Senior Occupational Therapist

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Our Trust cares for more than 100,000 patients at any one time across our community health, mental health and learning disability services across Essex and parts of Bedfordshire and Suffolk.

We want you to be part of our journey of transformation, where our patients and their families are at the heart of everything we do and to achieve our vision to be the leading health and wellbeing service in the provision of mental health and community care.

You'll be part of a Trust where you will be supported to be your authentic self and be the best you can be, where we will help you to grow, develop and thrive.

The Trust is recognised by the University of Essex and is a top provider of apprenticeships for people looking to be an assistant practitioner, senior health care support worker (CAP). Our trailblazing CAP apprenticeship won a national HSJ Award.

We are also recognised as a Veteran Aware Trust and holder of gold accreditation from the Ministry of Defence Employment Recognition Scheme. Our services are highlighted as an exemplar of good practice, producing the best care for more than 3.500 armed forces veterans in the past seven years.

We have been shortlisted and won national awards. We are an inclusive organisation and Level 3 Disability Confident Leader Trust.

We are constantly innovating and looking for new ways to deliver care, such as using technology to enhance patient care and working with partners to launch new services such as the Basildon Mental Health Urgent Care Department, virtual hospitals and falls response cars.

Join us and you'll do the best work of your life - and make a difference to other people's lives. What we do together, matters.

Job overview

This is an exciting opportunity for a Band 6 to work as part of a supportive and friendly OT team working over a number of different sites delivering group and one to one therapy sessions.

This job will give you the opportunity to screen patients for groups, prepare and lead a number of groups including Cognitive Stimulation Therapy, work closely with Multi-Disciplinary Team, attending meetings whilst also gaining experience working with patients in the community in their home environment.

You will be responsible for providing high standard of assessment, advice, treatment and evaluation of patients referred to the service. You will have regular supervision and supported with your developmental pathway.

Main duties of the job

Use appropriate assessment techniques to assess individual's abilities and difficulties in relation to their desired goals in everyday activities.

Support/supervise junior members of staff
Plan to lead groups sessions
Screen patients for groups
Manage complex cases in the community with support from senior members of staff

Working for our organisation

Valuing you. Recognising your dedication. At EPUT, we look after you.

• Receive supervision and support to help you fulfil your potential.
• Join an inclusive EPUT community and connect with others through engagement events and equality or champion networks.
• If you need help, we provide mental health and wellbeing services, occupational health advice and counselling.
• We run recognition awards to recognise staff's hard work and dedication.

Benefits

• 27 days holiday, plus bank holidays, rising to 33 days after 10 years' service.
• Excellent pension of up to14.5% of your pensionable pay.
• Staff discounts include Blue Light Card, NHS discount offers, and staff benefits.
• £8K relocation package if you move to Essex to join us
• Season ticket loans are interest-free to cover the cost of travelling to and from work via tram, rail, or bus.

Work that wraps around your needs

• Work bank: You can use the opportunity to supplement your income and develop your skills by working bank shifts.
• Flexible working: available from day one for most roles.
• Job share: Applications for job shares are welcomed.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

You will be expected to achieve an increasing level of competency demonstrated through your professionalism, continuing professional development (CPD), conduct and level of responsibility. The following are some of the job description and responsibilities.

1. Use appropriate assessment techniques to assess individual's abilities and difficulties in relation to their desired goals in everyday activities.
2. Apply knowledge of bio-psychosocial science, pathology and occupation in its widest sense - in order to make basic decisions on the level of treatment intervention required.
3. To undertake treatment planning, communicating and negotiating treatment plans and clinical reasoning for intervention with clients and their carers.
4. To communicate agreed treatment/care plans to multi-disciplinary team colleagues and partnership agencies and liaise with them at formal and informal meetings.
5. To work in collaboration with others to modify aspects of the environment in order to empower clients and facilitate optimal functional performance, managing complex cases.
6. Confidentially organise and lead groups over a number of different NHS sites in-particularly having experience with Cognitive Stimulation Therapy.
7. To apply a basic range of treatment modalities to meet the needs of clients in individual and group format, utilising clinical reasoning processes to determine the most appropriate setting for intervention.
8. To make clinically informed decisions in order to delegate aspects of client care to Assistants and Band 5's, supported by Head/Senior Occupational Therapist.
9. To regularly review client's progress in order to evaluate and interpret effectiveness of treatment plans, and amend treatment accordingly, supported by Head/Senior Occupational Therapist.
10. To ensure treatment offered is based on the best available evidence for effectiveness in the specialist area where it is applied.

Person specification

Registration and qualification

Essential criteria

• HCPC Registered
• Degree/Diploma in Occupational Therapy

Desirable criteria

• Access to a car for work

Previous work experience

Essential criteria

• Experience running groups
• Experience managing a complex caseload

Desirable criteria

• Experience working in an NHS setting

Supervision

Essential criteria

• Experience supervising
• Practice educator experience

Desirable criteria

• Experience with quality improvement

Important note: please ensure that as part of your application, you include professional references with business contact information covering your last three years of 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.

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.

Important Notice: Recently the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) (Amendment) (Coronavirus) Regulations 2021 (the Regulations) which amended on 22 July 2021 and come into force on 11 November 2021 that anyone directly employed to work in a Care Home or who are required as part of their role to be deployed to a CQC registered care home are required to have had both their COVID vaccinations, unless they are exempt. This is therefore a requirement of this role and will form part of our pre-employment checks.

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.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Applications for this role should be written by the applicant. If artificial intelligence (AI) programmes are used then the application may be rejected due to this document being an important part of the assessment process. This does not prevent applicants seeking appropriate support with applications should they need to for the purposes of any declared disability.

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, 728.5KB)
• Person Specification (PDF, 376.6KB)
• AHP Candidate Letter (PDF, 155.8KB)
• Why Join The NHS Pension Scheme (PDF, 91.3KB)
• Candidate Privacy Policy (PDF, 336.6KB)
• Right to Work Information (PDF, 293.6KB)
• Employer Recognition Scheme - Gold Award (PDF, 27.7KB)
• Values of the NHS Pension (PDF, 151.3KB)
• Staff Benefits (PDF, 152.7KB)