Advanced Clinical Paediatric Physiotherapy Practitioner

University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust; Yate; On-site; GBP 43,000 - 68,000; Full time

Job summary

University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust seeks an Advanced Clinical Paediatric Physiotherapy Practitioner/Clinical Specialist in Paediatric Orthopaedics. The post involves autonomous practice, leading advanced clinics, and working with a multidisciplinary team to deliver high-quality care for children and young people.

The role emphasises clinical leadership, complex decision making, and contribution to service development within national guidelines.

Qualifications

• This role requires advanced clinical reasoning and autonomous practice.
• Experience in teaching, mentoring and staff development.
• Participation in audit, research and critical appraisal to inform practice.

Responsibilities

• Lead advanced practice clinics, triage referrals, and interpret investigations with advanced decision making.
• Collaborate with Consultant Paediatric Orthopaedic Surgeon and MDT for patient care.
• Provide clinical leadership to ACP & ECP teams and plan workload priorities.
• Manage complete episodes of care with consultants to optimise outcomes.
• Promote service development and lead education initiatives for staff and teams.

Education

HCPC Registered

Physiotherapy Degree

Post graduate paediatric qualifications

Job description

University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust

Advanced Clinical Paediatric Physiotherapy Practitioner

The closing date is 22 November 2026

We are seeking to recruit an enthusiastic and highly motivated Advanced Clinical Physiotherapy Practitioner (ACP) or Clinical Specialist Physiotherapist (banding depending on experience) in Paediatric Orthopaedics to join our established multidisciplinary team.

This is an exciting opportunity for a highly specialist, autonomous practitioner to work at an advanced level of practice, playing a key role in the assessment and management of children and young people with orthopaedic presentations.

Interview: 3rd December

Main duties of the job

The post holder will independently lead advanced practice clinics, triage and manage referrals, request and interpret investigations, and make advanced clinical decisions within agreed protocols. You will work closely with a Consultant Paediatric Orthopaedic Surgeon from University Hospital Southampton and the wider MDT, contributing to high-quality, patient centred care and service development.

This role is ideal for an experienced clinician with strong clinical reasoning skills, confidence working autonomously, and a commitment to collaborative multidisciplinary working

About us

UHD are investing, developing and transforming Trust services in line with the New Hospital Programme. As part of this, some services may move site this year or next, either temporarily or permanently. Recruiting Managers will be happy to answer any service-specific questions at interview.

If a role or service relocates as part of a planned move, excess mileage will not be reimbursed. Travel from home to the new work base will be classed as a normal commute. Any other changes will be managed under Trust or national terms and conditions.

UHD has active networks including Women's, BAME, Pride, EU, Pro Ability, and Armed Forces. We support Disability Confident and Armed Forces Covenant interview schemes.

AI tools may be used, but applications must honestly reflect your own skills and experience. Integrity is key to our recruitment process.

For UHD employees, this fixed-term post will be offered as a secondment in line with the Trust's Secondment Policy. Please speak with your line manager before applying.

Job responsibilities

To be responsible for the rapid assessment, diagnostics, and treatment of individuals within the elective paediatric orthopaedic service using an advanced level of professional accountability, autonomy, and judgement, underpinned by Masters level theory and experience. This includes highly complex decision‑making across a broad range of differentiated and undifferentiated individual presentations and complex situations, synthesising information from multiple sources to make appropriate, evidence‑based judgements and/or diagnoses.

To triage and assess babies, children and young people referred for consideration of orthopaedic surgery.

To provide clinical leadership to the ACP & ECP team and work with others within the directorate to determine the priority workload of the team across the directorate.

To plan and manage complete episodes of care, working in collaboration with the consultants and others, delegating, and referring as appropriate, to ensure timely, effective management and optimise health outcomes, in line with the evidence base and nationally recognised best practice.

To play a key operational role and maintain a pro‑active approach to managing and leading clinical pathways and flow.

Working closely with a multi-professional team, lead the AP paediatric orthopaedic service in delivery of high quality, performance, and financial frameworks.

To promote and implement service and policy development and redesign, impacting beyond own area and other disciplines, informed by current best practice and evidence‑base, in accordance with values‑based care of the trust.

To act as a resource to others and to develop, deliver and evaluate a range of relevant specialist programmes of education and development for individuals and large groups, including the wider multidisciplinary team, both internally and external to the trust

Qualifications

• HCPC Registered
• Physiotherapy Degree
• Post graduate paediatric qualifications

Experience

• B7 clinical experience within paediatrics
• Significant clinical experience in the management of children with orthopaedic conditions
• Significant clinical experience in the management of children with orthopaedic conditions secondary to neurological diagnoses
• Experience teaching, mentoring and developing staff
• Participation in research and experience of critical appraisal of the evidence base to inform practice
• Participation in Audit
• B6 clinical experience within paediatrics
• Teaching staff from other professions

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.

University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Poole

University Hospitals Dorset, Longfleet Road

University Hospitals Dorset, Longfleet Road