Every day our Health Visitors provide high quality healthcare in people’s homes or at convenient local clinics and children centres, helping children and families to stay well, manage their own health with the right support and avoid unnecessary visits or long stays in hospital.

Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust (LGT) have exciting opportunities available for passionate and committed Health Visitors across the borough of Lewisham. We are looking for candidates with excellent clinical and communication skills to join our 0-5 yrs skill mix teams contributing to delivery of ‘The Healthy Child Programme’. You will help make a tangible difference to peoples’ lives and enjoy the very best of London life on your doorstep.

In our latest CQC inspection LGT Children’s Community Directorate were awarded an "outstanding" rating.

We have specialist health visitors working in domestic abuse, parental mental health, infant feeding and clinical informatics/ digitalisation and a strong preceptor programme for newly qualified students.

LGT welcome applications from newly qualified and experienced Health Visitors. Some of the benefits of working with LGT include: a robust preceptorship programme for NQHV’s the first 12 months, outstanding safeguarding support from our safeguarding team, corporate membership with the iHV and a comprehensive suite of training opportunities for health visiting staff to support revalidation and professional development.

We also offer additional benefits through our employee assistance scheme, as well as the inner high cost area supplement for working in London. Our staff’s work life balance is very important to us and we therefore offer flexible working and condensed hours. All clinical staff are provided with mobile devices which also supports flexible working opportunities.

Our people are our greatest asset. When we feel supported and happy at work, this positivity reaches those very people we are here for, the patients. Engaged employees perform at their best and our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) initiatives contribute to cultivate a culture of engagement. We have four staff networks, a corporate EDI Team and a suite of programmes and events which aim to insert the 5 aspirations:

Improving representation at senior levels of staff with disabilities, from black, Asian, and ethnic minorities background, identify as LGBTQ+ and women, through improved recruitment and leadership development

Widening access (anchor institution) and employability

Improving the experience of staff with disability

Improving the EDI literacy and confidence of trust staff through training and development

Making equalities mainstream

The post holder will be responsible for a skill mixed health visiting team of all grades. To provide high quality health visiting services to a defined population employing the principles of health visiting (CETHV 1977). To maintain and improve health and life chances for children and families through health needs assessment, health promotion and the initiation and participation in public health strategies. The health visitor is in a unique position to provide services, planned and opportunistic, with the well population in primary prevention, at home, in the child health clinic and other settings. Whilst managing an individual caseload he/she works as part of the primary health care team and collaboratively with statutory and voluntary agencies to promote the health and wellbeing of the local population.

Key Result Areas & Performance:
To adhere to the NMC code of Professional Conduct and be conversant with the Scope of Professional practice and other NMC advisory papers.

To maintain own level of clinical competence exercising awareness of professional responsibilities by reading relevant literature and taking opportunities for continuing professional development.

To use evidence based practice within a clinical governance framework to develop and maintain best practice in health visiting.

To generate, facilitate and participate in audit/research and to benchmark all clinical practices to improve quality.

To develop and monitor the quality of health visiting to support the provision of best practice.

To be aware of Trust policies and procedures and participate in the development of new policies.

To be aware of and follow the Trusts policy and procedure regarding complaints.

To keep accurate comprehensive updated records. To write factual reports for both child protection case conferences and child care legal proceedings.

To provide and maintain statistical/audit data as required by the Trust.
Health Visitor Band 6 JD Updated March 2017 BL.

To participate in clinical supervision as per Trust’s guidelines. To facilitate professional meetings for the skill mixed health visiting team.

To provide peer support within a primary care setting for vulnerable families and child protection cases and to attend conferences.

To manage the delivery of health visiting services to a defined population in accordance with the local delivery plan and government targets.

To manage and deliver a planned programme of health promotion for children under five in line with relevant research and national guidelines in partnership with GP practices and children Centres .

To work collaboratively with primary care and develop and maintain close communication with GPs, members of the primary health care team, social care and health and other service providers.

To identify local health needs and develop strategies to meet them.

Provide a core health visiting service to all families in a defined population.

Assess, develop and implement individualised care plans for each child based on a needs assessment, in consultation with parents/carers.

To provide a health visiting service in the home, in child health clinics and other settings.

To be a nurse prescriber and attend regular updates.

Promote and support breastfeeding, identify and support those at risk of postnatal depression, encourage smoking cessation and support families in their parenting, implementing parenting programmes using advanced communication and counselling skills.

Support clients with mental health issues and take part in psychological assessment reviews, using counselling skills, parent advisor and assessment tools including the PSQ and GAD

To work within the Trust’s Child Protection Policies and Procedures as related to the 1989 Children’s Act, the current Pan London agreement, the Laming Report and recommendations from part 8 reviews.

To assess, identify and refer children at risk to social care and health. To attend in care reviews, strategy meetings and child protection case conferences, where highly emotive, contentious and complex situations may arise.