Physical Health Therapies Lead

Job summary
Recognising the key role of Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) in bridging the gap between mental and physical health to address health inequalities in line with the NHS Long Term Plan, we are delighted to offer an exceptional opportunity for a dynamic Physiotherapist, Speech and Language Therapist or Dietitian to lead our Physical Health Therapies Team for adult inpatients across the North London NHS Foundation Trust (NLFT).

This role involves managing a team of different AHP professionals to provide holistic physical health care for mental health patients, ensuring best practice and overseeing key service areas including falls, moving and handling and physical exercise/activity.

This is a pivotal role and would suit an experienced clinical leader with the drive and passion to deliver high-quality therapy services to people with mental health conditions.

The successful applicant will be an integral member of our AHP Leadership team, providing professional leadership across our AHP community the Unplanned Care Group and will be supported by the Unplanned Care Head AHPs.

We also actively encourage and support a range of continuing personal and professional development, quality improvement and research and innovation opportunities.

Main duties of the job

• The Physical Health Therapies Team will deliver a Physiotherapy and Speech and Language Therapy service, as well Dietetics and Podiatry provision. The service will work in collaboration with established AHP teams and other Physical Health colleagues within each inpatient service to deliver physical health interventions for adult service users on acute mental health wards within the North London NHS Foundation Trust.
• The postholder will provide clinical, operational, and professional leadership and management to the Physical Health Therapies service (and wider AHP services as required) and be responsible for the design, delivery, and development of high-quality care within this new service in line with advances in evidence-informed practice, digital transformation, commissioning changes, etc.
• They will autonomously utilise highly specialist knowledge and skills to provide assessment, diagnosis, and management to services users with physical health presentations, thus optimising the clinical pathway, and guide and support others to do the same. Additionally, this post will act as the manual handling lead for Allied Health Professionals in the care group, supporting AHP staff with training, modelling and guiding on best practice.

About us
North London NHS Foundation Trust (NLFT) is committed to improving mental health care across North London to deliver excellent services to our local people.

Our Five-Year Strategy:

• We will provide consistently high-quality care closer to home.
• With our partners in North London and each borough we will ensure equity of outcome for all
• We will offer great places to work, providing staff with supportive environment to deliver outstanding care.

Why NLFT?

• We develop and retain our staff through leadership behaviours and managers programme and many more opportunities.
• We promote flexible working and support staff with a range of health and wellbeing initiatives.
• NHS Discounts, generous annual leave and NHS pension scheme
• Excellent internal staff network

In order to meet the needs of the Trust you may be required from time to time to work at different locations to your normal place of work. This may mean that you are required to work at any location that fall under Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey or Islington. The Trust reserves the right to require staff to work at such other places or locations as it considers reasonable and necessary on a temporary or permanent basis.

Person Specification

• Qualifications and Registrations
  • Essential: Degree level professional qualification, HCPC Registration; MSc or equivalent experience, postgraduate courses in related area of expertise
  • Desirable: Member of relevant CIG, Quality Improvement, and Leadership training
• Skills/Abilities
  • Essential: Highly specialist level of clinical skills - able to implement appropriate assessment, diagnoses and treatment for complex physical health presentations; Complex planning and organisational skills, including project management, high level of analytical and judgement skills; Demonstrable leadership skills, able to develop, lead, manage and support staff.
• Experience and Knowledge
  • Essential: Experience of working with service users with mental health presentations and knowledge of mental health clinical pathways; Operational leadership and management, including change management, demand and capacity planning; reporting for KPIs; Experience and knowledge of clinical quality and safety, including risk management
  • Desirable: Experience of working in a mental health setting
• Personal qualities
  • Essential: Compassionate Leadership qualities; Able to demonstrate partnership values in practice

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.
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website.