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Senior Physiotherapist for Critical CareNHS AfC: Band 6
Main area Critical Care Grade NHS AfC: Band 6 Contract Permanent: Respiratory on-call rota inclusion Hours Full time - 37.5 hours per week Job ref 409-7511689
Site Southport & Ormskirk Hospital Town Southport Salary £38,682 - £46,580 per annum, pro rata Salary period Yearly Closing 23/10/2025 23:59
Job overview
This role requires a dynamic and enthusiastic Physiotherapist to join our passionate Critical Care Therapy Team. The therapy team work very closely with the rest of the Critical care multidisciplinary team where collaboration is key to bring about holistic, patient centred rehabilitation.
To support the rehabilitation coordinator to deliver specialist assessments and treatment planning of critically ill patients requiring co‑ordinated rehabilitation management.
To support the rehabilitation coordinator to ensure patients receive an enhanced rehabilitation process for the entire patient’s journey through critical care to follow up in the acute hospital wards and community, ensuring continuity of care and seamless transitions between care providers beyond the acute hospital environment.
Ensure patients have access to associated support services through appropriate and timely referral.
Liaison with multi professional groups, patients, relatives and carers to ensure maximum effectiveness of assessment and treatment delivered.
Main duties of the job
- Professional, legally responsible and accountable for all aspects of the work undertaken, including the management of the patients treated and to ensure a high standard of clinical expertise is delivered to those patients, maintaining up to date and accurate records as an autonomous practitioner.
- Support the rehabilitation coordinator in planning and development of rehabilitation services within critical care and be responsible for delegated projects.
- Act as deputy to the rehabilitation coordinator in his/her absence and be reportable to the clinical therapy manager and senior respiratory specialist.
- Participate in the on‑call rota.
- Contribute to the continuing professional development of other junior physiotherapists and students who work on critical care supporting their learning and development.
- Hold responsibility for own delegated complex physiotherapy caseload within critical care working without direct supervision.
- Participate in supervision which will be achieved through regular informal and peer review, case conferences and clinical reasoning sessions with the rehabilitation coordinator.
- Supervise, educate and assess the performance of students; this would be to a graduate standard and involve working with universities to ensure the standard of practice and teaching meets the standards set by the degree level qualification.
Working for our organisation
Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves a population of over 600,000 with a workforce of over 9000 dedicated and skilled staff across 21 sites.
We strongly believe that the communities we serve should all have access to Five Star Patient Care.
Our Services
- Acute Care – Providing emergency and maternity services at Whiston, Southport and Ormskirk hospitals, and medical and surgical specialties across all our sites.
- Primary Care – Providing primary care services at Marshalls Cross Medical Centre situated in St Helens Hospital.
- Community Services – Providing adult community services for St Helens and a wheelchair service in Chorley, South Ribble, and West Lancashire. Our inpatient unit at Newton Community Hospital is where patients needing acute hospital beds can continue rehabilitation, freeing up space for more unwell patients. We also provide urgent care at our Urgent Treatment Centre located in St Helens town centre.
- Specialist Regional Services – We provide the Mersey Regional Burns & Plastic Surgery Unit at Whiston Hospital and the Spinal Injuries Unit at Southport Hospital to more than 4 million people across the whole of Merseyside, West Lancashire, Cheshire, Isle of Man and North Wales.
- Achievements – Rated Outstanding by CQC Inspection August 2018, Top 100 places to work in the NHS (NHS Employers & Health Service Journal), National Preceptorship Accreditation (2023) for Nursing & AHP Preceptorship Programme.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
- Deliver specialist assessments and treatment planning of critically ill patients requiring co‑ordinated rehabilitation management.
- Ensure patients receive an enhanced rehabilitation process for the entire patient’s journey through critical care to follow up in the acute hospital wards and community, ensuring continuity of care and seamless transitions between care providers beyond the acute hospital environment.
- Ensure patients have access to associated support services through appropriate and timely referral.
- Liaise with multi professional groups, patients, relatives and carers to ensure maximum effectiveness of assessment and treatment delivered.
- Be professional, legally responsible and accountable for all aspects of the work undertaken, including the management of the patients treated and to ensure a high standard of clinical expertise is delivered to those patients, maintaining up to date and accurate records as an autonomous practitioner.
- Support the rehabilitation coordinator in planning and development of rehabilitation services within critical care and be responsible for delegated projects.
- Act as deputy to the rehabilitation coordinator in his/her absence and be reportable to the clinical therapy manager and senior respiratory specialist.
- Participate in the on‑call rota.
- Contribute to the continuing professional development of other junior physiotherapists and students who work on critical care supporting their learning and development.
- Hold responsibility for own delegated complex physiotherapy caseload within critical care working without direct supervision.
- Actively participate in supervision through regular informal and peer review, case conferences and clinical reasoning sessions with the rehabilitation coordinator.
- Supervise, educate and assess the performance of students; this would be to a graduate standard and involve working with universities to ensure the standard of practice and teaching meets the standards set by the degree level qualification.
- Undertake evidence‑based audit as directed by the rehabilitation coordinator and if required research projects to further clinical practice and development of patient services. Make recommendations to the rehabilitation coordinator to suggest changes to practice.
- Support the implementation of specific changes to practice or contribute to service protocols as directed by the rehabilitation coordinator.
- Comply with all relevant policies, procedures and training on infection prevention and control.
Person specificationQualifications
- Degree in Physiotherapy
- HCPC registration
- Clinical Educators Certificate
Experience
- Advanced clinical knowledge relevant to the current environment and evidence of evidence‑based practise in relevant health setting
- Awareness of own strengths and limitations
- Knowledge of relevant national policies and guidance and relevant assessment tools
- Experience of line managing team including setting objectives, conducting appraisals and effective delegation and coordination
- Evidence of effective working within an MDT
- Experience of service development
- Demonstrate experience of problem‑solving approaches
- Audit and research in a clinical area
Skills
- Demonstrates ability to motivate team performance to achieve objectives
- Ability to prioritise and work to deadlines
- Ability to communicate effectively in a variety of settings
- Accurate record keeping, report writing and IT skills including presentation skills
- Have a flexible approach to working with good time management
Other
- Ability to travel to various hospital locations
Thank you for considering an application to work for Mersey West Lancashire NHS Trust. MWL is an exciting and forward‑thinking NHS Trust who are one of the best places to work for in England.
Given sometimes we receive a high volume of applications to work for us, please be aware, that we may close a vacancy earlier than stated should a sufficient number of applications be received from which a shortlist can be confirmed. Therefore, you are advised to apply at your earliest convenience.
The Trust may contact you during the recruitment process for your feedback on your experience. We always aim for continuous improvement in our practice.
Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion
We actively cultivate a professional environment of fairness, equality, dignity, and respect for all individuals. We welcome individuals from all backgrounds and value the unique skills, perspective and experience you bring. We are grounded in the belief that diversity enhances our collective strength, fostering innovation and excellence within our workforce. We welcome all applications irrespective of people’s race, disability, gender, sexual orientation, religion/belief, age, gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy/maternity and in particular those from under‑represented groups.
As a Disability Confident Leader, we commit to offering an interview to all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the job (the essential criteria) listed in the personal specification. If you wish to apply under this Guaranteed Interview Scheme, please indicate this on the online application form.
If you are having difficulty completing an online application, or require any disability reasonable adjustments, please contact .
We also commit to offering an interview to all armed forces veterans who meet the minimum criteria for the job (the essential criteria) listed in the personal specification. If you wish to apply under this Guaranteed Interview Scheme, please indicate this on the online application form.
The Trust operates anonymous shortlisting where no personal information about you, including your name or personal details are shared with the recruiting manager. No equality information is shared at any time during the recruitment process with the recruiting manager or other people involved in the decision‑making process.
The equality monitoring information you provide is used in the following situations: to review our recruitment practices; where a job is limited to a specific person to verify their eligibility to apply; and to offer disability reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process.
Certificate of Sponsorship
Following the recent update on UK immigration policy for those on a Health and Care Visa or Skilled Worker Visa, please click here to check your eligibility before applying for this post as we may be unable to provide sponsorship.
eVisa Update
For successful candidates on selected work and study visa routes, who have completed and paid for their applications will no longer receive a visa vignette in passport as evidence of their permission to enter the UK. Instead, you will be issued with an eVisa only, which is accessed by creating a UKVI account. Before travelling to the UK, we advise applicants to:
- Understand how to generate an eVisa share code
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
If this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Please note if applicable, applicants will be required to pay for their DBS check. Costs are deducted from salary following appointment.
If you have not already done so, you are therefore encouraged to enrol for the DBS Update Service to which a small annual fee of £13 per year applies.
Flexible Working
We actively support flexible working patterns throughout MWL. Changes made to the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook mean that:
- All employees have the right to request flexible working from day one of employment.
- There is no limit on the number of requests they can make.
- Employees have the right to make requests, have them considered, regardless of the reason.
At Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, we will consider requests for flexible working. We would also encourage you to also discuss flexible working options at interview stage.
Working for Team MWL
Staff recognition is especially important to us; as well as performance reviews and appraisals, we recognise staff through Employee of the month. Along with supporting you to achieve your career goals we offer a generous pension scheme, unsocial hours payments (where applicable), 27 days annual leave on commencement (pro‑rated) and access to a range of NHS discounts. Our Staff Health and Wellbeing programme offer a variety of services.
The Trust is a non‑smoking across all our sites. Failure to follow this rule could lead to disciplinary action. For more information, see the Smoke Free NHS website.
You must ensure that your application, including personal statements and behaviour examples, are truthful and factually accurate. Please note plagiarism can include presenting the ideas and experience of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own.
The Trust will not accept applications which are found to be AI generated and will check all applications against AI detection software.
Additional Information
Before applying, we encourage you to review the Trusts Values and Behaviours which are We are KIND, We are OPEN, We are INCLUSIVE, which can be found here.
An applicant guide to help and support you with your application and what to expect during your recruitment journey can be accessed in the supporting documents.
Good luck with your application. We hope to welcome you to Team MWL very soon.
Employer certification / accreditation badges
You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.
