Senior Paediatric Occupational Therapist

Job overview

Come and join our friendly and supportive Occupational Therapy Team at Ham Clinic

The Richmond Occupational Therapy Department is looking for a motivated and enthusiastic Band 6 therapist to join the Children’s Therapy Team.  We would consider a Band 5 with experience for a Band 6 developing role.

You will join an established team of Occupational Therapists who work closely together in an integrated service with Children’s Physiotherapy and Speech and Language Therapists.  We are commissioned to deliver a service to children between 0 – 18 within a variety of settings including nurseries, mainstream schools, clinics and within the home.

We are committed to personal and professional development and offer regular individual and peer supervision as well as internal and external training.

Main duties of the job

• To assess and provide OT intervention to children with a diverse range of disabilities in Mainstream schools and the Community with supervision from the Specialist Paediatric Occupational Therapist.
• To undertake comprehensive assessments, using appropriate standardised and non-standardised tests, clinical observations as well as gathering appropriate information from a variety of sources.
• To use clinical reasoning skills, with support from a Specialist Paediatric Occupational Therapist to inform practice.
• To prioritise, plan and develop appropriate individual/group goal and task oriented treatment plans and formulate a range of specialist treatment programmes.
• To monitor and evaluate Occupational Therapy intervention using feedback, re-assessment and evidence based practice to measure the effectiveness of the intervention.
• To empower parents and carers in understanding the nature of their child’s disability or dysfunction, the impact it has on behaviour and function and the activities and strategies they can use in the daily routines at home to develop their child’s play and functional abilities
• To comply with requests from the Education Authority to contribute to a child’s statutory assessment/review, following departmental guidelines.
• To ensure that children’s complex equipment needs are constantly monitored and reassessed and that each child has the most appropriate equipment to facilitate their independence within both the educational and home setting.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• To manage a complex caseload of children with a range of neurological and developmental disabilities. To use clinical reasoning, critical thinking, and psychometric testing to assess children with complex difficulties. To implement treatment programmes using a client-centred approach and current evidence based practice.
• To promote, maintain and develop a high quality, efficient and effective Occupational Therapy service for children referred to the OT Service.
• To support and advise health colleagues, teaching professionals, parents and carers within the community in the management of complex cases and to provide a more structured framework of advice for Education staff working with children with OT needs through a programme of formal training modules.
• To be actively involved in implementing clinical service policies, be an active member of the multi-disciplinary team, and participate in specific projects as agreed and supported by the Specialist Paediatric Occupational Therapist and Clinical Services Manager. To participate in service developments, audit and review of the service
• It is expected that the Post holder will be actively developing their knowledge and experience with increasing responsibility and independence, whilst receiving the regular supervision and support of the Specialist Paediatric Occupational Therapist