Health Care Support Worker

Sussex Partnership Nhs Foundation Trust; Chichester; On-site; GBP 18,000 - 24,000; Full time

Job summary

A large NHS mental health trust is seeking a compassionate health care assistant to join their dedicated team in Chichester. The successful candidate will assist with clinical duties and support patient care in partnership with professionals across various disciplines. Applicants should have a good general education, NVQ level 3 or equivalent experience, and a passion for helping others. This role offers opportunities for training and development, promoting a supportive and inclusive work environment.

Benefits

Training and development opportunities

Supportive work environment

Qualifications

• Experience of working collaboratively with colleagues and service users.
• An understanding of confidentiality and professional boundaries.
• Good communication skills in written and spoken English.

Responsibilities

• Assist with clinical duties, including personal care.
• Communicate with patients, relatives, and carers.
• Support patient care within a multi-disciplinary team.

Skills

Compassion

Communication

Empathy

Education

Good general education

NVQ level 3 or equivalent experience

Job description

We're looking for people who share our values of compassion, accountability and optimism to help us provide high quality care for the patients, carers, families and communities we serve. We specialise in NHS mental health and learning disability services and we're proud to make a difference every day. At SPFT we put people first. We'll do everything possible to help you feel respected, valued and included. You'll have opportunities to learn, grow and gain new experiences to support your career, with access to lifelong learning and professional development. We actively promote flexible working and understand how important work life balance is, especially in healthcare. Whether it's part time hours, hybrid working or flexible start and finish times, we'll explore what works for you and the role. We recognise that AI is becoming part of daily life and you may choose to use it to help prepare your application. We welcome innovation but ask that anything you submit reflects your own abilities, experience and voice. AI can support how you describe your skills and experience, but it should never replace your own words as we want to get to know you. We're shaping a workplace where ideas are encouraged, technology supports you and everyone has a voice in how we improve. If that sounds like the kind of organisation you want to be part of, we'd love to hear from you.

Responsibilities

As a health care assistant, you will be working alongside an established and experienced multi-disciplinary team (MDT). This consists of nurses, healthcare assistants, nursing associates, doctors, occupational therapists, psychologists and the pharmacy team. You will be required to communicate with patients, relatives and carers and assist with clinical duties, including personal care and ensuring infection prevention and control standards are maintained. You will be required to train in prevention and management of violence and aggression training (PMVA). These posts are ideal for people who are passionate about helping others, who are aware of professional boundaries and practice accordingly. Applicants should be compassionate, caring, sensitive, warm and open‑minded.

We are committed to investing in our staff in order to provide you with further training and development. To help our staff thrive in their roles we offer regular, good‑quality supervision, appraisals, in‑depth training and development opportunities. Work with the multi-disciplinary team to establish and deliver a therapeutic programme of care for clients. Supporting patient care. To adopt a flexible approach to hours of duty, in order to meet the needs of the service over a 24‑hour period. To deliver a high standard of evidence‑based inpatient nursing care in the designated care group in partnership with the team, the service users and where appropriate their family.

Qualifications

• Good general education
• NVQ level 3 or equivalent experience, Experience of working with mental health needs in a paid or voluntary capacity
• Experience of working collaboratively i.e. with colleagues, wider teams, service users etc
• An understanding of confidentiality

Desirable Criteria

• Experience of working within mental health services, Good communication skills with a good command of written and spoken English language
• Ability to exchange factual information with service users using, reassurance, tact, empathy
• Ability to work as part of a multi‑disciplinary team, be flexible around shift work and have good communication skills
• Ability to know when to elevate concerns
• Ability to work in partnership with service users, carers and other agencies
• Ability to know when to seek support from team members when working individually within a service user group or in a 1:1 setting. Successful candidates are normally appointed to the bottom of the pay scale unless previous NHS experience in a similar role can be evidenced.

We're a large NHS Mental Health Trust in South East England. We're looking for people to help us provide high quality services for the patients, carers and local communities we serve. We would like to create an environment where service users, nurses, nurse associates, nursing assistants and carers are all leaders and actively involved in making decisions about our services.

Training: you would be supported and encouraged to go on a number of different training/development opportunities.