Band 7 Specialist Health Visitor for Homeless families

Job responsibilities

Specialist Advisory (20%)

1. To lead on development, implementation and review of BFS evidence based operating procedures, pathways, client feedback measures, and outcome measures relevant to homeless and transient families, with District Practice Leads and District Clinical Managers.
2. To provide leadership for District Teams in ensuring the offer for homeless and transient families is provided consistently, is based on level of health need, with clear processes for referral to other health services and voluntary and statutory agencies which have a specific remit of homeless and transient families e.g. social, housing, financial, legal needs
3. With the District operational manager to work collaboratively with Birmingham City Council partners, e.g. in Housing, to develop and maintain communication pathways, to ensure the role of Health Visiting and BFS is understood, and to ensure BFS teams are kept up to date with the movements of homeless and transient families in order to ensure timely assessment of needs and provision of care or handover of care takes place.
4. To organise training, provide highly specialist knowledge, clinical advice, and be a source of clinical supervision for BFS practitioners in respect of homelessness issues.
5. To support managers in review of service provision and standards of practice for children in homeless accommodation in line with current legislation, evidence-based practice and demographic needs of the homeless population within service boundaries.
6. With BCHC information partners, to develop methods of collection of relevant data, so that the workload generated by homeless and transient families is understood by managers in each district
7. To keep records and write reports of Specialist advice contacts provided for each district team at a frequency to be agreed with the Head of Service

District Clinical Caseload 80%:

1. To be responsible for a highly complex clinical caseload of children and families who are homeless or transient in temporary accommodation in the Ladywood and Yardley area.
2. Delivery of the Healthy Child Programme (HCP) to families with children aged 0-5, and pregnant women, who move into homeless accommodation
3. To undertake assessment of need using BFS assessment tools, and Early Help Assessment where multi agency support is required e.g. for safeguarding risks.
4. To ensure an effective pathway of health care delivery is provided during episodes of homelessness with appropriate plans of care in place for children with additional health or developmental needs. This will be in conjunction with universal and other multi-disciplinary and targeted services, including primary care, maternity services, nurseries, childrens centres, and ensure that services are co-ordinated to meet the individual child and whole family needs
5. To formulate and agree with families packages of care appropriate to need. To monitor open care plan records in accordance with the record keeping policy, closing when a package of care is complete, or when risk assessment identifies that the child needs a universal health visiting level of input
6. To ensure plans are responsive to the needs arising from transience of the clients situation
7. To carry out health promotion and disease prevention activities, meeting and reporting on agreed key performance indicators
8. To give evidence-based advice on health issues in a way which promotes behavioural change and builds on strengths
9. To work to current NICE guidelines on antenatal and post-natal mental health to identify support and refer women at risk of developing postnatal depression, and those who are mild to moderately depressed.
10. To maintain quality standards of care using audit and other monitoring systems to evaluate the service
11. To identify vulnerable children in need of protection and refer to Childrens Services, following the Birmingham Safeguarding Partnership policies in all cases of suspected or actual emotional, physical, sexual abuse and neglect. To follow up domestic abuse notifications in line with Trust policy
12. To attend multi agency meetings, case conferences, undertake and fulfil the responsibilities that are appropriate to the role of the health visitor as agreed in the multi-agency child protection plan
13. Work in partnership with families to plan and arrange home visits
14. To develop and maintain effective working relationships with families, primary healthcare team and other professionals in both statutory and voluntary organisations
15. To ensure all equipment used by professionals in clinic settings is maintained and fit for purpose
16. To order equipment for client use as identified following a healthcare assessment
17. To promote and support immunisation programmes offered nationally to service users
18. To enter all data required on the data collection system, on time according to Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Trust policy
19. To attend and actively participate in staff meetings, and multi-disciplinary meetings and take responsibility for completing appropriate tasks arising from any such meeting
20. To ensure all records are kept to the required NMC and BCHC standards, to write letters of referral to services and produce complex reports for court hearings relating to child protection
21. To support families through difficult family situations such as illness, domestic violence, bereavement and child protection, and homelessness
22. To implement and maintain effective communication with District partner agencies to include Local Authority and homeless accommodation providers in order to proactively identify and locate children and families experiencing homelessness in specific district and ensure the health visiting role is understood.
23. To liaise closely with voluntary and statutory agencies, working with homeless families, providing them with advice and guidance on health-related issues.
24. To ensure the BFS Health Visiting Service delivered to clients is prioritised in accordance with clinical standards of practice.
25. To maintain accurate and contemporaneous documentation in order to ensure timely and effective communication, in accordance with NMC and Birmingham Community Health care NHS Foundation Trust policies.
26. To ensure that when families move on to further accommodation a handover of needs is undertaken for the receiving health visitor service
27. To provide caseload data when required for performance monitoring
28. To ensure caseload is organised for periods of planned absence e.g., annual leave and study leave
29. To receive clinical and safeguarding caseload supervision in accordance with the Trust Policy.
30. To provide pre-registration student nurse supervision and post registration student HV supervision in relation to families in temporary accommodation
31. To have a working knowledge of, and adhere to, the clinical and professional standards for Health Visiting service .
32. To demonstrate BCHC values and the 6 Cs of Nursing, commitment, competence, courage, communication, compassion and care
33. To access professional development through action learning, training reflective practice, professional supervision, self-appraisal and performance review.
34. To maintain professional registration as Registered Nurse and Health Visitor
35. To participate in Non Medical Prescribing, undertaking a full assessment of minor conditions appropriate to the role of the Specialist Health Visitor, and where indicated, prescribe from the formulary appropriate to level of training, and access continuing professional development in prescribing
36. To convey complex information to other professionals and clients and to work with other professionals and clients in difficult circumstances such as child protection, terminal illness or bereavement
37. To plan, organise and run clinics and groups

Qualification

Essential

• Registered Health Visitor/ Specialist Community Public Health Nurse (SCPHN)
• Educated to Degree Level or equivalent
• Educated to Masters Level or equivalent experience/qualification

Other job requirements

Essential

• Car driver/Access to suitable vehicle for business purposes

Personal qualities

Essential

• Excellent communication and motivational skills
• Strong leadership qualities
• Ability to work under pressure
• Enthusiasm and resilience

Skills/Knowledge

Essential

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Able to work autonomously.
• IT/Communication/WP skills including report writing.
• Analysis skills, (able to interpret city wide data eg relating to outcome measures)
• Awareness of national policy and legislation within Children's Services.
• An in-depth knowledge and understanding as to the causative effective of families becoming homeless.
• Knowledge of the Trust's specific demographic issues impacting on homelessness.
• Evidence of continual professional development.
• Planning schemes of work

Desirable

• Quick and decisive decision making
• Prioritising workload and sensitive cases

Experience

Essential

• Ability to work on own initiative, eg organizing time to attend multi disciplinary.
• Experience of integrated/joint working to deliver the Healthy Child Programme in complex circumstances.
• Significant community experience working as a Health Visitor with families with complex needs
• Experience of providing training and specialist advice

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.

Certificate of Sponsorship

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).