Job summary
- Main area
- Learning Disabilities & Employment
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 7
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 455-NLFT-0389-A
- Employer
- North London NHS Foundation Trust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Enfield Highway Carnegie Building
- Town
- Enfield
- Salary
- £53,751 - £60,651 Per annum inclusive of HCAS
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 01/10/2025 23:59
Employer heading

LD Employment Team Leader
NHS AfC: Band 7
Thank you for your interest in the North London NHS Foundation Trust (NLFT). This is an exciting time to join us and be part of our journey to improve mental health care across North London and deliver excellent services to our local people. We will achieve this through the North London Way, as we:
- Collaborate at every level by living our values to create the right conditions for us all to work together.
- Develop our new Trust culture, to help make our new Trust a great place to work and to receive great care.
- Empower our teams to lead the planned improvements in our services, by skilling them and giving them the tools to make the changes.
- Focus on delivering excellence at every level to improve our performance and ensure consistently high-quality care across all our services.
- Ensure that research, quality improvement, and technology lead the way and are embedded in our services.
- Take a trauma informed approach to everything we do
We proactively welcome diversity in our workforce and pride ourselves on being an inclusive employer. We aim to recruit from our local communities and provide opportunities to all including apprenticeships, veterans, care leavers and more.
The North London Way to deliver: Better Mental Health, Better Lives, Better Communities.
Our trust website is: https://www.northlondonmentalhealth.nhs.uk/
Job overview
As Employment Team Leader your role will be to support and develop a strong and innovative employment team to enable Adults with Learning Disabilities living in Enfield to gain person centred valued worker roles, allowing for Employment for All regardless of Disability. You will have responsibility to co-ordinate & evidence the provision of mainly LD employment services into the community.
As a clinician you will provide a comprehensive and effective assessment and treatment service to your complex caseload. You will be required to provide specialist intervention primarily in the community.
As an OT in Equals – employment for all is the goal. Using personalised interventions, employer relationships and partnerships, to support those with learning difficulties and long-term conditions (pan-disability).
The ILDS provides health and social care to adults with learning disabilities living in Enfield. The service consists of health and social care staff which include social work, community nursing, speech and language therapists, arts therapists, psychology, psychiatry and specialists’ teams including Equals employment team.
The role aims to bridge the gap and empower equal opportunities for employment for those vulnerable individuals with learning disabilities. As a core principle in OT is ‘Equality’ this is our ethos in the Equals department of the Integrated Learning Disabilities team (ILDS) of Enfield.
Main duties of the job
To manage the day to day running of the Equals Employment Team to get adults with Learning Disabilities living in Enfield into paid Employment
To work with Employers to identify suitable job roles, job carving and making reasonable adjustments in the workplace along with Risk assessments and support me plans, enabling successful placement and maintenance of employment
Using a strength based, person-centred approach to identify client skills, support systems required and valued work placements
To work with Assessment and Care management to ensure employment goals are reviewed and met. Ensuring the team review all Equals only package clients are reviewed annually.
To work creatively with the team to maximise employment opportunities for people with disabilities who are furthest from the job market enabling them to meet their aspirations in worker roles
Working for our organisation
North London NHS Foundation Trust (NLFT) is committed to improving mental health care across North London to deliver excellent services to our local people.
Our Five-Year Strategy:
- We will provide consistently high-quality care closer to home.
- With our partners in North London and each borough we will ensure equity of outcome for all
- We will offer great places to work, providing staff with supportive environment to deliver outstanding care.
- We will be more effective as an organisation by pioneering research, quality improvement and technology.
Why NLFT?
- We develop and retain our staff through leadership behaviours and managers programme and many more opportunities.
- We promote flexible working and support staff with a range of health and wellbeing initiatives.
- NHS Discounts, generous annual leave and NHS pension scheme
- Excellent internal staff network
In order to meet the needs of the Trust you may be required from time to time to work at different locations to your normal place of work. This may mean that you are required to work at any location that fall under Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey or Islington. The Trust reserves the right to require staff to work at such other places or locations as it considers reasonable and necessary on a temporary or permanent basis.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
1. To work with the Service manager to ensure that the Employment Service works to its allocated financial resources & accessing and running with further funding streams to maximise the impact of the Team
2. This role will require the postholder to use and be responsible for a company payment card to use for one of purchases as assessed and in line with direct payment policies and procedures
3. This role will require the Therapist to be financially aware of the impact that getting a paid job has on an individual’s benefits &livelihood.
4. You will be required to carry out financial assessments, filling in care and support plans including personal budgets
5. You will be required to work with DWP enabling Service users to access available funding streams and support
6. Due to the integrated relationship with the social care team, the nature of the role may occasionally require OT to take case to panel to agree funding for resident/service user.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Degree in Occupational Therapy
- HCPC registered
Desirable criteria
- Job Coaching Certificate
- Member of a special Interest Group
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- BSc Degree in Occupational Therapy or Diploma
- Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) registration for profession
- Evidence or portfolio of post-graduate continued development in specialist clinical area
- Working at ‘Masters’ level as demonstrated by ongoing CPD
Desirable criteria
- Member of relevant professional body
- Vocational Qualification from BASE or equivalent
Skills
Essential criteria
- Advanced clinical practitioner
- Ability to prioritise own workload and that of others and effective time management
- Ability to demonstrate clear understanding of clinical governance and its application to the work setting
- Ability to use clinical reasoning/ evaluation skills relating to the needs of the clients in relation to employment goals.
- Ability to organise self in terms of prioritisation, Flexible working and working under pressure
- Effective written and verbal communication skills including sensitivity to a variety of situations and responding appropriately to challenging and difficult behaviours and emotional distress
- Ability to actively promote self, employment and OT profession
- Information and technology skills to use a computer, including word processing, excel, email and internet
- Willingness to undertake further training and development in OT and employment
Desirable criteria
- Preceptorship training
- Student Supervisor training
- Talking mats
- Creative skill eg gardening, paper folding, jewellery making, baking
- Job carving / job creating skills
Experience
Essential criteria
- 2 years postgraduate experience at a Band 6 level, NHS or Local authority equivalent level
- Experience of Working with People with Learning Disabilities – some of whom may have behaviour that challenges &/or Complex physical or mental health needs
- Experience of supporting people with disabilities into employment and to work in partnership whilst ensuring that their needs are met through creative solutions to complex situations
- Experience of working with clients with autism, sensory or emotional and behavioural needs
- Evidence of teaching & supervising less experienced staff & Students
- Experience of Multidisciplinary & interagency Working
- Experience of leading a team, ensuring clinical goals are met
- Healthy, safety and risk management awareness in the workplace
- Use of easy read materials to make workplace reasonable adjustments
Desirable criteria
- Robust understanding of all aspects of clinical governance including previous experience of quality issues, audit & risk management
- Use of Assistive Technology tools and devices in / for the client workplace
- Advanced keyboard skills Advanced knowledge of Excel and ability to design data recording systems to support data collection
- Awareness of sensory needs
Personal Qualities
Essential criteria
- Flexibility is essential to enable ‘Equals’ to meet the employment needs and goals of our service users.
- Positive attitude towards work and employment support to service users and family
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
- Shirley-Anne Wheeler
- Job title
- ILDS Therapies Service Manager
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 02081320232
List jobs with North London NHS Foundation Trust in Allied Health Professions or all sectors