Senior Wheelchair Therapist

Integrated Care System; Runcorn; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

A community healthcare trust in Runcorn is seeking an experienced Senior Wheelchair Therapist. The successful candidate will lead the multi-disciplinary wheelchair team, manage complex patient cases, and ensure high-quality clinical care. This role requires strong leadership skills, effective communication, and a background in clinical practice. Competitive salary and supportive working environment with opportunities for professional development.

Benefits

Flexible working opportunities

Professional development support

Qualifications

• Demonstrated experience in clinical leadership within a healthcare setting.
• Strong background in managing complex cases and providing specialist care.
• Ability to communicate effectively with patients and multidisciplinary teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead the multi-disciplinary wheelchair service team.
• Assess and prescribe wheelchairs and specialist seating solutions.
• Ensure high standards of clinical care and manage patient caseload.

Skills

Clinical leadership

Complex case management

Communication skills

Team collaboration

Patient assessment

Education

Degree in relevant field

Registration with relevant professional body

Job description

Go back Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Senior Wheelchair Therapist

The closing date is 26 August 2025

An exciting opportunity hasarisen for an enthusiastic, motivated, and organised clinical leader to joinBridgewater Wheelchair Services as an Advanced Occupational Therapist/Physiotherapist. We are seeking an inspirational, motivated, and proactiveclinician with leadership qualities to clinically lead multi-disciplinarywheelchair team to maintain and develop a high-quality wheelchair service forthe population of Warrington, Runcorn, Widnes, and St Helens.

The post-holder willclinically lead the wheelchair service case load and work alongside theWheelchair service team lead supporting with all aspects of wheelchairprovision within the organisation, to external partners and to all stakeholdersand day to day leadership in the team. You will work as a senior clinician,assessing for and prescribing wheelchairs and specialist seating solutionstaking a lead role in the advanced and specialist assessment and treatment ofclients who have complex, progressive and/or chronic presentations. The Bridgewaterservice covers a wide age range, from 30 months (and younger in specialcircumstances) upwards, so a broad knowledge of medical conditions andassociated physical, sensory, learning disabilities, psychological and mentalhealth issues is essential.

If you are an enthusiastic,dynamic, and organised professional with effective leadership qualities andcommunication skills who would like to take on a new challenge, then this isthe role for you.

Main duties of the job

Thewheelchair team consists of a mixture of clinical therapists, assistantpractitioners, wheelchair technicians and administrators (10 staff intotal). The main base is HaltonIndependent Living centre in Runcorn, with a satellite clinic in St Helens andyou may also be required to work at the Warrington base.

Asan advanced therapist, you will be professionally and clinically responsiblefor all aspects of your service. You will ensure that a high standard ofclinical care is deliveredby your teamincluding risk assessment and management for all clients. You will be expectedto manage and lead the caseload of patients with complex needs that reflectyour specialist skills and knowledge.

As an advancedtherapist, you will assist the Team leader and Operations Manager in monitoringthe role and quality performance of the authorised repairer through incidentreports, regular meetings with the contractor and by attending contract reviewmeetings as required.

As an Advancedtherapist, you will keep up to date with wheelchairs, accessories, andequipment available for purchase by the NHS, assessing and evaluating productsto enable decisions to be reached to ensure the needs of the client are met andthat give best value for money.

About us

Flexible working will be considered for all roles.

Unfortunately, we do not hold a sponsor licence for working Visas.

At Bridgewater, our PEOPLE values shape how we deliver ourNHS services in your local community.

They help us deliver our mission to improve local health andpromote wellbeing in the communities we serve.

After all, values are about people and they werecreated in partnership with our staff to reflect what they felt was importantto them

Here at Bridgewater our shared values flow through the organisation.

P- Person-centred-We are passionate about individual needs andpromote independence in the healthcare we provide..

E- Empowered- We empower our people and encourage new ideas to deliver and create improvements in community care.

O- Open and Honest -We behave in a way that develops relationshipsbased on trust, openness, honesty and respect.

P- Professional-We support our people, so everyone has the rightskills and training to deliver outstanding patient care.

L- Locally Lead -We are always learning about our communities andshow great pride in being a local provider of health and care.

E- Efficient -We use our resources wisely to providesustainable and value for money healthcare for our patients.

Job responsibilities

Job Purpose:

Weare seeking an inspirational, motivated, and proactive clinician to support inthe maintenance and development of a high-quality wheelchair service for thepopulation of Runcorn, Widnes, and St Helens.

The successfulcandidate will work as a senior clinician, assessing for and prescribingwheelchairs and specialist seating solutions taking a lead role in the advancedand specialist assessment and treatment of clients who have complex,progressive and/or chronic presentations. The Halton-based service covers awide age range, from 30 months (andyounger in special circumstances) upwards, so a broad knowledge ofmedical conditions and associated physical, sensory, learning disabilities,psychological and mental health issues is essential.

Duties and Responsibilities:

1. Provide care, advice and guidance in the treatment ofothers, when dealing with complex highly specialist conditions.

2. Responsible for the delivery of identified specialisttraining.

3. Work in partnership with the otherservices/stakeholder partnership agencies to enable patients/clients to betreated in the appropriate setting.

4. Ensure that the team provides a high-quality serviceto its patients/clients by providing caseload and clinical supervision.

5. Ensure that teams work proactively in order to deliveranticipatory and maintenance care, providing a responsive service to patientswith both planned and unplanned care needs.

6. Develop partnerships and joint working with serviceusers and stakeholders to improve patient/client care.

7. Work in partnership with other organisations tosupport the effective and co-ordinated provision of health and social careservices.

8. Participate in the development of caseload managementacross the local health economy.

9. Provide leadership and mentoring to those staffdeveloping into a caseload management role.

10. Challenge professional and organisational boundariesto ensure that the role is focused on meeting the needs of service users.

11. Act as an advocate and champion for patients/clientsin a variety of forums and professional groups and challenge attitudes andbehaviour.

12. Act as a role model to others ensuring that patientsreceive the most effective care possible.

13. Contribute to the development of policy and servicesto reflect the needs of the target population.

14. Practice autonomously and demonstrate evidence basedclinical decision making.

15. Provide clinical expertise and knowledge to otherswhen managing complex and highly complex situations.

16. Assess patient conditions and consider a range ofoptions when delivering complex and highly complex care, drawing on specialistservices as required.

17. Undertake chronic disease management reviews of thehousebound patient/client, where appropriate.

18. Provide support in managing patients/clients withchronic diseases.

19. Following holistic assessment of need, developindividualised care plans to fulfil those needs, with the involvement ofpatients and carers.

20. Implement and evaluate care delivery forpatients/clients with identified needs.

21. Direct and support the management of complex andhighly complex, continuing care packages.

22. Ensure that all clinical activity provided by the teamdirectly reflects the core objectives of health promotion, supported self-care,disease specific management, management of long-term conditions and end oflife/palliative care.

23. Set objectives, by which performance will bemonitored.

24. Work with the Service Lead to deliver local basedservices, by participating in meetings and communicating the outcomes toothers.

25. Provide reports to the service lead on activity asrequested.

26. Actively participate in policy and service developmentauthoring protocols as required.

27. Undertake clinical/service improvement audits.

28. The post holder will utilise data and data tools(including databases) to produce appropriate monitoring reports on both patientcare and service outcomes and produce appropriate communication for patients.

29. Communicate at all levels of the organisation to avariety of health and social care professionals to provide best outcomes forpatients/clients.

30. Maintain up to date knowledge and competence in linewith professional and service requirements and demonstrate critical thinking,decision-making and reflective skills to ensure own professional development.

1. Create an environment in which learning and practicedevelopment is fostered, evaluated and disseminated.

2. Facilitate effective learning within the area ofpractice for all students and practitioners.

3. Provide support to team members holding responsibilityfor mentoring students.

4. Undertake the training and development of otherclinicians.

5. Monitor and maintain standards of patient/client caredelivery. Including maintaining and monitoring of clinical competency andstandards of record keeping.

6. In conjunction with the service lead, ensure systemsare in place for the ongoing review and assessment of care provision anddelivery.

7. Deliver clinical training and supported experience,identified via Personal Development Plan (PDP) and Knowledge and SkillsFramework (KSF).

8. Work within guidelines to identify and manage risk,reporting identified risks to the service lead.

9. Report any incidents as per Trust policies and supportor undertake any investigations as delegated by the service lead.

10. Monitor and ensure that the quality of the patientcare delivered by those to whom training is provided is evidenced based andsupported by best practice, through the use of audit, caseload and clinicalsupervision.

11. Participate in patient satisfaction reporting toimprove patient care.

12. The post holder shall as necessary provide cover forand undertake duties of absent colleagues.

13. The post holder shall follow all the policies andprocedures of the organisation.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Degree, or equivalent,
• Relevant work based experience.
• Registration with relevant professional body.
• Appropriate prescriber.
• Evidence of CPD/short courses.

Relationships

• If you are related to a director, or have a relationship with a director or employee of an appointing organisation, please state the relationship

Skills & Knowledge

• Awareness of current national and local agenda in health and social care.
• Evidence of being able to communicate complex, sensitive information and advice on healthcare to patients / carers / colleagues.
• Understanding of multi-agency working.
• Ability to network with multidisciplinary colleagues.
• Awareness of factors that contribute to good health and the importance of promoting these in line with organisational public health policy.
• IT literate.
• Ability to work under pressure and manage a diverse workload.
• Excellent communication, organisational and interpersonal skills
• Ability to understand and analyse complex data.
• Self-management and motivation skills.
• Confidence to challenge poor practice and ability to address difficult issues.
• Report writing skills.

Job Specific Requirements

• The ability to travel independently across the Trust
• The ability to work flexibly in accordance with service needs

Experience

• Experience of management and clinical leadership.
• Experience of successful multi-agency working.
• Experience in the chosen field of practice

Sponsorship

• Do you have the right to stay and work in the UK without sponsorship (share-codes will be checked if applicable)

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.

Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust