Occupational Therapist

We are looking for a dynamic and patient focused Occupational Therapist to join our Community Therapy Team.

You will work alongside your community therapy colleagues and the community nurses and matrons, to provide rehabilitation, palliative care, hospital at home/unplanned therapy support, to the residents of Hertfordshire in their own homes, residential and nursing homes.

The team is friendly, supportive and works collaboratively to optimise patients' level of independence and find innovative ways to enable them.

You will work initially as part of the Discharge Home to Assess (DH2A) pathway to prevent inappropriate hospital admissions and to provide therapeutic holistic assessment, support, treatment and rehabilitation of patients in their own home. We are developing closer working relationships with the Primary care networks with their frailty pathways and with other statutory services.

We are due to be going through an exciting transformation of community services, which is likely to mean a change in pathways covered by staff. Exciting future opportunity to work on DH2A and Core therapy pathways. Exact details will be provided to staff within the transformation.

You will be required to work generally across the Hertfordshire area which includes Stevenage and North Herts but not exclusive, and at times asked to travel to other teams to support especially at weekends.

Main duties of the job

• Provide specialist occupational therapy intervention for your patients and delegate and support the OT skills of other therapy staff.
• Manage a clinical caseload and support patients with goal setting and supporting their functional performance through activity.
• Ensure effective patient flow through the service.
• Support the rest of the therapy and colleagues with your experience in equipment provision, effective therapeutic moving and handling, cognitive assessments and OT interventions/therapy programmes.
• Support with triage and patient flow on pathways.

About us

A big thank you for considering joining us at Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust. You'll find it a great place to work with many benefits offered to you as a member of our staff.

We put our patients, their families and carers at the centre of our vision - Outstanding Services and Healthier Communities.

Our staff are proud to be Innovative, Caring and Agile in their work to help achieve the Trust vision.

We welcome diversity in our workforce and are interested in applicants from all backgrounds and ages.

Job responsibilities

• Support your team to ensure that patients receive high quality occupational therapy.
• Must have a relevant Occupational Therapy qualification and HCPC registration.
• Will have at least 2 years qualified experience.
• Work alongside the rest of the MDT to ensure patients achieve their goals and receive therapy input in a timely way.
• Hold a full valid driving licence and have access to a car for business purposes (unless you have a disability as defined by the Equality Act 2010).
• Will be vaccinated, as this remains the best line of defence against COVID-19.
• Committed to supporting flexible working options for staff, wherever possible.
• Raise safeguarding concerns where appropriate and highlight areas where the service can continue to develop.

Person Specification Qualifications/Education

• Do you have an Occupational Therapy Degree?
• Please detail what experience you have working within the NHS?
• Are you Registered with Health Professions Council?
• What post qualification course have you completed that are relevant to this role?
• Have you completed Educator Training or have you supported a student?
• What experience do you have of providing supervision to students and/or colleagues?

Experience & Knowledge

• Please detail your experience of working in the community?
• Please detail when you have been required to use communication skills when working with complex patients?
• How would you show ability to work under pressure and be flexible?

Skills and Abilities

• What has been your experience communicating within a multi-discipline team?
• What examples do you have of being able to communicate where there may be barriers to understanding?
• Have you used SystmOne for documenting?
• Are you able to demonstrate excellent oral and written communication skills?

Other requirements

• Do you hold a full, valid, UK driving licence and have access to a car to use for business purposes (unless you have a disability as defined by the Equality Act 2010) with business insurance cover?

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 to check for any previous criminal convictions.

£39,959 to £48,117 a year pro rata