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.