Band 6 Occupational Therapist

North London Mental Health Partnership; Enfield; On-site; GBP 46,000 - 54,000; Full time

Job summary

North London NHS Foundation Trust is seeking a Band 6 Occupational Therapist for a forensic inpatient service in North London. The post involves assessment, intervention, and evaluation for a caseload of patients with complex mental health needs.

You will deliver recovery-oriented OT, lead groups, and supervise junior staff within a multidisciplinary team. The role offers supervision, development opportunities and the chance to specialise in forensic OT.

Qualifications

• Minimum of 1 year post graduate experience.
• Experience of working in mental health.
• Experience planning and running therapeutic groups and 1:1 interventions.
• Experience in supervising junior staff.
• Assess, plan, implement and evaluate occupational therapy interventions with sound clinical reasoning.
• Further relevant courses or areas of study.

Responsibilities

• Deliver person-centred, recovery-focused OT interventions.
• Lead therapeutic groups and 1:1 sessions.
• Support development of junior staff through supervision.
• Contribute to OT service development.
• Promote high standards of professional communication.

Skills

Occupational Therapy

Forensic mental health

Teamwork

Job description

Search through our current job vacancies across the Trust below.

Site North London Forensic Service, Chase Farm Hospital Town Enfield Salary £45,953 - £54,254 per annum inclusive of outer London HCAS Salary period Yearly Closing 18/11/2026 23:59

Thank you for your interest in North London NHS Foundation Trust (NLFT).

As of 1 April 2026, NLFT has formally merged with Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust—marking the start of an exciting new chapter. This is a unique opportunity to join a forward-thinking organisation at a time of transformation, where we are strengthening access to mental health services, responding more effectively to complex and specialist needs, and advancing our work in education, research and innovation.

By bringing together our combined expertise, we are building a stronger, more collaborative Trust—one that delivers consistent, high-quality care and improved outcomes for the diverse communities we serve.

At the heart of our approach is The North London Way. We are committed to:

• Working collaboratively at every level, guided by our shared values
• Shaping a positive, inclusive culture where staff and service users thrive
• Empowering our teams with the skills, tools and autonomy to drive meaningful change
• Delivering excellence and continuously improving the quality of care we provide
• Embedding research, innovation and technology across our services
• Taking a trauma-informed approach in everything we do

We are proud to be an inclusive employer that values diversity. We actively welcome applicants from all backgrounds, particularly from our local communities, and are committed to creating opportunities for everyone—including apprentices, veterans and care leavers.

The North London Way to deliver: Better Mental Health, Better Lives, Better Communities.

As a values‑driven Trust, we recruit through our values. Our selection processes focus on behaviours, attitudes, and examples that reflect our organisational values and commitment to compassionate, high‑quality care.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a set of technology that can perform various tasks that typically required human intelligence. Your application is your opportunity to demonstrate to us how you meet the requirements of the role.

We recognise that AI tools can support accessibility, equity and confidence for applicants. However, it’s important that examples and responses genuinely reflect your own experience and abilities, as these will be explored further during the selection process. AI must not be used to provide misleading or false information during any stage of the application journey.

North London NHS Foundation Trust is committed to ensuring that its recruitment processes are carried out with integrity, transparency, and fairness for all applicants. To help maintain these standards, we ask candidates to provide accurate and truthful information throughout the recruitment process.

If incorrect or misleading information is identified, this may affect the progression of an application, any employment offer, or continued employment. As part of our due diligence, the company may verify the information provided by applicants and take appropriate act ion where necessary.

We do not charge applicants any fees at any stage of the recruitment process, including applications, interviews, sponsorship arrangements, pre‑employment checks, or employment offers. All vacancies are advertised through TRAC/NHS Jobs and candidates are assessed solely on their skills, qualifications, experience, and suitability for the role. If you are asked to make a payment in connection with an NHS job opportunity, please treat this as suspicious and contact the organisation directly using the details published on our official career's website.

Band 6 Occupational Therapist - Forensic Inpatient Service - North London

We are seeking a dynamic Band 6 Occupational Therapist to join our multidisciplinary inpatient team, supporting individuals with complex mental health needs on their recovery journey. This is an exciting opportunity to use your clinical skills, creativity, and professional expertise to deliver meaningful, recovery-focused interventions that promote independence, wellbeing, and social inclusion.

Working within a supportive and experienced team, you will assess, plan, and deliver evidence-based occupational therapy interventions, lead therapeutic groups and 1:1 sessions, contribute to service development, and play a key role in helping patients achieve their personal goals and potential.

We are looking for someone who is enthusiastic, compassionate, and committed to delivering high-quality, person‑centred care. In return, we offer excellent supervision, professional development opportunities, and the chance to make a real difference in a rewarding and specialist clinical setting.

Join us and help individuals rebuild their lives through occupation, recovery, and hope.

Main duties of the job

We are seeking an enthusiastic Band 6 Occupational Therapist to join the Occupational Therapy team at the North London Forensic Service (NLFS). Working within a secure forensic mental health setting, you will provide assessment, intervention and evaluation for a designated caseload of service users with complex mental health needs.

You will deliver person‑centred, recovery-focused interventions that promote functional independence, wellbeing and positive risk management through individual and group work, functional assessments, and multidisciplinary care planning. Working closely with the wider MDT, you will support service users with complex presentations, including psychosis, personality disorder, challenging behaviour and limited insight.

The role also includes supporting the development of junior staff through supervision and acting as a practice educator for occupational therapy students.

This is an exciting opportunity to develop specialist skills within a supportive and experienced forensic mental health team.

Working for our organisation

North London NHS Foundation Trust (NLFT) is committed to improving mental health care across North London to deliver excellent services to our local people.

• We will provide consistently high-quality care closer to home.
• With our partners in North London and each borough we will ensure equity of outcome for all
• We will offer great places to work, providing staff with supportive environment to deliver outstanding care.

Why NLFT?

• We develop and retain our staff through leadership behaviours and managers programme and many more opportunities.
• We promote flexible working and support staff with a range of health and wellbeing initiatives.
• NHS Discounts, generous annual leave and NHS pension scheme
• Excellent internal staff network

In order to meet the needs of the Trust you may be required from time to time to work at different locations to your normal place of work. This may mean that you are required to work at any location that fall under Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey or Islington. The Trust reserves the right to require staff to work at such other places or locations as it considers reasonable and necessary on a temporary or permanent basis.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

For more information and detail, please see attached Job Description and Person Specification attached.

Person specification

Skills and Experience

• Minimum of 1 years post graduate experience.
• Experience of working in mental health.
• Experience of planning and running a range of therapeutic groups and 1:1 interventions.
• Experience in managing and supervising junior staff, e.g. Band 5 OT, Band 4 TI.
• Ability to assess, plan, implement, and evaluate occupational therapy interventions, demonstrating sound clinical reasoning and judgement.
• Further relevant courses or areas of study
• Experience of working in Forensic environments
• Experience justifying and challenging treatment priorities within available resources.
• Experience in contributing towards OT service development
• Ability to promote and model high standards of professional communication.

Qualifications

Personal Qualities

• Ability to build and maintain positive therapeutic relationships.
• Committed to collaborative and multidisciplinary working.

Due to the high number of applications that are received for some posts, we reserve the right to close any vacancies before the stated closing date. Therefore, please ensure you apply without delay if you wish to be considered for this role.

In line with NHS protocols, only those applicants who demonstrate clearly how they meet our person specification will be shortlisted for interview. We regret that it is not possible to contact all applicants for every vacancy. If you have not been contacted within 4 weeks of the closing date, please assume you have not been shortlisted for the next stage.

Some administrative recruitment activities may be undertaken using automated workflow and robotic process automation technologies. These tools assist authorised staff in processing recruitment records and employment checks but do not make decisions regarding your employment.

You must already have the right to work in the United Kingdom or fully meet the eligibility criteria for sponsorship under the Skilled Worker visa route. We welcome applications from candidates who require visa sponsorship; however, we can only consider these where all UKVI requirements are met. Before applying, please ensure that both you and the role satisfy the relevant UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) points‑based system criteria, as applications that do not meet these requirements cannot be progressed. For more information about the criteria,

References will be required to cover your last 3 years of employment/training. One has to be from your current or most recent employer and the others from your previous employer. The references should be from persons with management responsibility or HR.

Please note, in order to progress your application your data will be processed by our 3rd party recruitment providers – North London Partners Shared Service, who conduct recruitment activities on behalf of North London NHS Foundation Trust. As part of pre‑employment checks your identity and right to work documentation will be verified remotely (in most circumstances), using a certified identity verification service provider TrustID. You will be asked to capture an image of the relevant documents as well as a “selfie” using your smartphone/tablet (if available) for facial matching. TrustID will also perform a digital address check using Trunarrative and Equifax, which is a soft check and does not leave a footprint on your credit rating. For more information, visit www.trustid.co.uk

The Trust uses electronic new starter forms on Trac to collect personal details. Information collected is securely stored and used to set up the employee record on the ESR HR system.

We are an equal opportunities employer and are committed to creating an inclusive, fair, and supportive workplace for all. We actively welcome applications from individuals who are under‑represented within our workforce and are dedicated to eliminating discrimination in all its forms.

As a Disability Confident (Two Ticks) employer, we guarantee an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role and are committed to making reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process.

By applying for this role, you accept in the event you are successful that your personal data may be transferred from the Trust to another NHS organisation where your employment transfers within the NHS. This is in accordance with the streamlining programme which is aimed at improving efficiencies within the NHS both to make costs savings for NHS organisations but also to save you time when your employment transfers.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

Application numbers

This vacancy may close early if it receives a high number of applications. Please complete and submit your application in good time to avoid disappointment.

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