Senior Occupational Therapist

NHS; Lancing; On-site; GBP 38,000 - 47,000; Full time

Job summary

An NHS community service provider is seeking a Band 6 Therapist in Lancing. You will deliver home-based therapy and manage a complex caseload, ensuring high-quality interventions and supervising junior staff. The role encompasses leadership responsibilities, service evaluation, and continuous professional development. Flexible working options are available, along with excellent training opportunities. This position offers a salary ranging from £38,682 to £46,580 annually.

Benefits

Flexible working options

Excellent training and development opportunities

Cost-effective workplace nurseries

Qualifications

• Professional qualification such as a degree in Occupational Therapy.
• Current registration with the Health and Care Professions Council.
• Evidence of relevant postgraduate courses and reflective practice.

Responsibilities

• Manage a complex caseload delivering therapy interventions.
• Supervise and support colleagues from Bands 2 to 5.
• Contribute to service evaluation, audits, and improvement initiatives.

Skills

Clinical skills

Leadership

Advanced communication

Teamwork

Assessment and evaluation

Education

Degree in Occupational Therapy

Current registration with HCPC

Job description

Job summary

The UCR Service provides urgent support, seven days a week, to help prevent unnecessary hospital admissions. This is achieved by providing a two-hour crisis response delivered by a multi-skilled team of professionals. Support is provided at home or where they usually reside for people who are concerned their health or mobility is declining and are therefore at risk of admission to hospital. Our teams work closely with our local ambulance service to pull category 3 & 4 patients off the ambulance stack, supporting patients in receiving a rapid response in the community by teams with the skills to support them to remain at home.

The UCR service also provide a general virtual ward service, supported by digital technology and remote monitoring. Our multidisciplinary teams ensure that patients receive hospital-level care at home safely and in familiar surroundings, helping speed up their recovery while freeing up hospital beds for patients that need them most. As well as home visits, digital remote monitoring is utilised.

Main duties

Band 6 Therapist:

As a Band 6 Therapist, you will manage a complex caseload, delivering high-quality, evidence-based therapy interventions to patients in their own homes. You'll use your advanced clinical reasoning to complete holistic assessments, develop tailored treatment plans, and monitor progress, adapting interventions as needed.

This is a leadership role where you'll supervise and support colleagues from Bands 2 to 5, contribute to student education, and support appraisals and team development. You'll be actively involved in service evaluation, audits, and improvement initiatives, ensuring best practice is embedded across the team.

Working as part of a responsive multidisciplinary team, you will play a key role in planning patient pathways, managing clinical risk, and promoting patient independence. You'll also maintain accurate documentation, support equipment management, and engage in continuous professional development through training, reflection, and supervision.

Teams are made up of GPs, Nurses, Paramedics, Pharmacists, Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists, and Health & Therapy Assistants who work together to reduce hospital admissions. Patients are reviewed daily by a clinical team and the "ward round" may involve a visit or take place through video technology.

About us

We are the provider of NHS community services across East and West Sussex, with 6,000 staff serving 1.3 million people. We deliver essential care to adults and children, helping them manage their health, avoid hospital admissions, and reduce hospital stays.

Our Trust vision is to provide excellent care at the heart of the community. We offer opportunities across medical, clinical, support, and corporate services.

Why work for us

• Positive 2024 NHS Staff Survey results, highlighting compassionate leadership and wellbeing.
• Varied environments: community hospitals, patients' homes, and bases across Sussex.
• Flexible working options: part-time, flexi-time, annualised hours, and flexi-retirement.
• Excellent training, development, and research opportunities.
• Cost-effective workplace nurseries in Crawley, Hove, and Brighton.
• Active EMBRACE, Disability & Wellbeing, LGBTQIA+, and Religion & Belief network.
• Level 3 Disability Confident Leader and Veteran Aware Trust.
• Beautiful Sussex location near the South Downs and coast.

Our values – Compassionate Care, Working Together, Achieving Ambitions, Delivering Excellence – guide everything we do.

We embrace diversity and encourage applications from all backgrounds, particularly from ethnically diverse, disabled, and LGBTQIA+ individuals. We aim to create an inclusive environment and support reasonable adjustments during recruitment.

This post may close early if sufficient applications are received.

Job details

Band: Band 6

Salary: £38,682 to £46,580 a year per annum pro rata

Contract: Permanent

Working pattern: Part-time

Reference number: 150-OM1945-UPC-D

Job locations: The Quadrant, 60 Marlborough Road, Lancing Business Park, Lancing, BN15 8UW

Job responsibilities

Our multidisciplinary teams work flexibly to provide a 7-day service, 365 days a year, between 8am and 8pm.

Are you committed to delivering an outstanding service which is fast‑paced and reliable? Do you want to work with a team of caring and dedicated staff? We are looking for an Operational Lead to join us, so if you’re an ambitious, proactive, and looking to take a lead role in a team that provides cutting‑edge, excellent community care, we’d love to hear from you!

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Professional qualification such as a degree or equivalent in Occupational Therapy.
• Current registration with the Health and Care Professions Council.
• Evidence of relevant postgraduate courses / CPD and reflective practice relevant to clinical speciality.

Experience

• Substantial relevant post‑qualification experience covering a broad range.
• Experience of working within a relevant specialist area.
• Experience of interdisciplinary working.
• Experience of supervising junior staff, assistants and students.
• Experience of independently managing a clinical caseload.
• Experience at contributing to audit and evaluation within a clinical governance framework.
• Experience of a range of caseload management and prioritisation systems.
• Experience within specialism underpinned by theory and specific therapeutic knowledge.
• Experience of using assessment tools relevant to client group.

Skills and Knowledge

• Able to demonstrate competency in a range of clinical skills.
• Able to assess, plan, implement and evaluate care for individuals.
• Able to plan and prioritise own workload efficiently.
• Able to delegate work to others.
• Able to demonstrate leadership in practice.
• Good numeracy, literacy and IT skills.
• Promotes choice and independence in undertaking patient care.
• Able to demonstrate advanced communication and negotiation skills.
• Able to demonstrate the application of research based practice.
• Up to date knowledge of national policies and procedures relevant to the clinical setting.
• Up to date knowledge of clinical governance, clinical audit and risk management.
• Able to give supervision and appraisal of junior staff.
• Up to date knowledge of professional code of conduct.
• Able to demonstrate knowledge / understanding of boundaries of role.
• Able to demonstrate how to reflect and learn from situations and identify difficulties as challenges to then work with others to identify solutions.
• Able to demonstrate co‑operative team working and awareness of the roles of other professionals.
• Able to demonstrate a commitment to learning and development with documented evidence of CPD.

Other

• Car driver (Valid Driving Licence for use in the UK).
• Access to a vehicle for work purposes.
• Willingness to undertake training to develop within the role.
• Flexible approach to working.

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.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website.

6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here: Criminal records checks for overseas applicants.

UK Registration

Applicants must have current UK professional registration. For further information please see NHS Careers website.

Employer details

Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust

The Quadrant, 60 Marlborough Road, Lancing Business Park, Lancing, BN15 8UW

Website: https://www.sussexcommunity.nhs.uk/work-with-us/