LS25/26 PCN Health and Wellbeing Coach

Job responsibilities

The post holder will be a key member of the multi-disciplinary team, helping patients and their carers to increase their participation in, and understanding of, their health condition, by supporting and empowering them to make the most appropriate and informed decisions to manage their condition.

The Health and Wellbeing Coach will play an important role in engaging patients and use health coaching techniques to support and empower them to take an active role in their health. You will work with patients of low to medium complexity that may have one or more long term conditions.

Health coaching is part of the NHS long term plan to embed personalised health care into GP practices.

Health and Wellbeing Coaching Helping people gain and use the knowledge, skills and confidence to become active participants in their care so that they can reach their self-identified health and wellbeing goals. NHS England; Universal Personalised Care

Research has shown that people who work with a Health & Wellbeing Coach:

Feel better

Feel happier

Feel more in control

Feel more confident

Gain better health outcomes

NHS England Health and wellbeing coaches

The Role

We are looking for someone who is passionate about the role and the opportunity to make a difference to the health and wellbeing of our patients. The Health & Wellbeing coach is a relatively new role, so we are looking for someone who is flexible, self-motivated, willing to embrace change and proactive in continuously improving service delivery.

You will need to be a creative self-starter who is happy to promote and raise awareness of the service with patients and colleagues from within and outside the PCN.

The successful candidate will be part of the PCN Wellbeing team, which includes one other Health and Wellbeing Coach, 2 Occupational Therapists and Care Coordinators. The team will be involved in the management/decision making about care and service provision for individual patients and also support the practices in this and other health promotion work. You will work with individuals and groups, including developing peer support.

In addition to working within the immediate team, you will also work with our colleagues and partners from the statutory, voluntary and community sectors including our Local Care Partnership (LCP).

The role will require you to manage and prioritise your own caseload and it is vital that you have a strong awareness and understanding of when it is appropriate or necessary to refer people back to other health professionals/agencies, when what the person needs is beyond the scope of the health coach role e.g. when there is a mental health need requiring a qualified practitioner.

The role requires hybrid working so you will need to be flexible and able to work from different practice sites across the PCN, community venues and remote working. You may be required to work evenings and weekends to meet the needs to the patients.

Key ResponsibilitiesService Delivery

Provide personalised support to patients, utilising coaching skills to support them to become active participants in their own healthcare, and to empower them to take more control in managing their own health and wellbeing, to improve their health outcomes.

To work with patients and to understand their level of knowledge, skills and confidence when engaging with their health and wellbeing, signposting to other services as appropriate.

To coach, motivate and empower patients through multiple sessions to support them to identify their needs, set and achieve their personal goals

To take a holistic approach that is non-judgmental, based on strong communication and negotiation skills, while considering the whole person when addressing existing issues

To work with the social prescribing services to connect them to community-based activities which support their health and wellbeing

To be aware of own limitations and the limitations of the coaching approach and be responsible for the referral of patients who require the intervention of other healthcare professionals such as social prescribing and mental health.

To maintain accurate clinical records of all patient consultations and related work.

Proactively identify patients with long term conditions from practice clinical systems and contact them to offer health coaching support.

Find creative and innovative ways to promote the service both internally and externally

Maintain own caseload working on a 1:1 and group basis

To prioritise caseload according to risk factors and identify at risk groups

To promote health coaching and social prescribing amongst the PCN and practices and to support colleagues to improve their skills and understanding of personalised care.

To be confident at communicating with senior managers, practice and PCN staff, advocating for job role and the benefit that a coaching approach brings to patients.

To demonstrate resilience when responding to challenge, change and complex or difficult situations.

To take a proactive and innovative approach to service development, working on own initiative and being creative in developing projects and finding solutions

Provide health education information to patients and run awareness campaigns for patient groups.

To develop and facilitate group consultations to assist patients to work with others to support their own goals

To work with and provide support to local community groups and work with other health, social care and voluntary sector providers to support patients health and wellbeing holistically

To work with the relevant leadership team to develop and evaluate the role and job description and to undertake other duties that are consistent with the duties and responsibilities of this post as required

Training & Development

Commit to attending 4-day accredited Health Coaching course (if not already completed).

To demonstrate a commitment to personal and professional development.

To lead by example and provide on the job training and development for less experienced members of staff.

To be responsible for maintaining own competence to practice through CPD activity and maintaining a portfolio that reflects personal development.

To actively participate in clinical and coaching supervision

Governance

• Produce complete and accurate records of patient consultation, in line with best practice, confidentiality, policies and procedures
• Deliver care according to NHS guidance, NICE guidelines, and evidence-based care
• Take part in the maintenance of quality governance systems and processes across the PCN and its activities.
• Utilise the audit cycle as a means of evaluating the quality of the work of self and the team, implementing improvements where required.
• Work with other clinical teams on improving the quality of healthcare in response to local and national policies and initiatives as appropriate
• Evaluate patients response to health care provision and the effectiveness of care
• Support and participate in shared learning across the PCN and wider organisation
• Manage, review, and identify learning from patient complaints, clinical incidents and near-miss events
• Awareness of statutory safeguarding, notification processes and local guidance for children/vulnerable patients, applying relevant policies and legislation to protect them
• Ensure compliance with policies, procedures and guidelines for self and others, by taking action or alerting senior management team if the practice appears to contravene policy, or if there are concerns over any aspect of patient care.
• Be mindful that from 1st November 2022 patients will be able to view their medical notes therefore careful consideration is required before annotating clinical records.

Health and Safety

• The post-holder will manage their own and others health & safety and infection control as defined in the SEL GP Group Health & Safety Policy, the SEL GP Group Health & Safety Manual, and the SEL GP Group Infection Control Policy and published procedures.
• Comply with SEL GP Group health and safety policies by following agreed safe working procedures
• Awareness and compliance with national standards of infection control, hygiene, regulatory / contractual / professional requirements, and good practice guidelines.
• Correct personal use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and ensuring correct use of PPE by others, advising on appropriate circumstances for use by clinicians, staff, and patients.
• Reporting incidents using the organisations Incident Reporting System

Confidentiality

• Maintain confidentiality of information, acting within the terms of the Data Protection Act and Caldicott guidance on patient confidentiality at all times.
• Maintain an awareness of the Freedom of Information Act.

Equality and Diversity

• The post-holder will support, promote, and maintain the SEL GP Group Equality & Diversity Policy.
• No person whether they are staff, patient or visitor should receive less favourable treatment because of their gender, ethnic origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, religion etc.
• The jobholder must comply with all policies and procedures designed to ensure equality of employment and that services are delivered in ways that meet the individual needs of patients and their families.

• Other delegated duties

  This job description is not intended to be exhaustive - it may be changed after consultation with the post holder.

Physical Requirements

Essential

• Commit to a DBS Check
• The ability to fulfil the travel requirements of post
• Have a flexible approach to working across a 7-day service including public holidays

Experience

Essential

• Experience in establishing and running health promotion groups.

Desirable

• Experience of working directly in a community development context, adult health and social care, learning support or public health/health improvement can include unpaid work
• Experience of supporting people, their families, and carers in a related role can include unpaid work
• Experience of supporting people with their mental health, either in a paid, unpaid, or informal capacity
• Experience of data collection and using tools to measure the impact of services
• Experience of partnership/collaborative working and of building relationships across a variety of organisations including the voluntary sector
• Experience of using GP clinical systems, such as SystmOne
• Experience in health and nutrition, alcohol/drugs intervention or smoking cessation training work with patients
• Experience of service evaluation and development

Qualifications

Essential

• Educated to GCSE or equivalent GCSE Maths & English C or above
• Training in motivational coaching, behavioural change and goal setting
• NVQ 3 or equivalent and/or relevant basic/first level professional qualification, or working towards this

Desirable

• Health and Fitness qualification L3, Coaching Qualifications / Mentoring L3, Health and Social Care L3 Diploma or working towards this

Knowledge and Skills

Essential

• Knowledge of the Personalised care approach
• Understanding of the determinants of health to include social, economic, and environmental factors
• Knowledge of the needs of patients with long term conditions
• Understanding of, and commitment to, equality, diversity, and inclusion
• Knowledge of IT systems to include the ability to use word processing skills, spreadsheets, emails, and internet
• Ability to build and maintain relationships whilst maintaining appropriate professional boundaries
• Excellent verbal communication skills with the ability to communicate effectively at all levels inc. patients and carers, specialist services, various health professionals, and colleagues. Listening skills displaying empathy.
• Resourceful and resilient self-starter with the ability to work on own initiative with minimum supervision
• Ability to support and mentor staff and volunteers
• Demonstrate the ability to communicate complex and sensitive information in an understandable form to a variety of audiences

Desirable

• Knowledge of community development approaches
• Knowledge of public health issues in the local area
• Knowledge and experience of training volunteers

Personal Attributes

Essential

• Ability to work flexibly to meet PCN demands
• Demonstrable commitment to professional and personal development
• Committed to personal and team development and agencies.
• Committed to holistic person-centred care
• Ability to work on own initiative and as part of a team
• Ability to work within own limitations and refer to senior colleagues or GPs when appropriate
• Ability to establish and maintain working relationships with relevant stakeholders and key staff.
• Excellent organisational and time management skills with
• the ability to cope with a busy working environment, with periods of interruption throughout the day
• Demonstrate a willingness to participate in shaping the future of the organisation by taking on responsibilities and projects in addition to core workload

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).