Home First Occupational Therapist

Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust; Bradley Stoke; On-site; GBP 31,000 - 45,000; Full time

Job summary

Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust invites applications for a Home First Occupational Therapist. You will work across acute, community and home settings to assess and deliver rehabilitation after hospital discharge, enabling independence and safe discharge planning.

You will join a dynamic, multidisciplinary Home First team, provide holistic assessments, and contribute to governance and service development while supporting learners and staff development.

Qualifications

• HCPC Registration as an Occupational Therapist is required.
• Degree/Diploma in Occupational Therapy is required.
• Membership of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) is desirable.
• Moving and Handling training is required.

Responsibilities

• Assess, plan, deliver and evaluate rehabilitation and therapy interventions for adults in acute, community and home settings.
• Manage a varied clinical caseload with holistic assessments, risk assessments and treatment planning.
• Support safe and timely discharge planning and admission avoidance.
• Provide rehabilitation, equipment assessment, advice and education to patients, carers and partner organisations.
• Supervise therapy assistants, students and other learners as appropriate.

Skills

Therapy assessments

Rehabilitation interventions

Discharge planning

Community health

Autonomous working

Supervision of students

Education

HCPC Registration as an Occupational Therapist

Degree/Diploma in Occupational Therapy

Membership of CSP

Moving and Handling training

Job description

Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust

Home First Occupational Therapist

The closing date is 17 November 2026

Join an exciting new service that launched on 1 September 2026 and help shape the future of care closer to home.

We are looking for enthusiastic Occupational Therapists to join our new countywide Home First service. This is an exciting opportunity to work within an innovative multidisciplinary team supporting people to recover, regain independence and remain safely in their own homes following hospital discharge.

Working across acute, community and home settings, you will provide timely assessment, rehabilitation and intervention for adults with a range of physical, functional and rehabilitation needs. You will play a key role in supporting safe discharge planning, admission avoidance and preventing unnecessary hospital readmissions, whilst working closely with health, social care and voluntary sector partners.

This role offers the opportunity to work in a dynamic and supportive environment where you can develop your clinical skills, influence patient outcomes and contribute to the successful delivery of a new integrated service designed to improve patient flow and independence across Gloucestershire.

This role will be part of a rota working weekends and also in-reaching to our acute hospitals to improve patient transitions from hospital to home.

Main duties of the job

As a member of the Home First team, you will assess, plan, deliver and evaluate rehabilitation and therapy interventions for adults within acute, community and home settings, supporting individuals to maximise independence and achieve their goals.

You will manage a varied clinical caseload, undertaking holistic assessments, risk assessments and treatment planning for people with a range of physical, neurological, orthopaedic, medical and rehabilitation needs. Working autonomously and alongside the multidisciplinary team, you will support safe and timely discharge planning, admission avoidance and the prevention of unnecessary hospital readmissions.

The role involves providing rehabilitation, equipment assessment, advice and education to patients, carers and partner organisations, whilst ensuring accurate clinical records and outcome measures are maintained.

You will contribute to clinical governance, quality improvement, audit and service development activities, whilst maintaining high professional standards and evidence-based practice. The post holder will also support and supervise therapy assistants, students and other learners as appropriate, contributing to workforce development and the delivery of high-quality patient-centred care.

The successful candidate will be flexible, proactive and committed to helping people remain independent within their own homes while working within a fast-paced, developing service operating across a 7-day model.

About us

We have a skilled and dedicated workforce of over 5000 colleagues working in a diverse range of services over 55 sites and within people's homes. We strive to enable a welcoming workplace culture that builds and celebrates civility, inclusivity and diversity, while providing a sense of belonging and trust.

Annual staff surveys, regular Pulse surveys and other engagement opportunities provide our people with lots of opportunity to tell us about their experiences of working with us. In the latest staff survey, 61% of colleagues gave us their views. It was great to hear that:

• 72% of colleagues would recommend the Trust as a place to work, ranking us 1st for Provider Trusts in the South West region on this question.
• 76% would recommend the standard of care provided in our services if a friend or relative needed treatment, also ranking us 1st in the South West region.
• 81% said that care of patients and service users is the Trust's priority, compared with an average in comparable NHS Trusts in England of 64%.

This high-level overview shows we are in a healthy position, with higher scores than average for comparable organisations, alongside a great response rate, indicating good staff engagement. However, we also know we have plenty of room for improvement in many areas. To that end, we continue to prioritise and invest in our commitment to genuinely becoming a Great Place to Work with consistent top-quartile performance in the annual staff survey and Pulse surveys.

Job responsibilities

The qualification, training & experience requirements for the role are underlined in the Job Description/Person Specification.

The Trust aims to recruit and retain the best possible staff who, through the application of their skills, qualification and experience, will make a positive contribution to our business of providing quality health care services. It is the Trusts view that the costs associated with moving house in order to take up a post with us should not restrict our ability to recruit the excellent people we need; therefore, we support staff to relocate with our relocation policy.

This post requires the post holder to be able to undertake all statutory and mandatory training and post holders must be able to undertake physical interventions. Fitness for physical intervention will be assessed by Occupational Health.

To ensure you fully understand how the Trust, as a Data Controller, will process and store your data please read the attached document Applicant and Staff Privacy Notice prior to applying for the role.

Candidates for any staff appointment shall, when making application, disclose in writing to the Trust whether they are related to any governor. Failure to disclose such a relationship may disqualify a candidate and, if appointed, may render them liable to dismissal.

Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust are proud to have been recognised as a Veteran Aware Trust, evidencing the provision of the best care for Veterans and driving to improve the care for veterans and their families. Find out more about this by clicking on the link at the right-hand side, titled Veterans Covenant Healthcare Alliance.

At Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust, we are supportive of the people we care for in the community and aim to provide a fully responsive service to everyone who needs it. This is

the same approach we take for our employees. We look to value the skills and experiences of those we work with, whether they are service users, carers, families or those looking to work with us.

Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust is part of the NHS. We treat NHS patients according to NHS principles and standards. The difference is the Trust is accountable to local people, rather than to Government, and so we are able to work closely with our community to develop services in the way that best suits the needs of local people.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• HCPC Registration as an Occupational Therapist
• Degree/Diploma in Occupational Therapy
• Membership of relevant professional body (e.g. CSP).
• Moving and Handling training.

Skills & Experience

• Experience undertaking therapy assessments, rehabilitation and interventions.
• Experience working within community, acute or rehabilitation settings.
• Knowledge of discharge planning, rehabilitation and admission avoidance.
• Experience working independently and as part of a multidisciplinary team.
• Experience supervising, supporting or developing support staff and students.
• Experience working as a registered practitioner for 18 months or more.
• Experience of Home First, frailty or community rehabilitation services.

Personal Attributes

• Ability to work under pressure and manage competing priorities.
• Ability to use initiative and work autonomously.
• Ability to participate in weekend and bank holiday working.
• Full UK driving licence and access to a vehicle.
• Strong interpersonal and relationship-building skills.

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.

Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust