Band 6 Children's Occupational Therapist

Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; Oxford; On-site; GBP 30,000 - 38,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading healthcare provider in the United Kingdom is seeking a dedicated Occupational Therapist to provide specialized assessment and treatment for children with complex needs. This position involves managing inpatient rehabilitation, coordinating complex discharges, and working closely with a multi-disciplinary team. The ideal candidate will hold a degree in Occupational Therapy, with experience in the NHS and acute settings. The role offers opportunities for professional development and the chance to positively impact patients' lives.

Benefits

Professional development opportunities

Supportive work environment

Qualifications

• Valid UK professional registration required.
• Experience working in an acute setting.
• Experience of complex discharge planning required.

Responsibilities

• Provide a comprehensive inpatient Occupational Therapy service.
• Work as a Keyworker managing patients' rehabilitation.
• Supervise junior staff and provide clinical education.

Skills

Occupational Therapy assessment

Complex discharge planning

Clinical reasoning skills

Team collaboration

Communication

Education

Diploma or Degree in Occupational Therapy

Experience of NHS

Knowledge of Occupational Therapy process

Job description

Overview

To provide specialist Occupational Therapy assessment, treatment, management and evaluation for children and young people with complex needs. To provide input to in-patients under the neuro rehabilitation service, neurology and acute teams across the hospital wards and to work as a key member of the multi-professional team. You will work closely with the Neuro Rehabilitation team, providing cross cover to our acute, spinal and orthopaedic teams as required. You will help to lead on complex discharges and be supported to keywork some of the complex rehabilitation patients. The post may involve working across different OUH sites to meet service needs.

Key Responsibilities

• To provide a comprehensive inpatient Occupational Therapy service consisting of assessment, evidence-based intervention and discharge planning for children admitted to the Children's hospital for both elective and acute admissions.
• To work as a Keyworker for patients under the neurorehabilitation service, managing their in-patient rehabilitation, planning and coordinating complex discharge.
• To undertake all aspects of clinical duties as an autonomous practitioner.
• To assist in the coordination of the clinical caseload of the OT paediatric service to facilitate timely discharges.
• To supervise junior staff, unqualified staff and students, where appropriate.
• To provide appropriate and timely Occupational Therapy reports and other patient related correspondence, including clinically related administrative duties according to the quality standards of the service.
• To provide specialist advice to other members of the multi-disciplinary team and to provide clinical education and training to others.
• To work with the Children's Therapies Manager and Band 7 OTs in developing the Paediatric Occupational Therapy service.
• To be responsible for the maintenance and development of own continuous professional development (CPD).
• To be aware of, and operate within specific legal and national frameworks in relation to the care of children; e.g. The Children's Act, Safeguarding Children, etc., To communicate and discuss complex information with senior medical staff, OT team and the multi-disciplinary team and to represent an individual or the Occupational Therapy service at multi-disciplinary and multi-agency meetings, including discussions about patient care, treatment, patient progress and discharge/transition planning.

Clinical Responsibilities

• To be professional and legally responsible and accountable for all aspects of own work, including the management of all patients in your care.
• To work flexibly and be able to adjust to the constantly changing demands of the service.
• To have holistic understanding of patient and family dynamics, the patient's condition and its impact on function.
• To ensure a high standard of clinical care for the children under your management at all times and support more junior staff to do likewise.
• To use clinical reasoning skills in developing individual care plans that may include a treatment programme of therapeutic intervention as well as education and advice to parents, carers, school staff, multi-disciplinary and multi-agency professionals.
• To assess the child's/ parent's/ carer's understanding of the assessment and treatment proposals, gaining valid informed consent and have the knowledge to work within a legal framework with children who lack the capacity to consent to the treatment.
• To undertake the comprehensive assessment of children including those with complex presentations using investigative and analytical skills to formulate individualised management and treatment plans.
• To accept clinical and managerial responsibility for a designated caseload of children and to organise this effectively and efficiently with regards to clinical priorities, available resources and use of time in order to facilitate safe, timely discharge.
• To use sound judgement and analytical skills in recommending the best course of intervention, taking into account the range of treatment options and modalities available e.g. specialist seating, adaptation of equipment, clothing, splinting etc.
• To assess for and order equipment for short term use to facilitate discharge; to advise regarding its safe use and to justify to manager provision of high value adaptive equipment.
• To assess and advise on long term equipment needs and liaise with appropriate community teams for provision of this.
• To formulate, evaluate and progress specialised treatment programmes and recommend the best course of intervention for the children, setting realistic goals jointly agreed with all parties concerned.
• To evaluate the child's progress, reassess and alter treatment as required, monitoring treatment using sound measurement and validated outcome measures.
• To be responsible for equipment used in carrying out occupational therapy duties and to adhere to departmental policy including competence to use equipment and to ensure the safe use of equipment by yourself and others through teaching, training and supervision of practice.
• To work with other therapists and agencies to ensure the safe physical management/handling of children. This will include the use of risk assessments and highly developed manual handling techniques.
• To work within Trust and Royal College of Occupational Therapy's professional, operational and clinical guidelines and have a working knowledge of national and local standards for monitoring own quality of practice.
• To evaluate emergency situations and act accordingly working within procedures and protocols laid down by the service and the Trust.
• To accept personal responsibility for the actions and quality of own work and those staff whose responsibility is delegated to you.
• To treat as confidential all information obtained during the course of duties undertaken.
• To demonstrate an ability to deal effectively with sensitive and contentious information, particularly with respect to difficult social situation and child protection issues.
• To maintain and develop current knowledge of evidenced based practice, developing specialist knowledge and integrating theory into practice.
• To continually undertake the measurement and evaluation of your work in light of current and developing protocols, standards, evidence-based research, audit and outcome measures.

Professional

• To work within relevant Professional Standards of Practice of the Royal College of Occupational Therapy (RCOT) and adhering to Trust policies and procedures.

Planning and Organisational Skills

• To decide priorities for own work area, balancing other occupational therapy related and professional demands and ensure that these priorities remain in accordance with those of the service as a whole.
• To attend and participate in the Trust mandatory training, including child protection and departmental in-service training.
• To participate in appropriate Clinical Governance activities such as Risk Assessments, Incident reporting etc. and demonstrate a thorough understanding of these being able to apply them to a work situation.
• To undertake risk assessments on a daily basis, e.g. work space, equipment, patients and self, using judgment skills to make the necessary adjustments in line with health and safety regulations.
• To carry a bleep and respond to calls and requests when based in the hospital in a timely manner and with appropriate action. This can involve re-prioritising the day in order to meet an urgent patient need involving safety or same day discharge.

Service and Personal Development

• To work within relevant professional standards of practice (RCOT) adhering to Trust procedures.
• To participate in the development of the Occupational Therapy service.
• To manage and undertake audit, benchmarking and research into specific areas of clinical practice and service delivery using a range of methodologies as part of multi-disciplinary departmental initiatives.
• To actively participate in the fieldwork education and training of OT students to graduate level as well as other professionals in education, health, social care and voluntary bodies as appropriate.
• To actively participate in continuing professional development to further own learning and personal development, including regular supervision, peer review and annual appraisal.
• To participate actively in sharing and receiving in-service training and development, to ensure sharing of learning, skills, knowledge and expertise and promote continuous professional development. Gain further knowledge by attending external course identified at appraisal and demonstrate reflection on and use of that new knowledge in your work.
• Attend statutory and mandatory training in line with Trust policies.
• To be responsible for complying with your agreed objectives and personal development plan while maintaining own competency to practice through CPD activities.
• To record continuing professional development in own portfolio, linked to the annual appraisal and personal development plan.
• To actively seek peer and clinical support by participating in national clinical and special interest groups in order to keep up to date with professional information.
• To contribute towards service reviews, audit, research and development within the children's therapy service.
• To be aware of and promote cross-site links by working with other therapists across the Trust and to support OT speciality teams.

Information and Resource Management

• To make proposals for securing funding for equipment, or study days.
• To be aware of and abide by the criteria for provision of equipment including financial limits and referring onto other organisations as necessary.
• To be competent using the online equipment ordering system to facilitate patient discharge.
• Ensure all equipment is used appropriately and safely, according to RCOT service guidelines.
• To take responsibility for the maintenance of the department's equipment and information files.
• To compile, record and collate accurate statistics for treatment interventions in a timely manner.
• To maintain patient records and statistics in line with Trust Standards and the Department Policy and the Data Protection Act.
• To maintain up-to-date records or all leave (annual, sick, professional, study) and to take responsibility for the reporting of absence.
• To use the Trust intranet, EPR systems, PAS and data bases and assist in training of other staff on how to use it.

Qualifications

• Diploma or Degree in Occupational Therapy
• Experience of NHS
• Knowledge, understanding and application of Occupational Therapy process relating to client centred practice.
• Experience of complex discharge planning
• MDT working
• Experience working in an acute setting

Desirable Criteria

• Experience of working in neuro rehab setting
• Ability to support the supervision and education of students on practice placements, Therapy Assistants and Band 5 OTs.
• Experience of Paediatric inpatient services
• Experience of patients following surgery
• Experience of Critical care

COVID-19 Vaccination

The COVID-19 vaccination remains the best way to protect yourself, your family, your colleagues and of course our patients from the virus when working in our healthcare settings. Whilst COVID-19 vaccination is not a condition of employment , we do encourage our staff to get vaccinated. If you are unvaccinated there is helpful advice and information at Oxfordshire County Council Website where you can also find out more about how to access vaccination. You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

About Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one of the largest NHS teaching trusts in the country. It provides a wide range of general and specialist clinical services and is a base for medical education, training and research. The Trust comprises of four hospitals - the John Radcliffe Hospital, Churchill Hospital and Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre in Headington and the Horton General Hospital in Banbury. Our values, standards and behaviours define the quality of clinical care we offer and the professional relationships we make with our patients, colleagues and the wider community. We call this Delivering Compassionate Excellence and its focus is on our values of compassion, respect, learning, delivery, improvement and excellence. These values put patients at the heart of what we do and underpin the quality healthcare we would like for ourselves or a member of our family. Watch how we set out to deliver compassionate excellence via the OUH YouTube channel. In 2023 NHS England launched its first sexual safety charter, and our Trust proudly signed it. We pledge zero tolerance for inappropriate sexual behaviour and commit to the ten core principles Oxford University Hospitals promotes a safe, respectful hiring environment. If you want to make a difference with us, come and join our team. Together, we will uphold the highest standards of care and professionalism.