Lead Occupational Therapist

Job overview

Are you a passionate and experienced Occupational Therapist ready to take the next step into a leadership role?

At Leeds & York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, we are looking for a values-driven Lead Occupational Therapist to lead and champion Occupational Therapy across our Adult Acute inpatient services. This is a unique opportunity to shape how occupation, recovery and meaningful activity can sit at the heart of acute mental health care.

This is a leadership role where you will:

• Lead and define the Occupational Therapy pathway across Adult Acute Services
• Ensure service users can engage in meaningful occupation, develop function and build recovery
• Provide a strong professional voice for OT across the Service Line
• Influence service development, innovation and future models of care

You will work across inpatient settings at the Newsam and Becklin Centres, supporting wards to deliver high-quality, therapeutic, recovery-focused interventions.

As Lead OT, you will shape and further develop this offer—ensuring it is meaningful, structured, and rooted in occupational science.

Main duties of the job

You will combine advanced clinical expertise with strategic leadership to lead Occupational Therapy across Adult Acute Services. As a visible and accessible professional leader, you will inspire and support OT staff while championing the role and value of Occupational Therapy across the service. You will provide specialist advice, clinical reasoning and consultation for complex cases, and ensure that person-centred, recovery-oriented practice is embedded consistently within teams. Alongside this, you will lead the development of a cohesive and high-quality OT pathway across inpatient services, driving quality improvement, audit and the use of evidence-based practice. You will play a key role in shaping innovative ways of working that maximise engagement, activity and therapeutic culture on wards, whilst also contributing to wider Trust strategy and AHP leadership priorities. The role also includes a strong workforce development focus, supporting supervision, learning and professional growth for OT staff, as well as contributing to student education and future workforce development. You will work collaboratively within the multi-disciplinary team, building strong relationships with ward leaders, matrons and senior clinicians, and representing Occupational Therapy at service, Trust and external forums.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

We recruit people based on their values and qualifications (where required) and believe that their lived experience is an advantage, this means that together we are as diverse as the communities we care for. Simply put, when we employ caring people who act with integrity and have the right skills, we can give those with mental health challenges, learning disabilities and neurodiversity high-quality care and support to live fulfilling lives, and make our staff feel purposeful, happy and valued.

All our information is available in accessible formats. Please contact the Recruitment team [email protected]

Attached to this advert is our candidates guide to values-based recruitment and supporting guidance on how to make a successful application.

If you require a reasonable adjustment, please contact the Recruitment Team or see the attached candidate guide to reasonable adjustments.

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

So that you’re even more equipped to make an informed decision to apply to us, you’ll need to take time to read the Candidate Guide to Values Based Recruitment. This document provides you with information to help you apply.