Job responsibilities
The Advanced Practitioner Optimal Handed Care Lead is responsible for a wide range of duties that ensure high-quality care and compliance with professional standards. These responsibilities include:
1. Professional Competence and Assessment: Conduct high-level assessments, including seating and posture, impacts on major adaptations, Optimal Handed Care, and advanced risk management planning. Manage an allocated workload requiring professional competence in assessing complex needs, risks, support planning, care, and review.
2. Collaboration and Partnerships: Collaborate effectively with various departments, agencies, neighbourhoods, health, local community groups, and charities to promote health and wellbeing using occupation. Develop close relationships with stakeholders to promote health and wellbeing through occupation. Stakeholder Engagement: You will lead discussions with key stakeholders to ensure the SHC pathway is safe and sustainable. Community Links: You will develop strong links with community providers, including joint training packages and risk management strategies.
3. Compliance and Standards: Ensure practice compliance with national professional and local policies, procedures, and legislation, including the National Back exchange recommendations, data protection, equality, diversity and inclusion, ethics, health and safety, risk management, and safeguarding. Support others to adhere to the Health and Care Professions Councils professional regulatory requirements and the Royal College of Occupational Therapists Professional standards for Occupational Therapy practices, conduct, and ethics. Clinical Advice: Providing highly specialised Occupational Therapy (OT) clinical advice within the Council and Somerset Foundation Trust and externally, engaging less experienced staff in training opportunities and empowering them in positive risk management.
4. Training and Education: Provide high-quality regular supervision and appraisals to qualified workers within the team to ensure safe, legal, and high-quality practice. Act as a role model to inspire, supervise, mentor, and educate others, including learners and apprentices. Complete 'training the trainer' moving and handling course and act as a practice educator.
5. Data Management and Performance: Collect and manipulate data, collate, and feedback on performance against set objectives to support continual improvement. Record information clearly and accurately to meet the requirements of the council and regulatory bodies. Formulate and lead on the achievement of specific objectives aligned to local, regional, and national strategic direction, to facilitate a high-performance team focused on the needs of the people and populations who access services, their families, and their carers
6. Service Planning and Leadership: Formulate and lead on the achievement of specific objectives aligned to local, regional, and national strategic direction to facilitate a high-performance team. Provide innovative and visionary team leadership to promote the profession, founded on person-centred, compassionate, and values-based leadership principles. Project Leadership: to lead and develop Optimal Handed Care (OHC) practices within the discharge pathways, working alongside the NHS Therapy Management team to promote the OHC agenda and ensure a safe and robust discharge pathway from the Acute and Community Hospitals to home.
7. Professional Skills and Techniques: Complete the occupational therapy process using advanced decision-making skills within complex contexts to ensure high-quality practice. Assume professional accountability and responsibility for a broad aspect of service delivery, including allocation and prioritisation of cases. Team Management: To lead a small project team in reviewing high intensity packages of care (in enhanced peer forum), collecting data, and producing reports for senior managers.
8. Budget Monitoring and Audits: Act as authoriser for a delegated value of items ordered through the community equipment service to ensure value for money and client satisfaction. Participate proactively in audits and assurance activities to ensure high-quality, safe, and legal practice.
9. Communication and Feedback: Role-model advanced communication skills, including active listening, negotiation, managing sensitive news, and justifying own viewpoint. Utilise formal systems for obtaining feedback from people who access services, their families, and their Carers.
10. Inclusivity and Participation: Contribute to strategies and practices that challenge stigma and discrimination and promote inclusivity and participation for people who access occupational therapy services. Pathway Development: working alongside colleagues across the integrated Care system within Somerset to produce a shared vision for the OHC pathway, considering positive patient/client experience and outcomes.
11. Risk Management and Evaluation: Exercise professional judgement to manage risk, including positive risk-taking, especially in complex and unpredictable situations. Embed the evaluation of impact into practice across all settings and at an operational level. Education and Development: Responsible for the management, education, and development of the therapy staff/teams, as well as Domiciliary Care Providers and staff within the Residential settings and any other staff across the ICS. Exercise professional judgement to manage risk, including positive risk-taking, especially in complex and unpredictable situations, and support others to do so.
12. Continuing Professional Development: Engage in, apply, and record relevant continuing professional development activities across the four Pillars of Practice as an expert in this field of practice. Teach and learn about the value of occupations for health and wellbeing. Provide high quality regular supervision and appraisals, to qualified workers within the project team to ensure practice is safe, legal, and high quality, and meets HCPC requirements. Embed the evaluation of impact into practice, across all settings and at an operational level. Role-model ways to engage in, apply and record relevant continuing professional development activities across the four Pillars of Practice, to identify the impact and benefit of own learning for self and others, including people who access services, their families, and their Carers.
13. Advocacy and Culture: Advocate for and facilitate the creation of a culture that encourages reflection, learning, constructive feedback, and mutual learning. Act as a role model to inspire, supervise, mentor, and educate others (including learners and apprentices) seeking to instil and develop confidence. Create opportunities for self and others to work across practice and education settings (e.g. student recruitment, practice-based learning, curriculum development/teaching, assessment)., including practice education, Encourage learning by challenging complacency, actions and ways of thinking that may not be in the best interests of the public and/or those who access services, their families, and their Carers.
