Urgent Community Response Therapy Community Assistant Practitioner

East of England Community Health and Care NHS Trust; King's Lynn; On-site; GBP 26,000 - 34,000; Full time

Job summary

East of England Community Health and Care NHS Trust is seeking a Community Assistant Practitioner to support urgent community therapy efforts. You will work across a 7-day week delivering patient-centered assessments, facilitating home-based rehabilitation and coordinating with the wider MDT to sustain independence at home.

Ideal candidates will have NVQ3 in health and social care or Foundation Degree, with experience in community or health settings, and the ability to manage a varied workload

Qualifications

• NVQ 3 in health and social care or equivalent experience.
• Foundation Degree or demonstrable knowledge and skills from training/experience.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to delivery of therapy care pathways for long-term conditions.
• Help prevent unnecessary hospital admissions.
• Support early discharge from hospital.
• Collaborate with GPs, social services, inpatient teams and MDT to coordinate care.

Skills

Health & social care experience

Team player

Motivated

Empathy

Initiative

Flexibility

Community care experience

SystmOne knowledge

Education

NVQ 3 in health and social care

Foundation Degree

Tools

SystmOne

Job description

East of England Community Health and Care NHS Trust

Urgent Community Response Therapy Community Assistant Practitioner

The closing date is 29 November 2026

The West Urgent Community Response Therapy Team is recruiting

Have you a passion for therapy and supporting people to remain in their own homes and achieve their optimum functional ability? Do you have excellent interpersonal and want to develop clinical skills? Are you flexible, approachable and a team player?

An exciting opportunity has arisen for enthusiastic and motivated individuals to join our West Place Urgent Community Response Therapy Team. We are looking for individuals to join us in providing high quality therapy services within the team as a Community Therapy Assistant Practitioner. The role is to provide support to the therapy team covering admission avoidance, urgent therapy referrals, discharge to assess and Home First Hub services and will involve working across a 7-day week.

In the community you will assess a variety of patients with physical needs and provide a holistic approach to maintaining their independence in their own homes

Ideally you will be familiar with these clinical databases; SystmOne, and mediquip.

As a Community Assistant Practitioner, it is essential that you can prioritise your own workload, possess effective communication skills, work as part of a team, and use own initiative.

If you thrive on variety in the working day, enjoy multi-tasking and also being part of a supportive team then this role is for you.

The West Urgent Community Response Team is currently operational during the following hours Monday to Sunday 08.00 - 20:00

Main duties of the job

As part of the Urgent Community Response Team, you will be required to:

• Contribute to the delivery of therapy care pathways for patients with long term conditions, palliative care and rehabilitation needs for example, to achieve quality of life and independence where possible.
• Work within the Urgent Community Response Therapy Team to prevent unnecessary admission to hospital.
• Work within the Urgent Community Response Therapy Team to support early discharge from hospital.
• Work with all health care professionals, and statutory/non statutory agencies to provide a seamless, integrated service to our service users.

About us

Supervision will be provided by Band 6 Occupational Therapist or Band 7 Clinical Lead Physiotherapist. We offer the opportunity to work in an experienced and supportive team with opportunities for on-going professional development.

Interviews will be held face-to-face in St James Clinic, exceptional circumstances for remote interviews will be considered.

Unfortunately, this role does not meet the criteria for sponsorship under the Skilled Worker or Health and Care Worker visa routes. Applications from candidates requiring sponsorship to work in the UK cannot be considered.

Job responsibilities

Clinical Skills

• Assess patients with straight forward therapy requirements based on predetermined department protocols.
• 2. Prepare for, carry out and monitor assessments and treatments in specified clinical areas, and discharge in line with predetermined department protocols.
• 3. Work generically applying competency based treatment techniques/care to patients with specific conditions under the supervision of a qualified practitioner, following a prescribed treatment pathway.
• 4. Observe patients carrying out daily activites in their own homes as well as giving advice on equipment or methods they may use to make these taskseasier.
• 5. Assist the patient with personal care as appropriate.
• 6. Modify and progress intervention / treatment using own clinical reasoning, notifying a qualified practitioner accordingly.
• 7. Monitor patients and promptly alert a qualified practitioner when there are unexpected changes.
• 8. Demonstrate problem solving, and contribute to the solution, working with colleagues.
• 9. Make basic judgements on patients response to prescribed treatment, and report findings to a qualified practitioner.
• 10. Plan and prioritise own visits to delegated patients, and ensure these aredocumented on SystmOne.
• 11. Ensure that SystmOne inputting is completed on a daily basis.
• 12. Where there are barriers to understanding, such as hearing impairment, mental capacity impairment and other difficulties in comprehension, explanations require adjustments in order to gain understanding, consent and concordance.
• 13. Establish and maintain therapeutic relationships with patients and carers, incorporating motivation, encouragement and confidence building to enable patients to engage in their treatment/care/rehabilitation and management plan.
• 14. Liaise with the wider Urgent Community Response (UCR) Multi-disciplinary Team (MDT) and communicate with GPs, Social Services, inpatient teams, other allied health care professionals and the voluntary sector as required to ensure identified needs are met and care co-ordinated appropriately.

Qualifications

• NVQ 3 in health and social care or equivilent experience
• Foundation Degree programme or equivalent demonstratable knowledge and skills acquired through training and experience

Skills, abilities and knowledge

• Experience of working in a health or social care setting
• A team player
• Highly motivated
• Able to provide high standards of care
• Tact & diplomacy
• Empathy & sensitivity
• Ability to use own initiative
• Ability to manage stressful situations
• Work flexibly to accommodate patient/service needs
• Experience of working within a community care setting
• Knowledge of SystmOne

Personal Qualities

• Professional appearance
• The ability to: kneel, bend & stoop, and work in cramped environments
• Manoeuvre limbs of around 5-6 kg
• Manoeuvre patients using handling aid
• Be reliable

Other

• The post holder will need to be passed fit to perform full duties of the post through occupational health with any reasonable aids and adaptations if necessary. Some roles require additional level of checks as part of the employment process, i.e. roles which come into contact with children, vulnerable adults or their families
• Must hold full and valid driving licence and have access to a vehicle
• Be able to make own travel arrangements to patients, clinics, base and meetings as required
• This is a 7 day a week service and some weekend working will be expected. Hours of service delivery, 8am-8pm

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such 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.

Employer name

East of England Community Health and Care NHS Trust