Senior Occupational Therapist

Job overview

We are seeking to recruit a passionate, committed occupational therapist to join our well-established and innovative community learning disability team.

As a learning disability occupational therapist, you will use your specialist skills and understanding of the relationship between the individual, their environment and their occupations to support people with complex health needs to live well with their learning disability. You will support the team’s core business which includes assessing people’s mental and physical health, including attention to risk management and care planning, and working with families, paid carers and the wider systems that support people.

You will be joining a friendly, supportive and creative multi-disciplinary team, dedicated to achieving great outcomes for adults with learning disabilities. We are a service that has clear agreed objectives linked to the latest national policies and are dedicated to delivering the highest quality care through evidence-based care pathways. We are co-located with our social work colleagues and work closely in partnership with them.

Main duties of the job

As an occupational therapist in our team you will provide specialist occupational therapy assessments and interventions for people referred to the service as well as contributing to the core tasks of the team.

Contributing to the management of a team caseload of individuals with complex needs, you will assess, plan, implement and evaluate interventions, which will be delivered in a variety of community settings, including family homes, residential and supported living services, day services and community facilities.

You will have the flexibility to manage your workload in the community, however you will be expected to spend some time working from the central team base in Uckfield.

The successful candidate will have a passion for improving the lives of adults with learning disabilities, collaborating with colleagues and across services to deliver results, and be passionate about developing their own skills and those of colleagues. You will need to be able to manage your own diary with the ability to adapt and be flexible to suit the needs of the service.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

REQUIREMENTS

In order to be a successful specialist occupational therapist in our team you will be:

• Registered with HCPC as an occupational therapist
• Comfortable working in a complex and varied role
• Experienced working within a relevant clinical area
• Keen to develop your specialist skills to support adults with learning disabilities with their mental health, physical health and behaviour support needs

It would also be advantageous if you have:

• Experience working with people with learning disabilities

This post will be based in Uckfield and will primarily cover Eastbourne, dwins and weald. However, a willingness and ability to travel across East Sussex (and sometimes further) will be needed, as required to meet the needs of the service. SPFT staff have the capacity to work from home remotely where applicable and in agreement with your line manager.

The role is 28 hours a week hrs per week.

MAIN DUTIES

• To provide occupational therapy interventions for referred clients using evidence based, client centred principles to assess, plan, implement and evaluate interventions
• To manage an appropriate complex clinical caseload
• To complete initial assessments on behalf of the team
• To participate in the team triage rota
• To act as a lead practitioner for designated clients
• To promote evidence-based practice in occupational therapy and the relevant learning disability service
• To contribute to the development of multi-disciplinary best practice clinical guidelines and protocols.
• To contribute to the provision of high-quality practice placements

We believe our service will be the best it can be if we have a diverse workforce and one that reflects the population we serve. Our workforce is currently under-represented from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic and disabled communities and we would greatly welcome applications from these communities.

Please see attached Job Description and Person Specification for full details.

Please apply using the link in this advert, or for more information explore the attachments or contact:

Diane Chandler - Diane.chandler7@nhs.net - Professional lead for East Sussex occupational therapy

Sophie Gill - Sophie.gill8@nhs.net - Clinical Team Lead, Eastbuorne, Downs and Weald CLDT

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.