Job summary
- Main area
- Mental Health
- Grade
- Band 6
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 364-A-9044-A
- Employer
- Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Thurrock Community Hospital
- Town
- Grays
- Salary
- £38,682 - £46,580 per annum, plus 5% HCA
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 15/08/2025 23:59
Employer heading

Occupational Therapist
Band 6
Our Trust cares for more than 100,000 patients at any one time across our community health, mental health and learning disability services across Essex and parts of Bedfordshire and Suffolk.
We want you to be part of our journey of transformation, where our patients and their families are at the heart of everything we do and to achieve our vision to be the leading health and wellbeing service in the provision of mental health and community care.
You’ll be part of a Trust where you will be supported to be your authentic self and be the best you can be, where we will help you to grow, develop and thrive.
The Trust is recognised by the University of Essex and is a top provider of apprenticeships for people looking to be an assistant practitioner, senior health care support worker (CAP). Our trailblazing CAP apprenticeship won a national HSJ Award.
We are also recognised as a Veteran Aware Trust and holder of gold accreditation from the Ministry of Defence Employment Recognition Scheme. Our services are highlighted as an exemplar of good practice, producing the best care for more than 3.500 armed forces veterans in the past seven years.
We have been shortlisted and won national awards. We are an inclusive organisation and Level 3 Disability Confident Leader Trust.
We are constantly innovating and looking for new ways to deliver care, such as using technology to enhance patient care and working with partners to launch new services such as the Basildon Mental Health Urgent Care Department, virtual hospitals and falls response cars.
Join us and you’ll do the best work of your life – and make a difference to other people’s lives. What we do together, matters.
Job overview
We are seeking an enthusiastic and forward thinking Occupational Therapist to join our older adult in-patient ward.
This is an opportunity to work in both Functional and Organic wards providing therefore excellent broad based clinical experience covering both mental and physical health.
Ideally you will have experience in mental health and have excellent communication and organisational skills. You will form an integral member of a dynamic team currently implementing a Therapeutic Model aimed across our inpatient services. We are socialising the unique contribution of Occupational Therapy enabling excellent patient care with positive measurable outcomes.
You will be a member of a broad-based team with other qualified and Occupational Therapy Assistants to support your delivery of the service. Knowledge of the VdT Model of Creative Ability would be an advantage, although training will be given.
Main duties of the job
ROLE SUMMARY
· To work as a Senior Clinician for Acute Older Adult In-patient services providing specialist holistic recovery-based interventions.
· To provide leadership to the team, support and facilitate learning, and use research and evidence based practise to facilitate change
Working for our organisation
EPUT are looking for motivated staff who shares our Trust values of Care, Learn and Empower. In return, EPUT can offer you a range of benefits and development including;
- Season Ticket Loans
- NHS discounts for staff
- Excellent Training facilities and opportunities
- Buying and Selling annual leave scheme
- The opportunity to work bank shifts and expand knowledge and experience in other areas
- Salary Sacrifice schemes including lease cars and Cycle to Work
- Day One Flexible Employer
The Trust supports and actively encourages flexible working for all employees. We offer many options and you are encouraged to ask the recruiting manager what is possible for this role. If appointed, you will have the opportunity to apply for a flexible working request from the first day of your employment
Join our Staff bank
What is Staff Bank?
Our EPUT NHS staff bank is an entity managed by the trust that hires clinical and non-clinical healthcare professionals to take on shifts at our trust hospitals and community settings. Here at EPUT we maintain our own bank of specialist staff to ensure that we are able offer safe and effective care at all times.
All our permanent staff are automatically enrolled onto the staff bank however this does not mean you have to work any additional shifts, but the option is there for you if you wish.
If you are joining our Trust in a fixed term role, please indicate on your New Starter Paperwork that you wish to join our staff bank.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
· To assess all patients on the ward using a priority system.
· To utilise specialist assessments when presented with complex cases.
· To make decisions on the level of treatment intervention required.
· To undertake treatment planning, communicating and negotiating treatment plans and clinical reasoning for intervention with patients and their carers.
· To liaise closely with community based services as required.
· To communicate agreed treatment/care plans to multi-disciplinary team colleagues and partnership agencies and liaise with them at formal and informal meetings.
· To work in collaboration with others to modify aspects of the environment in order to empower patients and facilitate optimal functional performance.
· To liaise with Social Services and Housing Organisations concerning provision of equipment and home adaptations.
· To apply a variety of treatment modalities to meet the needs of patients in individual or group format, utilising clinical reasoning processes to determine the most appropriate setting for intervention.
· To make clinically informed decisions in order to delegate aspects of patient care to assistants, junior staff, students, carers and statutory or non-statutory bodies.
· To regularly review patients’ progress in order to evaluate and interpret effectiveness of treatment plans, and amend treatment or discharge patients accordingly.
· To ensure that treatment offered is based on the best available evidence for effectiveness in the specialist area where it is applied.
· To develop and initiate interventions based on the integration of theoretical knowledge in order to meet unique patient needs.
· To attend professional Occupational Therapy meetings as required.
· To attend appropriate training events as appropriate.
· To maintain a continuing professional development portfolio.
· To undertake annual appraisal.
· To contribute constructively to the supervision process.
· To provide supervision and day to day operational management to junior staff in the Acute Older Adult in-patient Department.
· To supervise students.
· To occasionally represent the Occupational Therapy profession at service development forums.
· To comply with policies and agreed procedures for annual leave, sickness and time owing.
· To complete any documentation for statistical purposes.
Person specification
Knowledge and Experience
Essential criteria
- Degree in Occupational Therapy
- Older Adult Mental Health Experience
Desirable criteria
- Falls Prevention
- Equipment and Environmental Modification Skills
Professional Characteristics
Essential criteria
- Highly effective communication skills
- Organisational skills and self-motivating
Desirable criteria
- Time management and computer skills
- Skills in networking with local organisations
Applicant requirements
You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Ellen van den Hoven
- Job title
- Head Occupational Therapist
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 07811166399
- Additional information
Please contact if you would like to make a visit, this may be able to be arranged for you.
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