying and working with Safeguarding Children Issues
  • Assessment and report writing
  • Knowledge of Child Protection/Safeguarding issues, policies and procedures
  • Up to date knowledge of the literature relating to the needs of the Young People and to the agencies supporting them e.g. Looked After Children, Youth Justice Board
  • Awareness of factors that contribute to good health and the importance of promoting these in line with public health policy and practice

Desirable

  • Developing and facilitating training and/or health promotion sessions

Skills

Essential

  • Excellent written, verbal and interpersonal communication skills
  • Risk assessment skills
  • Ability to adapt to clients, carers, colleagues and partners
  • Ability to assess health needs and plan, develop, implement and assess programmes of care for children/ young people.
  • Ability to communicate complex information and advice on healthcare to clients, carers and colleagues
  • Very high quality written communication skills adaptable for a wide and varying readership
  • Ability to use IT skills for report writing, use of databases and ? communication.
  • An ability to develop effective working relationships across agencies
  • Adaptability to working in a wide variety of settings
  • Must be able to transport self around the community
  • Ability to organise workload with minimal supervision

Desirable

  • Maintenance of skills in administration of immunisations
  • Maintenance of skills in Chlamydia/Sexual Health screening

Values

Essential

  • Continuous Improvement
  • Accountability
  • Respectfulness
  • Enthusiasm
  • Support
  • High professional standards
  • Responsive to service users
  • Engaging leadership style
  • Strong customer service belief
  • Transparency and honesty
  • Discreet
  • Change oriented

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).

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.

UK Registration

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

Employer details

Employer name

Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Manor Farm RCPC - First floor

Manor farm Rd

Huyton

L36 0UB


Employer's website

https://www.merseycare.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)


Employer details

Employer name

Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Manor Farm RCPC - First floor

Manor farm Rd

Huyton

L36 0UB


Employer's website

https://www.merseycare.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)


Employer contact details

For questions about the job, contact:

Clinical Team Manager

Becca Fortune

becca.fortune@merseycare.nhs.uk

01513518825

Details

Date posted

10 December 2025

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 6

Salary

£38,682 to £46,580 a year pro rata/per annum

Contract

Fixed term

Duration

6 months

Working pattern

Full-time

Reference number

350-CC7634423

Job locations

Manor Farm RCPC - First floor

Manor farm Rd

Huyton

L36 0UB


Supporting documents

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