Dental Health Support Worker

This is a great opportunity to join the multi-disciplinary team in the Community and support families by promoting general health and well-being. To work within the family home/community, to promote oral health and facilitate access to oral health promotion and dental preventative/treatment programmes.

The Childsmile programme is tasked with reducing inequalities in oral health and ensuring access to dental services for every child across Lanarkshire.

Childsmile combines targeted and universal approaches to tackling children’s oral health improvement through the four programme components (Childsmile Toothbrushing Programme, Childsmile Practice & Community Programme, Childsmile Fluoride Varnish Programme). This combination will provide a comprehensive pathway of care that is tailored to the needs of individual children. This post is primarily focused on Childsmile Practice & Community and Childsmile Fluoride Varnish. Childsmile Practice provides a universally-accessible, child-centred NHS dental service, through a network of independent and public dental service providers. Childsmile is introduced to the family by the health visitor or public health nurse who refers them straight to a dental practice or to the Dental Health Support Worker (DHSW) who will provide help with getting children registered with a dental practice. Childsmile Fluoride Varnish provides clinical prevention programmes offering twice-yearly fluoride varnishing, through public dental services for children attending priority nurseries and primary schools. The post holder will be involved in supporting Extended Duty Dental Nurses with delivering oral health advice, tooth brushing advice and making fluoride varnish. The post holder will spend some of their time working in these components of Childsmile. Childsmile Toothbrushing is a Scotland-wide initiative to help improve the health of our children's teeth, through the distribution of free dental packs and supervised tooth brushing programmes in all nurseries and in priority primary schools. On occasions time will be spent supporting Oral Health Educators with the delivery of the tooth brushing programme in nurseries and primary schools. The post holder will also be involved in supporting Oral Health Educators with delivering oral health advice, tooth brushing advice and supporting the staff who apply fluoride to suitable residents in Care Homes throughout Lanarkshire. On occasions some of the post holder’s time will be spent on this programme.

A key role is to educate and promote awareness of oral health issues and to help deliver new initiatives in compliance with national requirements or as directed by the Childsmile Coordinator.

KNOWLEDGE, TRAINING AND/OR EXPERIENCE REQUIRED TO DO THE JOB

• SVQ III in Health Care, or working towards, or equivalent experience working within a caring environment/ role
• Ability to work with people as part of a multidisciplinary/ agency team
• Ability to carry out assigned patient care and tasks effectively within a busy environment
• Ability to work unsupervised
• Good communication(spoken and written) & interpersonal skills
• A flexible and adaptable approach to work.
• Good organisational and administration skills
• Must have a valid full driving licence

Informal enquiries regarding the post will be welcomed by Gillian Shaw, Childsmile Coordinator, Dental, on Gillian.Shaw@lanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk

For queries regarding the application form or recruitment process only , please contact Gemma.Lowe@lanarkshire.scot.nhs.uk stating the job title and reference number in the subject. Please note: all job related queries must be directed to the informal contact noted above.

Please note: we anticipate a high level of interest in this position and may close the advert once sufficient applications are received. Please complete and submit your application early.

‘In NHS Lanarkshire we are committed to recruiting a workforce that fully reflects the diverse make-up of our society. A place where every individual can thrive, develop and succeed based on skill, knowledge and talent, regardless of race, disability, gender, sexual orientation, care experienced* or any other dimension that can be used to differentiate people from one another.

• Care experienced applicants are people who live/have lived with foster parents/kinship carers or who live/have lived in a residential children’s setting/secure unit.’

Whilst this advertisement may be for a specific post(s) in a particular location, applicants who are shortlisted for interview may be considered for similar vacancies in alternative locations.

Please note for all vacancies where a driving licence is required this must be a full UK/EU/EEA licence

NHS Lanarkshire has a legal obligation to ensure that it does not employ any Worker who has not been granted the relevant permission to work in the UK. This permission is without exception granted by UK Visas and Immigrations. We are required to check the entitlement to work in the UK of all prospective employees, regardless of nationality or job category. Candidates who require a Certificate of Sponsorship can access further information at www.bia.homeoffice.gov.uk. Skilled worker Visa and all current immigration rules are available at www.gov.uk

NHS Lanarkshire Recruitment Website

Care to join us?