Job summary
The Therapies In Schools (TIS) service is an innovative PT and OT model of service which is commissioned by West Sussex County Council and delivered by Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust. It's aim is to provide additional therapeutic input into schools to support the teachers and carers to integrate therapeutic goals into heart of curricular activities and at home.
TIS is an additional service to the current NHS provision and aims to work flexibly to meet ever changing demands as they arise. A key part of TIS is to provide accredited training to all education staff and offers opportunities for families and carers to access the training too.
We wish to recruit a part time Band 7 Occupational Therapist with the necessary skills and experience to work initially in two schools, one in Littlehampton and one in Chichester. The successful applicant would have a special interest in working with children who may need support to regulate their emotions, experienced trauma, ASD or ADHD.
After a one year period it is expected that the Chichester school will return to a returning member of staff and the successful applicant would support another special school in the Worthing/Shoreham area.
The hours available are two days a week term time only. Term time only roles are paid spread across a full year to ensure your pay does not change from month to month.
Main duties of the job
This is a wonderful opportunity to gain experience of working with a diverse range of children and young people across different specialist school settings.
Please look at these schools' websites to understand the differences in the needs of the young people you will be supporting. The schools most likely to be relevant to this post are:
- Cornfield School, Littlehampton
- Little Green Academy, Compton Chichester
- Oak Grove College, Worthing
- Palatine Primary, Worthing
- Herons Dale Primary, Shoreham.
This is a very varied role as each school has a different cohort of children necessitating a slightly different approach to integrating therapeutic goals into the curriculum, whilst remaining true to the TIS model.
Your role will be to provide a universal approach through delivering accredited training to school staff, some targeted work through group work and ad hoc needs, and a small caseload of intensive work to support families in crisis or needing enhanced support due to a change in circumstance.
Your role is in addition to the existing NHS provision provided by the Child Development Center (CDC) therapists, working collaboratively with the CDC therapists is vital. You'll work in your main allocated schools, do home visits where needed, and occasionally support your team members in other schools.
You will need to be flexible in your availability to attend occasional parents evening events, parent carer forum liaisons and host parent coffee mornings/network groups.
About us
We are the main provider of NHS community services across East and West Sussex, with 6,000 staff serving 1.3 million people. We deliver essential care to adults and children, helping them manage their health, avoid hospital admissions, and reduce hospital stays.
Our Trust vision is to provide excellent care at the heart of the community. We offer opportunities across medical, clinical, support, and corporate services.
Why work for us?o Positive 2023 NHS Staff Survey results, highlighting compassionate leadership and wellbeingo Varied environments: community hospitals, patients' homes, and bases across Sussexo Flexible working options: part-time, flexi-time, annualised hours, and flexi-retiremento Excellent training, development, and research opportunitieso Cost-effective workplace nurseries in Crawley, Hove, and Brightono Active EMBRACE, Disability & Wellbeing, LGBTQIA+, and Religion & Belief networkso Level 3 Disability Confident Leader and Veteran Aware Trusto Beautiful Sussex location near the South Downs and coast
Our values--Compassionate Care, Working Together, Achieving Ambitions, Delivering Excellence--guide everything we do.
We embrace diversity and encourage applications from all backgrounds, particularly from ethnically diverse, disabled, and LGBTQIA+ individuals. We aim to create an inclusive environment and support reasonable adjustments during recruitment.
This post may close early if sufficient applications are received.
Job description
Job responsibilities
To increase parental confidence in the quality of provision provided within the schools.
- To build relationships with parents prior to school entry by attending parental tours for specific pupils and completing home visits
- Maintain therapeutic relationship with identified children (regular phone calls as required)
- Attending annual reviews for identified children
- Attending coffee mornings and parents evenings across allocated schools
- To support parents through all transitional stages both immediately prior to and throughout school (class to class, Yr 6 Yr 7, attending parental tour for specified pupils) and post school placement.
To increase confidence and skills of school based education staff to deliver OT programmes
- To undertake specified large group training across allocated schools
- To undertake bespoke small group training to meet the individual needs of specified pupils
- To support a team of identified Therapy Champions (teachers and teaching staff who have completed level 3 TIS training) to be first point of contact for other staff
To undertake work alongside school staff for agreed caseload.
- Working in class to support staff in delivering OT programmes
- Write, monitor and evaluate OT programmes in partnership with school staff.
- Contribute reports to and/or provide sections for health care plans, annual reviews
- To write tribunal assessments/ reports and attend tribunals where appropriate.
- Write and share with staff recommendations that can support areas of school curriculum areas.
- Provide recommendations to ensure the environment facilitates participation and inclusion for students with sensory and motor difficulties.
- To allocate OT time in schools depending on the need of the caseload.
- To provide group work sessions as agreed with the individual school
To work as part of the multi-disciplinary teams to improve further the integrated holistic and child centered approach of the allocated special schools
- Attend regular MDT meetings
- Attend MDT team around the family meetings for specified pupils
- OT will understand the holistic curriculums of each school and will contribute to the student-centered planning.
Please note: Due to recent changes in UK immigration and visa rules, this role is unlikely to be eligible for Skilled Worker visa sponsorship. Applicants who do not currently have the right to work in the UK may not be considered. Candidates requiring sponsorship should review the eligibility criteria on the gov.uk website before applying to assess their eligibility for a Certificate of Sponsorship for this role."
For further details please see attached Job Description.
Job description
Job responsibilities
To increase parental confidence in the quality of provision provided within the schools.
- To build relationships with parents prior to school entry by attending parental tours for specific pupils and completing home visits
- Maintain therapeutic relationship with identified children (regular phone calls as required)
- Attending annual reviews for identified children
- Attending coffee mornings and parents evenings across allocated schools
- To support parents through all transitional stages both immediately prior to and throughout school (class to class, Yr 6 Yr 7, attending parental tour for specified pupils) and post school placement.
To increase confidence and skills of school based education staff to deliver OT programmes
- To undertake specified large group training across allocated schools
- To undertake bespoke small group training to meet the individual needs of specified pupils
- To support a team of identified Therapy Champions (teachers and teaching staff who have completed level 3 TIS training) to be first point of contact for other staff
To undertake work alongside school staff for agreed caseload.
- Working in class to support staff in delivering OT programmes
- Write, monitor and evaluate OT programmes in partnership with school staff.
- Contribute reports to and/or provide sections for health care plans, annual reviews
- To write tribunal assessments/ reports and attend tribunals where appropriate.
- Write and share with staff recommendations that can support areas of school curriculum areas.
- Provide recommendations to ensure the environment facilitates participation and inclusion for students with sensory and motor difficulties.
- To allocate OT time in schools depending on the need of the caseload.
- To provide group work sessions as agreed with the individual school
To work as part of the multi-disciplinary teams to improve further the integrated holistic and child centered approach of the allocated special schools
- Attend regular MDT meetings
- Attend MDT team around the family meetings for specified pupils
- OT will understand the holistic curriculums of each school and will contribute to the student-centered planning.
Please note: Due to recent changes in UK immigration and visa rules, this role is unlikely to be eligible for Skilled Worker visa sponsorship. Applicants who do not currently have the right to work in the UK may not be considered. Candidates requiring sponsorship should review the eligibility criteria on the gov.uk website before applying to assess their eligibility for a Certificate of Sponsorship for this role."
For further details please see attached Job Description.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Degree in Occupational Therapy
- Registered with HCPC
- Evidence of CPD maintained in a portfolio appropriate to specialist field
Desirable
- Post registration qualification or training in specialist field
Skills
Essential
- Articulate good communication skills
- Confident presentation skills.
- Ability to record information accurately and write reports
- Excellent organisational skills.
- Good IT skills
- Excellent knowledge of specialist equipment for use within paediatrics
- Excellent knowledge of assessment and treatment tools and specialist treatment approaches
- Demonstrates working knowledge of relevant legislation such as Manual Handling, Health and Safety
- Advanced clinical reasoning skills
Desirable
- Ability to translate policies and research into clinical practice.
- Competency and ability to assess and treat wide range of complex conditions within paediatrics
- Undertaking Audits
Experience
Essential
- Significant post graduate experience
- Experience of working with children or adolescents
- Experience of working with children with complex neurological conditions
- Ability to prioritise and plan own workload, meet deadlines and perform effectively under pressure
- Experience of working in a multidisciplinary team and high-level understanding of team dynamics.
- Experience of providing training and presenting information to colleagues in a transdisciplinary team.
- Evidence of staff supervision and training.
Equal Opportunities
Essential
- An excellent understanding of the principles of equal opportunities in relation to staff and patients
- Able to work flexibly to allow for attending parents evening and other occasional events.
Person Specification
Qualifications
Essential
- Degree in Occupational Therapy
- Registered with HCPC
- Evidence of CPD maintained in a portfolio appropriate to specialist field
Desirable
- Post registration qualification or training in specialist field
Skills
Essential
- Articulate good communication skills
- Confident presentation skills.
- Ability to record information accurately and write reports
- Excellent organisational skills.
- Good IT skills
- Excellent knowledge of specialist equipment for use within paediatrics
- Excellent knowledge of assessment and treatment tools and specialist treatment approaches
- Demonstrates working knowledge of relevant legislation such as Manual Handling, Health and Safety
- Advanced clinical reasoning skills
Desirable
- Ability to translate policies and research into clinical practice.
- Competency and ability to assess and treat wide range of complex conditions within paediatrics
- Undertaking Audits
Experience
Essential
- Significant post graduate experience
- Experience of working with children or adolescents
- Experience of working with children with complex neurological conditions
- Ability to prioritise and plan own workload, meet deadlines and perform effectively under pressure
- Experience of working in a multidisciplinary team and high-level understanding of team dynamics.
- Experience of providing training and presenting information to colleagues in a transdisciplinary team.
- Evidence of staff supervision and training.
Equal Opportunities
Essential
- An excellent understanding of the principles of equal opportunities in relation to staff and patients
- Able to work flexibly to allow for attending parents evening and other occasional events.
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
Additional information
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
UK Registration
Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see
NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).
