Highly Specialist OT Augmentative Alternative Communication Service

Job overview

The Occupational Therapy team at Great Ormond Street Hospital are looking for a Band 7 Occupational Therapist with a background in Neurodisability. The successful applicant will join our Developmental and Augmentative Communication Service (DaACS).

As part of a dynamic therapy led team of Occupational Therapists, Speech and Language Therapists and a Technician, you will support the team by providing specialist assessment and advising on the functional implementation of AAC approaches and communication equipment to support occupational engagement.  The post provides an excellent opportunity to work alongside other professional groups who are experts within the field of Neurodisability in our Developmental Communication Service.  As part of this clinical team you will work closely with their colleagues to provide second opinion differential diagnoses to children and young people for whom there are questions about communication.  Experience of working with children and young people with a variety of medical and neurodevelopmental diagnoses is essential, with prior experience of delivering intervention within different services (Education, Health and Social Care) and across settings (clinics, homes and schools) advantageous. You will join our large, extremely well supported Occupational Therapy department, which has 32 Occupational Therapists working across a number of different specialties.

Main duties of the job

• To accept clinical responsibility for a designated caseload of patients, and to organise this effectively and efficiently with regard to clinical priorities and use of time
• To work within the Developmental and Augmentative Communication Service in NDS, in both the DCS and ACS streams.
• To work jointly with speech and language therapy colleagues to assess for and recommend the most appropriate AAC system for a child or young person.
• To maintain accurate, comprehensive and up-to-date documentation, in line with legal and departmental requirements, and communicate assessment and treatment results as well as recommendations for patient management to the appropriate disciplines in the form of reports and letters
• To be responsible for maintaining competency to practice through reflective practice and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) activities.  This will involve keeping up to date with current clinical practice and new developments and incorporating them as necessary. The Post holder will also be required to maintain a portfolio / learning record which reflects personal development commensurate with this level
• To work alongside MDT colleagues in order to allocate therapy resources effectively to cover the service and meet client need
• To promote the role of Occupational Therapy within the field of Augmentative and Alternative Communication, attending national meetings and conferences as appropriat

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

The full job description provides an overview of the key tasks and responsibilities of the role, and the person specification outlines the qualifications, skills, experience and knowledge required. For both documents please view the attachment/s below