Paediatric Occupational Therapist - Band 6 - Community

Job responsibilities

Please see the full job description for m ore detail in supporting information

Job summary:

To provide a high-quality occupational therapy service to a caseload of children and young people with severe physical disabilities, profound and multiple learning difficulties, and high social needs (including children with statutory needs, e.g. Education, Health and Care Plans, safeguarding and child protection issues/concerns).

To carry an independent caseload of children across a range of settings including home, mainstream schools, special schools, and nurseries working with the multidisciplinary / multi-agency teams

Job responsibilities:

This Community Paediatric OT service works in the community within homes, clinics and special and mainstream schools with children aged between 0-18 years. Our team also provides an OT service to children who are in-patient at Ipswich Hospital. The post holder may, at times be required to support children and young peoples occupational therapy needs in terms of discharge planning following an inpatient stay.

Key Tasks & Responsibilities:

1. Communication:

To empathetically communicate sensitive information to children, carers, families, and members of the multi-disciplinary team/other professions.

To evaluate outcomes and provide advice to others regarding the management and care of children in line with Occupational Therapy skills and knowledge base.

To support, reassure and advise families and carers to engage in the therapeutic process and provide specific information on diagnoses and conditions

To deal with initial complaints sensitively, working with the Team Leads and Complex Pathway Leads to avoid escalation where possible

To form productive relationships with others who may be under stress and/or have challenging communication difficulties

To give information and advice to enable children, their parents/carers and other professionals working with the child, to carry out therapy interventions and ensure ongoing support between professional treatment sessions.

To prepare and write complex reports for Education Health Care Plans, multi-disciplinary assessments, and reviews.

To work jointly with other professionals within the multi-disciplinary team and attend joint case conferences.

To liaise and work with other members of the multi-disciplinary team: Therapists, Teachers, Clinical Psychologists, Special Educational Needs Teachers, Consultant Community Paediatricians and Safeguarding teams.

To give appropriate information to children, parents/carers, and other professional staff regarding Occupational Therapy intervention.

To maintain working relationships within Education.

To keep adequate records on patients, to maintain confidentiality in respect of this information, and comply with the Trusts record keeping policy.

To attend professional meetings.

2. Planning and organisational Skills:

To participate in the planning, development, and evaluation of the Paediatric Occupational Therapy Service, holding responsibility for defined and delegated projects.

3. Clinical Duties:

To provide a high standard Occupational Therapy service giving advice, assessment, intervention and training to children and young people with additional needs, their parents, carers, and teachers and to specifically allocated geographical localities.

To identify the childs difficulties and enable them to participate in activities and occupations.

To skilfully manage and prioritise a specialist clinical caseload for children with a range of complex conditions providing appropriate specialist OT interventions.

To provide specialist advice and training to colleagues working within other clinical areas.

To ensure effective partnership working at all times with other members of the health team, social care, education, voluntary bodies, and charities in the best interests of the child.

To monitor, evaluate and modify treatment interventions to measure progress and ensure effectiveness.

To take responsibility for the assessment of the childs postural management and make judgements regarding appropriate complex bespoke specialist equipment and minor adaptations in line with service pathways and packages of care. To set up and monitor equipment, instructing patients/carers on its safe use.

To possess comprehensive risk assessment skills, demonstrating the ability to act appropriately to ensure safety of others and self when working as a lone practitioner.

The post holder is expected to work and travel across the County.

4. Governance:

To contribute to and be pro-active in the identification of service improvement. To participate in the planning, to implement and evaluate service developments within the specialism based on audits, questionnaires, reflective practice, meetings, surveys, and data collection.

To assist with piloting of new services, prioritisation of caseloads and alternative methods of working.

To contribute to the development of clinical standards and guidelines in own speciality, and to inform service policies, including the use of research in evidence-based practice

To undertake appropriate research and provide research advice to other staff undertaking research.

To participate in audit and service evaluation, with colleagues within and across the service to help develop and improve services to children and their families.

To participate in clinical and quality frameworks for the Paediatric Occupational Service.

To contribute to clinical effectiveness arrangements and quality agenda and participate in audit and research relevant to your role and clinical setting.

To be accountable for own professional action and recognise own professional boundaries, seeking advice as appropriate.

To take responsibility for discharging clients according to clinical need and/or Trust procedure.

To understand when to make onward referrals to other agencies in order to assist in the diagnosis and treatment options of children on own caseload, as well as advising other members of staff.

To demonstrate skills in dealing with complex issues to generate appropriate strategies for caseload management.

To operate in accordance with the policies and guidelines of the Paediatric Occupational Therapy Service, HCPC and the College of Occupational Therapists.

5. Leadership and management:

To provide supervision and training for Occupational Therapy Staff, Occupational Therapy Students and Therapy Assistants and Technicians.

6. Information Resources:

To maintain effective clinical records around service delivery in line with WSFT policies

To keep adequate records on patients, to maintain confidentiality in respect of this information, and comply with relevant record keeping policies.

Qualifications

Essential

• Degree /Diploma in Occupational Therapy
• HCPC Registration
• Evidence of CPD
• Specialist knowledge and application of Occupational therapy assessments and interventions relevant to paediatrics

Desirable

• Occupational Therapy Student Educator experience
• Other post graduate specialist paediatric courses relevant to role, e.g. Developmental Coordination Difficulties, ASD, Sensory

Experience

Essential

• Knowledge of child development, paediatric conditions and in depth knowledge of developmental disabilities.
• Experience of neurology and / or community work
• Supervision of junior staff, OT Assistants and students.
• Documented evidence of lifelong learning.
• Specialist knowledge and application of Occupational Therapy assessments
• Knowledge and prescribing of equipment
• Knowledge and application of Occupational Therapy models of practice
• Computer literacy.

Desirable

• Previous Band 6 experience or evidence of working on complex cases
• Experience and working knowledge of Paediatrics as specialist area.
• Experience of working with children with complex needs and long-term conditions
• Research interest and literature research

Skills and Abilities

Essential

• Clinical experience including individual and group work.
• Ability to work autonomously and set own priorities.
• Supervisory/appraisal skills.
• Ability to reflect and critically appraise own performance.
• Ability to organise and respond efficiently to complex information.
• Team work and effective communication/
• negotiation skills.
• Ability to build effective working relationships with multi professional teams, children and carers.
• Ability to understand the child and families / carers culture and diversity and provide services appropriate to individual needs
• Able to carry out moderate to intense physical effort through concurrent activities

Desirable

• Knowledge of relevant legislation

Personal Qualities

Essential

• Ability to travel across a wide geographical area to see children in a variety of stings
• Ability to handle children and equipment, frequently exerting moderate physical effort for long periods.
• Ability to cope with frequent exposure to distressing or emotional circumstances
• Flexibility in approach to service delivery

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.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website (opens in a new window).