Job vacancy: Specialist Nurse for Looked After Children, East London NHS Foundation Trust, Newham

Job summary

Main area

Children in Care

Grade

NHS AfC: Band 7

Contract

Secondment: 9 months

Hours

Part time
Flexible working

15 hours per week

Job ref

363-SS7625103

Employer: East London NHS Foundation Trust
Employer type: NHS
Site: West Ham Lane Health Centre
Town: Newham
Salary: £53,751 - £60,651 pro rata
Salary period: Yearly
Closing: 07/12/2025 23:59

Specialist Nurse for Looked After Children

NHS AfC: Band 7

Our Offer in Specialist Children and Young People’s Services (SCYPS) at East London NHS Foundation Trust

What matters to our specialist teams in SCYPS,ELFT is delivering care to our patients in partnership with both our patients and careers, and the other organisations we work with. By doing this we are able to provide high quality care that is easy to access; the care we would want for our children. We are working with our patients, our teams and our partner organisations to transform our services so that they not only do a great job now but also long into the future. To achieve this we work differently, try new things and constantly learn and evolve.

SCYPS provide specialist paediatric, community physical health services, which vary from therapy, nursing and paediatrician services. We also have statutory services for child protection, adoption and fostering, and child protection services. Working across North East London Integrated Care System, along with 0-19 Health Services in the Local Authority, our aim is for children to grow well and live their best life. Our work with local voluntary sector organisations and community forums are key to this work.

Working As A Team

We are always looking to find people who share our passion for providing the kind of care we would want for our children and young people. We also want to find talented people who want to work as part of a diverse team, provide leadership and try new things. The role of clinicians and administrators in SCYPS is evolving. As part of our team you will use your skills to help contribute to children’s and young people’s care. Any job in community paediatric services is a challenging job and for our teams to work together our clinicians and administrators all need a system designed to support everyone, so that we can do the best for our patients.

As a team, we champion joy at work, sharing compliments via our GREATIX system and are winners of 4 trust staff awards in 2021. Growing our staff and having a solid leadership team comes as part of the package, along with encouraging and supporting staff to learn new skills and complete training to develop their careers and roles in SCYPS.

About ELFT

ELFT has been recognised as a centre of excellence for community and mental health care, innovation and improvement. So it is a very exciting time for you to come and work for us. Our mission is to make a positive difference to people's lives by improving the quality of life for all we serve. Our values are: We Care, We Respect, We are Inclusive – so we are looking for people who live and breathe these qualities when supporting service users and carers, and in their relationships with colleagues in the Trust and our partner organisations.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

· To act as an autonomous, registered practitioner who is legally and professionally accountable for their own unsupervised actions guided by the NMC professional code of conduct and Trust guidelines and protocols.

· To ensure practice is supported by research, evidence based practice, literature and peer review.

· To be responsible and accountable for service delivery to clients.

· Professional development to be gained through accredited courses, workshops, study and in-house training programmes.

· Able to communicate effectively with children and young people including those with complex needs e.g. language difficulties, learning and behavioural difficulties, and, where English is not their first language, use appropriate resources including interpreters to do so.

· Able to adapt and be sensitive and flexible to meet the particular needs of the child or young person in care.

· Able to teach both health staff and non-health staff about the health needs of Looked After Children and able to provide training for individual children and their carers, social worker and educational establishments where a child/young person has a specific health need e.g. diabetes, asthma or disability to ensure optimum outcomes for the child/young person including the seamless transition of care leavers with complex needs to adult services.

· Understand the relevant aspects of the criminal justice system and be able to contribute to court reports for Care, Placement and Adoption Orders (and equivalent orders)

· Able to interpret national, regional and local policy documents/reports and their implications for Looked After Children’s health and service provision.

· Understand and be able to implement relevant child care legislation, information sharing, information governance, confidentiality and consent in relation to Looked After Children.

· Understand how birth family history, mental health and parental lifestyle choices impact on the child’s health and development and take this into account when completing and implementing the child/young person’s healthcare plan.

· Have knowledge of the common psychological and emotional disorders, as well as intellectual disability prevalent in looked after children and young people.

· Be aware of and able to identify the varying level of psychological distress frequently found in children and young people who are looked after and make appropriate referrals as and when necessary. This includes having knowledge and understanding of normal and disordered attachment, the lifelong impact of disordered attachment and the long-term implications of becoming looked after.

· Knowledge of the needs of specific groups such as children and young people with disabilities, special educational needs, autism, unaccompanied asylum seekers, minority ethnic groups, children who go missing and those at risk of radicalisation, child sexual exploitation and FGM.

· Understand and be able to manage the complexity of healthcare provision and resources required to provide a comprehensive health service for Looked After Children.

· To manage changes in practice in line with national / local protocols, standards and pathways to enhance the quality of care.

· To maintain the high standards of the service by contributing to the Trust, service and individual team objectives.

· To be able to manage potentially stressful and upsetting or emotional situations in an empathetic manner.

· To utilise analytical and judgement skills in the implementation of agreed protocols and pathways.

· To act as an advocate for the child/young person and their carer when they have difficulties accessing health services required by that young person.

· Advise other agencies about the health management of individual Looked After Children, interpreting and communicating on a broad range of health information in both a social and education context.

· Identify and refer any safeguarding issues relating to Looked After Children to the child/young person’s social worker, escalating as necessary if an appropriate response is not provided.

· Contribute to multi-agency meetings or reviews as appropriate.

· To work with the Designated Nurse to address complex issues related to Looked After Children placed out of area.

· Be proactive in identifying the voice of the child and addressing any health issues and practice changes required to ensure children and young people’s experiences are of the highest quality and meets their needs regardless of age, ability, gender or culture.

· To actively engage in clinical governance activities to ensure safe and effective practice

· To ensure that you continuously look for ways to improve the quality of the service or care you provide to clients or any other areas, where appropriate.

· To explore ways to involve and consult with clients and carers when developing or evaluating services or the care you provide.

· To develop and analyse audits, interpret data using findings to enhance clinical practice and outcomes for looked after children and young people. To comply with the procedure for handling any requests under the Freedom of Information Act thereby ensuring that they are dealt with in a timely, specific and confidential manner.

· Attending Trust Induction, mandatory training programmes and continuing professional development in line with Level 4 Looked After Children, Knowledge, skills and competences of the Intercollegiate Role Framework (2015)

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

Registered General Nurse
Evidence of continuous professional development

Desirable criteria

SCPHN Qualification

Experience

Essential criteria

Evidence of recent Children's Nursing experience
Evidence of undertaking holistic health assessments

Making Things Better

Quality Improvement is a key part of our work to improve our services and refine how we do things. We have a global reputation for our quality improvement work and we don’t stand still! So we offer a fantastic opportunity for our staff to learn, lead and contribute towards improving our services.

We launched our Five Year Strategy in April 2018, which identified four main strategic outcomes to improve: population health outcomes, experience of care, staff experience and improve value. This complements the NHS Long Term Strategy and sets out our direction of travel.

Our Community

We provide a wide range of community health and mental health inpatient services to children, young people, adults of working age, and older adults in The City of London, Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets, Bedfordshire and Luton. We also provide psychological therapy services to the London Borough of Richmond, and provide Forensic services to the whole of North East London. We provide services in urban and rural settings, sometimes in our inpatient units, but mostly in the community close to where people live. Integrated care is key in making the best use of resources and providing effective care.

Aiming High

We were rated ‘Outstanding’ by the CQC in 2016, were proud to be rated ‘Outstanding’ again in 2018 and continue to be rated 'Outstanding' in 2021. We were named in the HSJ’s Top 10 best places to work in healthcare and were voted Provider Trust of the Year in 2018.

Staff and Service Users United

We strive to ensure that staff feel valued by the Trust and as they are truly pivotal in delivering better outcomes for our patients and service users. Our aspiration is to help to make ELFT the best place to work. This Trust is clinician-led and provides the highest possible level of clinical expertise throughout its services. We pride ourselves on our service user involvement. A service user will be on your assessment centre and interview panel if you are invited to meet us.

We especially welcome people with lived experience of health difficulties, with insight and understanding of different backgrounds, cultures and lifestyles in our population as we believe that this will equip staff to deliver a high standard of care to our service users and patients.

Diversity

ELFT Is committed to being a diverse organisation and our workforce is reflective of the population and communities we serve. We believe that having colleagues with a range of backgrounds and life experiences enriches and adds value to the outcomes we have set out to achieve. Having partnered and endorsed by organisations who are representative and experts in various areas of equality and diversity, we can ensure we are meeting the pre-set standards all the way from recruitment stage throughout the career journey of our employees by being accessible, having fair inclusive practices and a host of staff networks to support, nurture and celebrate our valued staff in the workplace.

Other reasons to apply

As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that’s job share, part time or another flexible pattern.

As part of the relocation scheme we presently have, the Trust could support you with offering up to £10,000 for removal and associated expenses. This is subject to change and terms and conditions apply.

What Next?

If you like the sound of ELFT, don’t waste a moment. We sometimes close adverts early if there is a high response, so apply now!

As part of our recruitment process we may be required to share information you provide on the application form with NHS Counter Fraud Authority (NHSCFA) and/or other organisations for the purpose of the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of fraud or any other unlawful activity affecting the NHS. We also use third party providers to check and verify your qualifications who may be contacting you on our behalf to verify the same..

If you do not hear from us within four weeks of the closing date, please consider that you have not been shortlisted on this occasion. You must provide professional email addresses for all referees as we will contact them as soon as an offer has been made. Please note we do not request references prior to interviews. All applications made through NHS Jobs account will be processed by TRAC System. Please note that some emails may go to your spam/junk mailbox so make sure you check this regularly.

Find us online at www.elft.nhs.uk | Find us on Facebook | Follow us on @NHS_ELFT

Committed to being an Inclusive Employer

Mindful employer. Being positive about mental health.

Stonewall equality policy. Equality and justice for lesbians, gay men, bisexual and trans people.

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.

Documents to download

Apply online now

Further details / informal visits contact

Name: Jacqueline Simmons
Job title: Named Nurse for Children in Care
Email address: [email protected]
Telephone number: 07826548167

List jobs with East London NHS Foundation Trust in Nursing and Midwifery or all sectors

Job summary

Employer heading

Specialist Nurse for Looked After Children

NHS AfC: Band 7

Job overview

Main duties of the job

· Support the Named Nurse for Looked After Children in her role to advise the local authority, the healthcare organisation and partnership agencies on the health needs of Looked After Children.

· Use evidence based practice to undertake high quality, holistic health assessments of children and young people in care.

· Ensure all Looked After Children have an effective health care plan that is SMART and addresses social, emotional and physical well-being. Ensure that this is shared with key professionals and monitor the implementation of actions highlighted on the health care plan and escalate if required.

Working for our organisation

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

· To act as an autonomous, registered practitioner who is legally and professionally accountable for their own unsupervised actions guided by the NMC professional code of conduct and Trust guidelines and protocols.

· To ensure practice is supported by research, evidence based practice, literature and peer review.

· To be responsible and accountable for service delivery to clients.

· Professional development to be gained through accredited courses, workshops, study and in-house training programmes.

· Able to communicate effectively with children and young people including those with complex needs e.g. language difficulties, learning and behavioural difficulties, and, where English is not their first language, use appropriate resources including interpreters to do so.

· Able to adapt and be sensitive and flexible to meet the particular needs of the child or young person in care.

· Understand the relevant aspects of the criminal justice system and be able to contribute to court reports for Care, Placement and Adoption Orders (and equivalent orders)

· Able to interpret national, regional and local policy documents/reports and their implications for Looked After Children’s health and service provision.

· Understand and be able to implement relevant child care legislation, information sharing, information governance, confidentiality and consent in relation to Looked After Children.

· Understand how birth family history, mental health and parental lifestyle choices impact on the child’s health and development and take this into account when completing and implementing the child/young person’s healthcare plan.

· Have knowledge of the common psychological and emotional disorders, as well as intellectual disability prevalent in looked after children and young people.

· Knowledge of the needs of specific groups such as children and young people with disabilities, special educational needs, autism, unaccompanied asylum seekers, minority ethnic groups, children who go missing and those at risk of radicalisation, child sexual exploitation and FGM.

· Understand and be able to manage the complexity of healthcare provision and resources required to provide a comprehensive health service for Looked After Children.

· To manage changes in practice in line with national / local protocols, standards and pathways to enhance the quality of care.

· To maintain the high standards of the service by contributing to the Trust, service and individual team objectives.

· To be able to manage potentially stressful and upsetting or emotional situations in an empathetic manner.

· To utilise analytical and judgement skills in the implementation of agreed protocols and pathways.

· To act as an advocate for the child/young person and their carer when they have difficulties accessing health services required by that young person.

· Advise other agencies about the health management of individual Looked After Children, interpreting and communicating on a broad range of health information in both a social and education context.

· Identify and refer any safeguarding issues relating to Looked After Children to the child/young person’s social worker, escalating as necessary if an appropriate response is not provided.

· Contribute to multi-agency meetings or reviews as appropriate.

· To work with the Designated Nurse to address complex issues related to Looked After Children placed out of area.

· Be proactive in identifying the voice of the child and addressing any health issues and practice changes required to ensure children and young people’s experiences are of the highest quality and meets their needs regardless of age, ability, gender or culture.

· To actively engage in clinical governance activities to ensure safe and effective practice

· To ensure that you continuously look for ways to improve the quality of the service or care you provide to clients or any other areas, where appropriate.

· To explore ways to involve and consult with clients and carers when developing or evaluating services or the care you provide.

· Attending Trust Induction, mandatory training programmes and continuing professional development in line with Level 4 Looked After Children, Knowledge, skills and competences of the Intercollegiate Role Framework (2015)

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

Desirable criteria

Experience

Essential criteria

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

Documents to download

Further details / informal visits contact

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