Senior Occupational Therapist

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About Us

EPUT provides community health, mental health and learning disability services to support more than 3.2 million people living across Bedfordshire, Essex and Suffolk. Also:

• We are among the largest employers in the in the East of England region, with more than 10,000 staff working across more than 200 sites.
• We run the COVID-19 vaccination programme across mid and south Essex and Suffolk and north east Essex.

EPUT was formed on 1 April 2017 following the merger of North Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (NEP) and South Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (SEPT). A new leadership team was established at the Trust in 2020.
Our vision and values

Our Vision

"To be the leading health and wellbeing service in the provision of mental health and community care".

Our Purpose

"We care for people every day. What we do together, matters".

Our Values

• We Care
• We Learn
• We Empower

Our strategic objectives

• We will deliver safe, high quality integrated care services.
• We will enable each other to be the best that we can.
• We will work together with our partners to make our services better.
• We will help our communities to thrive.

Our services

• Mental Health Services
• Community Health Services
• Learning Disabilities Services
• Social Care

Find out more about the services we offer in our service directory.

Job overview

This is an opportunity to work in both Functional and Organic wards providing therefore excellent broad based clinical experience covering both mental and physical health.

The role has a strong Occupational Therapy focus with experienced OTAs. As a professional group we meet weekly - be it virtually so there is a sense of belonging, regular opportunity for support, clinical sharing and service development.

We have tried and tested clinical pathways and procedures to support the patient's episode of care.

Main duties of the job

To work as part of the MDT to enable the smooth transition from hospital through effective assessment to the community.

To liaise with stakeholders to facilitate discharge.

To lead a team in the provision of Occupational Therapy assessments and interventions and ensure effective communication between all parties.

To ensure appropriate interventions are provided for patients.

To analyse complex information that informs the MDT to enable decisions to be made and problems solved

Working for our organisation

EPUT are looking for motivated staff who shares our Trust values of Care, Learn and Empower. In return, EPUT can offer you a range of benefits and development including;

• Season Ticket Loans
• NHS discounts for staff
• Excellent Training facilities and opportunities
• Buying and Selling annual leave scheme
• The opportunity to work bank shifts and expand knowledge and experience in other areas
• Salary Sacrifice schemes including lease cars and Cycle to Work
• Day One Flexible Employer

The Trust supports and actively encourages flexible working for all employees. We offer many options and you are encouraged to ask the recruiting manager what is possible for this role. If appointed, you will have the opportunity to apply for a flexible working request from the first day of your employment

Join our Staff bank

What is Staff Bank?

Our EPUT NHS staff bank is an entity managed by the trust that hires clinical and non-clinical healthcare professionals to take on shifts at our trust hospitals and community settings. Here at EPUT we maintain our own bank of specialist staff to ensure that we are able offer safe and effective care at all times.

All our permanent staff are automatically enrolled onto the staff bank however this does not mean you have to work any additional shifts, but the option is there for you if you wish.

If you are joining our Trust in a fixed term role, please indicate on your New Starter Paperwork that you wish to join our staff bank.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES:

Clinical Duties:

1. To assess all patients on the ward using a priority system.

2. To utilise specialist assessments when presented with complex cases.

3. To make decisions on the level of treatment intervention required.

4. To undertake treatment planning, communicating and negotiating treatment plans and clinical reasoning for intervention with patients and their carers.

5. To liaise closely with community based services as required.

6. To communicate agreed treatment/care plans to multi-disciplinary team colleagues and partnership agencies and liaise with them at formal and informal meetings.

7. To work in collaboration with others to modify aspects of the environment in order to empower patients and facilitate optimal functional performance.

8. To liaise with Social Services and Housing Organisations concerning provision of equipment and home adaptations.

9. To apply a variety of treatment modalities to meet the needs of patients in individual or group format, utilising clinical reasoning processes to determine the most appropriate setting for intervention.

10. To make clinically informed decisions in order to delegate aspects of patient care to assistants, junior staff, students, carers and statutory or non-statutory bodies.

11. To regularly review patients' progress in order to evaluate and interpret effectiveness of treatment plans, and amend treatment or discharge patients accordingly.

12. To ensure that treatment offered is based on the best available evidence for effectiveness in the specialist area where it is applied.

13. To develop and initiate interventions based on the integration of theoretical knowledge in order to meet unique patient needs.

14. To keep up to date clinical records in line with professional standards and local record keeping policies.

15. To provide written and verbal reports as required at any stage in the treatment process in line with Occupational Therapy Clinical Governance Standards.

Indirect Clinical Duties:

1. To plan and co-ordinate the specialist Occupational Therapy Service within the Acute Older Adult in-patient services, planning and prioritising work for self and junior staff.

2. To attend clinical case discussions at meetings or ward rounds, providing specialist professional advice and recommendations.

3. To participate in clinical audit, research and evidence based practice.

4. To initiate and lead projects to meet identified service needs.

5. To promote the roles and skills of Occupational Therapy to other professionals, students, patients and carers.

6. To contribute constructively to multi-disciplinary team working by contributing to policies and procedures for Occupational Therapy and close liaison with other professionals.

Profession Specific Duties:

1. To attend professional Occupational Therapy meetings as required.

2. To attend appropriate training events as appropriate.

3. To maintain a continuing professional development portfolio.

4. To undertake annual appraisal.

5. To contribute constructively to the supervision process.

6. To provide supervision and day to day operational management to junior staff in the Acute Older Adult in-patient Department.

7. To supervise students.

8. To occasionally represent the Occupational Therapy profession at service development forums.

9. To comply with policies and agreed procedures for annual leave, sickness and time owing.

10. To complete daily diary sheets for statistical purposes.

Person specification

Experience

Essential criteria

• Mental Health
• Older Adults
• Life Experience

Desirable criteria

• In-patients
• Physical health
• Volunteering/personal development

Knowledge

Essential criteria

• Volunteering/Personal growth
• Physical Health

Desirable criteria

• vdTMoCA
• Team Leadership

!Important Professional References

Make sure that as a part of your application you have professional references with business contract information covering your last three year employment history. We are unable to accept personal or character references.

As a newly appointed employee you are responsible for incurring the cost of your initial DBS check relevant to your post, the amount will be deducted from your first salary with the Trust.

Applications for Job Share are positively welcomed.

Equal Opportunities Employer

Our Trust is an Equal Opportunities Employer. We particularly welcome applications from people with experience of using mental health services. We also hold the Disability two tick symbol and have made the pledge to commit to employing more people with learning disabilities, we encourage people with a disability to apply. If you require this application form in another format i.e. Braille or audio tape etc, please contact the Recruitment Department on 01375 364513 or email epunft.recruitment.adverts@nhs.net and we can arrange for this to be dispatched to you.

The Trust has the right to expire vacancies prior to the closing date if they so wish. The Trust makes every attempt to contact all applicants and we strongly advise that you check the email account which is registered with NHS Jobs regularly, we would advise however due to the high number of applications we receive that if you have not heard from us within three weeks of the closing date your application has been unsuccessful on this occasion.

We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults, and expect all staff to undertake this commitment. Applicants will be subject to robust safer recruitment processes.

Covid Vaccination

Although Covid vaccinations are no longer a mandatory requirement within the NHS we continue to encourage and support the vaccination uptake as this remains the best line of defence against Covid19. The safety of our staff and patients is a top priority for us at EPUT.

If you would like to book a Covid vaccination or would like more information please contact us by emailing epunft.cv19hr@nhs.net.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

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.

Documents to download

• Job Description (PDF, 712.5KB)
• Person Specification (PDF, 368.6KB)
• Functional Requirements (PDF, 208.6KB)
• EPUT Pledge - Step into Health (PDF, 211.0KB)
• Candidate Privacy Policy (PDF, 336.6KB)
• Right to Work Information (PDF, 293.6KB)
• Employer Recognition Scheme - Gold Award (PDF, 27.7KB)
• Trust Vision and Values (PDF, 168.9KB)
• Values of the NHS Pension (PDF, 151.3KB)