Job overview

NHFT provides healthcare and wellbeing services within HMP Peterborough to approximately 300 female and 860 male residents.

We are recruiting a Band 4 Senior Healthcare Assistant to work within our Sexual Health Service at HMP Peterborough. The successful applicant will help deliver a comprehensive range of needs-based care for patients requiring screening, diagnostics, and treatment for sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections.

Working alongside registered sexual health nurses, the post holder will support the delivery of high-quality care. The role involves managing asymptomatic patients independently, performing clinical duty, delivering health promotion interventions, and supporting service development. The post holder will work autonomously and be responsible for managing their own workload.

This role requires flexibility, initiative, and a commitment to improving the health and wellbeing of individuals in a secure setting. If you are a proactive and compassionate healthcare assistant looking to take on a more autonomous role in a dynamic service—this position is for you.

Main duties of the job

Key Responsibilities:

 Clinical Duties:

• Provide routine sexual health screening for asymptomatic patients (e.g., urine sample, self-taken swabs, blood tests).
• Deliver basic advice on sexual health, blood-borne viruses (BBVs), and STIs/HIV.
• Achieve competence in sexual history taking, clinical coding, and telemedicine facilitation.
• Perform venepuncture and pregnancy testing.
• Record observations and process pathology specimens per protocol.
• Manage normal results according to service guidelines.
• Chaperone intimate examinations following training and competency sign-off.
• Support clinicians during patient procedures and intimate care.
• Prepare clinic rooms and maintain stock levels in accordance with NHFT Medicines Management Policy.
• Uphold infection control and ensure clinical areas remain clean and safe.

Administrative Support:

• Book and manage appointments and clinic slots on patient systems (e.g., CMS).
• Undertake non-clinical duties such as supporting data collection.
• Liaise with prison, healthcare, and external services to ensure continuity of care.
• Participate in audits, service evaluations, and improvement initiatives.

Health Promotion & Patient Engagement:

• Actively participate in the delivery of health promotion activities.
• Engage sensitively with patients, respecting their cultural, emotional, and spiritual needs.
• Promote trauma-informed, person-centred care.

Working for our organisation

NHFT is an integrated primary care and mental health Trust, providing physical, mental health and specialty services in both hospital settings and out in the community. Because we put the person at the centre of all we do, we focus on delivering care that is as easy to access as possible. This means many of our services can be provided at home, work or in schools. We also provide health services to various prisons and detention centres in Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire.

NHFT promotes a culture of learning to improve the care and safety of our patients and staff, which focuses on people who enable our Trust to be ‘outstanding’ by supporting opportunity, innovation, development and growth.