Senior Occupational Therapist - Specialist Palliative Care

Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust; North Tyneside; On-site; GBP 32,000 - 40,000; Full time

Job summary

An NHS organization is looking for an experienced occupational therapist to join their team in North Tyneside. The role focuses on providing specialist community Occupational Therapy services to patients with life-limiting conditions. Candidates should be compassionate leaders and have relevant clinical experience in palliative care. This position offers opportunities for innovation and professional development within a supportive environment.

Qualifications

• Registered Occupational Therapist with clinical experience.
• Experience in palliative care and community settings.
• Able to supervise junior staff and students.

Responsibilities

• Provide specialist Occupational Therapy services for patients with life limiting illnesses.
• Lead clinical audits and research within the team.
• Foster a culture of inclusive leadership and collaboration.

Skills

Compassionate leadership

Clinical knowledge in palliative care

Audit and research skills

Team collaboration

Education

Relevant degree in Occupational Therapy

Job description

Overview

A Vacancy at Northumbria Healthcare - NHCT Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust.

A rare opportunity has arisen for an experienced occupational therapist to join our Allied Health Professional Team working across specialist palliative care services within the Trust.

We work as a multi-disciplinary team in specialist palliative care to provide our patients and their families with high standard end of life care and management of complex palliative symptoms. The successful applicant will work alongside medical, nursing, physiotherapy and therapy assistant staff to provide an integrated and holistic service to the people we work with, supporting them at one of the most important times of their lives. We are a highly motivated and forward thinking team and our staff are supported to continuously develop within their roles to ensure that we are providing the best possible palliative care.

The role is largely clinical but as befitting a Band 7 role there are opportunities for audit, quality improvement and research as well as supervision of students and junior staff. There are also educational dimensions to the post which can be both in-house and external.

• To provide a specialist community Occupational Therapy service to patients with a life limiting illness who have complex and highly complex palliative care needs.
• To be a clinical lead in Occupational Therapy within the Specialist Palliative Care Team (SPCT) providing specialist knowledge within North Tyneside SPCT/South East Central SPCT to patients, carers and other healthcare professionals.
• To show leadership in audit and research into the clinical effectiveness of occupational therapy interventions in palliative care.
• To role model compassionate and inclusive leadership in order to shape the creation of a collective leadership culture within the trust. This means demonstrating a consistent leadership style which (a) engages, enables and empowers others (b) uses coaching to promote ownership of learning and quality improvement and (c) facilitates team working and collaboration within teams / departments and across organisational boundaries.

We manage three major locality hospitals at North Tyneside, Wansbeck and Hexham, plus a number of smaller community hospitals and clinics from Tynemouth to Berwick on Tweed, covering one of the largest geographical areas of any NHS trust in the country. Leading in innovation and quality – opening a state of the art Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital, the first of its kind in England. Do you want to work in one of the best performing NHS organisations in England? Work in an organisation that supports its staff and focuses on staff experience as much as it does the experience of its patients? You can live and breathe in an area that has the cleanest air, cost effective living, great nightlife, some of the best schools with a wealth of history available on your doorstep. Sound too good to be true? Well it isn’t, this is what you get when you work for Northumbria Healthcare, this is the Northumbria Way! Please read ‘applicant guidance notes’ before submitting your application.

Responsibilities (cont.)

• To provide a specialist community Palliative Care Occupational Therapy service across North Tyneside and/or Northumberland. We now provide a 7-day a week service so some weekend shifts are required.
• To respond to referrals from Primary Health Care Teams and the Specialist Palliative Care Team.
• Managerially responsible to Operational Manager in Palliative Care.
• Clinically responsible to the Specialist Palliative Care AHP Lead.
• Informal professional links with the Trust Lead Occupational Therapist.
• Responsible for supervision and delegation of work to Occupational Therapy Assistant.

This advert closes on Thursday 2 Oct 2025