Health Care Assistant - Bevan Court 1

Merseywestlancs; Knowsley; Remote; GBP 23,000 - 28,000; Full time

Job summary

Mersey West Lancashire NHS Trust is seeking a Senior Health Care Support Worker to join the Frailty Service at Bevan Court 1. The post offers a permanent, full-time position with a 37.5-hour week and a rotational day/night shift pattern.

The role supports a multidisciplinary team, providing compassionate, person-centered care to frailty patients, and involves record-keeping and supervision of learners and junior staff.

Qualifications

• NVQ Level 3 Health and Social Care or equivalent required.
• Care Certificate required.
• Literacy and numeracy Level 2 or equivalent.

Responsibilities

• Work as part of a team with duties delegated by registered healthcare professionals.
• Record patient information in line with local policies.
• Support personal care duties with supervision from nursing staff.
• Prioritise delegated clinical care tasks and communicate with patients and families.

Skills

Communication skills

Team working

Patient care

Education

NVQ level 3 Health and Social Care or equivalent

Care Certificate (equivalent to level 1)

Literacy and numeracy functional skills level 2 or equivalent

Job description

We want talented and enthusiastic people from all backgrounds to join #TeamMWL, with us you can learn, grow and develop yourself and your career, realising your true ambitions and aspirations.

Whatever you’re looking for in your career, you’ll find it here at MWL.

Main area Frailty Grade NHS AfC: Band 2 Contract Permanent Hours Full time - 37.5 hours per week (Must be able to work a rotational 7 day shift pattern of both day & night shifts.) Job ref 409-8229634-A

Site Whiston Hospital Town Prescot Salary £25,272 Per Annum, Pro Rata Salary period Yearly Closing 02/11/2026 23:59

After applying via NHS Jobs, your submitted application will be imported into our preferred Third-party recruitment system. All subsequent information regarding your application will be generated from apps.trac.jobs. You will not be able to track the progress of your application or receive messages through the NHS Jobs website, and furthermore, as an employer, we will not be able to respond to any e-mails sent to us via the NHS Jobs website. By applying for this post you are agreeing to "name of trust" transferring the information contained in this application to its preferred applicant management system. If you are appointed to a post information will also be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system.

Job overview

An exciting opportunity has arisen for dynamic and motivated registered nurses to join our highly skilled, innovative, and rapidly expanding Frailty service.

The post holder will be mainly based on Bevan Court 1

The Frailty Service compromises of:

• A dedicated Ambulatory unit, which provides rapid Comprehensive Geriatric (CGA) for patients with frailty and frailty syndrome.
• A 16 bed in patient Frailty Assessment ward, that benefits from daily Consultant Geriatrician leadership along with a dedicated team of nursing, therapy, and social care professionals.
• A Community Frailty Service for St Helens CCG that provides Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment, post discharge from hospital follow up, and provides ongoing management for frail patients in the community.
• An Urgent Community Response team providing a 2hr response for and urgent health, social or therapy input.
• Frailty Virtual Wards providing a hospital at home service for those patients living with frailty in the community (own home or care setting).

Main duties of the job

The Senior Health Care Support Worker (SHCSW) will:

• Work with all members of the multi-disciplinary team to deliver the Trust’s vision and values providing safe, high quality, compassionate, person centred care.
• Support/supervise learners, new staff and junior staff where required.
• Record patient information in accordance with local and trust policies.
• Undertake personal care duties for patients within the care setting accessing supervision from a registered healthcare practitioner.

Working for our organisation

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves a population of over 600,000 with a workforce of over 9000 dedicated and skilled staff across 21 sites.

We strongly believe that the communities we serve should all have access to Five Star Patient Care.

Our Services:

Acute Care

Providing emergency and maternity services at Whiston, Southport and Ormskirk hospitals, and medical and surgical specialties across all our sites.

Primary Care

Providing primary care services at Marshalls Cross Medical Centre situated in St Helens Hospital.

Community Services

Providing adult community services for St Helens and a wheelchair service in Chorley, South Ribble, and West Lancashire. Our inpatient unit at Newton Community Hospital is where patients needing acute hospital beds can continue rehabilitation, freeing up space for more unwell patients. We also provide urgent care at our Urgent Treatment Centre located in St Helens town centre.

Specialist Regional Services

We provide the Mersey Regional Burns & Plastic Surgery Unit at Whiston Hospital and the Spinal Injuries Unit at Southport Hospital to more than 4 million people across the whole of Merseyside, West Lancashire, Cheshire, Isle of Man and North Wales.

Achievements:

• Rated Outstanding by CQC Inspection August 2018
• Top 100 places to work in the NHS (NHS Employers & Health Service Journal)
• National Preceptorship Accreditation (2023) for Nursing & AHP Preceptorship Programme

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Work as part of a team and duties will be delegated by the registered healthcare professional.
• Act within the scope of your training and competence, knowing who to ask for help and support if you are not sure.
• Work within agreed ways of working, following relevant Trust standards, policies and protocols.
• Communicate compassionately and effectively with individuals and their families, carers and health care practitioners using a range of techniques, maintaining confidentiality and using tact, empathy, persuasion and reassurance.
• Observe, assess and respond to patients needs appropriately, escalating concerns to Nursing staff as required including instigating emergency procedures as per policy.
• Organises self and supervises other junior staff or learners in general work tasks or when delivering patient care with supervision from nursing staff.
• Prioritises a range of delegated clinical care duties.
• Acting on own initiative, undertake personal care duties and support activities of daily living, e.g. mouth care, personal hygiene and toileting needs, demonstrating person centred care.
• Assist the registered healthcare practitioners with clinical tasks, follow care plans, notice and report changes, assist with risk assessments, obtain samples and some specimens.
• Safely deliver care duties including manoeuvring of patient equipment such as hoists and wheelchairs.
• Gather evidence to assist registered healthcare practitioner in obtaining a patient/client history.
• Undertake delegated procedures as required within the limits of required training and measured competence e.g venepuncture / ECG recording / blood glucose monitoring, clinical observations, taking specimens, escalating any abnormalities to the registered nurse.
• Support of patients feeding, diet and nutritional needs and accurately record patients nutritional intake and fluid intake and output, noticing and reporting changes to the nursing staff.
• Ensure patient property is managed as per Trust policy.
• Monitor levels of supplies and order supplies for the department as appropriate
• Demonstrates own duties to new starters, contributing to the learning environment. Where requested, supports/supervises work of students and other junior staff.
• Occasionally participates in audits, surveys, development activities.
• To work in line with Trust policies and procedures
• Contributes to maintaining a safe, healthy working environment.
• Follow the principles for implementing a duty of care, always acting in the best interest of individuals to ensure they do not come to harm.
• Work in partnership with the individual, their carers/ families and the wider healthcare team.
• Maintain and further develop your own skills and knowledge through development and learning activities; maintain evidence of your personal development and actively prepare for and participate in appraisal.
• Participate in team handovers.

Qualifications

• NVQ level 3 Health and Social Care or equivalent
• Care Certificate (equivalent to level 1)
• Literacy and numeracy functional skills level 2 or equivalent

Knowledge & Experience

• Knowledge of personal care and related procedures
• Demonstrable experience of working in a patient care/health related role
• Knowledge of relevant legislation related to healthcare
• Experience of working in a team

Skills

• Ability to communicate effectively in both verbal and written formats
• Good interpersonal skills
• Able to work within a team
• Experience of supporting junior staff and learners
• Able to accept direction and guidance
• Aware of own limitations
• Able to prioritise own workload and manage time effectively
• Flexible, adaptable and responsive to change
• Reliable and professional
• Ability to cope in stressful and challenging situations
• Inclusive and non-judgmental
• Punctual, motivated and committed
• Effective role model demonstrating Trust values
• Basic IT skills

Other

• Frequent moderate effort for several long periods during the shift such as manual handling patients to supporting patient’s personal care.
• Concentration, focus and frequent record keeping requirements. Carrying out time critical tasks.
• Aware that developing resilience to distressing situations is necessary without losing the ability to care compassionately.
• Aware of the process for accessing staff health and wellbeing support
• Daily exposure to distressing situations which may include challenging behaviour, care of chronic health conditions, patient end of life care/care after death.
• Able to carry out direct clinical care as required on ward or department

Thank you for considering an application to work for Mersey West Lancashire NHS Trust. MWL is an exciting and forward-thinking NHS Trust who are one of the best places to work for in England.

Given sometimes we receive a high volume of applications to work for us, please be aware, that we may close a vacancy earlier than stated should a sufficient number of applications be received from which a shortlist can be confirmed. Therefore, you are advised to apply at your earliest convenience.

The Trust may contact you during the recruitment process for your feedback on your experience. We always aim for continuous improvement in our practice.

Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion

We actively cultivate a professional environment of fairness, equality, dignity, and respect for all individuals. We welcome individuals from all backgrounds and value the unique skills, perspective and experience you bring. We are grounded in the belief that diversity enhances our collective strength, fostering innovation and excellence within our workforce. We welcome all applications irrespective of people’s race, disability, gender, sexual orientation, religion/belief, age, gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy/maternity and in particular those from under- represented groups.

As a Disability Confident Leader, we commit to offering an interview to all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the job (the essential criteria) listed in the personal specification. If you wish to apply under this Guaranteed Interview Scheme, please indicate this on the online application form.

If you are having difficulty completing an online application, or require any disability reasonable adjustments, to the application process, please contact [e-mail]

We also commit to offering an interview to all armed forces veterans who meet the minimum criteria for the job (the essential criteria) listed in the personal specification. If you wish to apply under this Guaranteed Interview Scheme, please indicate this on the online application form.

The Trust operates anonymous shortlisting where no personal information about you, including your name or personal details are shared with the recruiting manager. No equality information is shared at any time during the recruitment process with the recruiting manager or other people involved in the decision-making process.

The equality monitoring information you provide is used in the following situations: to review our recruitment practices; where a job is limited to a specific person to verify their eligibility to apply; and to offer disability reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process.
Certificate of Sponsorship

Following the recent update on UK immigration policy for those on a Health and Care Visa or Skilled Worker Visa, please click here to check your eligibility before applying for this post as we may be unable to provide sponsorship.

eVisa Update
For successful candidates on selected work and study visa routes, who have completed and paid for their applications will no longer receive a visa vignette in passport as evidence of their permission to enter the UK.
Instead, you will be issued with an eVisa only, which is accessed by creating a UKVI account.
Before travelling to the UK, we advise applicants to:

• Understand how to generate an eVisa share code

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

If this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 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.

Please note if applicable, applicants will be required to pay for their DBS check. Costs are deducted from salary following appointment.

If you have not already done so, you are therefore encouraged to enrol for the DBS Update Service to which a small annual fee of £13 per year applies.

Flexible Working

We actively support flexible working patterns throughout MWL. Changes made to the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook mean that:

• All employees have the right to request flexible working from day one of employment.
• There is no limit on the number of requests they can make.