East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust

Specialist Occupational Therapist

The closing date is 14 April 2026

Job summary

We are looking for an experienced, motivated clinician to join our team.

You will be a registered Occupational Therapist with demonstrable expertise in goal focused rehabilitation, supporting patients to become experts in their own care and to remain in their own homes.

It is expected that you will have excellent communication skills, enjoy working with a variety of service users of different age groups, have good self-management skills and an ability to prioritize your case load. You should ideally have experience of working in a variety of clinical settings with knowledge of the challenges of community working.

It is essential that you are a car driver with access to a vehicle for work as you will be expected to travel across the North East Essex area.

Main duties of the job

The key objectives for this post are to provide goal focused rehabilitation, supporting patients to become experts in their own care and to remain in their own homes by providing holistic assessments and interventions for this care group.

As a Specialist Occupational Therapist, you will have opportunity to undertake a leadership role in planning, coordinating, delivering and evaluating the rehabilitation provided and be responsible for the supervision of junior staff and students. You will be able to demonstrate the ability to build networks and relationships over a number of sites and different clinical teams.

You will embrace innovation and integratedworking and will be committed to delivering excellence in care alongside other OTs, Physiotherapists, Associate Practitioners and Assistant Practitioners.

About us

We are ESNEFT and we provide hospital and community health services to almost one million people across east Suffolk and north Essex. Our dedicated staff deliver care from acute hospitals in Colchester and Ipswich, community hospitals, surgeries, community clinics and in patients' own homes.

We are one of the largest NHS organisations in England, employing more than 12,000 staff.

We pride ourselves on supporting our staff. We offer a wide range of training and development opportunities, as well as flexible working options.

Along with supporting you to achieve your career goals we offer a generous pension scheme, unsocial hours payments (where applicable), 27 days annual leave on commencement (pro rata) and access to a range of NHS discounts. Our Staff Health and Wellbeing programme offer a variety of services.

Our philosophy is that Time Matters to everyone. Across the Trust, we concentrate on improving the things we do and removing those which cause time delays for our staff and patients.

We are investing in our commitment to Time Matters with a partnership with leading electronic patient record (EPR) supplier Epic. This digital transformation will bring what's widely regarded as the world's best EPR system to ESNEFT, transforming life in hospital for staff and patients.

If you are passionate about patient care and want to develop your skills and knowledge, then we want to hear from you.

Find out about living and working here - www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkPu7HphU8A

Details

Date posted

31 March 2026

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 6

Salary

£38,682 to £46,580 a year per annum pro rata

Contract

Fixed term

Duration

12 months

Working pattern

Part-time

Reference number

432-HR1473-25

Job locations

The Crescent

Severalls Business Park

Colchester

CO4 9YQ


Job description

Job responsibilities

For full details of the responsibilities and duties of this role please see the attached job description.

Job description

Job responsibilities

For full details of the responsibilities and duties of this role please see the attached job description.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

  • Registered Occupational Therapist with HCPC
  • Professional knowledge and Skills acquired through a combination of formal training, short courses and experience to degree level or equivalent.
  • Relevant post qualification training through short courses and/or further study and experience for example sensory integration working towards post graduate level of study level.
  • Evidence of on-going CPD

Desirable

  • Recognised registered qualification and further courses and experience relevant to role
  • oRegistered member of British Association of Occupational Therapists

Skills

Essential

  • Work as part of an integrated team
  • Supervise the work of students, assistants and volunteers
  • Prioritise own and others' workload, delegating appropriately
  • Good communication skills both written and verbal
  • Reflect maintain sensitivity at all times to the emotional needs of clients and their carers' practise and direct own learning
  • Good analytic and judgement skills
  • Work independently using own initiative
  • To use Word, Powerpoint, email, excel and access (or similar spreadsheet or database packages)
  • Ability to manage a team
  • Ability to act as care coordinator
  • Car owner/driver/access to a motor vehicle (role will involve travel to other sites that cannot be easily accessed by public transport means)

Experience

Essential

  • Proven experience of working relevant to the care group

Desirable

  • Experience of managing the work of others
  • Proven Experience relevant to care group
Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

  • Registered Occupational Therapist with HCPC
  • Professional knowledge and Skills acquired through a combination of formal training, short courses and experience to degree level or equivalent.
  • Relevant post qualification training through short courses and/or further study and experience for example sensory integration working towards post graduate level of study level.
  • Evidence of on-going CPD

Desirable

  • Recognised registered qualification and further courses and experience relevant to role
  • oRegistered member of British Association of Occupational Therapists

Skills

Essential

  • Work as part of an integrated team
  • Supervise the work of students, assistants and volunteers
  • Prioritise own and others' workload, delegating appropriately
  • Good communication skills both written and verbal
  • Reflect maintain sensitivity at all times to the emotional needs of clients and their carers' practise and direct own learning
  • Good analytic and judgement skills
  • Work independently using own initiative
  • To use Word, Powerpoint, email, excel and access (or similar spreadsheet or database packages)
  • Ability to manage a team
  • Ability to act as care coordinator
  • Car owner/driver/access to a motor vehicle (role will involve travel to other sites that cannot be easily accessed by public transport means)

Experience

Essential

  • Proven experience of working relevant to the care group

Desirable

  • Experience of managing the work of others
  • Proven Experience relevant to care group

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).

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).

Employer details

Employer name

East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust

Address

The Crescent

Severalls Business Park

Colchester

CO4 9YQ


Employer's website

https://www.esneft.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)


Employer details

Employer name

East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust

Address

The Crescent

Severalls Business Park

Colchester

CO4 9YQ


Employer's website

https://www.esneft.nhs.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)


Employer contact details

For questions about the job, contact:

Clinical Lead-Occupational Therapist

Bertha Chandiwana

Bertha.Chandiwana@esneft.nhs.uk

07919527687

Details

Date posted

31 March 2026

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 6

Salary

£38,682 to £46,580 a year per annum pro rata

Contract

Fixed term

Duration

12 months

Working pattern

Part-time

Reference number

432-HR1473-25

Job locations

The Crescent

Severalls Business Park

Colchester

CO4 9YQ


Supporting documents

Privacy notice

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