Specialist Learning Disability Physiotherapist

Guys & St Thomas Hospital; London; On-site; GBP 54,000 - 61,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading hospital in London seeks a Specialist Learning Disability Physiotherapist for a 12-month secondment. The role involves managing a caseload of adults with learning disabilities, providing specialist assessments, and collaborating with a multidisciplinary team to enhance patient care. The position offers a supportive environment with professional development opportunities.

Qualifications

• Significant experience working as a specialist Learning Disability Physiotherapist.
• Experience of working in multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary teams.
• Knowledge of current research and legislation in the field of learning disabilities.

Responsibilities

• Provide highly specialist physiotherapy services to adults with learning disabilities.
• Manage a caseload of adults with complex needs.
• Supervise less experienced physiotherapy staff and students.

Skills

Experience with learning disabilities

Teamwork

Autonomy

Communication skills

Job description

This post is only open to internal applicants.

Specialist Learning Disability Physiotherapist

NHS AfC: Band 7

Main area Physiotherapy Grade NHS AfC: Band 7 Contract Secondment: 12 months Hours

• Full time
• Flexible working
• Compressed hours

37.5 hours per week Job ref 196-LIS9663

Employer Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust Employer type NHS Site Lambeth Community Learning Disability Team Town London Salary £54,320 - £60,981 p.a. inc HCA Salary period Yearly Closing 07/07/2025 23:59 Interview date 14/07/2025

Guy’s and St Thomas’ is among the UK’s busiest and most successful NHS foundation trusts. We provide a full range of hospital and community services for people in south London and as well as specialist care for patients from further afield including cancer, renal, orthopaedic, respiratory and cardiovascular services.

Guy’s is home to the largest dental school in Europe and a £160 million Cancer Centre opened in 2016. As part of our commitment to provide care closer to home, in 2017 we also opened a cancer centre and a kidney treatment centre at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup. St Thomas’ has one of the largest critical care units in the UK and one of the busiest emergency departments in London. It is also home to Evelina London Children’s Hospital.

Evelina London cares for local children in Lambeth and Southwark and provides specialist services across south east England including cardiac, renal and critical care services. We lead a number of specialist service networks aiming to ensure children are treated locally where possible, but have access to specialist expertise when they need it. Our community services include health visiting, school nursing and support for families of children with long-term conditions.

Our adult community services teams deliver care at the heart of the local communities we serve, working in partnership with GPs, local authorities and other healthcare and voluntary sector organisations. Working with our partners in Lambeth and Southwark, we are focusing on new ways of working to improve care for local patients.

In February 2021 the Royal Brompton and Harefield joined Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, bringing together world-leading expertise in the care and research of heart and lung disease. Our merger provides a once in a generation opportunity to build a lasting, world-renowned heart and lung centre, providing the highest quality care for patients and conducting world-leading research.

We have a reputation for clinical excellence and high quality teaching and research. We are part of King’s Health Partners, one of eight accredited UK academic health sciences centres. In partnership with King’s College London we have dedicated clinical research facilities including an MHRA accredited Phase I clinical trials unit.

Patients are at the heart of everything we do and we pride ourselves on ensuring the best possible patient experience as well as safe, high quality care. We are proud to have one of the lowest mortality rates in the NHS. Following a comprehensive Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection in 2019 we maintained our overall rating of ‘good’. Our adult community services achieved a rating of ‘outstanding’.

The commitment of our 23,500 staff is key to our success. We are one of the largest local employers and we aim to develop and support all our staff so they are able to deliver high quality, safe and efficient care. The 2019 NHS staff survey results show that we have one of the most engaged and motivated workforces in the NHS. We know this has a positive impact on the care provided to our patients.

We have one of the most ambitious capital investment programmes anywhere in the NHS.

Job overview

Have you ever considered working with adults with a learning disability? If so, we have an exciting Band 7 secondment opportunity for 12 months in the Lambeth community learning disability physiotherapy team.

We are looking for an enthusiastic and motivated physiotherapist to join our multidisciplinary team working with adults with learning disabilities within the London borough of Lewisham.

You would have a varied case load working with people with a learning disabilities. This would draw on a broad range of physiotherapy knowledge and skills. You would be the lead physiotherapist in Lambeth working in collaboration with the multidisciplinary team to provide learning disability services in the borough. You will work closely with the clinical specialist and peers to provide leadership and supervision for the physiotherapy team across Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark.

In exchange for your professional skills, passion, commitment to the highest standards of client-centred care, we can offer you:

• A supportive working environment where service users come first.
• A strong team ethos of personal and professional development
• Opportunities to access training in line with personal development plan
• Direct supervision, peer supervision, and regular appraisal.

Experience of working with people with a learning disability is essential.

If you are interested in the secondment opportunity and would like to have an informal chat please contact [e-mail]

Main duties of the job

Community Physiotherapy Teams for Adults with Learning Disabilities.

‘Learning disability physiotherapists provide specialist assessment, treatment and management to adults with a learning disability whose needs cannot be successfully met by mainstream services, even when reasonable adjustments are made. Physiotherapists will work in collaboration with the person, their network of care, mainstream health services, and the multidisciplinary team to enhance, optimise and maintain the person’s physical presentation, function and quality of life.”

Job Summary

• The post holder will be responsible for providing a Highly Specialist Physiotherapy Service to Adults with Learning Disabilities in the borough of Lambeth.
• The post holder will manage a caseload of adults with Learning Disabilities taking a lead in the assessment and management of patients within the specialty who may have complex needs.
• The post holder will work closely with the other members of the multi-disciplinary team, as well as partner organisations to provide seamless services throughout the patient care pathway.
• he post holder will be responsible for the day to day management of less experienced physiotherapy staff, assistants and students.
• The post holder will be a source of expertise and specialist advice to physiotherapists with less experience.

Working for our organisation

Community Team for Adults with Learning Disabilities

Our vision is to reduce health inequalities and promote independence for adults with learning disabilities through partnership working and providing personalised, flexible and accessible community health services.

The multidisciplinary teams includes Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists, Speech and Language Therapists, Community Learning Disability Nurses and Administrators, employed through GSTT. There are also psychologists, psychiatrists and community psychiatric nurses employed by South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, and social workers employed by the Council. The multidisciplinary/multiagency team works together to meet the health and social care needs of those adults with learning disabilities living within the borough who require health and social care services.

Key Relationships

AWLD Physiotherapists; Occupational Therapists; Community Nurses; Speech and Language Therapist; Audiologists; Care managers; administrators; GP’s, LD liaison nurses; SEN colleges; Paediatric Services Health and Education. Acute sector. Service managers; Parents carers, AHP’s and clinical specialists from other Trusts.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Duties and Responsibilities

Operational

To deputise for the Physiotherapy 8A by attending meetings, undertaking specific project management and representing the MDT as a whole when necessary.

To be responsible for monitoring referrals and prioritising caseload in accordance with service guidelines providing a responsive, cohesive and effective service for the service users within the community.

To contribute to the induction of all new staff and provide overview of Physiotherapy role in Learning Disabilities for all new members of the MDT, including organising an opportunity to shadow Physiotherapists.

To support a working culture that is flexible and promotes a positive approach to change.

To be aware of Health and Safety aspects of work and implement any policies which may be required to improve the safety of your work area, including prompt recording and reporting of accidents and near misses.

To ensure that Trust and physiotherapy policies are understood and observed and that procedures are followed.

To be part of the recruitment, selection and interviewing process of less experienced physiotherapy staff and physiotherapy assistants.

To participate and lead in the eligibility process.

1.2 Clinical

To undertake comprehensive assessments of service users (including those with a complex presentation e.g. profound physical and learning disability, challenging behaviours, epilepsy, autism etc).

To assess, develop and implement highly specialist programmes of care and treatment to meet the needs of service users. This requires the maintenance of a high level of clinical competence within the field of anatomy, physiology and pathology, especially neurological and orthopaedic pathologies, keeping abreast of significant advances in clinical care through attendance at courses, conferences, SIGs and critical appraisal of journal articles.

To be responsible for managing, planning and developing specific specialist therapeutic modalities e.g. Rebound and Aquatic Therapy as agreed with the Physiotherapy Manager.

To be responsible for all aspects of safety relating to equipment used when treating the service users or issued for the user for future use.

Supervise less experienced physiotherapists and students to ensure a high standard of service user care.

Provide specialist advice, education and therapy programmes to service users, carers and other health professionals.

Evaluate outcomes of intervention, setting specific and overall goals and review. To maintain clinical records and to write timely reports and correspondence for service users, Health, Social Services and other colleagues, reflecting specialist knowledge.

To contribute to inter-disciplinary assessment and treatment programmes where appropriate and negotiate with others around case management in complex cases.

To ensure that service users are involved in the planning and prioritisation of their care plans wherever possible and to facilitate their meaningful involvement in planning their care with other members of the inter-disciplinary team. This will involve communicating complex information with skill and sensitivity, employing a wide range of communication strategies.

To assess capacity to gain valid informed consent, in order to be able to work within a legal framework. To be able to seek consent in the event that the service user lacks the capacity to consent to treatment. To observe and respond to the service users reaction to therapy in order to gain ongoing consent for continued intervention.

To work as a lone practitioner when working in the community and domiciliary settings, without the support of Physiotherapy colleagues.

To provide specialist advice, teaching and training to other members of the multi-disciplinary team, carers and other health and social care professions.

1.3 Communication

To be highly skilled in communicating with service users who have a range of physical and psychological barriers to understanding.

To be able to motivate service users with a range of complex conditions/disabilities to work with treatment programmes and towards treatment goals.

To demonstrate good negotiation skills across a range of issues.

To deal with initial verbal complaints sensitively, avoiding escalation where possible, informing line manager of all such incidents and recording in line with Trust policy.

To communicate effectively and work collaboratively with physiotherapy teams in neighbouring organisations with Care Management, medical, nursing and therapy colleagues to ensure the delivery of a co-ordinated inter-disciplinary service.

To provide individualised clear written information, instruction and exercise programmes for service users to follow when not with the physiotherapist and/or on discharge.

To ensure service users and carers (if appropriate within the scope of patient confidentiality) have a thorough understanding of their condition and the role of physiotherapy in relation to this.

1.4 Professional.

To be responsible for maintaining accurate and comprehensive service user treatment records in line with Trust and CSP standards of practice.

To maintain sensitivity at all times to meet the emotional needs of service users and their carers in particular when imparting potentially distressing information regarding the nature of the difficulties and implications of the same.

To carry out potentially distressing treatment techniques or treatments that cause discomfort, e.g. suction, stretching at end of range.

To be sensitive to service users own cultures, beliefs and emotions, especially when asking them to undress for treatment and during assessments or treatments which are likely to include the use of hands-on physiotherapy skills.

The Physiotherapist must take a holistic view of the service user and their well being considering all factors and not purely focus on a specific medical condition, sign or symptom.

To be professionally and legally accountable for all aspects of own work, including the management of service users in your care.

To effectively manage and prioritise your own workload within the time available including the prioritising of service users to be treated along with other commitments in the day (e.g. meeting). To be able to delegate or arrange cover when required. To assist other staff to prioritise their workload and adjust own/team’s plans to accommodate changes in demand.

To efficiently manage a challenging caseload, demonstrating flexibility with varying levels of staff, varying complexity of service user and fluctuating numbers of service users on the caseload.

To maintain intense concentration in all aspects of service user management for prolonged periods, including service users with communication or cognitive difficulties and highly emotional and/or demanding service users and/or carers.

To be flexible to the demands of the environment including unpredictable work patterns deadlines and frequent interruptions.

To have due regard for your own personal safety and that of service users and carers, in particular to have regard to moving and handling regulations, restraining policies and ensure the safe positioning of self and others.

To demonstrate the physical ability to carry out physiotherapy assessment and interventions, including manual physiotherapy techniques, advanced therapeutic handling and the use of specialist equipment.

To demonstrate highly developed dexterity, co-ordination and palpatory skills for the assessment and manual treatment of service users.

To undertake specialised therapeutic handling of service users eg supporting them when mobilising, assisting them to gain balance in sitting, teaching sitting to standing.

1.5 Research and Development

To be an active member of the in-service training by the attendance and delivering presentations and training sessions at staff meetings, tutorials and by attending external courses and practising reflective practice.

To participate in the staff appraisal scheme and Personal Development Plan (PDP) as both appraiser and appraisee.

To maintain own expert knowledge of current practice and evidence-based practice developments within the fields of neurology and rehabilitation, with a view to incorporating them as indicated into practice.

To use reflective learning and a variety of resources to substantiate and influence clinical practice and teaching.

Undertake surveys and audits related to the job role.

To be responsible for arranging attendance of mandatory training sessions as specified by trust policy, and to take action as required within the work place and to ensure other team members do the same.

To take a lead for setting and evaluating competencies and objectives for the less experienced staff whilst on rotation in the specialty.

To be committed to continuous professional development, providing evidence of this and reflective practice/learning in the form of a portfolio/diary.

Person specification

Experience

• Significant experience working as a specialist Learning disability physiotherapist
• Experience of working in a multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary team
• Experience of working in the community as a lone worker
• Supervision of junior physiotherapists and/or students
• Experience of working with external agencies such as care providers

Skills

• Demonstrates an ability to work autonomously and as part of a team
• Demonstrates a positive and valuing approach to adults with learning disabilities
• Demonstrates an ability to work in complex situations and deal with confrontation
• Demonstrates knowledge of service development and quality improvement

Knowledge/Qualifications

• Knowledge of current research and legislation in the field of learning disabilities
• Knowledge of the physiotherapy needs of adults with a learning disability
• Knowledge of a range of management approaches for adults with learning and physical disabilities.

Guy’s and St Thomas’celebrates, respects and values the diversity of its staff and patients. We review our policies, procedures and practices to ensure that all employees, patients and carers are treated equitable according to their needs. We are actively committed to ensuring that no one who applies for a job, works or study’s at the Trust, or accesses our services is discriminated against on the grounds of race, ethnicity, nationality, disability, religion or belief, age, gender identity , gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity/paternity, or marital/civil partnership.

Applications are welcomed from applicants with a disability. We can make reasonable adjustments and offer support and advice in a variety of ways throughout the application process. Equality of opportunity is our policy.

As an organisation we are committed to developing our services in ways that best suit the needs of our patients. This means that some staff groups will increasingly be asked to work a more flexible shift pattern so that we can offer services in the evenings or at weekends.

We are committed to supporting all employees to achieve a healthy work life balance and to work in a way that is best for them and our patients. We will consider all requests to work flexibly, taking in to account the individual’s personalcircumstances as well the needs of the service. We encourage all prospective applicants to discuss their individual circumstances with the recruiting manager as part of the on-boarding process.

Your e-mail address is important to us -We communicate to all job applicants via the e-mail address which has been provided on the application form. Please ensure that you check your e-mail on a regular basis.

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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.

Our dedicated and talented staff make it their mission to provide outstanding care for our patients.

Fake job offers for medical professionals living abroad

The Trust has been made aware of a scam targeting medical professionals living abroad who are being sent fake letters offering a job. These letters contain the Trust’s contact details and are often signed by the Chief People Officer.

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