Special School Nursing Team Leader

at  Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust

SPECIAL SCHOOL NURSING TEAM LEADER - BAND 7

An exciting opportunity has arisen within the Special School Nursing Service for a Band 7 Team Leader to manage the new nursing team at Greenmead School in Wandsworth.
We are looking for an enthusiastic individual who has experience in leadership in community paediatric nursing, children’s continence and working in a special school. An understanding of the needs of children and young people with disability and/or additional health problems is essential.
We would welcome applications from enthusiastic committed nurses with excellent clinical and leadership experience, who are able to communicate at a senior level and are able to manage their time effectively.

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 rich in diversity, with a mix of 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 patient.
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

• Consider the professional development needs of both self and the team ensuring that all staff access statutory and mandatory training at specified times
• Develop and implement local orientation, local induction programmes and preceptorship for any new employees to the team
• Proactively plan own and team study leave in conjunction with team members and colleagues in line with personal development plans
• Ensure all staff are compliant with statutory and mandatory training whilst maintaining an adequate level of service delivery

• Work alongside the 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

• 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 successful candidate is required to provide clinical leadership to a small team of nurses who will provide nursing care and support to pupils with complex health needs attending Greenmead School.
You will be part of a multi-professional team and work directly with the school’s senior leadership team, carry out assessments, provide both planned and responsive clinical care and ensure that local safeguarding policies are adhered to.
You will be identified as a role model for the Special School Nurses and support staff and education staff and offer advice and support to parents and pupils.

MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES AND DUTIES

• Act as direct line manager for a team of school staff nurses and health care assistants based within the special school
• Act as the lead clinician for the Children’s Continence Service
• 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
• Ensures that all staff within the team work to SHC and ESTH policies, procedures, standard operating procedures and guidelines within the service area and actively contribute to the proposal of policy or service changes as appropriate
• Works closely and collaboratively with the Head of Children’s Services, Service Managers and other Team Leaders across Children’s Services
• Ensure that the agreed service specification is implemented
• Ensure that service reports are completed in a timely manner and ensure that key performance indicators for specified services are met

• Delegates appropriately to ensure consistent coordinated care

  · Act as a specialist practitioner and a resource to other staff both within the department and wider organisation

• Lead by example and maintain a high level of professional conduct at all times.

CLINICAL RESPONSIBILITIES

• Act as lead clinician for the children’s continence service
• Manages the children’s continence service caseload ensuring key performance indicators are met
• Perform effective assessment and plans care according to the identified health needs of individual children and young people in the special school and for children accessing the continence service
• Review care plans on at least a yearly basis or more frequently if needed
• Maks onward referrals where appropriate
• Manages a team of nurses and health care assistants at the school
• Provide management supervision
• Chair regular Team meetings
• Ensure that safeguarding supervision occurs at least termly and additionally where required
• Represent the school nursing team in school when needed and be confident and competent in carrying out clinical skills such as administration of medication and gastrostomy feeds and has experience of working with children with tracheostomies
• 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/PROFESSIONAL LEADERSHIP

• Provide leadership to the special school nursing team in collaboration with senior children’s services managers
• Ensure team compliance with service delivery according to the commissioned service specification
• Responsible for ensuring that key performance indicators are met for both the special school nursing team and the children’s continence service and ensure any discrepancies are fully explained and resolved with children’s services senior managers
• Support senior children’s services managers to monitor the staffing budget for the specified service areas ensuring expenditure remains within the allocated budget
• Responsible for coordinating all absence cover within the team ensuring an adequate and safe service is maintained
• Proactively plan all annual leave, off duties and cover for training etc., in conjunction with the team to ensure that the service needs are met at all times
• Responsible for ensuring that accurate staffing records are maintained via the use of Health Roster e rostering system
• 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 and ensure that all reported incidents for designated areas are fully investigated
• 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
• Lead, motivate, develop and praise staff performance in line with Trust policies
• Responsible for the effective recruitment and selection of staff in line with Trust recruitment and selection processes and policies
• Ensure all staff receive an annual approach which identifies clear achievable objectives that link in with departmental, divisional and Trust objectives
• Ensure poor performance issues are dealt with in an appropriate and timely manner following the Trust’s disciplinary or poor performance procedures where formal action is necessary
• Ensure effective communication within designated area and ensure Trust 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.