# Senior Occupational Therapist - Forston Clinic > NHS job listing from Job Clerk for Dorset Healthcare University NHS Foundation Trust. ## Canonical URLs - **HTML:** https://www.jobclerk.com/job/senior-occupational-therapist-forston-clinic/1d2040dd-cacf-46e3-b903-2f2158463de9 - **Markdown:** https://www.jobclerk.com/job/senior-occupational-therapist-forston-clinic/1d2040dd-cacf-46e3-b903-2f2158463de9.md ## Summary - **Status:** Live - **Employer:** Dorset Healthcare University NHS Foundation Trust - **Location:** St Ann's Hospital - **Workplace type:** onsite - **Profession:** Occupational Therapist - **Grade:** Band 6 - **Salary:** £39,959 - £48,117 p.a. - **Contract type:** Permanent - **Employment type:** Full time, Flexible working, 37.5 hours per week (Monday - Friday) - **Closing date:** 2026-10-22T22:59:00.000Z - **Posted:** 2026-10-08T11:37:05.957Z - **Source information URL:** https://www.healthjobsuk.com/job/UK/Dorset/Charlton_Down/Dorset_HealthCare_University_NHS_Foundation_Trust/Adult_Mental_Health/Adult_Mental_Health-v8331639 - **Application URL:** https://apps.trac.jobs/job-advert/8331639?ShowJobAdvert=&feedid=9002 - **Employer website:** https://www.dorsethealthcare.nhs.uk ## Job Content ### Job overview An exciting opportunity for an Occupational Therapist to work within the West Dorset Therapies Team at Forston Clinic. You will have the opportunity to practice a diverse range of functional assessments, devising creative and meaningful goal orientated interventions both on the ward and in the community, using outcome measures to monitor progress. You will work closely with community resources, offering social prescribing and linking patients into third sector organisations to support with the transition of discharge. Your work will aim to encourage engagement in meaningful and purposeful occupation with people whose lives have been affected by occupational disruption as a result of mental illness. You will receive regular supervision from the Therapies Team Lead and be connected to a peer support network. Ongoing learning and development and regular CPD opportunities will be made available to you. ### Main duties of the job Your work will aim to encourage engagement in meaningful and purposeful occupation, with people whose lives have been affected by occupational disruption as a result of mental illness. You will be required to provide a high-quality person-centred approach to care delivery that always considers people’s safety, privacy and dignity and to deliver person-centred interventions that support patients with their transition back into the community. Working closely with the wider MDT will be essential to delivering a holistic, meaningful and purposeful level of Occupational Therapy which supports patients on the ward as well as with their transition into the community. Other duties will include liaising with external services, communicating with family members and providing discharge reports for recommendations of ongoing care and support. You will be involved in the leadership within the Therapies Team, providing a supportive and professional model for junior staff, and sharing your knowledge for teaching proposes. This is an exciting opportunity to be involved in service and quality improvement projects, as well as supporting the development of junior staff. As a condition of your employment, you will be required to undertake and pass all aspects of a Prevention and Management of Violence and Aggression course. ### Detailed job description and main responsibilities For the main duties and responsibilities for this role please read the attached job description and person specification. When completing your application please ensure your supporting statement reflects the criteria set out in these documents by showing how your experience and skills apply to this post. We understand that AI can be a useful tool when completing your application. However, we are seeing an increasing over-reliance of AI tools, which can negatively affect your application as it reduces a candidate’s individuality, and makes it difficult for us to gain a clear and authentic understanding of your experience, skills, and in turn your suitability for the role. All submissions must be truthful and if you do use AI, it should only be used to enhance your application and not create your supporting statement in its entirety. Your supporting statement should be in your own words and must accurately reflect your personal experience and achievements. Where we have concerns that AI has been used to generate content that misrepresents your experience and suitability for the role, we may withdraw your application. As part of our vision to have a skilled, diverse and caring workforce, Dorset HealthCare offers support for people getting into work. We offer an employability service to support individuals with application writing, interview skills and other employment support. If you would like or know of anyone who would value this support, please do contact dhc.wideningparticipation@nhs.net. ### Applicant requirements You must have appropriate UK professional registration. This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service. ## Person Specification ### Business Travel **Essential** - Subject to the provisions of the Equality Act, able to travel using own vehicle on Trust business - Level 1 ### Additional Requirements **Essential** - Demonstrable skills in written and spoken English to a standard which enables the post holder to carry out the full range of duties and responsibilities of the role effectively ### Job Specific Experience **Essential** - Post graduate relevant experience - Knowledge of the legislative framework within which Occupational Therapists work - Comprehensive knowledge and application of occupational therapy assessments and interventions relevant to the client group - Ability to prioritise and organise workload effectively - Experience of developing specialist programmes of care for an individual or groups of patients/clients and of providing highly specialist advice - Able to demonstrate specialist clinical reasoning skills to assimilate information in order to make a clinical judgement regarding assessment intervention - Competent in writing correspondence and report - Documented evidence of continuous professional development - Effective team working skills - Knowledge of the principles of clinical governance and its application - Previous experience of working in the community and inpatient settings - An understanding of emotional and physical impact of illness / disability on an individual and their family / carers - Experience in teaching in house training sessions Interview to own profession and others - Willingness to complete Breakaway and PMVA training ### Knowledge, Skills and Training **Essential** - Degree Level in Occupational Therapy - Membership of Royal College of Occupational Therapists (RCOT) - Current HCPC registration - Evidence of recent professional development in an up-to-date portfolio **Desirable** - Membership of specialist section of RCOT - Knowledge and understanding of Trust Strategy relevant to role ### Personal Qualities and Attributes **Essential** - Evidence of demonstrating the Trust’s values and behaviours - Able to communicate effectively at different levels of the organisation and with staff, patient/service users, visitors or external organisations both verbally and in writing in the exchange of highly complex, sensitive or contentious information which may require the use of negotiating and/or persuasive skills - Able to overcome barriers to understanding where there are physical or mental disabilities - Able to analyse and assess situations and to interpret potentially conflicting situations and determine appropriate action, where there is a range of options and judgement is required - Experience of planning and organising complex activities, e.g. organise own time and that of junior staff and learners, planning off duty rotas and undertaking discharge planning involving co-ordination with other agencies - Ability to use own initiative within sphere of authority - Demonstrable ability of using tact and diplomacy - Demonstrable ability to analyse situations and provide a resolution - Knowledge and understanding of legislation relevant to practice - Ability to evaluate care leading to improvement in quality standards an service improvement - Demonstrable leadership qualities and the ability to perform as a role model - Willingness to advance own clinical knowledge, skill and competence based on current evidence ### Managerial / Supervisory Experience **Essential** - Experience of providing clinical supervision and mentoring to junior staff - Experience of devising and delivering training - Demonstrate experience of effective team working - Able to effectively manage available resources in the pursuit of quality service provision ensuring a safe environment - Knowledge of local and national resources ### Information and Technology Resources **Essential** - Able to analyse data and produce reports using Microsoft Excel and Word - Experience of using electronic patient / service user record systems ## Documents - [jd (pdf, 223.8kb)](https://www.healthjobsuk.com/documents?vdoc=10678335) - [ps (pdf, 274.1kb)](https://www.healthjobsuk.com/documents?vdoc=10678336) - [dbs information (pdf, 22.9kb)](https://www.healthjobsuk.com/documents?edoc=2340) - [staff benefits leaflet (pdf, 316.1kb)](https://www.healthjobsuk.com/documents?edoc=695) - [pay scales from 1 april 2025 (pdf, 44.6kb)](https://www.healthjobsuk.com/documents?edoc=1941) - [pmva information sheet and video (pdf, 75.5kb)](https://www.healthjobsuk.com/documents?edoc=997) - [applications recruitment flowchart (pdf, 434.1kb)](https://www.healthjobsuk.com/documents?edoc=866) ## Agent Notes - This Markdown page is generated from the same Job Clerk job record as the HTML job detail page. - Use the canonical HTML URL for user-facing references. - Use the application URL when the user wants to apply on the source NHS site.