Health Care & Health Science

The Lead Practitioner in Adult Care will guide and inspire team members to make positive differences to someone’s life when they are faced with physical, practical, social, emotional, psychological or intellectual challenges. They will have achieved a level of self-development to be recognised as a lead practitioner within the care team, contributing to, promoting and sustaining a values-based culture at an operational level. A Lead Practitioner has a greater depth of knowledge and expertise of particular conditions being experienced by the user of services. They will have specialist skills and knowledge in their area of responsibilities which will allow them to lead in areas such as care needs assessment, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, rehabilitation and enablement, telecare and assistive technology. They will be a coach and mentor to others and will have a role in assessing performance and quality of care delivery. Lead Practitioners in Adult Care may work in residential or nursing homes, domiciliary care, day centres, a person’s own home or some clinical healthcare settings. As well as covering Lead Practitioners in Adult Care this standard also covers Lead Personal Assistants who can work at this senior level but they may only work directly for one individual who needs support and/or care services, usually within their own home.

Care – is caring consistently and enough about individuals to make a positive difference to their lives

Compassion – is delivering care and support with kindness, consideration, dignity, empathy and respect

Courage – is doing the right thing for people and speaking up if the individual they support is at risk

Communication – good communication is central to successful caring relationships and effective team working

Competence – is applying knowledge and skills to provide high quality care and support

Commitment – to improving the experience of people who need care and support ensuring it is person centred

Examples of job roles include Dementia Lead, Re-ablement Worker, Physiotherapy Assistant, Occupational Therapy Assistant, Public Health Associate Worker, Keeping in Contact Worker, Community Care/Support Officer, Social Care Assessor, Care Assessment Officer, Social Services Officer, Brokerage Worker, Rehabilitation and Reablement Assistant, Independence Support Assistant, Reablement Support Workers/Officer, Telecare Assistant and Assistive Technology Co-ordinator/Officer.

Knowledge

What the Lead Practitioner on completion must know and understand:

Tasks and responsibilities

Statutory frameworks, standards, guidance and Codes of Practice which underpin practice in relation to the safe delivery of services

Theories underpinning own practice and competence relevant to the job role

Principles of assessment and outcome based practice

Principles of risk management

Dignity and human rights

How to contribute to, promote and maintain a culture which ensures dignity is at the centre of practice

Communication

Effective communication and solutions to overcoming barriers

Legal and ethical frameworks in relation to confidentiality and sharing information

Range of technologies to enhance communication

Safeguarding

Legislation, national and local solutions for the safeguarding of adults and children including reporting requirements

Health and wellbeing

Models of monitoring, reporting and responding to changes in health and wellbeing

Range of holistic solutions to promote and maintain health and wellbeing using person centred approaches

Importance of effective partnerships, inter-agency, joint and integrated working

Professional development

Goals and aspirations that support own professional development and how to access available opportunities

Skills

What the Lead Practitioner on completion must be able to do:

Tasks and responsibilities

Apply professional judgement, standards and codes of practice relevant to the role

Develop and sustain professional relationships with others

Identify and access specialist help required to carry out role

Lead the specialist assessment of social, physical, emotional and spiritual needs of individuals with cognitive, sensory and physical impairments

Mentor colleagues to encourage individuals to actively participate in the way their care and support is delivered

Contribute to the implementation of processes to implement and review support plans

Provide leadership and mentoring to others for whom they are responsible

Apply risk management policies

Contribute to the quality assurance of the service provided

Dignity and human rights

Implement a culture that actively promotes dignity and respects diversity and inclusion

Model high levels of empathy, understanding and compassion

Communication

Model effective communication skills

Identify and address barriers to communication using appropriate resources

Apply organisational processes to record, maintain, store and share information

Provide meaningful information to support people to make informed choices

Safeguarding

Apply and support others to adhere to safeguarding procedures

Work in partnership with external agencies to respond to safeguarding concerns

Health and wellbeing

Apply person centred approaches to promote health and wellbeing

Collaborate with external partners to achieve best outcomes in health and wellbeing

Professional development

Evaluate own practice and access identified development opportunities

Evaluate the effectiveness of own leadership, mentoring and supervision skills and take steps to enhance performance

Value individuals to develop effective teams in order to achieve best outcomes

Contribute to the development of an effective learning culture

Lead robust, values-based recruitment and selection processes

Contribute to the induction process by developing the knowledge of individuals within their role

Lead and support others in professional development through personal development plans, supervision, reflective practice, research, evidence based practice and access to learning and development opportunities

Qualifications

Level 4 Diploma in Adult Care.

Apprentices without Level 2 English and maths will need to achieve this level prior to completion of their Apprenticeship.

For those with an education, health and care plan or a legacy statement the apprenticeships English and maths minimum requirement is Entry Level 3 and British Sign Language qualification are an alternative to English qualifications for whom this is their primary language.

Duration: 18 months

*The course duration is based on the amount of video content shown and is rounded off. It does not account in any way for loading time or thinking time on the questions