Children's Support Worker

apartmentGloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust placeCheltenham calendar_month 

We love what we do and we think you will, too!

At Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust (GHC), we provide joined-up mental health, physical health and learning disability services to people of all ages across Gloucestershire. We run community hospitals and provide care and support in people’s own homes and in a range of other locations across the county.

We are on a mission to enable people to live the best life they can and we have a vision to work together to provide outstanding care. We put people at the heart of our services, focusing on personalised care by asking ‘what matters to you’.

We’re passionate about making sure that everyone can contribute to achieving our mission and we are continually working to support healthy and happy high-quality teams in all areas of the Trust.

Our application process aims to understand each candidates knowledge, skills and experience. We have found that candidates that use AI to generate their answers can lack specificity and fail to address key criteria outlined in the job description.

It is really important to personalise your application to convey your individual skills, knowledge, and experiences effectively and for us to understand why you are applying for this role with GHC. We discourage over reliance on AI-generated applications as it will lessen your chances of success in securing an interview with us .

Job overview

We are really excited to be expanding our team so that we can support more children and their families at home. By providing support to Children and young people in their own homes, it enables parents/carers to get a good night’s sleep.

The role does involve being trained in a variety of clinical skills but you will be given training to achieve all the clinical skills. We are ideally looking for individuals who have experience of some of the clinical skills listed below.

We offer a individualised induction programme to ensure that all new starters are supported to be confident and competent with each skill.

Team members provide clinical care into children's homes to allow parents to take a break from their caring responsibilities

Watch the video below to find out more about the Children's Complex Care Team

https://youtu.be/49n3Rl5gKBo

Please be advised this advert might be closed early once we receive enough suitable applications.
  • Closing Date 18th May 2025
  • Interviews to be held 5th June 2025

A Driving License is required as this is a role involving county-wide travel.

Main duties of the job

The skills that you may deliver include
  • Medication administration
  • Feeding via a gastrostomy tube/button
  • Using a nebuliser
  • Supporting a child on a ventilator
  • Hoisting
  • Oral suction
  • Observations

Working for our organisation

We have a skilled and dedicated workforce of over 5000 colleagues working in a diverse range of services over 55 sites and within people’s homes. We strive to enable a welcoming workplace culture that builds and celebrates civility, inclusivity and diversity, while providing a sense of belonging and trust.

Annual staff surveys, regular Pulse surveys and other engagement opportunities provide our people with lots of opportunity to tell us about their experiences of working with us. In the latest staff survey, 61% of colleagues gave us their views. It was great to hear that:

  • 72% of colleagues would recommend the Trust as a place to work, ranking us 1st for Provider Trusts in the South West region on this question.
  • 76% would recommend the standard of care provided in our services if a friend or relative needed treatment, also ranking us 1st in the South West region.
  • 81% said that care of patients and service users is the Trust’s priority, compared with an average in comparable NHS Trusts in England of 64%.
This high-level overview shows we are in a healthy position, with higher scores than average for comparable organisations, alongside a great response rate, indicating good staff engagement. However, we also know we have plenty of room for improvement in many areas.

To that end, we continue to prioritise and invest in our commitment to genuinely becoming a Great Place to Work with consistent top-quartile performance in the annual staff survey and Pulse surveys.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities
  • Provide care directly to children requiring specific interventions to maintain their quality
of life
  • Carry out a range of nursing care tasks for the child according to the child’s care plan
ensuring the child’s physical/emotional and educational/play needs are met
  • Help with personal care and use of appropriate equipment to hoist, move and handle
child safely.
  • Assist with assessing and reviewing needs of child/young people and help implementation of care programmes, this will entail attending patient assessments with Team Leader for Complex care team and liaising with other clinical support workers in

the team to ensure effective delivery of care

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria
  • Has completed the care certificate or is willing to undertake
Desirable criteria
  • Further training regarding safeguarding
  • Demonstrate wider learning regarding clinical skills

Experience

Essential criteria
  • Experience working with children who have complex needs
Desirable criteria
  • Can describe how to communicate with a child who is non-verbal
  • Has experience of working in a lone working role
  • Has worked night shifts in previous roles

Skills

Essential criteria
  • Evidence of delivering a wide range of clinical skills
Desirable criteria
  • Evidence of supporting a child who is enterally fed
  • Experience of caring for a child who has respiratory difficulties

Knowledge

Essential criteria
  • Can demonstrate good knowledge of safeguarding practices

When joining us, as well as becoming part of a team that makes a difference, we also offer:

  • Free car parking at many of our sites
  • 27 days leave plus bank holidays, increasing up to 33 days with long service
  • A broad range of training and development opportunities, including apprenticeships up to Level 7 qualification.
  • A multi-professional preceptorship programme for all Newly Qualified; Nurses, Nursing Associates, Internationally Educated Practitioners, Allied Health Professionals and Return to Practice Practitioners.
  • Generous NHS pension and enhanced pay when if you work unsocial hours
  • Flexible, family friendly and agile working opportunities
  • Recognition and long service awards
  • Fast Track physiotherapy
  • Our Wellbeing line
  • Access to discounts and salary sacrifice schemes; including Cycle to Work, Car scheme and discounts on travel, leisure and retailers.

Applicants are advised to apply early as if a large number of applications are received for this post, we reserve the right to close the vacancy prior to the advertised date. Good luck with your application.

For more information please see the attached 'Additional Information for Applicants' document.

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