Clinical Lead Paediatric Occupational Therapist

Job overview

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an experienced, positive and creative  Paediatric Occupational Therapist to join our Multidisciplinary Therapy Team.  This is a newly created post with a strong emphasis on Team Work  whilst reviewing and developing the service delivery model of Occupational Therapy at The Bridge School.

Islington Additional Needs and Disability Service (IANDS) provide a comprehensive community service to children and young people living or at school in Islington. The post holder will be responsible for providing an Occupational Therapy service for children with additional needs within The Bridge School.

The Bridge School is a provision for 4-19 year olds with significant complex needs, the majority of whom have a diagnosis of Autism.  The post holder will be a clinical specialist within the area of autism as well as having specialist knowledge and experience in a wide range of conditions relevant to the specialist school aged population.

One key area of the role is to clinically support other members of the team and develop clinical services and pathways within this area.  The post holder will work closely with other clinical leads in the service to support audit and research. The post holder will support the Team Leader in identifying clinical priorities and that appropriate packages of care are monitored and evaluated, ensuring good outcomes for children.

Main duties of the job

• To take responsibility for the day-to-day leadership of Occupational Therapy provision for children and young people attending The Bridge School, and be accountable for a designated area of work as agreed with the Head of Paediatric Therapy and Specialist School Nursing.  Plan and organise this efficiently and effectively with regard to caseload management and use of time.

• To be an expert clinical resource for other members of staff with a strong focus on evidence based and neurodiverse affirming practice.  This will include members of the specialist MDT, Children’s Services managers, education staff and social care
• To undertake a clinical caseload review & to be responsible for the provision of highly specialised assessment, treatment and management of school age children and young people presenting with a with a wide variety of conditions
• To provide highly specialist advice and peer support to Occupational Therapy, nursing, medical, social care and educational colleagues in the overall management of the child presenting with complex problems in a range of pre-school, primary, secondary and community settings.
• Developing multi-disciplinary clinical pathways for Autistic children and young people and other conditions including chronic, complex conditions.

Refer to job description for further details

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• 1.    To be professionally and legally accountable for all aspects of own work, including management of patients in your care. 2.    To complete a thorough review of current caseload and models of service deliver to ensure an equitable service to all 3.    To ensure a high standard of clinical care for the patients under your management 4.    To clinically lead a team of OTs including provision of a robust clinical supervision framework to more junior OT’s and Therapy Assistants. 5.    To work within a legal framework for those service users who lack the capacity to consent to treatment. 6.    To have skills and experience in managing complex caseloads including those requiring manual handling support and specialist equipment 7.    To manage clinical risk within own patient caseload and that of the team. 8.    To engage the child, family and carers in OT intervention and consider co-production in service development. 9.    To use evidence-based practice, audits, and published research including national and local clinical guidelines to inform own practice and that of the team. To have an advanced knowledge of national and local standards that may impact on own and the department’s practice. 10.  To ensure clinical policies are adhered to by a range of professionals including school staff 11.  To work within Trust, Health Professions Council and Royal College of Occupational Therapy (RCOT) Standards of Practice. To adhere at all times to personal and professional standards which reflect credit on the profession and encourage others to do likewise. 12.   To take a lead at clinical management meetings to ensure the delivery of a well co-ordinated multidisciplinary service including interprofessional / transdisciplinary working and delivery of integrated service. 13.  To be responsible for undertaking risk assessments of patients under own care. Document the risk assessment on the appropriate form. 14.  To maintain, develop and continually update highly specialist knowledge and own competency to practice through Continuous Professional Development (CPD) activities. 15.  To maintain a portfolio, which reflects personal and professional development (clinical, managerial and leadership), complying with your agreed personal development plan. 16.  To work collaboratively with multi-agency professionals to develop comprehensive support packages for children and their families living with complex disabling conditions, ensuring appropriate service provision in response to changing clinical and/or social situations, including transition stages. 17.  To keep informed of activities in professional clinical groups relevant to area of Paediatric Occupational Therapy, to cascade information and incorporate standards into local practice as appropriate 18.  To ensure full understanding of legal frameworks of formulating advice for EHC, to have robust evidence-based report writing skills and be able to contribute advice to inform a Tribunal Process as required.