Job summary
- Main area
- Occupational Therapy
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 7
- Contract
- 12 months (12 month fixed term contract)
- Hours
- Full time - 37.5 hours per week
- Job ref
- 354-AE-21190
- Employer
- Sussex Partnership NHS FoundationTrust
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Hill Rise
- Town
- Newhaven
- Salary
- £47,810 - £54,710 per annum
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 07/09/2025 23:59
Employer heading

Clinical Specialist Occupational Therapist
NHS AfC: Band 7
Come and join us
We're looking for people who share our values (compassion, accountability and optimism) to help us provide high quality care to the patients, carers, families and local communities we serve. We specialise in providing NHS mental health and learning disability services.
So what can we offer you in return?
We're an organisation which puts people first. We'll do everything possible to help you feel respected, valued and included. We'll help you learn, acquire new skills and gain further experience to support your career development. And we'll provide the opportunity for you to bring your fresh ideas to work about how we can do things differently and continue improving.
You will also be joining a health and care system committed to working together to do the best we can for the communities we serve. Above all, at Sussex Partnership you'll have the chance to make a difference to the lives of the patients, carers and families across our communities.
As a Trust we are committed in making a difference. Your development is important to us, so don't forget to ask us during interview what opportunities we can offer. We can offer fully funded lifelong learning opportunities such as an apprenticeship from GCSE to Masters level.
If you like the sound of that, then come and join our team.
Job overview
The Lewes Neighbourhood Mental Health Team is based in Newhaven and provides a specialist multi-disciplinary service for adults with severe mental illness. The service sits in the beautiful landscape of the South Downs National Park and is only a few miles from Eastbourne and the cosmopolitan city of Brighton.
We are looking an energetic and innovative Lead Occupational Therapist to join the team and be part of our Neighbourhood Leadership team.
Main duties of the job
As an experienced practitioner in the mental health field, you will be our clinical Lead for Occupational Therapy, providing professional supervision and leadership to our OT team and joining our clinical leadership team to ensure that our service improvements always include an occupational perspective. This will entail the implementation of evidence based OT assessment tools and interventions, including the development of group programme and furthering initiatives around peer and vocational support.
As the Lead OT, you will hold a small, capped, caseload of complex cases where your level of expertise is required and be able to consult on and joint work other cases to provide specialist input. Increasingly the role will involve providing consultation to primary care and third sector providers and building effective partnerships within the wider network.
Working for our organisation
As a mental health trust, Sussex Partnership places a huge focus on the wellbeing of our staff, as well as ensuring our reward packages reflect the immensely important work they do.
As an OT in our team we can offer you:
- Access to numerous wellbeing and support programmes, run by our internal wellbeing team
- Excellent supervision programmes, with ongoing opportunities for training and development
- Flexible working patterns
- Access to a host of discount schemes (including gyms, shopping, restaurants and cars)
- A position within a trust rated as ‘Outstanding’ for caring and ‘Good’ overall by the CQC
- Generous holiday entitlement (starting at 27 days + 8 bank holidays)
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
The main scope of this post it to provide specialist occupational therapy interventions for referred clients; to promote and develop the role of Occupational Therapy within the clinical area and to act as lead specialist in team. This will entail;
- managing a caseload of complex clients, using evidence based, client centred principles to assess, plan, implement and evaluate interventions.
- providing specialist clinical advice and input for clients with complex problems and needs.
- Ensuring occupational therapy contribution to the provision of quality clinical care and performance standards
- Participating in the planning, development and evaluation of occupational therapy and local services within a designated team, holding responsibility for defined projects.
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Degree/Diploma in occupational therapy
- Evidence of post qualification study
- Registration with the HPC as an occupational therapist
- Practice Education training
- Training in the use of standardised occupational therapy assessment tools
Knowledge/Experience
Essential criteria
- Extensive experience as a qualified occupational therapist in mental health
- Broad experience of working with clients with a range of mental health problems
- Experience of both group and individual work
- Experience of multidisciplinary working
- Experience of supervising staff and students
- Experience as a Care Coordinator
- Experience in a clinical area related to the post
- Leadership experience
- Experience in applying a range of assessment tools and a comprehensive knowledge of occupational therapy clinical approaches used in mental health
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.
Application numbers
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Simon Hellyer
- Job title
- Service Manager
- Email address
- [email protected]
- Telephone number
- 07471034300
- Additional information
Please contact me if you need to discuss anything about this exciting opportunity
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