Highly Specialist Occupational Therapist, Band 7, Rehabilitation

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Highly Specialist Occupational Therapist to join our Rehabilitation Team. This role will require the successful candidate to provide a high quality, evidence based occupational therapy service, which promotes participation and functional activity of children and young people accessing neurorehabilitation, outpatient services and those on a step-down pathway.

Our service delivery aims to promote outcome focussed interventions, safe care, function and participation of children and young people. You will provide clinical leadership to the allocated house-based Therapy Team, ensuring accountability and effective communication with other teams, creating a cohesive and collaborative multidisciplinary Therapy Team.

Staff benefits include London weighting, shuttle bus, and more… Read more below

Role Requirements

You will provide high quality, evidence based occupational therapy assessment and interventions to children and young people with neurodisabilities and neurodevelopmental conditions.

Clinical Skills and Responsibilities.

• Lead the provision of high quality, evidence based occupational therapy provision for children and young people in Children and Family Services in partnership with other members of the multidisciplinary team
• Undertake specialist occupational therapy assessments of children with a range of needs including highly complex needs
• Devise and carry out therapeutic interventions that are developmentally appropriate, goal directed, and occupation centred both in terms of means and outcome.
• Devise suitable, individualised occupational therapy programmes/strategies that fit within the child’s daily routine, whether to be carried out by parents or members of the Multidisciplinary Team; these should be monitored, evaluated, and adjusted appropriately according to the needs of the child.
• Develop therapy goals, in collaboration and with the child and family/carers, as well as the MDT, to maximise recovery and facilitate the participation of the child in their daily life.
• Lead on delivering high quality, evidence based upper limb management for children and young people. This may include elements of service development and training of other members of the OT team.
• Assess for and fabricate splints and casts for function and to maintain range as part of the young person's rehabilitation programme. This will include providing guidance for caregivers/ members of the MDT to comply with the Equipment and Medical Device Policy.
• Support upper limb Botox intervention, carrying out pre- and post-assessment, devising post Botox treatment programmes and evaluating benefit for future Botox prescription.
• Offer liaison and joint work with specialist tertiary centres, contributing to upper limb reviews and management plans where necessary.
• Keep appropriate and accurate intervention records, fulfilling legal, professional and all other requirements of The Children’s Trust.
• Contribute to child related meetings and reports, including formulations, monthly meetings with parents, initial assessment reports and discharge reports, and assist with the collation of these as and when required, in a timely manner and in line with organisational targets.
• Assess for and organise provision of necessary therapy equipment. This may be loaned equipment for use at The Children’s Trust or recommendations of equipment for long-term use on return to home.
• Lead on and deliver a 24-hour rehabilitation approach to embed participation and therapeutic aims into everyday care
• Assess, evaluate, and recommend discharge/transition plans for children/young people within the multidisciplinary team framework.
• Be a positive and inspirational role model for all team members.
• Work closely with all members of the Multidisciplinary Team, as well as the child and family, to provide a fully integrated approach to the overall management of the child. This will include any home/school visits, professional child related meetings and/ or appointments, as required.
• Provide clinical cover across the service during episodes of staff shortage/heavy workload, in order to ensure effective service delivery.
• Work flexibly in terms of hours, in order to meet the needs of the service, including an early evening (weekly) and one weekend day, per calendar month.
• Represent the Therapy Team and The Children’s Trust when appropriate, deputising for the Head of Rehabilitation Therapies as required.
• Actively participate in and support the running of relevant meetings.
• Undertake other or additional duties that are within your skills and abilities, as the organisation may reasonably require from time to time.

With experience of working in a complex environment, across a large and diverse workforce, you will be exceptionally organised with a high-level of attention to detail. You will naturally possess excellent inter-personal skills, and an ability to consult and positively engage with key stakeholders across the organisation.

Interview Date: To be confirmed.

If you would like to discuss the role, please contact the Recruitment & Compliance Team, on 01737 365 880 or email: recruitment@thechildrenstrust.org.uk

For more information, a copy of the candidate briefing pack and please click here

PLEASE READ CAREFULLY – ‘How to Apply’

Please do not complete the online application form, instead please use the link above to access the internal application form and email this as directed below.  Please complete the internal application form which can be found in the information folder on the above link   Return your completed form by email to the Recruitment and Compliance Team, email recruitment@thechildrenstrust.org.uk

About Us

The Children’s Trust is the UK’s leading charity for children with acquired brain injury, providing expert rehabilitation, education, therapy, and care at our national specialist centre in Tadworth, and to children and their families across the UK, via our Brain Injury Community Service.

Boasting a beautiful 24-acre site in Surrey, we are located just outside of London, close to the M25 (accessible via Junction 8, A217 to Tadworth) and easily accessible via National Rail, by way of: Clapham Junction, Sutton, and Epsom.

Staff Benefits

The work we do is highly rewarding, and in addition to an attractive salary, we offer a valuable range of benefits, including, Zest; our staff flexible benefits platform, on-site nursery, free eye tests, enhanced Maternity and Paternity Pay, time out days for those experiencing menopause symptoms and time off for gender reassignment.

We also offer additional annual leave days for those with long service, with entitlements ranging from 35 to 41 days (including bank holidays) depending on your length of service.

Other benefits include free on-site parking; a staff shuttle service from Epsom and Sutton train stations to Tadworth Court, subsidised cafeteria, on-site staff accommodation (subject to availability), the ability to retain your NHS pension (where applicable), Teacher’s pension (where applicable) or the opportunity to join an alternative scheme, and the opportunity to develop your career in a supportive and collaborative environment.

Rehabilitation of Offenders

Many roles at The Children’s Trust are exempt from the provisions of Section 4 (2) of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974, by virtue of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (as amended in 2013 and 2020) and as such, are subject to an Enhanced DBS check.  Successful applicants will be required to complete an Enhanced Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) check, which will disclose all unspent convictions and adult cautions and any spent convictions or adult cautions that would not be protected.  The exceptions to this are our retail roles within The Children’s Trust shops, which are subject to Basic DBS checks which will disclose unspent convictions or adult cautions.

Equal Opportunity Employer

To help us achieve our ambition to give children and young people with brain injury and neurodisability the opportunity to live the best life possible, we want to accurately reflect the UK’s diverse population. We want equity, diversity, and inclusion to be at the heart of everything we do, and our people, services, and culture to reflect the diverse needs of all. Through our diversity and inclusion strategy, we have made a commitment to increase the diversity of our charity and create an inclusive culture. We have networks across the organisation working to ensure that these aims are met - including an LGBTQIA2S+ group, Ethnic Diversity Group, and Spark – our broad EDI group. Read more about our EDI work here. We welcome applications from all who share our ambition regardless of background. We will strive to ensure that any reasonable adjustments are made in respect of interview and working arrangements.

Online Searches

In accordance with statutory safeguarding and child protection guidance, online searches will be conducted for shortlisted candidates before interview. The online searches will be conducted by a person who is independent of the interview and selection process and will focus on relevant information returned via searches of the candidate’s name (and variations thereof). Social media searches will be limited to professional platforms such as LinkedIn. Any concerns relating to suitability for work with children and young people will be forwarded to the interview panel, for discussion during the interview.