Respite/Complex Care Support Worker

Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust; Shrewsbury; On-site; GBP 12,000 - 18,000; Full time

Job summary

Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust is seeking a caring Respite/Complex Care Support Worker to assist children and young people with complex health needs across school, home and community settings in Shropshire. You will learn and apply child-specific care plans with supervision from the Special School Nursing Team, developing clinical skills and providing safe, compassionate care.

The role involves shifts across Severndale School (Shrewsbury), The Bridge School (Telford) and clients’ homes,

Qualifications

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Experience with children with additional care needs.
• Ability to work as part of a multidisciplinary team.

Responsibilities

• Support children and young people with complex health needs according to individual care plans.
• Assist with nursing care, play and recreational activities.
• Maintain accurate records, follow safeguarding procedures and work flexibly within a team.

Skills

Verbal communication

Written communication

Teamwork

Flexibility

Education

NNEB/BTEC NVQ2 in child care

Health and Social Care NVQ2

Job description

Current vacancies

All our current vacancies can be searched for here. Select the sector you are interested in to view those vacancies or search by keyword or job reference.

We recognise that applicants may use Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to help build their application. However, all information provided must be an accurate reflection of your skills, knowledge, qualifications and experience. Candidates should be prepared to discuss and evidence the content of their application during the recruitment process.

We believe that compassionate care sits at the heart of everything we do. Every member of our team — clinical or non-clinical — plays a vital role in ensuring that patients, families, and colleagues are treated with dignity, empathy, and respect at all times.

We expect all staff to demonstrate compassion not only through their words, but through their actions: by listening attentively, communicating clearly and kindly, and recognising individual needs, feelings, and circumstances of those in our care.

Effective communication is central to safe and high-quality healthcare. We value colleagues who take the time to understand others, explain information in a meaningful way, and respond to concerns with patience and understanding.

By joining our team, you are committing to uphold these values — ensuring that every patient feels heard, respected, and valued, and that compassion is embedded in every interaction, every day.

Job overview

We are looking for a caring and motivated Respite/Complex Care Support Worker to support children and young people with complex health needs in school, home and community settings.

Working under the supervision of the Special School Nursing Team, you will provide safe, child-centred care in line with individual care plans. You will receive child-specific training and competency-based assessment to support you in developing and maintaining the clinical skills required for the role.

This post would suit someone compassionate, flexible and committed to working as part of a team to improve outcomes for children, young people and their families.

You will be rostered to work between Severndale School in Shrewsbury, The Bridge School in Telford and in children's own home around Shropshire. The shift patterns will be a mixture of early (09:00 - 15:30) and lates (12:30 - 19:00).

Main duties of the job

The post holder will support children and young people with complex health needs, working under the direct and indirect supervision of the Special School Nursing Team.

Duties will include following individual care plans, supporting nursing care, play and recreational needs, and carrying out delegated clinical tasks once appropriate child-specific training and competency assessment has been completed.

The role involves working closely with children, families, carers, school staff and wider health professionals to provide safe, compassionate and holistic care. The post holder will also be expected to maintain accurate records, follow emergency procedures, contribute to safeguarding, and work flexibly as part of a team.

Working for our organisation

Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust provides community-based health services for adults and children in Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin, and some services in surrounding areas too. These range from district nursing, health visiting and running four community hospitals through to providing very specialist community care through talented and dedicated staff.

Patients, carers and the public play a vital role in helping us to develop and improve our services and we are constantly looking for ways to work with local communities, patients and the public to innovate and improve. Have a look at the Have Your Say section of our website to find out how you can feed back your experiences and help us to continually improve.

Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust is an exciting place to work. It offers a wide range of employment opportunities for many people.

Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust positively encourages applications from all areas of the community, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation or religious beliefs. We are committed to ensuring people who work for the community trust have a good working life - and a good work life/home life balance.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please see attached job description and personal specification

Please note this vacancy may close early if a high volume of applications is received, we advise you submit your application early to avoid disappointment.

Person specification

Training and Qualifications

• NNEB/BTEC Equivalent to NVQ 2 in child care or Health and Social Care

Experience

• Experience of working with children with additional care needs
• Demonstrable experience of working with children and families

Knowledge and Skills

• Good Verbal and written communication skills
• Willingness and ability to develop knowledge and skills in complex nursing procedures to support the care of a technology dependent child and be competent in the following skills within a 3 month period; Tracheostomy skills Ventilation skills Suctioning skills Resuscitation skills
• The ability to establish good working relationships with families

Other

• Must be able to meet the travel requirements of the post.

Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust believes in fairness, equity and above all, values diversity in all aspects of its work, as a provider of health services and as an employer of people. We provide visa sponsorship to applicants who require this in order to have the right to work in the UK, providing that the role you have been offered meets the requirements set by the Home Office.

Applicants requiring a Skilled Worker Visa (such as data analysts, IT and finance professionals, etc) will need to meet the salary threshold of £41,700 or the 'going rate' for the job you will be doing (whichever is higher). For a limited number of clinical posts ( listed here ), applications to the Health and Care Visa route will need to meet the national pay scale for their role or the minimum salary threshold of £25,000 (whichever is higher ). We advise that you check that the role you wish to apply for meets the requirement for sponsorship before applying.

Further guidance on eligible roles can be found here.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Application numbers

Please note this vacancy may close early if a high volume of applications is received, we advise you submit your application early to avoid disappointment.