Health visitors

NHS; Strood; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 38,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a progressive health service as a health visitor in Medway, where you'll support families and children. This role involves planning and delivering health services, leading a team, and ensuring effective communication with clients. The NHS offers a supportive environment with opportunities for professional development and flexible working arrangements.

Benefits

In-service training

Flexible working arrangements

Pension scheme options

Qualifications

• Qualified community public health practitioner (Part 11 NMC register).
• Proven post-qualification experience in health visiting.
• Specialist knowledge of safeguarding of children and adults.

Responsibilities

• Plan, deliver, and evaluate health visiting services.
• Provide leadership within the health visiting team.
• Manage caseload effectively within available resources.

Skills

Communication

Interpersonal skills

Leadership

Analytical skills

Organisational skills

Education

First-level Registered Nurse

Registered Health Visitor/Community Specialist Practitioner

Nurse Prescribing qualification

Job description

Are you a skilled health visitor with excellent interpersonal skills and sound clinical assessment skills?

Would you like the chance to reshape and reinvigorate services to meet the needs of all families living in Medway?

Are you passionate about the care you give to children and young adults?

If you answered yes, we've got the perfect role for you!

We are looking for a health visitor to join us in our new children's centre, Snapdragons.

We work closely with our children's centres developing services and supporting families to empower them with the knowledge, confidence, and life skills they need to raise healthy, happy children. We also offer all our new parents access to an award-winning five-week postnatal education course.

Main duties of the job

1. To plan, deliver, and evaluate an efficient and cost-effective health visiting service for an identified population.
2. To provide leadership within the health visiting team and be proactive in delivering the national and local public health agendas in response to identified health and social need.
3. To work in partnership with other agencies and meet agreed standards, objectives, and statutory requirements.

About us

So what else?

This is your chance to join a progressive and innovative service in a social enterprise that is patient and staff focused — you'll even have the opportunity to become an MCH shareholder.

We encourage staff to get involved in exploring new ways of working and service development.

We'll provide well-established, in-service training, one-to-one supervision, and regular appraisals with support.

You'll be able to develop your skills in a friendly and supportive team.

Would you like to work flexibly? In the NHS, we are reminded every day of how important work-life balance is. As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us, for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement.

The small print

Informal visits can be arranged on request.

We will offer you the choice of two pension schemes: the NHS Pension scheme and the Scottish Widows group pension scheme.

MCH encourages all staff to be double COVID vaccinated to protect themselves, their colleagues, their family, and their patients.

At this time, MCH cannot fund or support any further nurses who require OSCE training. Please do not apply if you require this training.

Job responsibilities

1. Communication and relationship skills

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Ensure effective communication with all members of the multidisciplinary team.
• Ensure effective communication with clients where there may be barriers to acceptance/understanding, e.g., child protection, bereavement, domestic violence, and where English is not the first language.

2. Knowledge, training, and experience

• Qualified community public health practitioner (Part 11 NMC register).
• Specialist knowledge of safeguarding of children and adults.
• Specialist knowledge of child development and family and public health issues.
• To ensure statutory and mandatory training is kept up to date.

3. Analytical and judgement skills

• Proven ability to undertake community and client health need assessment.
• The ability to critique research and apply it to practice.

4. Planning and organisational skills

• Possess complex organisational skills including caseload management.

5. Physical skills

• Use of growth monitoring equipment, e.g., scales, height/length measuring tools.

6. Responsibility for client care

• To manage the caseload effectively within available resources.
• To actively participate in the clinical governance agenda.
• To act as a public health resource and be responsible for developing, organising, implementing, and evaluating specialist public health programmes to ensure evidence-based health education and promotion to clients.
• Independent responsibility for managing and providing an advisory health visiting service.
• To work as an independent prescriber, diagnosing and prescribing treatment for childhood conditions and minor ailments on completion of appropriate training.
• Safeguard the client group by adhering to child and adult guidelines and procedures. Key participant in child protection/children in need proceedings when appropriate; this may involve managing situations where conflicting opinions are expressed.
• To ensure close collaboration with other agencies to enable robust pathway planning and service delivery in line with clients' needs.

7. Responsibility for policy and service development implementation

• Participate in clinical supervision as per organisation policy.
• Support the development of evidence-based practice and clinical audit in collaboration with lead professionals and managers.
• Participate in service or practice initiatives to improve client care standards and outcomes.

8. Responsibilities for financial and physical resources

• Record and submit accurate and timely data to inform service planning and community profiling.

9. Responsibilities for human resources (HR)

• Maintain professional registration per NMC requirements.
• Provide leadership, supervision, or coordination within the team.

10. Responsibilities for information resources

• Ensure all records are updated, safeguarding client confidentiality within legal and ethical principles (Caldicott).

11. Responsibilities for research and development (R&D)

• Support evidence-based practice and clinical audit in collaboration with managers and lead clinicians.

12. Freedom to act

• Guided by policies and guidelines.
• Responsible and accountable for all aspects of own work.
• Work independently as an autonomous practitioner.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• First-level Registered Nurse.
• Registered Health Visitor/Community Specialist Practitioner (Part 11 NMC register).
• Nurse Prescribing qualification or willingness to undertake.
• Graduate status or evidence of working at Level 3.
• Specialist mentor qualification or willingness to undertake.

Experience

• Proven post-qualification experience in health visiting.
• Understanding or experience of integrated working.

Special knowledge / expertise

• Specialist safeguarding knowledge.
• Knowledge of child development, family, and public health issues.
• Complex organisational skills.
• Knowledge of relevant health and social issues, ability to identify health needs, and develop health programmes.
• Leadership and supervision skills.
• Flexible, team-oriented approach.

Practical/intellectual skills

• Leadership evidence.
• Up-to-date Personal Development Plan.
• Understanding of research principles and application.
• Ability to travel to dispersed settings.

MCH values

• Caring, compassionate, quality, partnership.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to DBS check. It is necessary to submit for Disclosure to check for previous convictions.