Senior Staff Nurse - Special Schools

at  Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust

OPPORTUNITIES AT OUR MERTON & WANDSWORTH SITES

We are looking for an enthusiastic individual who has experience in community paediatric nursing, children’s continence and working in a special school.
The School Nursing Team deliver health care to children and young people with complex health needs attending Perseid schools in Merton, Sherwood Park in Sutton and Greenmead school in Wandsworth. They are responsible for undertaking health assessments, completing and updating care plans, managing emergency situations and providing training for education staff. They complete reports and attend child protection conferences.

WORKING FOR OUR ORGANISATION

Epsom and St. Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust (ESTH) provides a range of medical services to approximately 500,000 people living across south west London and north east Surrey.
We serve an area that is reach in diversity, with a mix or urban and rural areas and differing levels of quality of life. We cover some of the most prosperous postcodes in the country as well as some poorer areas. Together with our NHS colleagues in Surrey, Sutton and Merton, we work to make sure that we deliver the best possible care to the communities we serve.
Sutton Health and Care (SHC) was an innovative joint venture between local partner health and social care organisations, which sees community services fully integrated to support the delivery of a new model of care for the people of Sutton. Hosted by ESTH, the model ensures the breaking down of traditional organisational barriers to enable the provision of care that is wrapped around the person.
We pride ourselves in having a highly dedicated team and offer a stimulating and dynamic working environment with a wide range of staff benefits and development opportunities. We are looking for employees who aspire to excellence, share our vision and values and can play a crucial role in our ongoing achievements.

EDUCATION, TRAINING AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

• Develop and implement local orientation, local induction programmes and preceptorship for any new employees to the team
• Ensure you are compliant with statutory and mandatory training whilst maintaining an adequate level of service delivery
• Work alongside the Team Leader and senior children’s services managers to ensure all staff are competent and confident in performing clinical skills associated with their role ensuring any poor performance issues are addressed in line with SHC and ESTH policies
• Ensure staff participate in reflective practice to ensure effective problem solving strategies within the team
• Complete verification for nursing staff undertaking their revalidation in line with NMC guidelines
• Ensure student nurses on clinical placements are allocated trained mentors to support the special school nurses ensuring that placements offer developmental opportunities and are a positive experience.

DESIRABLE CRITERIA

• Experience of team management
• Car driver with full valid driving licence and access to a vehicle for business purposes
  Your application: Please ensure that you have read the job description and person specification and that your supporting statement reflects these, as your application will be assessed and scored against these criteria.
  References: You will be required to provide 3 years of employment/educational history. We do not accept references from personal email addresses such as Hotmail, Gmail etc. therefore please ensure you are providing professional working email addresses within your application form. If you are unable to provide professional email addresses and are invited to an interview, please ensure you advise the interviewers of this - otherwise, this may delay your pre-employment checks.
  Closing date: In order to streamline recruitment within our Trust, we reserve the right to expire vacancies prior to the advertised closing date once we have received a sufficient number of applications.
  Shortlisting: You will only be contacted via e-mail/SMS by the SWL Recruitment Hub if you are successfully shortlisted for this post. Please ensure that you check your Trac registered e-mail regularly.
  DBS: We are committed to safeguarding children and adults who are at risk of abuse. As such, if this post will have access to children or vulnerable adults, you will be required to undertake an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check. However, all employees have a responsibility for safeguarding children and vulnerable adults in the course of their duties and for ensuring that they are aware of the specific duties relating to their role.

Disability Advice Line: SWL Recruitment Hub is committed to promoting equity and equal opportunities for individuals with disabilities. We believe that greater diversity and inclusion will lead to an even more positive impact on the people we serve. For support with job opportunities and reasonable adjustments contact our Confidential Disability Advice Line at:

APPLICANT REQUIREMENTS

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.

MAIN DUTIES OF THE JOB

The post holder will ensure that high quality nursing care is delivered within Perseid special schools across two campuses.
The successful applicant will have the ability to work collaboratively with other health professionals and school staff to support and empower children, young people and their families to improve health and give every child and young person the opportunity to develop their full potential.

GENERAL DUTIES

• Develops, promotes and implements integrated working (internal and external) whenever this would improve service delivery options or outcomes for individual children, young people and their families
• Ensure that all staff within the team work to SHC and ESTH policies, procedures, standard operating procedures and guidelines within the service area and actively contributes to the proposal of policy or service changes as appropriate
• Works closely and collaboratively with the education, health and social care staff
• Delegates appropriately to ensure consistent coordinated care
• Acts as a specialist practitioner and is a resource to other staff within the department and wider organisation
• Leads by example and maintains a high level of professional conduct at all times
• Is aware of issues relating to information governance and data security.

CLINICAL RESPONSIBILITIES

• Be confident and competent in carrying out clinical skills such as administration of medicines and gastrostomy feeds and has experience of working with children and young people with traceostomies
• Support the lead clinician for the children’s continence service
• Performs effective assessment and plans care according to the identified health needs of individual children and young people and for those accessing the continence service
• Review care plans on at least a yearly basis or more frequently if needed
• Make onward referrals where appropriate
• Attend safeguarding supervision at least termly and additional, where required
• Represents the school nursing team in the educational setting
• Attend annual educational reviews, child in need meetings, team around the child meetings, professional meetings, child protection case conferences and core group meetings, representing the school nursing team and providing key information to education and social services staff and parents
• Comply with infection control policies and procedures in order to minimise and prevent the spread of infection.

MANAGEMENT RESPONSIBILITIES AND PROFESSIONAL LEADERSHIP

• Ensure team compliance with service delivery according to the commissioned service specification
• Support the Team Leader and senior children’s services managers to monitor the staffing budget
• Ensure staff comply with their obligation to collect and record data in electronic records in a timely manner
• Receive and handle any complaints according to SHC and ESTH policy
• Work collaboratively with the risk management department to support practitioners in the identification and management of any risks involved with the service and delivery of care
• Ensure all staff comply with the incident policy and ensure that all reported incidents for designated areas are fully investigated
• Ensure effective communication systems are utilised
• Observe and comply with Trust policies and procedures for health and safety ensuring the environment you work in and are responsible for is safe, clean and tidy
• Promote equal opportunities in compliance with Trust policies
• Ensure that benefits to children and young people are maximised through careful, economical and appropriate use of NHS resources including equipment, property, budget, time etc
• Participate in the audit of services to ensure a high level of service delivery and identify areas of improvement.