Highly Specialist Paediatric Occupational Therapist Mainstream School

CNWL NHS Foundation Trust; Greater London; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading healthcare provider is looking for a passionate Occupational Therapist (Band 7) to join their team in Greater London. This role involves delivering specialist assessments for children with diverse needs within mainstream schools, overseeing a clinical caseload, and supporting service developments. The successful candidate will have strong communication skills and a collaborative spirit to work effectively with multidisciplinary teams to enhance the educational experiences of children and young people. Join us in making a difference in their lives while advancing your career in a progressive environment.

Benefits

Internal training programme

Supportive leadership

Well-being programs

Qualifications

• Proven experience working with children aged 5-19.
• Ability to manage complex cases involving sensory and developmental challenges.
• Experience in an NHS or healthcare setting desirable.

Responsibilities

• Communicate complex patient information with multidisciplinary teams.
• Manage a specialist caseload of children with SEN.
• Plan and evaluate treatment programmes for school provisions.
• Advise on manual handling and provision of specialist equipment.

Skills

Communication skills

Clinical assessment

Team collaboration

Manual handling knowledge

Special educational needs understanding

Education

Degree in Occupational Therapy

Job description

A Vacancy at Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust.

Harrow Occupational Therapy are thrilled to announce that new funding has been secured for this fantastic opportunity to join our dynamic and inspiring OT team! If you’re a passionate Band 7 ready for an exciting new challenge, or a motivated Band 6 eager to take the next bold step in your career, we want to hear from you! Join us as a creative and forward-thinking Band 7 OT, delivering specialist assessments and interventions for children aged 5-19 within the mainstream school settings. You’ll enjoy managing your own clinical caseload while making a real difference in young lives across schools and clinic environments.

This role offers more than just clinical work, you’ll have the chance to lead innovative service developments, champion the growth of your colleagues and OT students, and be fully supported by a collaborative, passionate leadership team. If you’re ready to grow, lead, and inspire, this is the perfect next step for you!

The post holder will support in the co‑ordinating and leading of a highly specialist Occupational Therapy service to children and young people attending mainstream schools within the borough of Harrow. This role will involve working with mainstream schools in Harrow to ensure they have the adequate skills, knowledge and training to support children and young people in their educational setting. You will work alongside the other Band 7 pathway leads to ensure that a high quality, evidence based Occupational Therapy service is being delivered for our children, young people and families. The post holder will support the development of the service for children with both physical disability and learning needs, providing opportunities for service development projects and training within the team. The post holder will support and promote OT service development including provision of a targeted service to schools and parents through training and support of the wider workforce and parent groups as required by the department.

We are a very friendly and dynamic team who are passionate about supporting children, young people and families in Harrow while also supporting you and your wellbeing! We strongly encourage staff input and influence to help design the OT service and the wider MDT team. We value personal development and we have an established internal training programme along with regular opportunities for external training. We are based at Alexandra Avenue where there is a high level of integration and collaboration between different health, education and social care services.

The successful applicant may have contact with patients or service users. As an NHS Trust we strongly encourage and support vaccination as this remains the best way to protect yourself, your family, your colleagues and of course patients and service users when working in our healthcare settings.

Responsibilities

1. To communicate complex patient related information effectively to ensure collaborative working with multidisciplinary team members across health, education and social services and the voluntary sector. In particular to work with school staff to ensure the delivery of a well co‑ordinated care plan and/or individual education plan which facilitates the development of sensory, perceptual, motor and daily living skills.
   • To work collaboratively with the multidisciplinary team in schools.
   • To support access to and differentiation of the Foundation Stage and National Curriculum for children with physical difficulties/developmental disabilities.
   • To advise on manual handling risk assessment, access school environments and provision of specialist equipment (seating and hoisting equipment) and aids to daily living.
2. To manage a highly specialist and complex caseload of CYP with SEN particularly those attending specially resourced provisions for CYP with ASD. This includes:
   • Gaining appropriate consent.
   • Lead clinician for provision of comprehensive specialist assessment and differential diagnosis of individual children with diverse and complex presentations using a range of specialist assessments/techniques.
   • Planning, delivering and evaluating highly specialist treatment programmes in the area of mainstream school provision.
   • Referring on to other services/professionals as appropriate in particular, Harrow Wheelchair services, Community equipment store, Consultant Paediatricians.
   • Using specialist knowledge and demonstrating advanced skills in dealing with complex issues, including those where there are conflicting clinical indicators, to generate appropriate strategies for caseload management and wider issues relating to service provision for school children.
   • Negotiating with CYP parents/carers, and others around individual case management.
   • Writing reports reflecting highly specialist knowledge and providing specific advice for statutory assessment of special educational needs.
   • Analyse clinical and social information from a range of sources and integrate into assessment and development of care/treatment plan.
3. To demonstrate established negotiation skills in the management of conflict across a range of situations.
4. To deal with initial complaints sensitively, avoiding escalation where possible and report to Line Manager or Head of Paediatric Therapy Service.
5. To form productive relationships with others in particular parents/carers who may be under stress and/or have challenging communication difficulties.
6. To write clinical reports as per departmental standards reflecting highly specialist knowledge.

This advert closes on Wednesday 14 Jan 2026.