Job Description

Job title: Baby Steps Health Practitioner


Salary: PO3 GBP41,511 - GBP44,711 (pro rata)


Hours: up to 22.5 hours (all year round)


Contract: Permanent


Location: Citywide


An exciting opportunity has arisen to work within the Early Help Service to deliver the Baby Steps programme


As a Baby Steps Health Practitioner, you thrive on assessing the needs of individual families and supporting parents not only for the birth their baby but also their own the transition to parenthood.


You will thrive on sharing skills and knowledge within a skilled multi-disciplinary team


Leeds City Council is one of the largest employers in the region with over 14,000 employees. We seek to recruit and develop talented individuals who embody our

council values

and

ambitions

.

About you

As a Baby Steps Health Practitioner, you will bring to the role:


You must have a midwifery qualification, be currently registered and continue to be registered throughout your employment with the National Medical Council (NMC). You will have extensive knowledge and experience of implementing safeguarding policies and procedures. You will be an enthusiastic, resilient, and motivated individual who is able to deliver an innovative relationship and evidence-based programme and be a part of a skilled multi-disciplinary team You will have in-depth knowledge and understanding of infants and young children physical, cognitive and emotional development and understand the importance of attachment theory in pregnancy and early childhood. You will be skilled in developing positive, respectful, and responsive relationships with parents and their infants, at risk of poor emotional wellbeing during the transition to parenthood to enable them to have the best start in life

About the role

Baby Steps is an evidence-based perinatal education and support programme for new parents who are more likely to need extra help and less likely to access antenatal education.


As our next Baby Steps Health Practitioner, you be a valued member of the team bringing your expertise to the role.


The role is integral to our Baby Steps multi-disciplinary team and will complement the knowledge and experience of family support and parenting practitioners and the wider team.


As a caseload holder you will have the opportunity to support early intervention in the lives of babies in utero through to new-born.

What we offer you

We take pride in offering the best employee experience, with benefits including:


a competitive salary and annual leave entitlement plus statutory holidays membership of the West Yorkshire Pension Fund with generous employer contributions a clear career pathway and continuing professional development opportunities a range of

staff benefits

to help you boost your wellbeing and make your money go further

How to apply

online. Please complete the online application form.

Read our guidance

for further advice. Please check your information carefully and ensure you complete all sections before submitting your application.
If you have any queries or would like an informal chat about the role please contact: Liz Kirkman

Liz.kirkman-bielby@leeds.gov.uk

or 07891272824, Early Start Manager - Learning for Life, Children and Families Services

A Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check against the Children or Adultsbarred list as applicable will be carried out on preferred candidates. Read our

recruitment of ex-offenders policy

.

We welcome applications from everyone and actively seek a diverse range of applicants from all backgrounds and cultures. We particularly encourage applications from, but not limited to, women, carers, veterans as well as LGBT+, ethnically diverse, disabled and care experienced people.

This role is based in the UK. Home Office guidance states that candidates must evidence their right to work in the UK prior to commencing employment, either as a UK or Irish citizen, under the EU Settlement scheme or having secured any other relevant work visa.

If you do not have the right to work in the UK, you must consider your own eligibility for sponsorship for a particular role through the

Skilled Worker visa

route before applying.To be eligible for sponsorship you'll usually need to be paid the standard salary rate of at least

GBP38,700 per year or meet one of the other eligibility criteria. Ensure you are eligible before applying.

Job purpose

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To take a leading role in ensuring the Baby Steps programme is delivered to the highest possible standard achieving the best possible outcomes for mothers, fathers and their babies. To take a leading role in ensuring that pregnant women and their partners receive the most up to date information on preparing for the birth of a baby and the birth experience. To fulfil the requirements of the Baby Steps service level agreement. To develop positive, respectful and responsive relationships with parents to enable children to have the best start in life. To work with parents at higher risk of poor emotional wellbeing during the transition to parenthood, and more likely to struggle to provide sensitive and appropriate care for their baby. To improve the quality and accessibility of evidence based education programmes within Leeds for families with a wide range of risk factors associated with poor outcomes for children. To work with a wide range of services and agencies to promote and publicise Baby Steps and other evidence based programmes. To ensure safeguarding policies and procedures are maintained. To manage data collection, analysis and reporting to meet local and national monitoring and evaluation needs. To work closely with colleagues within NSPCC, external agencies including the programme advisers and evaluators to achieve effective and replicable practise.
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Responsibilities

To lead on the delivery of key aspects of the programme focussed on education and information about preparing for the birth of a baby and the birth experience. To work with midwives, health visitors, social workers and other partners to deliver and facilitate the Baby Steps and other evidenced-based education programmes. To work with parents to support their engagement with the programme and preparation for the transition to parenthood. To create respectful relationships with parents where they feel safe to explore their hopes and ideas, how they want to parent and make healthy choices. To safeguard and promote the welfare of all children and ensure the implementation of Leeds City Council safeguarding policies and practice. To build good relationships and communication systems with other local services to ensure the programme is well understood, appropriate families are referred to Baby Steps at the right time, and families can access the additional services that they need. To support the ongoing publicity and promotion of evidenced based programmes such as Baby Steps in partnership with the family information service and other services. To provide leadership based on a distributive model in the absence of the team manager including management of the Baby Steps budget and financial procedures. To lead on the development of policies and procedures and training of practitioners alongside the Baby Steps midwife to ensure best practice in supporting pregnant women and their partners to understand labour, delivery and the birth experience. To ensure programme fidelity, evaluation and quality of interventions offered. To contribute to the development of the evidence base for the use of Baby Steps and other evidence based programmes within the city, leading the gathering of and evaluation of outcome data. To promote and disseminate best practice. To keep up to date on best practice and innovations in antenatal and postnatal care, labour, birth, parenting and infant and parental mental health. To champion the service and maintain its profile. To be flexible, open and responsive to the needs of the service. To inform and contribute to systems and procedures to ensure that provision is targeted appropriately. To support multi-agency partnership working including specialist services /agencies for families with targeted and specialist needs. To forge close working relationships with cluster partnerships across the city. To develop and monitor alongside children centre managers, health visitors, children social work managers, cluster managers / targeted service leaders transition plans and pathways for parents. To undertake and deliver specific training as required. To adhere to information governance protocols. The duties outlined are not meant as an exhaustive list and will also comprise any other duties within the spirit of the post commensurate with the job evaluation outcome for this post.
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Qualifications

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Essential requirements

It is essential that the candidate should be able to demonstrate the following criteria for the post. Candidates will only be shortlisted for interview if they can demonstrate that they meet all the essential requirements.

A minimum of level 6 (degree level) qualification in midwifery is essential. Also Current midwifery registration with NMC

Essential Behavioural and other Characteristics

Understand and embrace

Leeds City Council Values and Behaviours

and codes of conduct. Committed to continuous improvement in all areas and work towards delivering the

Best City Ambition

of Health & Wellbeing, Inclusive Growth and Zero Carbon Able to understand and observe Leeds City Council equality and diversity policies. Carry out all duties having regard to an employee responsibility under Health and Safety Policies. Willingness to actively participate in training and development activities. Flexible and adaptable to change to assist other services as required commensurate to grade. Participate in appraisal, training, and development activities. Be aware of and comply with Leeds City Council policies and procedures. Be aware of and support difference and ensure equality for all working in an anti-discriminatory manner, upholding, equality & diversity policies of Leeds City Council. Recognise and appropriately challenge any incidents of racism, bullying, harassment, victimisation, and any form of abuse, reporting any concerns to the appropriate person. The Council has adopted a flexibility protocol and the role will be expected to work within these parameters. Ability to enable change through listening, reflecting, sharing and exploring new ideas using strengths based and solution focussed approaches. Ability to enable others to share problems, think through priorities, set goals, plan and implement strategies. Ability to build trusting relationships, respect and support others. Ability to communicate and negotiate well with people from a wide range of agencies and build positive working relations. Ability to communicate effectively with first time mothers and fathers including those with learning difficulties and those for whom English is not their first language Ability to analyse, interpret and present complex information in a clear, concise and persuasive way. IT competence including email / outlook, windows based software packages including word, excel, database analysis. Ability to interpret data Level 6 (degree level) qualification in midwifery or equivalent. Current midwifery registration with the National Medical Council (NMC). Knowledge of current best practice in antenatal and postnatal support and care during labour and birth. Knowledge and understanding of infants and young children physical, cognitive and emotional development. Knowledge of the importance and theory of attachment in pregnancy and early childhood. Knowledge of the risk and protective factors during the perinatal period, including parental mental health and couple relationship. Understanding of the range of factors that increase familiesvulnerability and associated impacts. Knowledge of specialist areas relevant to post e.g., adult mental health, substance misuse, domestic violence, offending behaviours and child protection. Knowledge and understanding of best practice in safeguarding children and child protection policies and procedures (Local Safeguarding Children Board Procedures). Understanding of the importance of fidelity within an evidence based, manualised programme. Understanding of Health and Safety regulations and guidance, and of risk assessment. Understanding of the priorities for a Child Friendly CityPrevious experience as a registered midwife providing antenatal and postnatal support and care during labour and birth.At least 3 year experience working directly with families to engage and facilitate participation, including those who do not typically engage in services. Experience of working with both mothers and fathers / parents during pregnancy and/or the early years. Experience of offering high quality early intervention and preventative services. Experience of undertaking / contributing to child and family assessments (Early Help and Family Assessments) Experience of facilitating groups and delivering antenatal and postnatal education Experience of delivering evidenced based programmes. Experience of working effectively with a range of professionals. Experience of managing requests for services / referrals. Experience of delivering monitoring, evaluation and quality assurance systems. Experience of managing a budget and adhering to financial regulations, policies and procedures. * Experience of leading staff training and development opportunities.