Army - Defence Children Services (DCS) – Band 5 Nurse, Queen Victoria School, Dunblane, Scotland

Job summary

Are you a motivated individual who strives to deliver excellent healthcare to children in school?

Are you a Registered Nurse looking for a captivating role with children and young people, working in a unique environment, in a boarding school alongside caring and nurturing teaching staff? If so, then we would love to hear from you.

Queen Victoria School (QVS) is a Ministry of Defence (MOD) funded non-academically selective, fully boarding, co-educational boarding school with a capacity of 277 pupils from the age of 10/11 up to 18 (P7 – S6). It is part of the MOD family of schools administered by Defence Children Services (DCS)

The school is currently in need of a second nurse to be responsible for the health and wellbeing for all pupils, this post will be on a rotational shift pattern including covering weekends during the term. The Health and Wellbeing Centre (HWBC) is a dedicated facility within the school’s grounds to provide on-site medical and emotional/well-being support to the pupils.

This position is advertised as full time at 37.5 hours per week.

Defence Children Services (DCS) is a Defence delivery organisation, subordinated under Army Regional Command. Our Vision is that we Educate the Child – Support the Family – Defend the Nation. HQ DCS is UK based at Trenchard Lines, Upavon and has forward deployed staff all over the world. DCS is responsible for the education and care of children of accompanied Service and Defence entitled personnel in MOD schools and settings; provides advice and guidance in respect of education for service families in the United Kingdom and the wider world.

DCS is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all the children and young people in our care and expect all applicants to share this commitment. We follow safe recruitment practices and hold ourselves to a high standard of effective recruiting practices with specific attention to child protection.

All appointments are subject to an interview, identity checks, criminal record checks and successful references. Where possible references are taken up before interview

Job description

Key responsibilities:

• Provide a high standard of service within NMC guidelines and school policies.
• Deliver first aid and emergency care to students.
• Assess and support students who are feeling unwell.
• Liaising with parents or guardians as appropriate as well as working closely with local GP.
• Supporting students who reside in the boarding houses, accompanying them to medical appointments if required.
• Provide care to students with chronic medical conditions in consultation with their medical advisors.
• Contribute to the promotion of health and wellbeing of staff and students.
• Administration tasks include maintaining medical records, healthcare plans whilst adhering to school policies.
• Assist arranging with a schedule of vaccination timetables and dates.
• Teaching awareness and procedures to staff.
• ​​Contribute to child protection, safeguarding, and uphold health and safety standards at all times.
• Responsible for Medicines Management within the school

Knowledge, skills and experience required:

• Registered General Nursing qualification RGN/RSCN.
• Current NMC registration.
• Minimum of 3 years post registration experience, ideally in school nursing or practice nursing.
• Experience working in a boarding school environment is particularly desirable.
• Paediatric and hospital experience is desirable.
• Ability to work autonomously while contributing effectively to a team.
• Excellent communication, inter-personal and organisational skills.
• Evidence of ongoing Continuing Professional Development.
• Confident use of IT systems and accurate record keeping.

Further details can be found on the attached job description

If you need to contact Defence Business Services (DBS) regarding this vacancy, please indicate that your vacancy is being handled by Resourcing Team 1. If you experience any technical difficulties with the CS Jobs system, please contact the Support Team at candidate@support.oleeo.com

Person specification

Qualifications & knowledge

Essential

• Current registration with NMC as a registered nurse and PIN number up to date.
• In date Enhanced Disclosure (DBS) or a member of the Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme.

Desirable

• Understanding of the 7 principles of GDPR and processing of personal data.
• Mental Health First Aid qualification.
• First Aid at Work or Paediatric First Aid qualification or equivalent emergency care course.
• Up to date Mandatory Training.
• SCPHN - Specialist Community Public Health Nurse in School Nursing

Skills, aptitudes and experience

Essential

• Confident in carrying out unsupervised assessment of the pupils’ medical needs, evaluate the high standard of evidence-based care given.
• Excellent communication skills. To maintain comprehensive and accurate documentation of nursing records. • Implement safe working practices as required by the Health & Safety at Work Act.
• Ability to liaise with the House and teaching staff regarding pupil care - ensuring that they have the skills, knowledge and resources to carry out duties delegated to them when caring for pupils.
• Ability to work as part of a multidisciplinary team including nurses, doctors, medical secretary, counsellors, mental health nurse, external eating disorder teams, CAMHS, Social Services, mental health liaison team, Safeguarding team, physiotherapy, and other clinical specialities.
• Evidence of continuing educational and professional development.

Desirable

• Experience working with wound management, asthma and allergies.
• Communication skills in a manner and pace appropriate to the age of the individual pupil’s age and level of understanding.
• Evidence of teaching others. Ability to participate in the health education to pupils and staff and nursing team.
• Basic counselling skills.
• Advanced Life Support or Advanced Paediatric Life Support.
• Understanding of Gillick competency and Fraser guidelines.
• Sport First Aid
• Ability to use a digital medical record system My Concern, Teams, Outlook 365

Personal attributes

Essential

• Compassion, enthusiasm, flexibility and motivation to meet the needs of the job role.
• Adhere to the NMC code of conduct
• Adhere and work in accordance with QVS policies.
• Professional attitude/ enthusiastic, positive and a sense of humour.
• Ability to display compassion and understanding to children and adolescents.
• Ability to a rotational shift pattern including weekends and willing to provide cover due to sickness within department.
• Maintain own personal profile and meet the requirements for NMC revalidation.

Desirable

• Be involved in any aspects of training that needs to be cascaded to the whole team.
• A desire to fulfil self-development opportunities and training.

Qualifications

Registered General Nursing qualification RGN/RSCN.
Evidence of qualification/Licence/Membership will be required at interview.
All qualifications/licences/memberships declared must be held at point of application and if applicable be in date. Equivalent Qualifications will not be accepted.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Working Together
• Communicating and Influencing
• Managing a Quality Service

We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:

• Working Together

Benefits

Benefits for QVS employees include:

• NHS Pension
• Personal and professional development opportunities.
• Part of a forward-looking organisation with inclusive workplace policies and prides itself on being a supportive employer.
• Access to the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP), a free service that assists you with achieving a productive, healthy environment that is conducive to a healthy lifestyle.
• On campus car parking.
• Access to excellent sports facilities, including a multi-gym.
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity

Discover My Benefits:

Please follow the link to visit the Discover My Benefits site which showcases the benefits and discounts offered when working as a civilian for the MOD:

https://discovermybenefits.mod.gov.uk/civilian/

This post does not offer any assistance with Relocation Allowances.

Please be advised that the Department is conducting a review of all pay related allowances which could impact on those allowances that the post currently being advertised attracts.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

At sift you will be assessed on:

Experience

Candidates will be required to provide a CV, details to include job history; qualification details and previous skills and experience.

Candidates will be expected to provide a Personal Statement (up to 750 words) detailing how they meet the criteria in the Person Specification detailed above along with the following Civil Service Behaviour:

• Working Together

At interview you will be assessed against the above along with the following Civil Service Behaviour's:

• Communicating and Influencing
• Managing a Quality Service

The Ministry of Defence adopts a zero-tolerance approach to unacceptable behaviours, which includes bullying, harassment, sexual harassment, discrimination, and victimisation. You will not be eligible and will not be considered for this post if you have been dismissed from a role for such unacceptable behaviours within the last five years. This will also apply if you resign or otherwise leave a role but, because of an adverse decision, would have been dismissed for gross misconduct had you continued in that employment. Pre-employment checks will be carried out.

As a result of the changes to the UK immigration rules which came into effect on 1 January 2021, the Ministry of Defence will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa under the points-based system, where a role has been deemed to be business critical. The role currently being advertised has not been assessed as business critical and is therefore NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points-based system. Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected, and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn.

The Ministry of Defence requires all candidates who are successful at interview to declare any outside interests. These declarations will be discussed with successful candidates following the interview process and before a formal offer of employment is made, as some outside interests may not be compatible with MOD civilian roles. This will not, in the majority of cases, prevent employment in MOD, but it is a measure that must be taken to ensure that appropriate mitigation’s can be put in place to manage any potential, perceived or actual conflicts of interest from the first day of employment.

MOD Recruitment Satisfaction Survey – We may contact you regarding your experience to help us improve our customer satisfaction. The survey is voluntary and anonymous. You may however be given the opportunity to provide additional information to help us improve our service which includes the collection of some personal data as defined by the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). The MOD Privacy Notice sets out how we will use your personal data and your rights.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : Laura Dean
• Email : RC-DCS-HQ-SAFE@mod.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : DBSCivPers-ResourcingTeam1@mod.gov.uk

Further information

Please see Further Information document attached.

Attachments

20241009 - Further Information - External (4) Opens in new window (docx, 34kB)Defence Civil Service Offer (3) Opens in new window (pdf, 1562kB)QVS_Band_5_nurse_JD_20260225 Opens in new window (docx, 43kB)