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Highly Specialist Children's Occupational Therapist

Employer
Solent NHS Trust
Location
Southampton
Salary
£41,659 to £47,672 a year
Closing date
30 Jan 2023

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Due to a retirement within our Southampton Children's Therapies team, an exciting opportunity has arisen for a Highly Specialist Band 7 Occupational Therapist , to come and join us!

We are looking for an experienced, innovative and progressive Children's Occupational Therapist who would like to develop their clinical, management and supervision skills in our supportive and well established Children's Therapy Team in Southampton - if that sounds like you , what are you waiting for ?

You will offer clinical support to staff in education, social care and health and hold a small, but highly complex caseload of children which will be predominantly (but not exclusively) aged 5-19 years. You will have fantastic opportunities to support leadership, shape services and drive transformation , through developing and evaluating the occupational therapy service within the multidisciplinary 'Jigsaw' team.

You will join an integrated therapy team working in partnership with families, and other professionals from health, education and social care agencies. As part of a multi-disciplinary and multiagency team, you will provide services for children with complex / highly complex conditions who may also have co-existing conditions including, developmental delay, and neurological and neuromuscular difficulties.

You will have access to multidisciplinary advice and support for clinical and safeguarding issues and fantastic opportunities for continuing professional development.

Main duties of the job

*To be a source of specialist knowledge and provide a highly specialist Children's Therapy Service to children and young people on the caseload with complex needs

*To provide a lead role within the locality in the delivery of occupational therapy as part of an integrated team, working with Locality Managers, Clinical Pathway Leads and Clinical Team Coordinators, providing clinical leadership, driving forward service development, maintaining standards and ensuring the provision of up to date evidence based care.

*To provide a lead role in the management of caseloads, waiting times and activity, and in delivering clinical supervision and mentoring.

*To work as an autonomous practitioner, in collaboration with health, social care, education staff, children/young people and their parents, to deliver integrated specialised packages of care to children with complex functional difficulties

*To support the Locality Manager in the day to day management and development of staff based within the locality, deputising when required

*To provide specialist clinical advice and second opinions

*To take responsibility on behalf of the Service for a designated role as directed by Service Manager e.g. safeguarding/infection control/IT links to other teams etc

About us

Make a difference with us

If you are looking for somewhere you can make a real difference and are passionate about keeping people safe, well and out of hospital, a career with us may be just what you're looking for. At Solent NHS Trust, we strive to make a difference to the health and wellbeing of our communities.

We are proud to be an organisation which is focused on our people and we welcome people who share our values to come and work with us.

To deliver great care that is safe, simple and easy to access

To be a caring, flexible and supportive place to work

To deliver the best value for money

Our shared values support the development of a strong working culture. They breathe life into our organisation -- guiding and inspiring all of our actions and decisions. They enable us to be better at what we do and create a great place for our staff to work, whilst ensuring we provide the highest quality of care to our patients.

In creating our values, we spent time listening to our employees and members. Based on what people told us, we created our HEART values to reflect the deep belief that we are caring organisation at the centre of our community: Honesty, Everyone counts, Accountable, Respectful, Teamwork.

We are an accredited Real Living Wage employer.

We encourage and support our staff to be vaccinated as this remains the best line of defence against Covid-19.

Job description Job responsibilities

1.Clinical

*To be professionally and legally responsible and accountable as an autonomous practitioner for all aspects of your own work including the independent management of children with complex and specialist needs

*To ensure a high standard of clinical care for the children under your management, adhering to agreed departmental standards, national protocols/policies and the Professional Code of Conduct and support less experienced staff to do likewise

*To use highly specialist clinical knowledge and experience to undertake the comprehensive assessment and differential diagnosis of children with at times complex developmental difficulties, requiring the ability to make highly specialist clinical decisions

*To formulate, evaluate and review individual specialised Occupational Therapy management and treatment plans using highly developed clinical reasoning skills and advanced knowledge of diagnosis and a wide range of treatment skills appropriate to children and young people with functional difficulties, working at all times in partnership with children and their parents and the team around them. This could include Education providers, Social Care, Third Sector partners

*To demonstrate the ability to communicate complex and sensitive information in an understandable form to children/young people, parents and other staff including imparting unwelcome news

*To enable others (e.g. parents, preschool staff, class teachers, special needs assistants) to deliver effective therapy programmes by identifying barriers to understanding and using highly developed persuasion, negotiation and teaching skills to gain consent, cooperation and develop competence

*To advise preschools/schools and other agencies on staff training and development needs to ensure that all staff are competent to implement therapy treatment plans, understand the importance of functional development in it's widest context and therefore provide development rich environments

*To be responsible for the production and delivery of core and specialist training on a range of subjects relating to clinical specialism to preschool/school staff, other agencies, the voluntary sector and health colleagues

*To effectively manage own caseload including responding to urgent requests/referrals, prioritising clinical work and balancing other patient related and professional activities in accordance with service standards and patient needs

*To provide advice to the LA, school staff, parents and other agencies including the voluntary sector on the development of policies and practice to facilitate development, aiming for inclusion, socialisation and the maximisation of education for all children with functional difficulties

*To maintain accurate and comprehensive case notes and records which would stand up to legal scrutiny and provide a full account of the child's care

*To ensure that all those involved in a child's care i.e. preschool/school staff, other professionals, parents are kept fully informed of the service provided and the progress made through the provision of information, regular and timely reports and input to the LA Annual Review process

*To communicate effectively and work collaboratively with colleagues in health and education to ensure delivery of a co-ordinated multi-disciplinary service. This includes attending school development meetings, case conferences, annual reviews where appropriate

*To support the LA in fulfilling their statutory duty to meet the needs of each child in accordance with their Education Health and Care Plans. To provide professional advice on contentious cases, writing witness statements and attending Tribunals if required

*To manage conflict and potentially stressful, upsetting or emotional situations in an empathetic manner, dealing on a fairly regular basis with grieving and at times angry parents

*To deal with initial complaints sensitively, avoiding escalation where possible, complying with the Trust Complaints Procedure at all times

*To demonstrate a sound understanding of clinical governance and clinical risk management and apply to work situation

2.Management and Leadership

*To support the Locality Manager in the day to day management and development of staff based within the locality, deputising when required

*To provide a lead role across the Service & Trust for a Clinical Pathway, working with Professional Leads, Locality Managers and other Clinical Pathway Leads, providing clinical leadership, developing clinical guidelines and protocols, driving forward service development, maintaining standards and ensuring the provision of up to date evidence based care

*To provide expert clinical advice to the Leadership team to support the development of strategy and the delivery of therapy services to children

*To provide clinical advice, second opinions and support to other members of the team and the wider workforce

*To contribute to interagency/multi-disciplinary team working and policy development, taking a lead where appropriate

*To assume delegated tasks as requested by Locality Manager or the Service Leadership Team including leading working groups/policy development groups within an area of clinical expertise and representing the service in external groups and at meetings

3.3. Ad3. Administrative

*To ensure that infection prevention and control procedures are followed by all staff within their area of responsibility

*To collect and provide accurate and timely activity data, information and statistics as required

4.Education

*To support the Locality Managers in identifying the training needs of staff and in developing a training programme for the team reflecting organisational priorities and service objectives

*To provide clinical supervision, advice, support and appraisal to less experienced assistants and volunteers and actively participate in our Clinical supervision

*To provide clinical supervision and training to Occupational Therapy students on placement, up to and including their final year, supporting the Universities in determining fitness to practice

*To maintain own clinical professional development, and assist others in doing the same, by keeping abreast of new trends and developments, incorporating them into working practice where possible, to ensure the continued development of professional competence/performance, and maintenance of HCPC and Professional registration. To be proactive in seeking learning opportunities both internally and externally to maintain and update specialist knowledge and skills

*To participate in the Trust appraisal scheme, evaluating personal and service performance and agreeing on objectives which are in line with service and organisational goals

5. Risk management/Health and Safety

*To have due regard for your own personal safety and that of children/carers, some of whom may have unpredictable and / or challenging behaviour, in particular to have regard to lone working guidelines, moving and handling regulations, and the safe positioning of self and others

*To be responsible for the security, care and maintenance of equipment ensuring standards of infection control and safety are maintained -- including equipment loaned to clients in line with Trust procedures

*To comply with all Trust Health & Safety Policies

*To demonstrate a working knowledge of legislation and guidelines pertaining to the field of Children and Families and Occupational Therapy including SEND procedures and Safeguarding.

*To demonstrate a sound understanding of clinical governance and clinical risk management and apply to work situation

*To ensure that risk assessments are completed and incidents reported and documented in a timely manner in accordance with Trust policy

*To follow infection prevention and control procedures as laid down by the Trust in order to deal appropriately with unpleasant conditions related to working with children as they arise: for example exposure to body fluids, infectious conditions, encountered on a regular basis

Person Specification Qualifications Essential
  • Recognised Occupational Therapy degree level qualification or equivalent
  • Registered member of the Health and Care Professions Council
  • Registered member Royal College of Occupational Therapy
  • Evidence of attendance on specialist courses and maintenance of CPD
  • Membership of relevant Special Interest Groups
  • Advanced training / qualification in related area up to Master's degree level
Experience Essential
  • Experience of working with children
  • Experience of working with a broad range of clinical impairments, disorders and complex situations
  • Experience of advising / providing second opinions
  • Experience of clinical supervision of students and others
  • Experience of developing and delivering training
  • Experience of developing case management skills in less experienced staff
  • Experience of engaging with management supervision

  • Any attachments will be accessible after you click to apply.

    449-TEAM3-1134

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