An opportunity has arisen to recruit a full-time Band 6 Children's Occupational Therapist to join our friendly and supportive, multi-disciplinary team.
The Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust Children's Therapy Team offers evidenced based interventions for children and young people from birth to 19 with additional needs impacting on their development or ability to engage in childhood occupations. We provide input into a range of health, community, and educational settings. We also offer assessments into diagnostic pathways associated with autism and developmental coordination disorder. Our team provides services into the local special educational needs support service and short based breaks teams. The successful applicant will also have the opportunity to work into Wakefield Short Based breaks service one day a week.
We are keen to develop the service to provide the best experience of Children's Occupational Therapy.
The team has a base at Pinderfields and Pontefract Hospitals and cross site working will be required.
Ideally you would have experience in neurodevelopmental treatment approaches and have worked as an Occupational Therapist with children with both physical and sensory processing needs.
The role involves supervision and mentorship of junior colleagues with the opportunity to be involved in the development of our service. The successful applicant will be required to have access to a vehicle to support work into the community.
Main duties of the job
1. You will deliver a specialised Occupational Therapy service within the Children's Therapy Service utilising in-depth theoretical and technical skills.
2. You will manage a caseload of children with complex needs using evidence based, client centred principles to assess, plan, implement and evaluate interventions to minimise disability and maximise independence.
3. You will provide leadership, supervision, and appraisal for junior staff and students.
4. You will participate in the planning, development and evaluation of Children's OT Services, holding responsibility for defined projects.
5. You will work within a job plan.
6. We provide care and support to children and young people with occupational therapy needs in the Wakefield and Pontefract area in their homes, educational and community settings and across our hospital sites.
7. We offer standardised and observational assessments to support evidence based care.
8. We invest in teaching and the development of our workforce.
9. We live by our values of caring, improving, being respectful and maintaining high standards. We listen and learn because we aim to make Mid Yorkshire the best place to work and the best place to receive care.
10. If you share our values and you want to make a difference to the lives of children, young people, and their families and carers, we would love to hear from you.
About us
We are an acute trust caring for over half a million people in Wakefield and Kirklees. Our 10,000 staff work in patients homes, the community, and our three hospitals in Pontefract, Dewsbury, and Pinderfields (Wakefield). We prioritise our people and values so we can deliver the best possible care to patients. Our team is friendly, passionate, and innovative, always seeking better ways to work.
We support work-life balance and foster a diverse, inclusive environment where everyone belongs. Our staff networks offer safe spaces to share ideas and concerns so we can increase awareness and appreciation of equality, diversity, and inclusion. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and especially encourage members of the LGBTQ+ community, ethnic minority groups, and people with disabilities or neurodivergence to apply, as they are currently underrepresented in the Trust.
If you value caring, high standards, improvement, and respect, join the MY team to make a difference every day.
Job responsibilities
1. To be professionally and legally accountable for all aspects of own practice, including the management of individuals in your care.
2. To understand and apply the Occupational Therapy process in the effective self-management of a caseload within the Children's Therapy Service, assessing and mitigating risk, addressing occupational performance and skill deficits to enable service users in components of self-care, productivity, and leisure.
3. To work within the scope of MY Children's Therapy service when prioritising need, assessing, and delivering interventions.
4. To work within agreed service delivery model and pathways.
5. To know the professional and personal scope of own practice and make referrals to other agencies.
6. To demonstrate specialist knowledge and understanding of the key concepts of biological, physical, social, psychological, and clinical sciences in relation to occupational performance relevant to Children's Therapy Service.
7. To utilise and advise others on the range of standard and non-standardised Occupational Therapy assessments and techniques in areas of occupational performance (education, leisure, personal, domestic, environment) and skill deficits relevant to Children's Occupational Therapy.
8. To be responsible for the assessment, prescription and evaluation of specialist equipment and adaptations for children with multiple and complex needs.
9. To demonstrate a detailed working knowledge of conditions affecting children and childhood occupations and current Occupational Therapy approaches to their treatment and apply a high level of knowledge of the effect of disability and provide training and advice on lifestyle changes and adaptations to the individuals social and physical environment.
10. To be able to use research, clinical reasoning and problem-solving skills including activity analysis to identify the therapeutic benefit of client centred interventions and make professional judgements with individuals with diverse or complex needs, or multiple problems according to outcome, changes in patient needs and environmental influences.
11. To use specialist knowledge, training, and experience to plan and implement client centred individual and/or group treatment programmes for children with complex physical, mental health, and social needs.
12. To be able to formulate specific and appropriate management plans including the setting of time scales to accurately prioritise needs with individuals and the multi-disciplinary team, in relation to available resources and professional demands.
13. To monitor, analyse, evaluate, and modify the Occupational Therapy process and treatment in order to measure progress and ensure the effectiveness of intervention.
14. Using highly specialised knowledge, carry out and supervise a variety of physical interventions that require a high level of physical and manual dexterity.
15. To apply a high level of knowledge of the effect of disability and provide training and advice on lifestyle changes and adaptations to the individuals social and physical environment.
16. To work alone in a variety of environments, including home and school, this may include confined and unhygienic spaces that could present a risk to personal health and safety.
17. When necessary, to be responsible for the co-ordination of the individuals clinical care package.
18. To deliver Occupational Therapy interventions to the children's ward to facilitate safer discharges.
19. To comply with all MY safeguarding processes and procedures and where necessary be responsible for initiating and maintaining communication and onward referrals to safeguarding bodies.
20. To follow MY policy and processes/procedures.
Person Specification
Knowledge and Awareness
* Know the key concepts of the biological, social, psychological, and clinical sciences, which are relevant to profession-specific practice.
* Awareness of factors that can influence team working.
* Ability to demonstrate/discuss Occupational Therapy process in relation to Children's Occupational Therapy.
* Working knowledge of neurodevelopmental approaches.
* Understand the need to establish and maintain a safe practice environment.
* Evidence of the use of reflective practice for personal development.
* Awareness of national guidelines and legislation relating to health and social care provision.
* Involvement in research and audit.
* Evidence of post-graduate study.
* Awareness of the knowledge and skills framework.
* Knowledge and skills in:
* Working knowledge of Children's Therapy equipment, seating, splinting, adaptations, normal development.
* Evidence of post graduate training relating to children's occupational therapy.
* Knowledge of outcome measures relating to children's occupational therapy.
Qualifications
* Dip COT or relevant OT Degree.
* Registration with HCPC.
* Post graduate training in courses relevant to Children's Occupational Therapy.
* Have completed a recognised professional practice educator course.
Experience
* Involvement in professional practice education.
* Experience of work as an Occupational Therapist in a diverse range of clinical settings.
* Supervision of junior and/or support staff.
* Experience of work as an Occupational Therapist with children and young people.
* Involvement in a clinical special interest group.
* Experience of having a lead role for designated projects.
* Professional experience of National curriculum, education systems and EHCP.
Skills and Abilities
* Able to use complex verbal and written communication skills in a variety of settings, including management of confidential and sensitive information.
* Ability to use a range of communication devices to support interactions with service users, their carers and other professionals e.g telephone, teams and face to face.
* Be able to use appropriate assessment and treatment techniques for speciality area.
* Ability to work with other staff.
* Ability to represent knowledge or views in formal forums inclusive of verbal and written reports using agreed formats.
* Be able to analyse and evaluate the information collected and formulate appropriate recommendations.
* Ability to work autonomously and utilise supervision and formal appraisal systems with self and others.
* Be able to use research, reasoning and problem-solving evidence based practice skills to determine appropriate actions.
* Contribute to the development of students and other staff.
* Specialist skills appropriate to clinical area.
* Ability to facilitate others to problem-solve and use clinical reasoning skills.
* Ability to chair / lead meetings.
Other factors
* Ability to satisfy occupational health screening.
* Adaptable and flexible according to the demands of the service.
* Ability to work in a range of community settings.
* Ability to manage time within a community setting.
* Ability to work in a range of physical positions.
* Understanding of need to maintain confidentiality.
* Hold a valid driving license with business insurance and have a vehicle that can be used in line with post holder duties.
Personal Attributes
* A wide range of interpersonal skills including ability to prioritise, delegate, negotiate.
* Ability to demonstrate a flexible approach to working practice to facilitate effective team working.
* Ability to adapt to fluctuating environments and complex situations.
* Ability to work on own initiative and take responsibility for specific tasks.
* Evidence of the ability to self-direct professional development in relation to speciality area.
* Knowledge of the impact of disability and its effect on lifestyle and child development.
* Commitment to change management processes.
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.
Clinical Lead Children's Occupational Therapist
Christine Gore, Emma Harrison, Birgit Peeters
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