Job responsibilities
Our vision, is to help people to live long, healthy and happy lives, with the maximum possible independence. Where support is needed, we work together, focus on personal strengths and what is possible, identifying the best solutions that enable members of the community to live the best life they can with the help they have around them. Every member of our team, whether in a frontline or support role, is personally and professionally accountable for delivering the Vision for Adults' Health and Care in Hampshire.
The Contact, Assessment & Resolution Team (CART) is the first point of contact for anyone requiring advice and support from Adults Health and Care. The team consists of Case Workers, Senior Case Workers, qualified Occupational Therapists and Social Workers, Business Support, and the Leadership Team. We operate five days a week and handle nearly 100,000 enquiries a year by telephone, online forms and web chat. Our aim is to resolve a minimum of 85% of enquiries that come into CART.
Our team works closely with other social/health care professionals, assessing individuals' needs and providing them with the support and guidance to maximise their independence and wellbeing. Whilst we don't meet the people who use our service face-to-face, we do provide direct customer service and act as the front door to our Adults Health and Care services.
Your role
As an innovative and committed Occupational Therapist, you'll be part of a supportive and friendly team, working with other social/health care professionals to provide person-centred functional analysis and interventions. Nearly 50% of incoming enquiries to CART are OT related, so you'll be confident triaging incoming referrals and completing OT assessments, including Housing Needs Reports, DFGs, referrals and risk assessments for telecare, wellbeing checks, and ordering equipment and minor adaptations. As part of the leadership team within CART, you'll be the go-to person for any OT related queries and take responsibility for providing training, supervision and advice to the wider team. In this diverse and varied role, you'll also have the opportunity to use your knowledge of safeguarding to work closely with the Adults Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH), as well as taking "live calls" and completing carer's assessments where needed.
In this role you'll be responsible for:
Risk Management
- Undertaking the assessment of risk and applying clinical reasoning to mitigate risk and identify least restrictive interventions.
- Undertaking the assessment, planning and review for safeguarding cases.
- Completing and/or supporting the completion of a range of functional assessments and reviews that will identify needs, options and promote well-being and maximise independence.
- Managing and/or supporting cases and/or situations with identified risk, and ensuring occupational therapist interventions are proportionate to need.
- Managing workload independently, seeking support and suggesting solutions for workload difficulties.
- Reporting concerns and complaints following appropriate escalation route.
Information, Advice and Advocacy
- Ensuring the staff and/or services you supervise/deliver, provide information and advice using a professional understanding of the application of legislation and guidance.
- Ensuring the staff and/or services you supervise/deliver, provide information and advice through local community networks, to support local empowerment, well- being and maximise independence.
- Promoting the availability of information and advice to other professional colleagues and teams, that address health and social care needs.
- Empowering and advocating on behalf of individuals and communities and enabling access to an independent advocate when appropriate.
Multi-disciplinary Working
- Actively building and maintaining relationships with other professionals and working collaboratively with multi-disciplinary teams.
- Recognising cases that will benefit from planned multi-disciplinary working and/ or an appropriate response to unplanned work.
- Taking the lead for multi-disciplinary case work as appropriate and contributing to multi-disciplinary case work.
- Adhering to, and/or supporting staff to adhere to protocols to share information with multi-disciplinary teams.
Leadership, Management and Supervision
- Taking responsibility for access to line management, supervision, personal development and performance objectives.
- Ensuring any supervisory duties are undertaken.
- Supporting staff in achieving the operational priorities for the team.
- Supporting staff in undertaking new and more challenging work.
- Contributing to team working and collaborative working with others.
Capacity Building
- Recognising and using the expertise of individuals, carers, families, communities and hard to reach groups to promote independence and well-being and maximise independence.
- Working with individuals, carers, families, communities and hard to reach groups to build safe, strong and caring social networks.
- Working with other professionals to provide support to individuals, carers, families, communities and hard to reach groups to build safe, strong and caring social networks.
Professional Practice
- Demonstrating own professional practice, and meeting the requirements of registration.
- Retaining responsibility for professional updates and Continuous Professional Development.
- Modelling the occupational therapy role within and outside the team.
- Understanding the boundaries of own professional practice, when to seek support and how to address own learning needs.
- Establishing a network of internal and external colleagues with whom you can share expertise and seek advice.
- Contributing to the development of occupational therapy practice and the learning of others.
- Understanding the organisational and political context in which you are working and how this impacts on practice
Safeguarding
- All employees will be required to adhere to internal safeguarding policies, procedures and guidance, taking action and raising concerns as appropriate. Where a professional code of conduct applies to the role, this must also be adhered to.
