Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Duties and Responsibilities
•    To be professionally and legally responsible and accountable for all aspects of your work including the management of patients in your care, working to agreed national and professional standards.    
•    To be recognised as a highly specialised practitioner. To undertake the comprehensive specialist assessment of patients, including those with complex presentations, chronic long-term conditions and rehabilitation needs using highly advanced analytical skills, clinical reasoning and the use of specialist assessment tools underpinned by theoretical knowledge and relevant practical experience.        
•    Maintain own clinical caseload to ensure continuing professional registration at a specialist level and support the interdisciplinary team working across the service.
•    To be responsible for ensuring all who refer to the service, are aware of eligibility criteria.  Maintain the profile of the unit in various forums, including Greater Manchester and Nationally. 
•    To effectively undertake the assessments of complex and highly complex patients, identify their problems and needs and ensure the patients’ medical, cognitive, psychological, social, spiritual, cultural and environmental factors are taken into account.
•    Ensure patient transfer into and out of the service is smooth and effective, with full communication of all related information to patients, carers, families, other professionals and services as necessary, across all Health, Social Services and voluntary agencies. This may require providing & receiving highly complex, sensitive or contentious information; agreement & cooperation are required across the wide range of professionals, plus patient & their family. Cognitive & communication difficulties may be present.
•    To utilise examination and assessment findings using highly specialist clinical reasoning skills to develop and implement treatment programs from a wide range of therapeutic options appropriate to each patient, using evidence-based practice and highly specialised knowledge.
•    To set joint interdisciplinary treatment goals in negotiation with the patient, and/or carer wherever possible taking into account risk, safety, patient choice, independence and palliative care choice.    

Planning and Organisational Duties
•    Ensure regular review of the caseload within a patient centred interdisciplinary goal setting model, and make decisions regarding team capacity in consideration of patient complexity and identified risk.
•    To take responsibility for devising highly specialised treatment programs for other interdisciplinary team members to carry out and ensure they are carried out appropriately.
•    Act as a role model in the promotion of interdisciplinary team working, and challenge non-interdisciplinary team working practice, so that an interdisciplinary team working culture is maintained.
•    Keep up-dated with relevant clinical developments and best practice within the national and local forum.  Ensure clinical developments are implemented and evaluated in line with best practice.  
•    Ensure the team works closely to all local and national guidelines and any relevant new publications.  Be a fully active participant in the development, implementation & review of local Guidelines.    
•    To provide highly specialised advice to others regarding the management and care of patients reablement needs (others include: relatives/ carers, health care workers in the community, liaison within the Integrated care services, and carers and professionals in the statutory and voluntary sectors)
•    Practice, role model and promote safe and effective moving, handling and positioning skills as laid down in training sessions, to ensure the safety of patients and colleagues.  
•    To provide clinical support for peers and junior staff and participate in the competency training and development frameworks.
•    To be able to relate assessment results to the presenting disease / pathology / impairment.
•    To promote health and well-being and raise awareness of physical impairments via health promotion initiatives.
•    To ensure informed consent can be gained and all opportunities for gaining consent within the interdisciplinary team are explored to ensure patients and relatives are fully aware of the aims and objectives of intervention.
•    To produce, disseminate and update reports/guidelines/training regarding individual care plans to carers/patients and other professionals.
•    To contribute to the triage of new patients, prioritisation and overview assessment of new patients referred to the service.

Communications and Key Working Relationships 
•    To demonstrate excellent interpersonal skills, taking an active role in meetings and developments as appropriate across acute and community to support effective in reach pathways.
•    To employ excellent communication skills to enable patients, some of whom may have highly challenging communication impairments, to engage in the therapeutic process including the use of communication aids.
•    To work autonomously as part of the interdisciplinary team to organise and attend patient related meetings e.g. case conferences, patient reviews, discharge planning meetings, goal setting discussions and review meetings by discussing own and others input around patients’ needs ensuring a well-coordinated care plan.
•    To ensure a productive therapeutic relationship is established with patients, carers and families, agreeing decision-making which is relevant to the patient’s management, taking into account any communication impairment, psychological and emotional state and differing cultural attitudes and expectations.
•    To demonstrate empathy with patients, carers, families and colleagues, ensuring that effective communication is achieved, particularly where barriers to understanding exist.
•    To work with a link worker, signing interpreter or language interpreter as necessary to aid assessment and treatment of the patient and communication with the carer(s).
•    To demonstrate skills in motivating patients and/or carers to engage in the therapeutic process.
•    To continue to develop negotiation skills in the management of conflict across a range of situations.
•    To deal with initial complaints sensitively, avoiding escalation where possible.
•    To form productive relationships with relatives/carers and patients who may be under stress and/or may have challenging communication difficulties and/or who have other psychological/social/developmental barriers to developing relationships.
•    To take an advocacy or facilitators role in helping patients and carers to express their needs, concerns and opinions to other professionals.
•    Ensure incidents are managed appropriately highlighting any risks to service manager.
•    To actively promote partnership working with interdisciplinary team and multiagency and social services partners.
•    To generate initiatives to ensure that the reablement team contributes to the public and patient involvement process.
•    Work with other stakeholders across GM to improve the delivery of intermediate care pathways.

Responsibility for Finance
•    To be responsible for equipment used in carrying out duties.
•    To adhere to departmental equipment policy, including competence to use equipment, to ensure safe use of equipment by others through teaching, training and supervision of practice.
•    To be responsible for the loan and return of departmental equipment.
•    To identify the need for and recommend the purchase for new items for the team, educational material for therapist and patient use or patient loan and discuss with service manager.

Responsibility for Human Resources
•    To be responsible for working within locally agreed protocols and guidelines.
•    To actively participate and comply with the annual PDP and appraisal system.
•    Participate in the recruitment and retention of staff, in conjunction with service manager as necessary.
•    Participate in receiving and delivering annual PDP and competency/ supervision frameworks. 
•    To plan and implement the induction of junior staff/students.
•    To receive, plan and deliver in-service training for own profession and others.
•    To undertake the supervision of junior staff as delegated by senior staff.
•    To regularly supervise, evaluate and assess students to include negotiating learning contracts and setting objectives. 
•    To contribute to development of practice/procedures etc. within the Frailty SDEC
•    To ensure annual retention on Health Professions Council Register to maintain state registration, taking responsibility for own continued professional development and document this evidence in a professional portfolio, showing proof of competence to practise within the NHS.
•    To take responsibility for ensuring clinical supervision needs are met and personal development plans are undertaken.

Responsibility for Teaching
•    To be responsible for providing fieldwork education placements and liaising with students/college.
•    To promote the service to the wider community delivering awareness training to other health professionals as required.
•    To take part in training/education of colleagues and staff/students of other disciplines.