Occupational Therapist - Permanent

Job description

Job responsibilities

Occupational Therapist

Reports to Senior Occupational Therapy Practice Lead

Level 8

Main Purpose of the Job

To support citizens across Southend-on-Sea (including out-of-borough cases) with the aim to offer occupational therapy assessments in the right place at the right time.

To work across the localities of Southend-on-Sea in a range of community based settings including Community Hubs.

To undertake occupational therapy assessments for equipment, adaptions and manual handling.

To provide appropriate interventions and recommendations to promote independence.

To understand individuals strengths, assets and wishes to maximise their potential for independence, recognising the importance of assuming that the individual is best placed to know their own outcomes, goals and wellbeing.

To work with health and social care colleagues and other partners by engaging in innovative practice and a visionary approach to creating a better Southend.

To ensure the citizens of Southend are supported with the correct advice, information and relevant signposting and prompted to utilise the assets which already exist in their local community.

Innovation and creativity

Utilise your creativity and step up to offer your views and opinions

Act as a catalyst for change, ensuring that solutions and outcomes are based on recognised best practice and innovation.

Be part of a team that embraces the process of change, participating in effective team working.

Be an exemplar for high quality complex occupational therapy practice, leading through example in your communication style, knowledge, values and person-centred approach.

Promote critical reflection and participate in group work to ensure that the work environment is safe, responsive, flexible and emotionally capable.

Planning and Organisation:

Work closely with all partners across statutory partners (such as Police), Health and Social Care to ensure that there is effective coordination of interdependences including the resolution of risks and other issues that may arise.

Create space for innovative and courageous practice that seeks to develop the best quality outcomes for people in the borough

Collaboration and Co-production

Embrace a culture of active engagement and co-production across the team, community and system wide

Engage with people on all levels when considering how support is provided with an onus on co-production.

Participate in community engagement and cohesion to effectively reduce the number of people and families who are experience isolation, loneliness, marginalisation and disconnection.

Be willing to use critical thinking about how services are developed and maintained with our communities and stakeholders

Maintain effective relationships with stakeholders who are crucial to creating a better Southend, including General Practitioners (GPs), other primary care professionals, hospital staff and community leaders/groups relevant to the locality.

Strengths and Asset Based Engagement

Embrace the vision of an asset-based approach, health and social care integration and developing community resilience.

Adhere to the ethos and principles of the Care Act (2014) and other associated adult social care legislation as part of the Adult Social Care Transformation.

Apply a strengths/asset-based approach to practice, both in terms of individual assessments, care plans and reviews and the culture within the team.

Promote occupational therapy values, ethics and commit to ensuring that individuals are at the centre of practice

Resilience and Independence

Develop your strengths, abilities and aspirations to ensure you feel valued, inspired and able to take on the complexities of practice.

Promote a culture of enablement and independence within the team which reflects a practice approach in the community

Embrace positive risk assessment and decision making to reduce boundaries around risk averse practice

Change Management and Ownership

Become co-creators of change within the communities you serve and the system you work within

Question assumptions around practice and structural hierarchies and take responsibility for new ideas and creativity

Actively participate in and understand the wider transformative vision of Southend

Adopt critical thinking by creating a new approach to understanding the system wide picture

Utilise creativity and step up to offer your views and opinions.

Quality Assurance

Take professional responsibility and ownership of your work to ensure continual development

Ensure that your competency workbook is completed to a high standard and that your aspirations and outcomes are measured, monitored and evaluated.

Communicate effectively including accurate records, written reports, appropriately reporting concerns to managers and external stakeholders when required.

Be responsible for prioritising your work and ensuring you have sufficient capacity to effectively manage you workload.

Staff Development

Be willing to develop your strengths and abilities to ensure you feel inspired and able to take on the complexities of occupational therapy practice.

Be willing to be a co-creator of change within the communities you serve and support the transformation of practice towards empowerment, change agency and asset-based community development.

To play an active role in practice development

Undertake leadership training as required to maximise the skill-set required to embrace change and drive Southend Borough Council towards a learning organisation.

Other Duties

To promote and sustain a culture of innovation and independence across the localities of Southend-on-Sea.

Responsibility for Resources

Delegated budget responsibility as established in the adult social care panel funding rules.

Qualifications expectations to meet business needs

BSC OT Degree

Person Specification

Experience

Essential

• Qualified as an Occupational Therapist in the last six months and/or practicing as a Qualified Occupational Therapist in a relevant setting.
• Ability to apply a strengths-based, asset-based approach to assessment, care planning and review.
• Support unqualified staff with their development as required, including student Occupational Therapists on placement.

Qualifications

Essential

• Qualifications
• Qualified Occupational Therapist Worker
• DIPCOT/BScOT/MSCOT ( Registered with HCPC)
• Educated to degree level or equivalent experience

Desirable

• Experience
• Qualified as an Occupational Therapist in the last six months and/or practicing as a Qualified Occupational Therapist in a relevant setting.
• Ability to apply a strengths-based, asset-based approach to assessment, care planning and review.
• Support unqualified staff with their development as required, including student Occupational Therapists on placement.

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.

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

Southend On Sea City Council

Address

Southend-on-sea City Council

Victoria Avenue

Southend-on-sea

SS1 9SB

Employer's website

https://www.southend.gov.uk/ (Opens in a new tab)