Senior Healthcare Assistant

This job is brought to you by Jobs/Redefined, the UK's leading over-50s age inclusive jobs board.

About Us

EPUT provides community health, mental health and learning disability services to support more than 3.2 million people living across Bedfordshire, Essex and Suffolk. Also:

• We are among the largest employers in the in the East of England region, with more than 10,000 staff working across more than 200 sites.
• We run the COVID-19 vaccination programme across mid and south Essex and Suffolk and north east Essex.

EPUT was formed on 1 April 2017 following the merger of North Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (NEP) and South Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (SEPT). A new leadership team was established at the Trust in 2020.
Our vision and values

Our Vision

"To be the leading health and wellbeing service in the provision of mental health and community care".

Our Purpose

"We care for people every day. What we do together, matters".

Our Values

• We Care
• We Learn
• We Empower

Our strategic objectives

• We will deliver safe, high quality integrated care services.
• We will enable each other to be the best that we can.
• We will work together with our partners to make our services better.
• We will help our communities to thrive.

Our services

• Mental Health Services
• Community Health Services
• Learning Disabilities Services
• Social Care

Find out more about the services we offer in our service directory.

Job overview

Essex STaRS is a specialist treatment, prescribing and recovery service for patients with drug and alcohol dependency issues. The service offers opiate substitute prescribing programmes and alcohol detoxification. We work in partnership with other organisations that provide psychosocial and recovery support.

To work as an integral part of the team supporting the delivery of all aspects of patient care. You will be expected to work with key partner organisations, service users, clinicians and other practitioners within the service.

Main duties of the job

• Assist in the management and care/recovery of service users under supervision
• Produce accurate and timely documentation/records on all service users in line with relevant codes and Trust policy
• Assist senior staff in the on-going assessment and observation of service users and provide timely and appropriate feedback
• Assist in the risk assessment of the individual and of the potential hazards in the environment
• Provide practical support to service users, carers and colleagues
• Attend service meetings i.e. referral/review/business as appropriate
• Report and document incidents as required
• Undertake physical health care checks and drug/alcohol testing of service users, document and report results
• Under supervision take part in assessing and reviewing care
• Under supervision take part in group work (low level) - such as, health promotion, sleep hygiene etc
• Provide support to service user to promote concordance with medication and treatment regimes in line with Trust policy
• Transport and store medications/prescriptions in line with Trust policy
• Provide practical support, guidance and education for service users, carers

Working for our organisation

EPUT are looking for motivated staff who shares our Trust values of Care, Learn and Empower. In return, EPUT can offer you a range of benefits and development including;

• Season Ticket Loans
• NHS discounts for staff
• Excellent Training facilities and opportunities
• Buying and Selling annual leave scheme
• The opportunity to work bank shifts and expand knowledge and experience in other areas
• Salary Sacrifice schemes including lease cars and Cycle to Work
• Day One Flexible Employer

The Trust supports and actively encourages flexible working for all employees. We offer many options and you are encouraged to ask the recruiting manager what is possible for this role. If appointed, you will have the opportunity to apply for a flexible working request from the first day of your employment

Join our Staff bank

What is Staff Bank?

Our EPUT NHS staff bank is an entity managed by the trust that hires clinical and non-clinical healthcare professionals to take on shifts at our trust hospitals and community settings. Here at EPUT we maintain our own bank of specialist staff to ensure that we are able offer safe and effective care at all times.

All our permanent staff are automatically enrolled onto the staff bank however this does not mean you have to work any additional shifts, but the option is there for you if you wish.

If you are joining our Trust in a fixed term role, please indicate on your New Starter Paperwork that you wish to join our staff bank.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Regrettably, we cannot offer sponsorship for all of our job roles. If you apply for a role that we cannot offer sponsorship for, unfortunately your application form be rejected from the process.

Please note this vacancy requires a face to face interview with the Recruiting Manager. Applicants that are unable to attend a face to face interview need not apply.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES CLINICAL

Please note that this role outline serves to provide an illustrative example of the duties and responsibilities you may be expected to undertake during the course of your normal duties. It is not an exhaustive list and you will therefore be required to undertake other responsibilities and duties that are considered to be commensurate with the band.

• Assist in the management and care/recovery of service users under supervision
• Produce accurate and timely documentation/records on all service users in line with relevant codes and Trust policy
• Assist senior staff in the on-going assessment and observation of service users and provide timely and appropriate feedback
• Assist in the risk assessment of the individual and of the potential hazards in the environment
• Provide practical support to service users, carers and colleagues
• Attend service meetings i.e. referral/review/business as appropriate
• Report and document incidents as required
• Undertake physical health care checks and drug/alcohol testing of service users, document and report results
• Under supervision take part in assessing and reviewing care
• Under supervision take part in group work (low level) - such as, health promotion, sleep hygiene etc
• Provide support to service user to promote concordance with medication and treatment regimes in line with Trust policy
• Transport and store medications/prescriptions in line with Trust policy
• Provide practical support, guidance and education for service users, carers

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES NON-CLINICAL

• Take part in service development and review
• Ensure the service meets the agreed performance/contractual targets and adheres to local and government initiatives

ADDITIONAL DUTIES

In addition to the above duties you will also be expected to perform the below key activities in line with your job role;

- Complete mandatory training in line with Trust policy and procedures

- To participate in the staff appraisal process and to undertake for any staff you manage

- To keep yourself updated on all matters relating to Trust policy

- To provide management supervision where appropriate

- You will be expected to work collaboratively with key partner organisations, service users, carers, clinicians and other practitioners within the multi-disciplinary team in delivering services; providing a 7-day a week, 24-hours a day service for 365 days a year working shifts, where appropriate and operationally required.

The Mid and South Essex Integrated Care System (ICS) brings together key health, care, community, and voluntary sector organisations from across our area. Our aim is to work together in partnership to join up health and care services, improving our population's health and wellbeing and reducing health inequalities. One such example of this collaborative work is the launch of our HCA Academy, an ICS initiative between Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (EPUT) and Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust (MSEFT) to support the incoming Health Care assistant (HCA) workforce. The academy models a 'one workforce' cross system approach to the onboarding, induction, education and experience of Healthcare Assistants.

To support this 'one workforce model' the successful candidate for this post will be required to attend our 5 day (Monday to Friday) face to face Induction Programme at our MSE ICS Education Hub at Brentwood Community Hospital. Your start date will therefore fall on one of two of the HCA Academy induction dates across the month, which will be discussed and agreed during the recruitment process.

Our HCA Academy Induction programme has been designed to train and support the successful candidate through the early stages of their employment at EPUT and will provide opportunities to enhance skills, knowledge and experience.

Further information will be provided post interview.

This will be followed by an additional 5 day (Monday to Friday) EPUT corporate / mandatory training welcome. (EPUT Welcome will be varied between face to face and virtual delivery).

Person specification

Experience

Essential criteria

• years experience

Desirable criteria

• relevant qualifications

Substance misuse experience

Essential criteria

• experience

Desirable criteria

• NHS experience

Please note - staff who are formally at risk within the organisation will be given priority in securing alternative employment. Should it come to light that a post being advertised by the Trust is considered 'suitable alternative employment' to an individual who is at risk, the recruiting manager will be advised and the post will be withdrawn from NHS Jobs.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Applications for this role should be written by the applicant. If artificial intelligence (AI) programmes are used then the application may be rejected due to this document being an important part of the assessment process. This does not prevent applicants seeking appropriate support with applications should they need to for the purposes of any declared disability.

Important Professional References

Make sure that as a part of your application you have professional references with business contract information covering your last three year employment history. We are unable to accept personal or character references.

As a newly appointed employee you are responsible for incurring the cost of your initial DBS check relevant to your post, the amount will be deducted from your first salary with the Trust.

Applications for Job Share are positively welcomed.

Equal Opportunities Employer

Our Trust is an Equal Opportunities Employer. We particularly welcome applications from people with experience of using mental health services. We also hold the Disability two tick symbol and have made the pledge to commit to employing more people with learning disabilities, we encourage people with a disability to apply. If you require this application form in another format i.e. Braille or audio tape etc, please contact the Recruitment Department on 01375 364513 or email epunft.recruitment.adverts@nhs.net and we can arrange for this to be dispatched to you.

The Trust has the right to expire vacancies prior to the closing date if they so wish. The Trust makes every attempt to contact all applicants and we strongly advise that you check the email account which is registered with NHS Jobs regularly, we would advise however due to the high number of applications we receive that if you have not heard from us within three weeks of the closing date your application has been unsuccessful on this occasion.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults, and expect all staff to undertake this commitment. Applicants will be subject to robust safer recruitment processes.

Covid Vaccination

Although Covid vaccinations are no longer a mandatory requirement within the NHS we continue to encourage and support the vaccination uptake as this remains the best line of defence against Covid19. The safety of our staff and patients is a top priority for us at EPUT.

If you would like to book a Covid vaccination or would like more information please contact us by emailing epunft.cv19hr@nhs.net.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

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

• Job Description (PDF, 624.5KB)
• Person Specification (PDF, 360.6KB)
• HCA flyer (PDF, 159.0KB)
• EPUT Pledge - Step into Health (PDF, 211.0KB)
• Candidate Privacy Policy (PDF, 336.6KB)
• Right to Work Information (PDF, 293.6KB)
• Employer Recognition Scheme - Gold Award (PDF, 27.7KB)
• Trust Vision and Values (PDF, 168.9KB)
• Values of the NHS Pension (PDF, 151.3KB)