Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Specialist Occupational Therapist

The closing date is 18 February 2026

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Job summary

Working Full or Part time

As a Band 6 Occupational Therapist, you'll step into a dynamic, forward-thinking team where your expertise will shape patient journeys and drive service innovation. If you're motivated, enthusiastic, and ready to grow, this is the perfect environment to thrive.

Opportunities You'll Experience

  • Specialist Clinical Exposure:Work with patients across diverse surgical and medical pathways -- from trauma to oncology and gastrology and general surgery -- gaining specialist expertise that will set you apart.
  • Innovation in Practice:Contribute to service development projects, introducing new treatment approaches, digital tools, and patient-centred innovations.
  • Leadership Development:Take on mentoring responsibilities for Band 5 OTs, Therapy Assistants, and students, building your leadership profile.
  • Interdisciplinary Collaboration:Work closely with surgeons, nurses, physiotherapists, and other specialists, becoming a key voice in multidisciplinary team decisions.
  • Research & Governance:Engage in clinical audits, service evaluations, and governance activities that influence trust-wide practice.
  • Acute & Community Balance:Experience the fast-paced acute hospital environment while also occasionally supporting patients in community and home settings, ensuring safe discharges and continuity of care.
  • Career Progression: Build the skills and portfolio needed to move into advanced practice, specialist Band 7 roles, or leadership positions.

Main duties of the job

  • To work as an autonomous practitioner to perform a specialist occupational therapy assessment of patients with diverse presentations. To use clinical reasoning to provide a diagnosis and develop, deliver and adapt individualised treatment programmes.
  • To implement monitoring and evaluation of treatment in order to measure progress and outcomes to ensure effectiveness of interventions and service delivery.
  • To be professionally and legally accountable for all aspects of own work and that of supervised physiotherapists and assistants and hold responsibility for own caseload for a specialist area of the service, working without direct supervision.
  • To provide clinical cover, as appropriate during staff absence with guidance and support of a senior member of staff if required.
  • To participate in 7 day working as per service requirements, in evening and/or weekend duty rotas and/or emergency/on call rotas. To provide treatment to patients and to provide advice to medical and nursing staff and other members of the multidisciplinary team without direct supervision.
  • To identify and carry out Home Visits in accordance with Trust and Professional standards and to assess patient condition and suitability for discharge and where appropriate supervise physiotherapists and assistants in these tasks.
  • What We're Looking For
    • HCPC registered Occupational Therapist
    • Broad Band 5 NHS rotational experience
    • Strong organisational skills, time management, and resilience under pressure.

About us

The Trust's services are provided from three locations: o The Countess of Chester Hospital: providing 473 general and acute beds. o Ellesmere Port Hospital: providing 60 beds as a rehabilitation, intermediate and outpatient facility. o Tarporley War Memorial Hospital: a base for community services which serve the local rural population. The Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust employs 5,964 staff (headcount) to provide care and treatment to a population of over 400,000 people living in Chester and West Cheshire which includes Ellesmere Port and Neston as well as the Deeside area of Flintshire. The Trust works collaboratively within the wider Cheshire and Merseyside Integrated Care System. Due to its location on the border with North Wales, the Trust also works closely with the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board. The Trust treats patients from England and some parts of Wales. During 2024/2025, there were approximately 643,000 patient attendances (inpatient, A&E, outpatient and diagnostic) ranging from a simple outpatient appointment to major cancer surgery

Details

Date posted

10 February 2026

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 6

Salary

£38,682 to £46,580 a year pa pro rata

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Full-time, Part-time

Reference number

210-2026-104

Job locations

Countess of Chester Hospital

Liverpool Road

Chester

CH2 1UL


Job description

Job responsibilities

See Job Description for further details.

Recruitment selection processes are based on competence (see Person specification) and values. An applicant guide to help and support you through your recruitment journey can be accessed at the bottom of this page.

If you have a disability that meets the definition set out in the Equality Act 2010, and you can show that you meet the essential criteria described in the person specification for an available position, please answer YES to the question: Do you wish to be considered under the Guaranteed Interview Scheme?

Please inform the team if you have any special support needs to be considered as part of the interview and selection processes.

The trust offers a Guaranteed Interview Scheme to any armed forces community applicants who meet the essential criteria for the post.

If a DBS is required for your role, you are encouraged to enrol for the DBS Update Service. A small annual fee applies whcih is payable to the DBS Service.Please note applicants will be required to pay for their DBS check. Costswill be deducted from their salary over the first three months of employment.

New entrants to the NHS will commence on the minimum of the scale stated above.

Applicants requiring sponsorship may wish to determine the likelihood of obtaining sponsorship for this position by assessing themselves against the criteria on the gov.uk website - https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa.

The Trust will not sponsor where the starting salary does not meet immigration rules

Applicants are advised to apply early as if a large number of applications are received for this post, we reserve the right to close the vacancy prior to the advertised date.

Good luck with your application.

Job description

Job responsibilities

See Job Description for further details.

Recruitment selection processes are based on competence (see Person specification) and values. An applicant guide to help and support you through your recruitment journey can be accessed at the bottom of this page.

If you have a disability that meets the definition set out in the Equality Act 2010, and you can show that you meet the essential criteria described in the person specification for an available position, please answer YES to the question: Do you wish to be considered under the Guaranteed Interview Scheme?

Please inform the team if you have any special support needs to be considered as part of the interview and selection processes.

The trust offers a Guaranteed Interview Scheme to any armed forces community applicants who meet the essential criteria for the post.

If a DBS is required for your role, you are encouraged to enrol for the DBS Update Service. A small annual fee applies whcih is payable to the DBS Service.Please note applicants will be required to pay for their DBS check. Costswill be deducted from their salary over the first three months of employment.

New entrants to the NHS will commence on the minimum of the scale stated above.

Applicants requiring sponsorship may wish to determine the likelihood of obtaining sponsorship for this position by assessing themselves against the criteria on the gov.uk website - https://www.gov.uk/check-uk-visa.

The Trust will not sponsor where the starting salary does not meet immigration rules

Applicants are advised to apply early as if a large number of applications are received for this post, we reserve the right to close the vacancy prior to the advertised date.

Good luck with your application.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

  • Degree in Occupational Therapy or equivalent
  • Relevant student training course or qualification
  • HCPC Registered

Desirable

  • Membership of professional body

Knowledge and Experience

Essential

  • Between 24 and 36 months post graduate experience
  • Evidence of post graduate short courses
  • Evidence of CPD and reflective practice
  • Knowledge of current best practice in specialist occupational therapy area
  • Evidence of audit and/or research work

Skills

Essential

  • Communication skills (verbal and non- verbal)
  • Ability to reflect and critically appraise own performance and that of others.
  • Ability to organise and respond to complex information, and work under pressure
  • Good computer skills.
  • Good interpersonal and organisational skills

Desirable

  • Supervisory skills
Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

  • Degree in Occupational Therapy or equivalent
  • Relevant student training course or qualification
  • HCPC Registered

Desirable

  • Membership of professional body

Knowledge and Experience

Essential

  • Between 24 and 36 months post graduate experience
  • Evidence of post graduate short courses
  • Evidence of CPD and reflective practice
  • Knowledge of current best practice in specialist occupational therapy area
  • Evidence of audit and/or research work

Skills

Essential

  • Communication skills (verbal and non- verbal)
  • Ability to reflect and critically appraise own performance and that of others.
  • Ability to organise and respond to complex information, and work under pressure
  • Good computer skills.
  • Good interpersonal and organisational skills

Desirable

  • Supervisory skills

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).

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.

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).

Employer details

Employer name

Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Countess of Chester Hospital

Liverpool Road

Chester

CH2 1UL


Employer's website

https://www.coch.nhs.uk/working-with-us.aspx (Opens in a new tab)

Employer details

Employer name

Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Countess of Chester Hospital

Liverpool Road

Chester

CH2 1UL


Employer's website

https://www.coch.nhs.uk/working-with-us.aspx (Opens in a new tab)

Employer contact details

For questions about the job, contact:

Lead Therapist

Deborah Conwell

deborah.conwell@nhs.net

01244364361

Details

Date posted

10 February 2026

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 6

Salary

£38,682 to £46,580 a year pa pro rata

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Full-time, Part-time

Reference number

210-2026-104

Job locations

Countess of Chester Hospital

Liverpool Road

Chester

CH2 1UL


Supporting documents

Privacy notice

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