Children’s Community Occupational Therapist

Job summary

We have an exciting opportunity for a band 5 Occupational Therapist to join our children's community team in Barts Health NHS Trust in Tower Hamlets. You will be based in Mile End Hospital.

The successful candidate will have the opportunity to gain experience working within the following areas:

o Neurodevelopmental conditions; including Cerebral Palsy (CP), Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Learning Disability, and Neurodevelopmental Motor Disorderso Opportunity to support the child's participation goals in the home, school, nursery or other community settings.

Children's Occupational Therapy experience is not essential, but we are looking for an Occupational Therapist who has a solid understanding of the OT process.

Our well established and friendly team offer care that is contemporary, personalised, occupational performance driven, and outcome focused.

We offer regular supervision, training, and opportunities to deliver service improvement. Other benefits include career development, flexible working where appropriate to the setting.

Feel free to contact Clinical Leads, Katherine Gough ([email protected]) or Frances Badenhorst ([email protected])

Main duties of the job

The Community Children's Therapies team provides physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech and language therapy for children and young people up to the age of 19 in Tower Hamlets. Most of the children and young people we work with have developmental difficulties which often are linked to a medical diagnosis e.g. cerebral palsy or autism. Our services are delivered in clinics, schools, nursery settings, children and family centres and homes. You will be required to complete visits in a variety of settings eg homes, schools, children's centres. As well as working at a 'specialist' level where we accept referrals for individual children and young people to our service, we also work with partner organisations like schools and children and family centres to enable other professionals to support families at a 'targeted' level. Building the capacity of other professionals and parents to support children and young people with developmental difficulties is a key priority for our team.

The post holder will provide assessment and therapy interventions for children five to eleven years of age with a variety of Occupational Therapy needs. The post-holder may provide supervision of Bilingual OT Assistants and support student placements.The post holder will have access to regular support and clinical supervision to enable them to complete preceptorship requirements.

About us

Barts Health is one of the largest NHS trusts in the country, and one of Britain's leading healthcare providers.

Our vision is to be a high-performing group of NHS hospitals, renowned for excellence and innovation, and providing safe and compassionate care to our patients in east London and beyond. That means being a provider of excellent patient safety, known for delivering consistently high standards of harm-free care and always caring for patients in the right place at the right time. It also means being an outstanding place to work, in which our WeCare values and behaviours are visible to all and guide us in how we work together.

We strive to live by our WeCare values and are committed to promoting inclusion, where every staff member has a sense of belonging. We value our differences and fully advocate, cultivate and support an inclusive working environment.

Job responsibilities

The full job description provides an overview of the key tasks and responsibilities of the role, and the person specification outlines the qualifications, skills, experience and knowledge required. For both documents, please view the attachment/s below.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Recognised Degree/Diploma in Occupational therapy
• Registered member of the Royal College of Occupational Therapists and the Health Professionals Council.

Desirable

• Attendance at specific and relevant training courses and further developing clinical knowledge in areas related to post.

Experience

Essential

• Knowledge of essentials of client centred practice
• Experience of providing personalised care to individuals, adapting the care to an individual's needs.
• Experience of following child/adult safeguarding guidelines.
• Evidence of engaging in reflective practice.

Desirable

• Experience of working in Paediatrics.
• Experience of working in the community clinic setting.
• Experience of using coaching to support adult learning.
• Experience of training others or supporting the education of others, including use of virtual platforms to do this.
• Experience in the organisation and presentation of workshops, courses or other training packages.
• Experience of working within a multidisciplinary team.

Knowledge

Essential

• Theoretical and basic knowledge of child development.
• Theoretical knowledge of assessment tools / interventions relevant to client group(s).
• Understanding of Occupational Performance and how this relates to clients.
• Understanding of clinical governance and risk.

Desirable

• Knowledge around universal, targeted and specialist delivery.
• Knowledge of most common developmental difficulties e.g. autism and how these can impact on children and their families.
• Knowledge of a range of interventions and well developed applied knowledge of more specialised intervention techniques relevant to the client group(s).

Skills

Essential

• High standard of spoken and written communication skills in English.
• Ability to work independently, asking for support when needed.
• Good understanding of the principles of confidentiality within the NHS.
• Excellent interpersonal skills. Able to negotiate, influence and motivate others.
• Digital literacy skills equivalent to the Level 2 competencies in some domains in the NHS Health and Care Digital Capabilities Framework
• Ability to undertake a client centred and occupations focused assessment
• To demonstrate an awareness of professional practice issues in the field of children's occupational therapy and/or new research/evidence.

Desirable

• To be able to manage conflict in a professional manner and seek advice from supervisor where necessary.

Other

Essential

• Ability to work flexibly sometimes, with notice e.g. to support evening sessions for parents when required.
• Able to travel independently across Tower Hamlets
• Able to carry out work of moderate physical effort.