An Assistant Practitioner is ‘a worker who competently delivers health and/or social care to and for people. They have a required level of knowledge and skill beyond that of the traditional health care assistant, support worker or a generic physiotherapy assistant. The assistant physiotherapy practitioner would be able to deliver elements of health and social care and undertake clinical work in domains that have previously only been within the remit of registered professionals. The assistant physiotherapy practitioner may transcend professional boundaries. They are accountable to themselves, their employer, and more importantly, the people they serve.’
Main duties of the job
The post holder will undertake highly skilled support work and rehabilitation within the physiotherapy outpatient departments across the Huddersfield and Calderdale NHS Trust with people who have pain originating from musculoskeletal conditions such as pregnancy related pain, post fracture, post-surgery, post injury and patient’s managing long term conditions. You will also have a responsibility to ensure that supervised exercise sessions and classes are run efficiently by working collaboratively with lower grade assistant therapists and qualified physiotherapists. The post holder will be working under indirect supervision of the registered practitioners in the team. This will involve taking responsibility for an identified and allocated caseload following screening / assessment by a registered practitioner. It will involve a degree of autonomy depending upon the complexity and risk of procedures being undertaken and an ability to identify patients who are not progressing and referring them on to qualified members of staff.
Work will be carried out within physiotherapy out-patient departments across Huddersfield and Calderdale NHS Trust.
Administrative duties and general patient care across departments are required.
The post holder will be expected to undertake the Band 4 competency training, and relevant academic study to level 4.
Person Specification
QUALIFICATIONS / TRAINING
Essential
- 5 GCSEs including Maths and English (grades 9-4 or A*, A, B, C) or equivalent level 2 qualification(s)
- A-Levels or Health and Science T-Level or equivalent level 3 qualifications
Desirable
- Level 5 Assistant Practitioner Apprenticeship / Willingness to complete when in post
- Foundation degree Health and Social Care
- Care Certificate / Willingness to complete when in post
- Band 4 Calderdale Framework Competencies completed / will complete when in post
COMMUNICATION AND RELATIONSHIPS (INCLUDING MANAGEMENT RESPONSIBILITIES)
Essential
- Previous experience working and communicating with the public in a social care/health care/educational/public health setting.
Desirable
- Experience of work alongside physiotherapy staff or within physiotherapy departments
- Knowledge of the client group and evidence of related training
COMMUNICATION AND RELATIONSHIPS (INCLUDING MANAGEMENT RESPONSIBILITIES)
Essential
- Basic computer skills
- An understanding of the needs and issues concerning illness and disability
- An ability to work on own and make appropriate decisions, seeking help appropriately particularly in unforeseen circumstances, being aware of limitations
- A good understanding of the concept of rehabilitation
- Experience of teaching and instructing exercise or rehabilitation
- Experience of dealing with people of all ages with rehabilitation needs
- Demonstrates positive attitudes and behaviours
- Works well within a team
- Able to work with service users without direct supervision
- Able to deal sensitively with distressing, emotional situations
- Good communications skills
- Able to motivate others
- Awareness of cultural issues and valuing diversity
- Organisational skills to manage time and case load and to actively participate in the workload management of the team
Desirable
- Understanding & knowledge of specialist equipment
- Understanding of wider interagency issues
- Problem solving/decision making skills – based on patient’s needs
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such 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.
Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).
From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).
Closing Date: 05 February 2026
