Devon Partnership NHS Trust

Specialist Mental Health Practitioner - Occupational Therapist

The closing date is 28 December 2025

Job summary

We are excited to advertise for an Occupational Therapist to join our Eating Disorder Pathway as a Specialist Mental Health Practitioner.

We seek an Occupational Therapist with a solid foundation in sensory assessment, understanding how sensory processing differences affect daily life and participation, and confident in using evidence-based tools to identify sensory needs. You will work directly with clients, families, and our multidisciplinary team to develop tailored interventions that support regulation, independence, and meaningful engagement. Strong experience working with autistic individuals is valued.

Working with colleagues, the clinical lead, and senior management, you will bring your skills, experience, and enthusiasm to the role. You will provide assessment and interventions, collaborate with professionals, and deliver supervision and consultation. The role includes extensive liaison with wider mental health services and paediatric teams in local hospitals.

We welcome varied backgrounds and aim to build a service that recognises the multi-faceted difficulties underlying eating disorders and values diverse professional perspectives. You will supervise and support others, ensuring the service responds promptly to children, young people, and families with complex social, emotional, and mental health needs.

If you are passionate about creating supportive, person-centred environments and empowering individuals to thrive, we would love to hear from you.

Main duties of the job

You will be working as part of a county wide team that provides assessment, treatment and intervention to children, young people and families who present to our service with a variety of challenges related to restricted eating.

We are a service going through a process of development and growth. You'll need a sense of humour, the ability to work with others and a capacity to offer energy, ideas and leadership. On the wish list is experience in mental health, eating disorders and working in a multi-disciplinary team to help people change. We are looking for people who have strong ethical perspectives and the ability to value different approaches

About us

Children and Family Health Devon (CFHD) comprises an Alliance of NHS organisations working together to improve health outcomes for children and young people in Devon.

CFHD provides integrated care and treatment for children and young people across physical and mental health which are provided by Torbay and South Devon Foundation Trust and Devon Partnership Trust. We are working closely with other organisations and providers to ensure we deliver locality and county-wide based integrated access to all of our services.

CFHD works closely with our local universities of Plymouth, Exeter & the Peninsula Medical School where we support students in clinical training placements and in addition support our own staff to undertake post graduate training.

Our integrated care and treatment has been developed and refined in partnership with children, young people and their families/carers.

Our children and young people say

We would like the people who work for Children and Family Health Devon to be understanding, patient and respectful. They should be trustworthy and make us feel safe and comfortable. It is important that they use their skills and experience to listen carefully in a non-patronising and non-judgemental way. When staff are positive and friendly, they help to create an environment that is informal and without pressure.

Our vision is to be a successful, vibrant, partnership that benefits the communities we serve.

Date posted

10 December 2025

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 7

Salary

£47,810 to £54,710 a year

Contract

Permanent

Working pattern

Full-time, Flexible working

Reference number

C9369-25-0992

Job locations

Evergreen

Victoria Park Road

Exeter

EX2 4NU

Lescaze Offices

Shinner's Bridge

Dartington

Totnes

TQ9 6JE

South Devon Healthcare

187 Newton Road

Torquay

TQ2 7BA

Integrated Childrens Services

Fishleigh Road

Roundswell Business Park

Barnstaple

Devon

EX31 3UD

Job description

Job responsibilities

Full Vacancy details can be found on the attached Job Description/Person Specification. Please refer to your suitability to the post in your supporting information from the role requirements or person specification.

Job description

Job responsibilities

Person Specification

Experience

Essential

Experience of working collaboratively with service users and their families/carers, including using goal-based care and routine outcome measures in practice.
Experience of working collaboratively in a multi-disciplinary team and across agencies
Experience of undertaking specialist mental health assessment and therapeutic interventions for in the area of childrens mental health, with the ability to work with complex needs and undertake risk assessments

Skills

Essential

Ability to travel across Devon

Qualifications

Essential

Professional knowledge acquired through degree supplemented by specialist training or equivalent experience to Masters level with an Occupational Therapy qualification to degree level or equivalent
Training in an evidence-based therapeutic approach
Active registration with the HCPC as a registered Occupational Therapist
Training in supervision and/or leadership skills or willing to work towards
Evidence of Continuous Professional Development

Person Specification

Experience

Essential

Experience of working collaboratively with service users and their families/carers, including using goal-based care and routine outcome measures in practice.
Experience of working collaboratively in a multi-disciplinary team and across agencies
Experience of undertaking specialist mental health assessment and therapeutic interventions for in the area of childrens mental health, with the ability to work with complex needs and undertake risk assessments

Skills

Essential

Ability to travel across Devon

Qualifications

Essential

Professional knowledge acquired through degree supplemented by specialist training or equivalent experience to Masters level with an Occupational Therapy qualification to degree level or equivalent
Training in an evidence-based therapeutic approach
Active registration with the HCPC as a registered Occupational Therapist
Training in supervision and/or leadership skills or willing to work towards
Evidence of Continuous Professional Development

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).