Healthcare AssistantNHS

Job summary

Healthcare assistant CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services)

The Mildred Creak Unit at GOSH is an in-patient CAMHS (Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services) psychiatric unit for children and young people between the ages of 7 to 13. We have 8 inpatient beds available on the unit as well as 2-day patient spaces and we accept children with a range of behavioural and emotional difficulties such as Eating Disorders, Functional Disorders, Anxiety Disorders, Mood Disorders etc.

The role of a HCA involves working as a member of the nursing team within a therapeutic environment, to provide care to the young people. You will facilitate their daily routines and attendance of the therapeutic timetable in a nurturing and supportive manner. The role includes various duties such as supporting young people to eat, helping young people with following their care plans, providing a space for young people to talk about their feelings as well as clinical tasks such as nasogastric feeding, physical observations and the facilitation of therapeutic groups.

We are seeking enthusiastic Healthcare Assistants with experience of working in mental health services, ideally with children and young people to join our dedicated multidisciplinary team. We are looking for candidates who are able to work either day shifts or night shifts, depending on service needs and their availability to support the 24-hour care needs of the unit.

Main duties of the job

• To work as a skilled member of the nursing team, to provide a high standard of holistic person centred and family centred care to the children and families within the context of a CAMHS therapeutic milieu/environment.
• To actively engage with young people and families, in order to facilitate recovery from their individual difficulties.
• Completing physical observations, heights, weights and providing nutritional support via nasogastric feeding and meal support.
• To role model health eating habits by eating with the young people during meal and snack times.
• To communicate effectively at all levels within the multi-disciplinary team.
• To work within agreed ways of working, under indirect supervision of a registered health care professional (usually a Registered Nurse), following relevant standards, policies and protocols and always acting within the limits of your training and competence.
• To follow and demonstrate the Trust Values, Expected Behaviours and Core Values of Compassion in Practice (NHS Commissioning Board Dec 2012), and adhere to the GOSH Code of Conduct for Healthcare Support Workers (2013).
• Provide comfort, reassurance, validation and support to the child/young person and their families when anxious or distressed.

Job description

The full job description provides an overview of the key tasks and responsibilities of the role, and the person specification outlines the qualifications, skills, experience, and knowledge required. For both documents please view the attachment/s below.

About us

We are committed to recruiting the best person for the job through a fair, open and consistent process that is free from bias and discrimination.

We are working towards becoming an anti-racist organisation. This means creating a workplace where every colleague feels seen, heard and valued, and where racism in any form has no place. Our anti-racism commitment is backed by action through our Anti-Racism Statement and action plan, developed in collaboration with our REACH staff network.

We actively challenge discrimination, dismantle barriers and embed equity across all aspects of our workforce, including recruitment, progression and development. All applicants will receive equal consideration regardless of race, ethnicity, nationality, religion or belief, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, health condition or employment history.

We particularly welcome applications from ethnically diverse communities, people with disabilities or long-term health conditions, and LGBTQ+ community members. We are proud to be a Disability Confident Employer, a member of the Business Disability Forum, and a Stonewall Diversity Champion.

Our staff networks, including REACH, PRIDE, ENABLED and Women's Networks, are active and executive supported. These employee-led networks play a vital role in shaping an inclusive culture at GOSH and are open to all colleagues.

Together, we are building a culture where inclusion is not optional - it is essential.