Highly Specialist Children’s Occupational Therapist

Job overview

Highly Specialist Occupational Therapist –Band 7  Enfield Children’s Services (Fern Special School) 0.5WTE

We are seeking a creative, friendly, and enthusiastic Occupational Therapist to join our established Children’s Therapy Team as a Highly Specialist Band 7 OT based at Fern Special School.

In this rewarding role, you will deliver occupational therapy to children and young people aged 5–16 with Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) needs and Autism. Alongside clinical work, you will contribute to service development, audits, and staff training, helping to shape and enhance the quality of care we provide.

Although primarily school-based, you will be part of a wider, supportive OT service  that includes therapists working across schools and community settings (19 team members). We pride ourselves on being a dynamic and welcoming team with high staff satisfaction, offering clinical leadership, Monthly in-service training, High-quality supervision and access to a wide range of internal and external training opportunities

We are looking for someone committed to occupation-focused, family-centred, and evidence-based practice.

Essential requirements:

• Qualified Occupational Therapist
• Experience working with children and/or in community, learning disabilities, autism, or SEMH settings

We are proud to be part of the Royal Free London North Mid NHS Trust, with excellent transport links to central London and Hertfordshire.

Main duties of the job

The post holder will work as a highly specialist Band 7 Occupational Therapist within Fern Special School, providing occupational therapy input to children and young people aged 5–16 years with Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) needs and Autism.

Fern School delivers a relational, inclusive, attachment-aware and trauma-informed approach to education. The OT role will be central in supporting pupils to access a sensory-informed, experiential curriculum adapted from the National Curriculum.

The post holder will:

• Take a lead role in establishing and developing the OT provision within the school
• Deliver targeted and specialist interventions aligned with EHCP outcomes
• Work collaboratively with teaching staff, SLT, and play therapy services to support functional participation and engagement
• Provide high-quality, child and family centred, occupation-focused assessment and intervention, supporting pupils to maximise their participation in education and daily school life.
• Promote a whole-school approach to occupational performance
• Contribute to and lead on aspects of planning, coordinating, delivering and evaluating the Occupational Therapy service within the school, including service development, clinical pathways, and quality improvement initiatives.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Main Clinical Duties and Responsibilities

• Manage a specialist school-based caseload of children and young people with SEMH needs, Autism and co-occurring complexities, providing high-quality occupational therapy assessment and intervention.
• Lead the development and delivery of an evidence-based Occupational Therapy service within Fern School, including universal, targeted and specialist provision, aligned with EHCP outcomes.
• Deliver school-based (and where appropriate home-based) intervention, supporting pupils to access learning, develop independence, and prepare for adulthood.
• Set occupation-focused, person-centred goals collaboratively with pupils, families and school staff, ensuring shared understanding and meaningful outcomes.
• Maintain high standards of clinical practice, using evidence-based approaches and outcome measures to evaluate progress at both individual and whole-class levels.
• Work closely with teaching staff to design and deliver class-based and targeted intervention programmes.
• Apply a holistic, occupation-centred approach, analysing the dynamic interaction between the young person, their environment, and the demands of activities to support participation in key areas (Self-care, Learning and Play/leisure)
• Develop and implement individualised intervention plans, including: Direct intervention Environmental adaptations Staff and parent training Programmes and strategies to support participation
• Direct intervention
• Environmental adaptations
• Staff and parent training
• Programmes and strategies to support participation
• Build and maintain effective, supportive relationships with parents and carers, recognising the impact of stress and complexity.
• Provide education, training and advice to school staff and families to embed consistent, long-term occupational therapy strategies.
• Contribute to integrated support planning across education, health and social care, working collaboratively with: SLT and play therapy Local Authority SEN services
• SLT and play therapy
• Local Authority SEN services