Healthcare Assistant

The Croft Child and Family Unit is a residential or ‘in-patient’ centre near Cambridge for children with mental health conditions and their families.

We provide intensive assessment and treatment for children, up to the age of 12, with complex emotional, behavioural and social difficulties. We also offer intensive work with parents to help them develop their parenting skills. During a child's time at the Croft children attend school and take part in a variety of activities, some of them with their parents.

We are looking for applicants with experience of CAMHS, or equivalent in other mental health fields, who would like to take a more senior role within the HCA team.

• To maintain a safe therapeutic environment and provide care for children aged 0-12 with complex developmental and/or mental health problems and their families.
• To contribute to the continuation of care of children and their families whilst staying residentially on the unit.
• To participate in the assessment and implementation of care plans at night. To also act as an advocate for children and their families whilst in The Croft. Maintaining safety for both patients and staff.
• To observe, record and communicate accurate information to patients and the multi-disciplinary team. To model appropriate skills for both children and parents.

Cambridgeshire & Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust is a health & social care organisation dedicated to providing high quality care with compassion to improve the health & wellbeing of the people we care for, as well as supporting & empowering them to lead a fulfilling life.

Our clinical teams deliver many NHS services not only via inpatient and primary care setting but also with the community. These services include Children, Adult & Older Peoples mental & physical health, Forensic & Specialist mental health, Learning Disabilities, Primary Care & Liaison psychiatry, Substance misuse, Social care, Research & Development.

To achieve our goal, we look to recruit high calibre candidates that share our vision & values. As an equal opportunities employer, we encourage applications from all sectors of the community, particularly from under-represented groups including disabled people & members of our ethnic minorities & LGBTQ+ communities.

Please refer to the attached job description and person specification for full details of responsibilities

• To demonstrate care and compassion in your work.
• To work collaboratively with day staff in providing continuous care and be sensitive to information handed over.
• To implement the individual treatment needs of patients in relation to nursing care plans and the multi-disciplinary team treatment plan.
• To encourage and maintain responsibility for good liaison with children, parents and professionals involved in the unit care programme.
• To work collaboratively with parents in supporting them to settle children to sleep.
• To organise and implement appropriate rewards and consequences around supporting a constructive sleep routine.
• To support children staying without their parents to settle to sleep.
• To provide a safe and therapeutic environment for children and parents at night.
• To ensure that the unit is properly secure e.g. fire doors and that the fabric contents of the building are safe for both children and adults.
• To engage in reflective practice to secure continuous improvement of practice.
• To make good use of training and development opportunities with regard to self-development.
• To work within the policies and procedures relating to Safeguarding Children that have been agreed by the trust and the Local Safeguarding Children Board.
• To uphold Cambridge and Peterborough Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust Policies and Guidelines, Croft operational policy, The Children’s Act 1989 and any other relevant legislation e.g.Child Protection guidelines.
• To ensure that the structured programme is maintained with the support of a qualified member of staff.
• To ensure that a summarised entry in each child’s nursing electronic notes is provided at the end of each span of duty.
• To assist qualified staff in ensuring that all-untoward incidents, disclosures, incidents requiring on-call staff and emergency situations are recorded according to Trust policy.
• To assist qualified staff in informing managers/on call persons of the staffing situations/needs difficulties with patients and to ensure that all attempts are made to provide an appropriate treatment environment.
• To carry out required housekeeping tasks e.g. shopping for the unit, organising linen and bed washing, helping maintain a pleasant and safe environment by reporting maintenance need to the manager and helping to organise required work.
• To undertake extra responsibilities that are considered appropriate by the manager as the role develops.
• To participate in own clinical supervision and annual appraisal
• To participate in, and when required give handover to staff coming on duty