Job responsibilities
Bridgewater
Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and Warrington and Halton Teaching
Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust plan to integrate and form a new organisation on
the 1st April 2026. As such, if your start date is on or after
1st April 2026, you will be employed by the newly formed organisation.
Should you join Bridgewater prior to this date, your employment will
automatically transfer into the new organisation. We are confident that this
transition will provide new opportunities and a continued commitment to
excellence in patient care.
Duties and Responsibilities:
To
be professionally and legally responsible and accountable for all aspects of
your own work including the management of patients in your care. To ensure high
standards of clinical care for the Children and families under your management
and support more junior staff to do likewise.
Post
holders are required to work independently within broad clinical and
professional guidelines. Work is managed rather than supervised and this
supervision may be provided by peers who may be internal or external to the
organisation.
To
interpret and analyse clinical and non-clinical facts to form accurate
diagnosis and prognosis in a wide range of complex conditions, to recommend the
best course of intervention, and to develop comprehensive discharge plans.
To
produce informative and detailed information for out of Trust patient transfers
for continuing physiotherapy management
To
deliver the physiotherapy element of care for paediatric patients and on
occasions to deliver the elements normally undertaken by nursing or therapy
colleagues.
To
represent the Trust externally at education and social services review meetings
regarding respiratory physiotherapy services provided to paediatric patients
To
undertake the comprehensive specialist assessment of children, including those
with a highly complex presentation, using investigative and analytical skills.
To formulate individualised management and treatment plans, using clinical
reasoning and utilising a wide range of treatment skills and options to
formulate a specialised programme of care.
To
accept clinical responsibility for a varied paediatric caseload, and to
organise this effectively and efficiently regarding clinical priorities and use
of time.
To
accept partial responsibility for any tasks delegated to less senior qualified
or unqualified staff.
To
demonstrate highly developed dexterity, co-ordination and palpatory senses for
assessment and manual treatment of patients.
To
regularly participate in working parties developing policy changes within
Paediatrics, which will impact on service users.
To
ensure that designated staff implement policy and service development changes.
To
work with the clinical specialist paediatric respiratory physiotherapist in
developing the strategic and operational management of the paediatric
physiotherapy service. To provide spontaneous and planned highly specialist
advice, teaching and instruction to relatives, carers and other professionals,
to promote understanding of the aims of respiratory physiotherapy, and to
ensure a consistent approach to the child's care.
To
provide highly skilled advice for statutory assessment of special educational
needs.
To
provide specialist advice and peer support to physiotherapy, social care and
education colleagues in the overall management of the child presenting with
complex needs across the local health economy in a range of primary and
secondary and community settings. This will include the preparation and
presentation of reports and attendance at relevant social services, educational
and medical case conferences.
To
provide specialist advice, teaching and training to other members of the MDT
regarding the physical and medical management of patients with paediatric respiratory
conditions.
To
train, supervise and performance manage more junior staff, physiotherapy
assistants and students. This will include the use formal appraisal
documentation.
To
train, supervise and performance manage via the use of competencies qualified
and unqualified nursing staff, teaching and teaching assistant staff in
specific areas of respiratory physiotherapy management
Supervise,
educate and assess the performance of physiotherapy students; this would be to
a graduate standard and involve working with universities to ensure the
standard of practice and teaching meets the standards set by the degree level
qualification.
To
communicate effectively with children and carers to maximise rehabilitation
potential and to ensure understanding of condition. Use communication skills such as persuasion,
motivation explanation to encourage patients to undertake their management
programme.
To
use communication tools (verbal and non-verbal) to gain informed consent with
patients where there will often be barriers to effective communication e.g.
loss of hearing, altered perception, expressive and receptive dysphasia, pain,
fear etc.
To
work with children and their families to assess capacity, gain valid informed
consent and have the ability to work within a legal framework with children
where there is a lack of capacity to gain consent to treatment
Professional
To
maintain own clinical professional development (CPD) by keeping abreast of any
new trends and developments and incorporate them as necessary into your work.
To
be an active member of the in-service training programme by the attendance and
delivering of presentations and training sessions at staff meetings, tutorials,
training sessions in house and by attending external courses and practising
reflective practice.
To
communicate complex patient-related information (as well as non-patient
information) effectively and work collaboratively with medical, nursing,
education social services and therapy colleagues to ensure delivery of a
co-ordinated multidisciplinary service. This will include case conferences,
multi-disciplinary assessment attendance at specialist services appointments,
consultant appointments, child protection conferences, contributions to
statutory
assessment for education and discharge planning meetings.
To
co-ordinate educational staff, social services & voluntary carers to assist
in the delivery of treatments /programmes and the planning and organising of
clinics / MDT meetings
To
participate in the staff appraisal scheme and Personal Development Plan (PDP)
as both appraiser and appraisee.
To
undertake the measurement and evaluation of your work and current practices
through the use of Evidence Based Practice projects, audit and outcome
measures, either individually or alongside the Clinical specialist
respiratory physiotherapist (band 7) Use information gained to make
recommendations for change.
To
work as a lone Practitioner where needed, without the support of Physiotherapy
colleagues. Supervision can be sought through our Clinical specialist
respiratory physiotherapist (band 7) along with advice of peers and attendance
at multi-agency discussion
To
demonstrate a sound understanding of Clinical Governance and Risk Management
and apply to work situation.
Organisational
To
be responsible for a designated area of work, as agreed with the Clinical
specialist respiratory physiotherapist (band 7) and to plan and organise
efficiently and effectively regarding patients management and use of time.
To
decide priorities for own work area, balancing other patient related and
professional demands, and ensure that there remain in accordance with those of
the section.
To
be responsible for ensuring the effective selection and use of all treatment
resources available both in the community and educational bases. To be
responsible for ordering, monitoring and maintaining equipment used in carrying
out physiotherapy duties in your particular area of work, and to adhere to
departmental policy, including competence to use equipment and to ensure the
safe use of equipment by others through, teaching, training and supervision of
practice.
To
deputise for the Clinical specialist respiratory physiotherapist (band 7) in
terms of operational issues regarding service requirements.
To
maintain accurate, comprehensive and up-to-date documentation, in line with
legal and departmental requirements and communicate assessment and treatment
results to the appropriate disciplines in form of reports and letters.
To
be actively involved in the collection of appropriate data and statistics for
the use of the physiotherapy department and paediatric department
To
be aware of Health and Safety aspects of your work and implement any policies,
which may be required to improve the safety of your work area, including your
prompt recording and reporting of incidents to senior staff, and ensuring that
equipment is safe.
To
comply with the organisational and departmental policies and procedures and to
be involved in the reviewing and updating as appropriate.
To
be actively involved in the recruitment and selection of lower grade staff.
To
undertake any other duties that might be considered appropriate by the Clinical
specialist respiratory physiotherapist or the Physiotherapy Services Manager.
