Senior Occupational Therapist

Job overview

• As the Senior OT, you will have responsibility for the OT provision on your ward, which includes managing clinical interventions using the VdT Model of Creative Ability, as well as the supervision of junior OT staff.
• To work as an autonomous professional according to the Royal College of Occupational Therapy ‘Professional standards for occupational therapy practice, conduct and ethics (2021)’ and the ‘Health Professions Council Regulations’.
• To contribute to the overall service development of the team and actively participate in Continuing Professional Development. Provide leadership through supervision, mentoring, education and training.
• To work as part of the integrated team to plan, deliver and evaluate all aspects of the patient treatment process, including discharge and referral to appropriate community based health and social care agencies.

Main duties of the job

• To assess clients referred to the service.
• To utilise specialist assessments when presented with complex cases.
• To make decisions on the level of treatment intervention required.
• To undertake treatment planning, communicating and negotiating treatment plans and clinical reasoning for intervention with clients and their carers.
• To liaise closely with community Occupational Therapy Department as required.
• To communicate agreed treatment/care plans to multi-disciplinary team colleagues and partnership agencies and liaise with them at formal and informal meetings.
• To work in collaboration with others to modify aspects of the environment in order to empower clients and facilitate optimal functional performance.
• To liaise with Social Services and Housing Organisations concerning provision of equipment and home adaptations.
• To manage a complex caseload.
• To apply a variety of treatment modalities to meet the needs of clients in individual or group format, utilising clinical reasoning processes to determine the most appropriate setting for intervention.
• To make clinically informed decisions in order to delegate aspects of client care to assistants, junior staff, students, carers and statutory or non-statutory bodies.
• To regularly review clients’ progress in order to evaluate and interpret effectiveness of treatment plans, and amend treatment or discharge clients accordingly.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Maintain and develop professional expertise in a wide range of clinical areas and conditions.

To deputise for the Clinical Lead in their absence.

Be aware of the additional responsibility of lone working.

Raise the profile of Occupational Therapy within the multi-disciplinary team and the wider community.

Be autonomously responsible for complex caseloads.

Provide clinical expertise to other members of the multi professional team.

Supervise junior staff at all levels.

Plan and prioritise departmental workload.

Develop and implement training for assistants.

Represent Occupational Therapy at senior level.

Assist in the recruitment, selection and orientation of new staff members.

Participate in the staff appraisal scheme as appraiser and appraisee. To be responsible for implementing and achieving development needs for self and junior staff identified from the performance review and development plans.

Undertake the role of Clinical Educator for Occupational Therapy students, working with colleagues to ensure the standard of clinical placements and teaching meets qualification requirements

In addition to the above duties you will also be expected to perform the below key activities in line with your job role;

- Complete mandatory training in line with Trust policy and procedures

- To participate in the staff appraisal process and to undertake for any       staff you manage

- To keep yourself updated on all matters relating to Trust policy

- To provide management supervision where appropriate