Learning Disability and Autism Practitioner

Merseywestlancs; Chorley; On-site; GBP 47,000 - 55,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading healthcare organization in Chorley is seeking a Learning Disability and Autism Practitioner to work at Southport and Ormskirk sites. The successful candidate will enhance access to services for individuals with learning disabilities and autism, ensuring they receive equitable and effective care during hospital admissions. This full-time role offers a salary of £47,810 - £54,710 per annum and requires relevant qualifications in nursing and experience in partnership working.

Benefits

Generous pension scheme

27 days annual leave

NHS discounts

Health and Wellbeing programme

Qualifications

• Recent and extensive clinical knowledge of patients with disabilities.
• Recent experience with multi-disciplinary and multi-agency working.
• Sound understanding of Mental Capacity Act and similar legislations.

Responsibilities

• Support hospital staff to meet the needs of patients with complex needs.
• Act as a specialist advisor for communication needs.
• Contribute to risk assessments and clinical advice.

Skills

Excellent and sensitive communication skills

Ability to initiate and maintain professional relationships

Ability to teach others

Ability to coordinate with multi-disciplinary teams

Education

Registered Nurse or Registered health professional Diploma/Degree level qualification

Current professional Registration

Teaching/training qualification or experience

Leadership training or qualification

Job description

We want talented and enthusiastic people from all backgrounds to join #TeamMWL, with us you can learn, grow and develop yourself and your career, realising your true ambitions and aspirations.

Whatever you’re looking for in your career, you’ll find it here at MWL.

Learning Disability and Autism Practitioner

NHS AfC: Band 7

Main area Nursing and Midwifery Registered Grade NHS AfC: Band 7 Contract Permanent Hours Full time - 37.5 hours per week (Hours worked between Monday to Friday each week) Job ref 409-7610837

Site Southport Hospital Town Southport Salary £47,810 - £54,710 per annum Salary period Yearly Closing 04/01/2026 23:59 Interview date 20/01/2026

After applying via NHS Jobs, your submitted application will be imported into our preferred Third-party recruitment system. All subsequent information regarding your application will be generated from apps.trac.jobs. You will not be able to track the progress of your application or receive messages through the NHS Jobs website, and furthermore, as an employer, we will not be able to respond to any e-mails sent to us via the NHS Jobs website. By applying for this post you are agreeing to "name of trust" transferring the information contained in this application to its preferred applicant management system. If you are appointed to a post information will also be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system.

Job overview

An exciting opportunity has arisen for the Learning Disability and Autism Practitioner at Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals and will be based at the Southport and Ormskirk sites of the Trust. The successful applicant will be passionate about ensuring equitable access to our acute services for people with learning disabilities and autistic people.

The post holder will work closely with acute hospital teams to ensure that people with a learning disability receive equitable, safe, and effective person-centred care during in-patient admissions or outpatient appointments. This is a varied and rewarding role requiring clinical knowledge, experience in liaison, acute or community learning disability nursing, and strong partnership working with acute services, primary care, community teams, and families.

The successful applicant will have a sound understanding of legislation including the Mental Capacity Act, Equality Act, and Care Act, and will demonstrate commitment to co-production and continuous improvement.

You must be able to work autonomously and prioritise your workload according to capacity and demand.

Interviews for this position will be held on Tuesday 20th January 2026.

Main duties of the job

You will be an expert practitioner to support acute hospital staff to meet the needs of people who have complex needs supporting hospital staff to make reasonable adjustments

You will act as a specialist advisor, improving understanding of complex communication needs, and ensuring person-centred care planning.

You will advocate for individuals and their families, championing best practice in inclusive health care

You will be contributing to risk assessments to prevent avoidable harm providing clinical advice around dysphagia, aspiration risk, falls prevention, pain assessment, and sensory needs.

You will act as a key contact for hospital staff, families, and community learning disability services, ensuring robust communication, discharge planning, and continuity of care.

You will participate in safeguarding processes, capacity assessments, best interest decision meetings, particularly where concerns arise around consent and best interest decisions.

You will attend meetings to promote access for people who have a learning disability and / or autistic people (i.e. promoting reasonable adjustments, hospital passports, champions).

You will maintain accurate clinical records, contribute to audits, and support quality improvement initiatives aligned with LeDeR learning and the NHS Long Term Plan.

You will contribute to and deliver training as required to acute hospital staff.

Working for our organisation

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves a population of over 600,000 with a workforce of over 10,500 dedicated and skilled staff across 21 sites.

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. 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.

You will be expected to undertake the Trusts' commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please see attached Job Description and Person Specification for the main responsibilities and requirements for this role.

Person specification

Our Values

• We are Kind
• We are Open
• We are Inclusive

Qualifications

• Registered Nurse or Registered health professional Diploma/Degree level qualification
• Current professional Registration
• Evidence of continuous professional development relevant to the role
• Teaching/training qualification or experience e.g., City & Guilds 7307/ENB 998 or equivalent
• Leadership training or qualification (minimum Level 4 ILM or equivalent) or equivalent experience

Knowledge and Experience

• Recent and extensive clinical knowledge of the needs of patients with Multiple Disabilities, Challenging Behavior, Mental Health concerns and Complex Health Needs.
• Recent and extensive experience of multi-disciplinary and multi-agency working with people with Learning Disabilities and or autism
• Recent and extensive experience relating to supporting and safeguarding adults with Learning Disabilities and or autism
• Knowledge of relevant legislation e.g., Mental Capacity Act and Deprivation of Liberties safeguarding.
• Understanding of the health and social needs of people with learning disabilities and or autism
• Experience of supporting the development of strategy, guidelines, policy development
• Developing and delivering training programmes
• Knowledge of the current issues, including relevant legislation and practice, concerning people with learning disabilities and or autism

Skills

• Excellent and sensitive communication skills
• Ability to initiate, develop and maintain productive professional relationships with patients, families, carers and colleagues across healthcare
• Ability to teach others using variety of methods
• Ability to co-ordinate and liaise with multi-disciplinary team members, patients, families, and carers

Other

• Frequent concentration and ability to move from one activity to another at short notice in response to changing priorities
• Use of road transport between sites

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.

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, to the application process, please contact [e-mail]

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 rata) 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 factual 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.