Highly Specialist Occupational Therapist

Job overview

The Service for Complex Assessment of Neurodevelopment (SCAN) previously known as the Social Development Clinic (SDC) based at the Royal Manchester Childrens Hospital Harrington Building provides specialist assessment of highly complex presentations of neurodevelopmental conditions for children and young people aged 3 to 18 years with complex neurodevelopmental differences, meaning differences in how the brain develops and how someone learns, communicates, and understands the world.

We use a whole-person, holistic approach, which means we think about everything that might be affecting a young person’s development and wellbeing, including:

• Different developmental and learning needs
• Environment and experiences at home, school, and in the community
• Any genetic or physical health factors that might play a part

Our service is for children and young people who still need answers or support after local assessments. We help when there are unresolved questions about a diagnosis or to explore ways to best support a young person’s needs.

This is a tier 4 service that provides further in-depth assessment of children and young people who have been assessed by locality CAMHS or community paediatric services and have been unable to conclude due to complex differential factors, such as but not limited to genetic conditions and in utero exposure to medicines.

Main duties of the job

You will provide specialist occupational therapy assessment in line with the service overview whilst also contributing to the MDT decision making in a highly specialist service assessing across the spectrum of neurodevelopmental needs.

This will be done alongside colleagues from Psychiatry, Psychology, Speech and Language Therapy, Nurse Specialists, CAMHS, Paediatrics and Occupational Therapy.

While primarily a role providing specialist occupational therapy assessment, you will be required to contribute to highly complex case reviews, clinical formulation and decision-making where appropriate.   You will support governance activity including performance monitoring, data quality, audit, service evaluation and improvement initiatives.

The role can be worked across the week flexibly, however, we do run the clinical assessment space as a collective on Thursday of the working week, suitable candidates would therefore need to be available on the majority of Thursdays.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

To find out more about the key responsibilities and the specific skills and experience you’ll need for this role, take a look at the Job Description & Person Specification attachments under the ‘Supporting Documents’ heading.

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Closing vacancy listings early

We welcome applications from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences. To help us manage applications fairly and give each one the time it deserves, our adverts may close early if we receive a high level of interest. Early applications are therefore encouraged.

Diversity Matters MFT is committed to promoting equality of opportunity, celebrating and valuing diversity and eliminating any form of unlawful discrimination across our workforce, ensuring our people are truly representative of the communities we serve. All individuals regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation are encouraged to apply for this post. As an inclusive employer, we are here to support you. If you have any special requirements to help you with your application, please contact the manager named below.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in your application

Here at Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, we’re proud to be ALL HERE FOR YOU—for our patients, our communities, and each other. As part of our commitment to fairness, transparency, and personal integrity, we ask all applicants to ensure that their job applications reflect their own experiences, skills, and motivations. While AI tools can support spelling, grammar, or formatting, we expect that the content of your application—especially personal statements and responses to role-specific questions—is written by you. This helps us get to know the real you and ensures that our recruitment process remains equitable and meaningful for everyone.

Thank you for helping us uphold the values that make our Trust a place where people belong, grow, and thrive. We look forward to receiving your application.