Job vacancy: Head Occupational Therapist, East London NHS Foundation Trust, Luton

Job summary

Main area: Occupational Therapy
Grade: NHS AfC: Band 8a
Contract: 12 months (1 Year Fixed Term Secondment)
Hours: Full time - 37.5 hours per week (Mon-Fri, 9-5)
Job ref: 363-BED7442800

Employer: East London NHS Foundation Trust
Employer type: NHS
Site: Calnwood Court
Town: Luton
Salary: £55,690 - £62,682 per anum
Salary period: Yearly
Closing: 12/10/2025 23:59

Head Occupational Therapist

NHS AfC: Band 8a

ELFT has long been recognised as a centre of excellence for mental and health care, innovation and improvement. So it is a very exciting time for you to come and work for us. Our mission is to make a positive difference to people's lives by improving quality of life for all we serve. Our values are: We Care, We Respect, We are Inclusive – so we are looking for people who live and breathe these qualities when supporting service users and carers, and in their relationships with colleagues in the Trust and our partner organisations.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Management

To manage all elements of the Occupational Therapy Service, being responsible for the planning and delivery of Occupational Therapy in the designated area, including recruitment, appraisals, CPD and disciplinary procedures.

To be accountable for equitable service delivery across the services.

To foster effective working relationships with Team Manager colleagues to ensure service developments are co-ordinated and managed in an appropriate manner to ensure high quality clinical services to meet client need to ensure maintenance of professional networks.

To liaise with professional colleagues in health and social care as appropriate

To lead or take part in the various re-provision projects and service developments within the locality, contributing to the professional and multi-disciplinary design of the new working environments and new models of service delivery.

To represent the Occupational Therapy Service at appropriate forums within and outside the Trust when required.

To maintain an effective supervision framework for Occupational Therapy staff, undertaking appraisal of Occupational Therapy staff in line with Trust policies.
To manage staff performance as required in line with trust policy.

To deputise for Occupational Therapy Service Lead when appropriate at both Professional and Trust forums, and in post holder's absence.

To attend the monthly Head Occupational Therapists meeting.

Clinical

To be responsible for the planning and delivery of Occupational Therapy within the designated area, prioritising clinical needs to provide an effective service.
To support the establishment of focused treatment programmes by Occupational Therapy staff in all relevant teams within the locality according to the agreed models and specific local needs.
To ensure the MOHOST is implemented and is responsive to client needs.
To ensure knowledge of Occupational Therapy practice is up to date through professional journals, website information; attendance at relevant courses; conferences and familiarisation with government policies, e.g. NSF’s.
To be responsible for implementing the Modernisation process within the designated area of Occupational Therapy, working with staff to identify barriers to the provision of services and to develop clinical strategies and processes for overcoming barriers.

To develop the role and remit of the Occupational Therapy staff extending the boundaries of the profession; as appropriate.
To facilitate multi-disciplinary working across the service, liaising with Line Managers and Senior Manager Colleagues.
To provide clinical intervention for a small number of clients.
To undertake assessment, treatment planning and negotiation, communicating clinical reasoning to clients and carers, as appropriate.
To communicate agreed treatment plans to multi-disciplinary team colleagues.
To provide a variety of treatment modalities to meet the needs of the client in individual or group format utilising clinical reasoning processes.
To review clients progress in order to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment and to amend treatment or discharge clients accordingly.
To ensure risk management systems are in place in the service area.

Administration

To apply highly developed communication skills to all situations and staff, including negotiation, persuasion and sensitivity.

To ensure good communication is maintained with all team members by the provision of verbal and written reports as appropriate.

To maintain adequate written records.

To be responsible for the signing and completion of positive returns, sickness returns and statistical information, and annual leave authorisation.

To be responsible for ensuring a robust system of communication is in place for the dissemination of information throughout the designated area.

To chair a meeting of Occupational Therapists working within the designated locality.

To ensure record keeping is maintained to required standards within the service area.

To develop departmental policies.
To analyse information systems data within the service area with respect to Clinical, Financial and Staffing issues in order to meet the service need

To advise Occupational Therapy Service Lead to ensure an appropriate skill mix for each area.

Performance and Quality

To develop and lead on areas of good practice within the designated areas and ensure their dissemination across the Trust.
To be responsible for ensuring there are effective mechanisms for monitoring the standard and quality of clinical care within the designated areas
To ensure that treatment offered is based on the best available evidence.
To keep up to date clinical records in line with professional standards and local record keeping policies.
To adhere to professional Code of Ethics.
To provide written or verbal reports as required in line with Occupational Therapy Clinical Governance Standards.
To work with other staff in identifying clinical service needs and initiating changes and projects to meet these needs.
To implement service changes as agreed with Head of Service and to manage staff during the process of change.
To contribute to the development of quality initiatives within the Occupational Therapy Service to include other relevant parties/stakeholders in the process, i.e. clients and carers.
To identify training needs for the development of individuals in line with service area needs.
To encourage staff to audit the treatment/care provided against outcome and standards of treatment/care.
To facilitate the continuing professional development of all staff through effective use of appraisal, course attendance, in-service training, undertaking research, etc.
To be responsible for Clinical Governance within the designated area, producing and up-dating standards accordingly, ensuring these are implemented.
To provide careers advice.

Financial and Physical Resources

To be responsible for the management of resources allocated to Occupational Therapy within the designated area. To hold regular meetings with relevant Management Accountant, to ensure accurate monitoring and control of expenditure.

Person specification

Clinical

Essential criteria

Occupational Therapy Degree
HCPC Registration
Evidence of clinical experience in mental health

Desirable criteria

Evidence of CPD

Management

Essential criteria

Evidence of managing staff
Evidence of developing/ managing relationships with wider services
Evidence of ability to follow HR processes
Evidence of budget management

Desirable criteria

Evidence of Leadership CPD

Leadership

Essential criteria

Evidence of developing strategic plans for a service

Desirable criteria

Evidence of QI Training

Making Things Better

Quality Improvement is a key part of our work to improve our services and refine how we do things. We have a global reputation for our quality improvement work and we don’t stand still! So we offer a fantastic opportunity for our staff to learn, lead and contribute towards improving our services.

We launched our Five Year Strategy in April 2018, which identified four main strategic outcomes to improve: population health outcomes, experience of care, staff experience and improve value. This complements the NHS Long Term Strategy and sets out our direction of travel.

Our Community

We provide a wide range of community health and mental health inpatient services to children, young people, adults of working age, and older adults in The City of London, Hackney, Newham, Tower Hamlets, Bedfordshire and Luton. We also provide psychological therapy services to the London Borough of Richmond, and provide Forensic services to the whole of North East London. We provide services in urban and rural settings, sometimes in our inpatient units, but mostly in the community close to where people live. Integrated care is key in making the best use of resources and providing effective care.

Aiming High

We were rated ‘Outstanding’ by the CQC in 2016, were proud to be rated ‘Outstanding’ again in 2018 and continue to be rated 'Outstanding' in 2021. We were named in the HSJ’s Top 10 best places to work in healthcare and were voted Provider Trust of the Year in 2018.

Staff and Service Users United

We strive to ensure that staff feel valued by the Trust and as they are truly pivotal in delivering better outcomes for our patients and service users. Our aspiration is to help to make ELFT the best place to work. This Trust is clinician-led and provides the highest possible level of clinical expertise throughout its services. We pride ourselves on our service user involvement. A service user will be on your assessment centre and interview panel if you are invited to meet us.

We especially welcome people with lived experience of health difficulties, with insight and understanding of different backgrounds, cultures and lifestyles in our population as we believe that this will equip staff to deliver a high standard of care to our service users and patients.

Diversity

ELFT Is committed to being a diverse organisation and our workforce is reflective of the population and communities we serve. We believe that having colleagues with a range of backgrounds and life experiences enriches and adds value to the outcomes we have set out to achieve. Having partnered and endorsed by organisations who are representative and experts in various areas of equality and diversity, we can ensure we are meeting the pre-set standards all the way from recruitment stage throughout the career journey of our employees by being accessible, having fair inclusive practices and a host of staff networks to support, nurture and celebrate our valued staff in the workplace.

Other reasons to apply

As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that’s job share, part time or another flexible pattern.

As part of the relocation scheme we presently have, the Trust could support you with offering up to £10,000 for removal and associated expenses. This is subject to change and terms and conditions apply.

What Next?

If you like the sound of ELFT, don’t waste a moment. We sometimes close adverts early if there is a high response, so apply now!

As part of our recruitment process we may be required to share information you provide on the application form with NHS Counter Fraud Authority (NHSCFA) and/or other organisations for the purpose of the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of fraud or any other unlawful activity affecting the NHS. We also use third party providers to check and verify your qualifications who may be contacting you on our behalf to verify the same..

If you do not hear from us within four weeks of the closing date, please consider that you have not been shortlisted on this occasion. You must provide professional email addresses for all referees as we will contact them as soon as an offer has been made. Please note we do not request references prior to interviews. All applications made through NHS Jobs account will be processed by TRAC System. Please note that some emails may go to your spam/junk mailbox so make sure you check this regularly.

Find us online at www.elft.nhs.uk | Find us on Facebook | Follow us on @NHS_ELFT

Committed to being an Inclusive Employer

Mindful employer. Being positive about mental health.

Stonewall equality policy. Equality and justice for lesbians, gay men, bisexual and trans people.

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

Apply online now

Further details / informal visits contact

Name: John Heams
Job title: Acting Lead Occupational Therapist
Email address: [email protected]
Telephone number: 07557 593131

List jobs with East London NHS Foundation Trust in Allied Health Professions or all sectors

Job summary

Employer heading

Head Occupational Therapist

NHS AfC: Band 8a

Job overview

Main duties of the job

Working for our organisation

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Person specification

Clinical

Essential criteria

Desirable criteria

Management

Essential criteria

Desirable criteria

Leadership

Essential criteria

Desirable criteria

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

Documents to download

Further details / informal visits contact

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