Job summary
Right to Work in the UK This position is not eligible for Skilled Worker visa sponsorship. Applicants must already hold the legal right to work in the UK at the time of application, as the organisation is unable to support sponsorship for this post.

We are looking for a motivated and passionate individual to join our team in the challenging role of a support worker. This role offers the opportunity to provide a comprehensive package of care to inpatients from day one. Working as a member of a multi-disciplinary team, you will be able to take advantage of their skills and experience to create an individualised and specialised programme to help patients on their road to recovery.

Applewood House is an Acute Psychiatric admission ward based in Swindon. As an acute inpatient service, we provide high quality, multi-disciplinary, multi-skilled treatment to people whose health care needs cannot be managed in their own homes due to their level of complexity, intensity and unpredictability. The ward is currently as all male ward with 15 beds for adults with a wide range of mental health conditions.

To support you in your role, you will be allocated a supervisor to offer guidance and direction as well as a buddy to settle you into Applewood House and support you through your role.

This role is on a ward that operates on a 24/7 shift basis and applicants will need to be happy to participate in the 24 hours, 7 day a week rota to meet the needs of the people who use our services.

Main duties of the job
Working closely with our multi disciplinary teams, supporting service users, you will receive training to complete the NHS Care Certificate and request a Level 3 Healthcare apprenticeship. If you have some experience of caring work already that would be great - but if not, we will support you to develop the skills and experience needed.

This role is on a ward that operates on a 24/7 shift basis. Staff will qualify for unsocial enhancements in addition to their basic pay.

You will have excellent communication skills, and be happy to participate in the internal 24 hours, 7 day a week rota to meet the needs of people who use our services.

We expect you to be able to demonstrate how you have worked effectively in a multi-disciplinary team setting. You will need to demonstrate your commitment to personal development.

Your attitude is crucial. At Applewood House, we deliver person-centred care. We believe that with our help, people can improve their mental health, to promote independence .

About us
We are the lead provider of healthcare for people with serious mental illness, learning disabilities and autism across Bath and North East Somerset (BaNES), Swindon and Wiltshire, and Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.

We aim to provideHigh Quality, Compassionate Careeverywhere, every day. This means our services will be safe, clinically effective and provide a positive all round experience for our patients, families and carers. And we believe passionately in treating everyone with kindness, respect and empathy.

Key to this is providing a supportive and safe environment for our 4,000 staff where we all feel welcome and able to do the best we can for those we support. Our staff and teams work incredibly hard delivering services across more than 90 locations, covering 2,200miles, to more than 1.8million people.

At AWP we actively encourage applicants from all backgrounds; we are particularly keen to encourage applications from people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, those with disabilities and from the LGBTQ+ community. We want people to bring their unique blend of experiences, backgrounds, perspectives and knowledge to AWP, as diversity makes us stronger.

Job responsibilities
The healthcare support worker is a fundamental member of the in-patient multidisciplinary team.Working with service users and their families, friends and carers to help make a difference to the experience of those using our services by:

• Demonstrating kindness, respect and compassion.
• Curious about the ways that adversity and traumas impact individual behaviour, functioning, clinical presentation and engagement.
• Helping to keep people safe through therapeutic engagement and assessment.
• Working as part of a care team to deliver evidence-based interventions to service users with mental health problems.
• Recognising and valuing service users as individuals, acknowledging the importance of always maintaining the service users respect and dignity and ensure that the care provided respects equality and diversity.
• Working alongside registered clinicians, to develop and deliver therapeutic care skills that contribute to the service users psychological, emotional and social wellbeing.
• Ensuring service users and their relatives receive care that prioritises safety, effectiveness, partnership and hope.
• Promoting and championing core care values by supporting learners, temporary and newly appointed Healthcare Support Workers.

Clinical Practice
In collaboration with, and under the indirect supervision of registered clinicians, implement high quality, evidence-based interventions for service users within designated clinical areas. These will include:

• Providing hands-on care to service users including undertaking Enhanced therapeutic observations and Care (ETOC) with service users in an honest, open and non-judgmental way, escalating any concerns to a Registered Nurse.
• Supporting individuals with fluids and nutrition, physical wellbeing, and personal care.
• Undertake other appropriately delegated clinical tasks once deemed competent including monitor blood pressure temperature pulse respiratory rate blood sugar, urinalyses, wound care and venepuncture.
• Assisting service users with social support including financial or accommodation issues.
• Escorting or accompanying service users for planned periods of leave on hospital grounds and in the community facilitating social inclusion.
• Supporting service users to engage with healthy lifestyles.
• Encouraging service users to talk about their experiences in one-to-one or group discussions and provide and receive routine information whilst overcoming barriers to understanding.
• To help maintain a clean, well-organised, safe and therapeutic environment that meets the needs of service users, carers and colleagues, and to support registered care staff to perform standardised environmental assessments to monitor and improve the care setting.
• To deliver psychosocially informed one to one and group interventions aiming to positively impact service users cognitive and emotional wellbeing.
• You will be supported to be trauma responsive, developing practices that avoid causing further harm, promote engagement and create a safe context for healing and recover.
• To work as part of a multi-disciplinary team.
• To practise planned care, and to directly participate in the development of recovery-focused interventions that address service users and carers needs and preferences. To proactively review, record and assess the on-going impacts of such interventions.
• To participate in the on-going care planning, safety assessments and contribute to the creation of personal wellbeing plans in collaboration with service users, their carers, and other members of the care team.
• To observe and record interactions with service users and carers both verbally and in writing via clinical records and staff handovers.
• To deliver a wide range of fundamental care interventions using evidence based clinical tools, to monitor and improve physical health and personal wellbeing and to model a high standard of dignity, respect and candour.
• To undertake a range of delegated clinical care duties relevant to service user need and care area.

Person Specification
Education & Qualification
Essential

• If not held, willingness to complete NHS Care Certificate

Experience & Knowledge
Essential

• Experience of working as a healthcare support worker in a clinical team.
• An understanding of how mental health issues can affect the lives of individuals, their families and their community.
• Knowledge of, and experience of working with, a range of mental health issues

Skills & Abilities
Essential

• Ability to communicate clearly in both written and verbal form about routine matters
• Ability to use computer systems efficiently and effectively to record data clearly and accurately.
• Ability to conduct oneself in a professional and tactful manner, and to champion core care values such as dignity, compassion and safety.
• Possession of attitudes and behaviours that promote recovery, diversity and equality, and ability to retain these under pressure.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check
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.

Employer details
Employer name: Avon & Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust
Address: Applewood House, Sandalwood Court, Swindon, SN3 4WF, United Kingdom
Employer's website: Apply through our website

Employer contact details
For questions about the job, contact: Ward Manager, Itai Chipumha, i.chipumha@nhs.net, 01793836841

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