Head of Occupational Therapy - Health & Justice Services

Job overview

Head of Occupational Therapy – Health & Justice Services – 0.60 wte Band 8a

We have an exciting opportunity for an experienced Occupational Therapist to join as Head of Occupational Therapy.

Reporting to the Service Director, you will work closely with our Health & Justice Services and other health professionals to provide high-quality, innovative care. You will be an exceptional Occupational Therapy leader with a proven track record in senior occupational therapy roles and a passion for developing and advancing practice. You will demonstrate a commitment to the highest standards of care and patient experience, and the ability to lead improvement and innovation in secure environments. You will deliver on a quality, safety and patient experience portfolio, with close working relationships with the Heads of Service Lines and other Professional Heads. You will work closely with CNWL’s Head of Occupational Therapy and Head OT’s in the other Directorates across the Trust.

You will be expected to travel across our various services in London, Buckinghamshire, Surrey  and Kent sites.

Main duties of the job

• The post holder will be responsible for the leadership of Health & Justice (H&J) Occupational Therapists having direct professional leadership responsibility for the all occupational therapists working in the service line across the trust.
• The post holder will be responsible for ensuring that occupational therapy staff in H&J provide equitable, effective evidence-based assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation of care that meets professional and organisational quality standards.
• The post holder will be responsible for ensuring occupational therapy staff in H&J deliver evidence-based interventions that support service user recovery.
• The post holder will be responsible for having oversight of the H&J OT staffing, supporting teams to maintain safe staffing levels in line with patient need.
• The post holder will provide clinical leadership for H&J OT’s being a role model for the profession, in a structured model (H&J Head OT to supervise band 7 H&J OTs, who supervise band 6, etc.).
• The post holder will link to trust wide professional lead structures at all times and attend relevant strategic leadership meetings.
• The post holder will initiate and lead on quality initiatives across the H&J service relating to OT.
• The post holder will work as part of H&J Senior Leadership Team to provide professional guidance and exercise lead responsibility for the systematic governance of occupational therapy practice.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Leadership

• To have overall responsibility for the safe and effective delivery of care to patients working with OT’s in H&J.
• To provide OT leadership within the H&J services.
• To work with service leads to have a workforce plan for OT; maintaining safe staffing levels in H&J OT posts, minimising vacancies and working to support timely recruitment and selection processes.
• To have oversight of H&J OT staff training and development needs, linking into corporate education teams as needed.
• To lead or participate in the investigation of complaints and incidents relating to own service area or other areas if required.
• Ensure that all H&J OT staff have up to date appraisals and job plans, and OT staff are up to date with mandatory training.
• To review and monitor the clinical performance of occupational therapy staff across H&J, ensuring that their interventions are commensurate with the required competency.
• To ensure effective use of System1 for the professional including links to trust data performance projects and targets.
• To support the H&J OTs meet all Key Performance Indicators and operational requirements linked to OT.
• To chair regular professional team meetings to ensure effective team communication, clinical excellence and staff support.
• To work across H&J to monitor, the activity data for OT’s, participating in process audits and working with the Reporting Teams in improving the quality of data.
• To provide rapid and effective support to H&J OT staff in order to solve problems, handle informal patient feedback and to convey difficult or contentious information in a sensitive and skilled manner
• To communicate service information when required to OT staff, in an effective and professional manner.
• To occasionally provide high quality clinical leadership and support to staff outside of own profession.
• To undertake professional duties in line with Trust values – Compassion, Respect Empowerment, Partnership, and the principles of SCARF.
• Monitor and support delivery of occupational therapy services in line with the wider trust OT priorities; reporting to Head of Profession for Occupational Therapy Profession through reports and meetings.
• Contribute to strategic planning for H&J OT’s in line with the divisional, Trust and ICB priorities.
• Ensure that current national professional OT standards are embedded into clinical practice policy and guidance within H&J services.

Quality Management.

• To initiate and lead on quality improvement initiatives relevant to H&J OT.
• Be responsible for staff learning from incidents and near misses and ensuring this learning is embedded into perinatal OT practice and culture.
• To ensure that each patient under the care of H&J occupational therapy, and any other staff delegated to manage has a comprehensive assessment of need, including risk assessment and that their care is culturally appropriate.
• Ensure that all OT staff members receive clinical, professional and managerial supervision in line with Trust requirements, monitoring the quality and effectiveness of this activity as reflected in clinical practice.
• To support the financial management of H&J OT resource in teams.
• Enable sharing of best practice and reduce duplication.
• Improve service efficiency through collaboration.

Clinical Practice

• The post holder will provide OT clinical leadership for H&J teams.
• To undertake highly skilled and complex clinical activities for identified service or provide professional OT consultation to H&J services.
• To act as an effective role model to OT staff and promote positive attitudes to care.
• To provide clinical expertise in H&J occupational therapy.
• To support and develop a culture of OT research activity within H&J teams.

OT Professional Governance Arrangements

• Provide clinical and professional leadership which ensures an effective, cohesive & coordinated framework for H&J OT.
• Ensure existing robust professional supervision arrangements are in place which provides assurance to the teams and wider organisation, that we have safe and effective practitioners.
• Ensure H&J OT staff meet the Royal College of Occupational Therapy standards; and provide evidence for individual OTs to maintain their HCPC registration.
• To ensure professional competence and oversee HCPC fitness to practice concerns.  Including support for staff, coordination with the operational leads and Trust Head of Occupational Therapy.
• Minimise organisational risk through governance oversight.
• Ensure that robust governance arrangements are in place for registered H&J OTs, who are employed in generic roles, where professional registration with a governing body is defined as ‘essential’ criteria in the role’s person specification.
• Consolidate information from the teams on H&J OT supervision, Job planning and appraisals.
• Complete OT data returns and feedback issues to Trust OT leads.
• Ensure timely and effective response and engagement.
• Translate the CNWL OT Research and Development Strategy, NICE guidelines etc. into clinical practice for H&J OT, ensuring evidence-based practice is delivered across services.
• Coordinate OT student placements across H&J teams ensuring all staff facilitate the agreed standards around practice placements e.g. number of weeks as a Practice Placement Educator, are suitably trained to take a student, provide a high quality placement.
• Ensure regular and routine audit and evaluation of services resulting in responsive changes to the delivery of OT Services.
• Maintain own Continuous Professional Development.