Lead Allied Healthcare Professional / Occupational Therapist

Job overview

The Band 8a Occupational Health AHP Lead is a senior clinical and managerial role responsible for the leadership, governance and development of the Occupational Health Therapy service within the organisation.

The post holder provides day‑to‑day operational and strategic management of the Therapy Team, acts as the clinical lead for specialist therapy services within Occupational Health, and delivers high‑quality, evidence‑based therapeutic interventions, including the assessment and treatment of a highly complex personal caseload across a variety of settings.

Working collaboratively with other healthcare professionals and senior AHP partners, the post holder provides professional and operational supervision to the therapies team and ensures access to appropriate specialist supervision for themselves and their staff. The role contributes to the overall success of the Occupational Health, Wellbeing & Staff Psychology department by ensuring Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are met, service outcomes are monitored, and continuous learning and development is embedded within the team, subject to available funding.

The post requires a flexible approach to working, including the ability to undertake weekend commitments when required, to meet service demands.

The post holder must have access to a car for business purposes and have a full, clean UK driver's licence.

Main duties of the job

Clinical Responsibilities

• Manage and deliver a highly complex personal caseload within Occupational Health and Wellbeing (OHW), including assessment, intervention planning and monitoring of complex conditions; senior clinician for the most complex cases.
• Provide highly specialist Occupational Health advice to patients/clients, carers and other health professionals, including expert input linked to clinical governance considerations.
• Develop and coordinate delivery of specialist programmes of care across Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy services.
• Complete outreach and project‑based clinical work aligned to Trust priorities (e.g. hotspot initiatives).
• Apply advanced professional knowledge gained through degree‑level education and postgraduate or Master’s‑equivalent training to specialist practice.

Leadership

• Provide professional and operational leadership for the Occupational Health Therapy team.
• Coordinate supervision and appraisal of senior and junior therapy staff in line with local guidelines.
• Provide oversight of junior staff clinical delivery, including observation of assessments where required.
• Review and reflect on own practice through professional and operational supervision.
• Contribute to national‑level guidance for Occupational Health and Work‑focused Therapists.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please see the Job Description and Person Specification

Being an exemplar and educator:

• Coordinate professional therapy student placement programmes and associated financial reimbursement.
• Provide supervision and written assessment of Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy students on practice placement.
• Coordinate and teach the therapy in‑service training programme.
• Contribute to coordination and teaching within Occupational Health departmental meetings and clinical governance programmes.
• Provide training to less experienced staff, healthcare professionals or carers within the specialist area.
• Contribute to induction and training of profession‑specific and multidisciplinary staff.
• Deliver university‑level and national teaching activity as required (e.g. twice‑yearly presentations for OT/Physiotherapy students).

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

The postholder will have access to vulnerable people in the course of their normal duties and as such this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service to check for any previous criminal convictions.