Guy’s and St Thomas’ is among the UK’s busiest and most successful NHS foundation trusts. We provide a full range of hospital and community services for people in south London and as well as specialist care for patients from further afield including cancer, renal, orthopaedic, respiratory and cardiovascular services. Guy’s is home to the largest dental school in Europe and a £160 million Cancer Centre opened in 2016. As part of our commitment to provide care closer to home, in 2017 we also opened a cancer centre and a kidney treatment centre at Queen Mary’s Hospital in Sidcup. St Thomas’ has one of the largest critical care units in the UK and one of the busiest emergency departments in London. It is also home to Evelina London Children’s Hospital. Evelina London cares for local children in Lambeth and Southwark and provides specialist services across south east England including cardiac, renal and critical care services. We lead a number of specialist service networks aiming to ensure children are treated locally where possible, but have access to specialist expertise when they need it. Our community services include health visiting, school nursing and support for families of children with long-term conditions. Our adult community services teams deliver care at the heart of the local communities we serve, working in partnership with GPs, local authorities and other healthcare and voluntary sector organisations. Working with our partners in Lambeth and Southwark, we are focusing on new ways of working to improve care for local patients. In February 2021 the Royal Brompton and Harefield joined Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, bringing together world-leading expertise in the care and research of heart and lung disease. Our merger provides a once in a generation opportunity to build a lasting, world-renowned heart and lung centre, providing the highest quality care for patients and conducting world-leading research. We have a reputation for clinical excellence and high quality teaching and research. We are part of King’s Health Partners, one of eight accredited UK academic health sciences centres. In partnership with King’s College London we have dedicated clinical research facilities including an MHRA accredited Phase I clinical trials unit. Patients are at the heart of everything we do and we pride ourselves on ensuring the best possible patient experience as well as safe, high quality care. We are proud to have one of the lowest mortality rates in the NHS. Following a comprehensive Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspection in 2019 we maintained our overall rating of ‘good’. Our adult community services achieved a rating of ‘outstanding’. The commitment of our 23,500 staff is key to our success. We are one of the largest local employers and we aim to develop and support all our staff so they are able to deliver high quality, safe and efficient care. The 2019 NHS staff survey results show that we have one of the most engaged and motivated workforces in the NHS. We know this has a positive impact on the care provided to our patients. We have one of the most ambitious capital investment programmes anywhere in the NHS. Job overview We are looking for a highly skilled candidate with experience in social welfare and housing to join our Pan Thames Long Term Ventilation (LTV) programme. This post is fixed term maternity cover for 11 months. Many children and young people (CYP) with complex conditions require additional respiratory support via LTV. This requires a high level of coordination of care from multiple specialties across the whole of the health and social care systems. The Pan Thames Paediatric LTV Programme aims to to transform service delivery of paediatric LTV to reduce the time babies, children, and young people on LTV spend in hospital and maximise high-quality care and time at home. The post holder will work as a member of the Pan Thames Paediatric LTV Programme’s team to provide high quality, specialist social welfare and housing advice and support to health and social care professionals that meets the needs of patients and their families. Interviews are provisionally scheduled for 11 July 2024. Main duties of the job A key aspect of this role will be to develop improvement projects in relation to social welfare and housing at a fast pace and deliver them at scale across London, south east England, and the bordering east of England NHS Trusts. The post holder will be responsible for ensuring that there are processes in place for the holistic assessment, planning, and provision of social welfare and housing interventions aimed at improving timely hospital discharge for children and young people on LTV as well as at reducing frequent hospital attendances by strengthening community support. This includes development of protocols/guidelines for the service and patient information focused on improving patient timely discharge, experience and health outcomes alongside cost effectiveness and efficiencies to services delivery and care pathways. The post holder will be expected to have experience and knowledge of providing specialist advice to multidisciplinary clinical teams across the range of housing and welfare benefit procedures and practices, underpinned by theoretical knowledge and relevant practical experience in assisting clinical teams to determine patients’ entitlements to welfare benefits, provide housing related support and other sources of financial help. Working for our organisation The Pan Thames paediatric LTV programme is commissioned by NHS England and is jointly managed by the South and North Thames Paediatric Operational Delivery Networks to transform service delivery of paediatric LTV (Tracheostomy and Non Invasive Ventilation) to reduce the time babies, children and young people on LTV spend in hospital and to maximise high-quality care and time at home. Geographically, the programme covers the North Thames Paediatric Network (North London and bordering East of England Trusts), and the South Thames Paediatric Network (South London, Kent and Medway, Surrey Heartlands, Sussex). The post holder will join a multi disciplinary team of highly passionate individuals. More information on our team can be found here. The post holder will be asked to be in our offices based in Waterloo (St Thomas' Hospital) and in Russell Square (Great Ormond Street hospital) at least two days a week. Detailed job description and main responsibilities Assist the Programme Manager and Clinical Leads with the strategic planning for the development of effective housing and welfare pathways across the South and North Thames Paediatric Networks. Maintain up to date knowledge of legislative changes and ensure dissemination and implementation across the network. Gain an in-depth understand of housing application in the various boroughs that the service covers and work towards standardisation of a housing application pathways. Lead initiative(s) across the South and North Thames Paediatric Networks, working closely with acute Trusts, community services and councils within the Network’s ICBs to develop a strategy for improving hospital discharge for individuals. Devise, coordinate and deliver a bespoke training and consultation programme to support clinical teams with specialist advice around issues associated with housing and social welfare, ensuring that all interventions and advice are delivered on the basis of up-to-date evidence-based practice. Liaise with local voluntary sector and community organisations in order to develop jointly delivered courses/workshops and to improve opportunities for partnership working around social welfare and housing pathways and practices to support timely discharge. Organise meetings with key stakeholders, ensuring that regular meetings are established, reports are produced and disseminated in a timely way and actions are followed up. Design and implement a planned project of work with targets, budget allocations and evaluation criteria. Take an active role in developing partnerships including chairing meetings in relation to the project. Be responsible for liaising with the Pan Thames Paediatric LTV Programme’s team in relation to these projects, as appropriate. Develop information relevant to the initiatives both locally and nationally, for example through service events, displays, exhibitions, local newsletters, website and local events, liaising closely with the communications manager and senior programme management team. Inform and consult with the relevant ICB’s colleagues regarding welfare and housing issues that may affect timely discharge. Provide and receive information relating to the initiatives. Ensure agreement and co-operation in the delivery of these initiatives from key groups and individuals. Form effective working relationships with individuals, external agencies, community resources, volunteers and other relevant professionals within the NHS and social care to enable the Programme team to provide and receive information relating to regional and Trust specific social welfare and housing initiatives. Ensure agreement and co-operation in the delivery of these initiatives from key groups and individuals. Ensure a robust process is in place to collect monitoring information from the work streams and report this to NHS England London and South East, the South Thames Paediatric Network Board, the North Thames Paediatric Network Board as well as other London wide forums e.g. the London Transformation, Service Improvement and Efficiency Group. Person specification Education & Qualifications Essential criteria Educated to degree level or equivalent knowledge, skills and experience. Completion of consistent and appropriate training in the law and practice relating to social security benefits, tax credits and disability living allowance Evidence of continuing professional development. Desirable criteria Understanding of lean methodology Experience & Knowledge Essential criteria Experience and knowledge of advising clients at a specialist advice level across the range of housing and welfare benefits work procedures and practices, underpinned by theoretical knowledge and relevant practical experience. Significant experience working within citizen’s advice bureau or at a similar level Experience of working with people in crisis. Sound knowledge of welfare/benefits, social policy and current legislation. Experience of providing advice and information on social housing, private rented accommodation and local authority grants for adaptions to property. Desirable criteria Experience of working with people with mental health issues, or people with disabilities Experience of working in a healthcare setting. Experience of negotiating with third parties Skills & Abilities Essential criteria Present complex, sensitive (at times contentious) information to a large group of multidisciplinary staff, providing relevant information in relation to policies, practices and procedures to support a safe and holistic LTV service, while respecting confidentiality according to departmental, Trust and legislative guidelines. Ability to undertake an assessment of an individual’s or family welfare issues. Ability to work within the parameters of the role and seek assistance when necessary. Ability to converse in a positive manner with all levels of staff, patients and relatives / carers Ability to work efficiently on a multidisciplinary basis both internal and external to the organisation Sound analytical skills with the ability to analyse, interpret and compare highly complex information from a wide range of sources including council and national databases and produce high quality written reports in an appropriate format for clinical and social care teams. Ability to plan and organise a broad range of complex activities or programmes in relation to housing and welfare benefits, which require the formulation and adjustment of plans or strategies for the programme. Demonstrate understanding of issues related to confidentiality of data and patient information. Ability to determine the need for referral to other MDT colleagues. Ability to be sensitive to the emotional needs of patients with chronic/acute ill-health and terminal illness Good IT skills including competency in MS Office programmes and in particular in Excel, Canva, web analytics and support Desirable criteria Skilled in making appropriate assessment decisions. Resourceful, ability to work on own initiative and apply judgement. Responsibilities & Freedom to Act Essential criteria To assess needs and develop suitable initiatives to be implemented by healthcare and social care teams or provide them with specialist advice to overcome issues related to housing and welfare benefits. To participate in development and implementation of housing and welfare policy and guidelines and ensure dissemination and implementation across the Network. To develop and manage an online welfare tracking and outcome tool which process, generate, create, update or store information To conduct audits to further develop the service and ensure its effectiveness To interpret overall health and social care policies and strategies in relation to housing and welfare benefits, in order to establish goals and standards for the network. Personal Qualities Essential criteria Good interpersonal skills Good team working skills Good written and verbal skills A positive “can do” attitude and a positive attitude to change. Ability to be flexible and quickly adapt to changes in service delivery. Desirable criteria Good prioritisation skills Ability to balance competing priorities Guy’s and St Thomas’ celebrates, respects and values the diversity of its staff and patients. We review our policies, procedures and practices to ensure that all employees, patients and carers are treated equitable according to their needs. We are actively committed to ensuring that no one who applies for a job, works or study’s at the Trust, or accesses our services is discriminated against on the grounds of race, ethnicity, nationality, disability, religion or belief, age, gender identity , gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity/paternity, or marital/civil partnership. Applications are welcomed from applicants with a disability. We can make reasonable adjustments and offer support and advice in a variety of ways throughout the application process. Equality of opportunity is our policy. As an organisation we are committed to developing our services in ways that best suit the needs of our patients. This means that some staff groups will increasingly be asked to work a more flexible shift pattern so that we can offer services in the evenings or at weekends. Flexible working We are committed to supporting all employees to achieve a healthy work life balance and to work in a way that is best for them and our patients. We will consider all requests to work flexibly, taking in to account the individual’s personal circumstances as well the needs of the service. We encourage all prospective applicants to discuss their individual circumstances with the recruiting manager as part of the on-boarding process. Your e-mail address is important to us - We communicate to all job applicants via the e-mail address which has been provided on the application form. Please ensure that you check your e-mail on a regular basis. Please apply for this post by clicking "Apply Online Now." Further details / informal visits contact Name Miriam Rosen-Cabib Job title Programme Manager Email address [email protected]