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

Occupational Therapist - Band 6

Home First Team (West)

If you are looking for an opportunity to contribute to the development of a crisis team; deliver person-centered care; prevent inpatient admissions; and to support clients to remain in the community where there are the best outcomes for recovery, then this role could be for you. A vacancy has arisen for a Band 6 Senior Occupational Therapist working within the Crisis Response Home First Team, based at the Derwent Centre, Hamstel Road, Harlow, CM20 1QX.

This post will particularly suit a highly motivated, recovery-focused, experienced and skilled Occupational Therapist. You will be competent in the management of high-risk clients, with a focus on utilising Occupational Therapy approaches and interventions that support recovery through a period of crisis care.

Main duties of the job

This is an ideal opportunity to promote the role of OT within a busy, multidisciplinary crisis team, including nurses, support workers, psychiatrists and psychologists. We are seeking a resilient, enthusiastic individual with good interpersonal skills, an ability to work flexibly, positively and autonomously with clients. A good sense of humour also helps!

As the sole Occupational Therapist in the team, you will be encouraged to develop the OT role, in particular taking responsibility for running groups focusing on recovery and coping skills. We have a number of OT's in our crisis teams throughout the Trust and there is the opportunity to link in to a monthly support forum to share good practice and feel connected to your profession.

As an individual, you will be committed to continue your own professional development and actively participate in providing a variety of learning opportunities for the team and service. In return, we offer excellent training and development through our Workforce Development Department and within the service. Support is maintained through regular supervision, an OT support forum and yearly appraisals to assist you, the successful candidate, in setting realistic objectives, enabling you to maintain your positivity and passion for delivering quality customer care.

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

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Clinical Duties:

1. To contribute to assessments of service users to establish whether they can benefit from occupational therapy intervention whilst under the Home First Team.

2. To undertake specialist ADL assessments when required and make subsequent recommendations for further occupational therapy intervention.

3. To liaise directly with social care and community occupational therapists to ensure any recommendations made following ADL assessments are communicated.

4. To make decisions on the level of intervention required and undertake treatment planning; communicating and negotiating treatment plans and clinical reasoning for intervention with clients, their carer(s) and other healthcare professionals involved in the individual's care.

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

6. To work in collaboration with others to modify aspects of the environment both within the clients home and at the base in clinic rooms in order to empower clients, facilitate optimal functional performance and ensure their needs are met to the best of your ability.

7. To liaise with in-patient and community-based services to ensure a smooth transfer of care through the services.

8. To provide OT specific interventions to meet the needs of clients using individual or group formats; utilising clinical reasoning processes and the service users views to determine the most appropriate method of treatment.

9. To make clinically informed decisions in order to delegate aspects of the service users care to assistants, junior staff, students, the carer(s) and statutory or non-statutory bodies.

10. To utilize outcome measures and frequent reviews of a client's progress in order to evaluate and interpret the effectiveness of treatment plans, and amend treatment or discharge clients accordingly.

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

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

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

13. 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 attend clinical case discussions and meetings to ensure an MDT approach to client care.

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

3. To undertake day-to-day clinical prioritisation of work.

4. To identify clinical service needs and initiate projects, which could be developed in order to meet these needs.

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

6. To contribute constructively to multi-disciplinary team working.

Person specification

Qualifications & Prof Reg

Essential criteria

• HCPC Registration
• OT BSc/MSc Degree

Skills & Experience

Essential criteria

• At least 2 years post qualification experience in relevant service
• Experience of carrying out individual interventions and group work

Desirable criteria

• Experience of working in a crisis team

Please note - staff who are formally at risk within the organisation will be given priority in securing alternative employment. Should it come to light that a post being advertised by the Trust is considered 'suitable alternative employment' to an individual who is at risk, the recruiting manager will be advised and the post will be withdrawn from NHS Jobs.

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, 720.5KB)
• Person Specification (PDF, 520.6KB)
• Why Join The NHS Pension Scheme (PDF, 91.3KB)
• 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)
• EPUT Staff Benefits (PDF, 89.3KB)