Occupational Therapy Clinical Lead

Our Vision is to provide the best mental health, learning disability, autism and community based services for the populations we serve.

As an integrated mental health, learning disability and community Trust, Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust provides a range of services including:

1. Primary and secondary mental health care for children and adults including specialist inpatient child and adolescent mental health provision, perinatal mental health, forensic services including low and medium secure care.
2. Specialist community support for children and adults with learning disabilities and autism, including intensive support.
3. Community physical health and well-being services for children and adults.

The Trust was first established in 2002 and employs approximately 7,000 staff who provide care from more than 400 sites. The organisation offers opportunities for medics, mental health and general nurses, allied health professionals, psychology, administration and clerical staff, apprentices and volunteers.

Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust supports flexible working, we believe that a positive work/life balance benefits NHS employees through improved health and wellbeing. We would consider working patterns such as; term time, part time, compressed hours, home/remote working, and flexi-time.

Please note that further communication from Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust (LSCft) will normally be to the email address given on the application form. You should also ensure that email addresses and telephone numbers are provided for your referees, to enable LSCft to contact them.

Job overview

We have an exciting opportunity for an experienced occupational therapist to join our children’s therapy service in the Pennine Locality at LSCFT.

We are specifically looking for individuals with passion and drive to deliver an effective service for children and young people who have challenges with their motor coordination skills impacting on occupational performance in their everyday environments. The clinical pathway currently supports children and young people who may have diagnosis of a neurodevelopmental disability (e.g. developmental coordination disorder, attention deficit disorder, autistic spectrum disorder) and children and young people with a range of developmental and biomechanical difficulties who may also have motor skills difficulties that are impacting on their occupational performance.

We are investing in developing the clinical care pathway for this client group using a tiered approach to ensure it achieves the best clinical outcomes for the population of children and young people in need of guidance, support, assessment and therapeutic intervention.

We are looking for suitably trained and motivated therapist who can effectively deliver and contribute to the ongoing development of the pathway. With a positive focus on tiered service provision, we are developing self-management/universal support; targeted advice and strategies; specialist assessment, advice and therapeutic intervention; and highly specialist assessment and support.

You will be based in one of our three teams across the Pennine footprint, but you will contribute to clinical care for children and young people residing across the locality.

Main duties of the job

You will be a clinical specialist in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities and motor coordination difficulties. You will have a high level of experience in a range of assessment tools (both standardised and non-standardised) and treatment approaches in order to deliver specialist/highly specialist fine and gross motor interventions.

You will have a high understanding of child development and the challenges faced by this client group. You will work with the OT Principal Practitioner for this pathway and lead on pathway implementation, and competency development for occupational therapist, support staff and students in Pennine. You will have a particular focus on protecting the specialist nature of our offer and by supporting links with universal services, effectively supporting children and young people to access services at the appropriate tier level for their current needs. This will require networking and the use of web-based resources and wide-reaching education/ targeted support.

You will work with your peer clinical lead with a clinical focus on specialist/highly specialist assessment and therapy provision, particularly for children and young people with co-occurring and complex NDD profiles.

As a Clinical Lead for this pathway, you will need to be confident to work independently as lead specialist, demonstrating excellent leadership and communication skills.

We are looking for individuals who are keen to invest in their own development and in return we will support you through professional and clinical supervision, shadowing and co-working opportunities, in-service training, professional forums, trust wide AHP research group, and funding opportunities for relevant external training courses.

You will have access to a vehicle for work purposes or be able to travel between community settings in a timely manner, including visits to regional specialist centres.

Working for our organisation

Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust provides a range of services including secondary mental health care across this area. Specialist provision comprises inpatient child and adolescent mental health services, perinatal mental health and forensic services including low and medium secure care. The Trust also provides a range of physical health and well-being services in the community alongside a range of partners in the Lancashire, Cumbria and Sefton area.

Lancashire & South Cumbria Foundation Trust encourages flexible working, we believe that a positive work/life balance benefits NHS employees through improved health and wellbeing. We would consider working patterns such as; term time, part time, compressed hours, flexi-time and career breaks. We encourage applicants to state clearly on their application forms this request and discuss these options at interview.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Please see the attached job description and person specification for more information about this role.

Person specification

Education/ Qualifications

• Professional Degree or equivalent in Occupational Therapy
• Current Professional Registration with HCPC
• Evidence of continued professional development
• Evidence of formal training / self study / specialist experience to Masters level equivalent

Knowledge

• Detailed understanding of clinical governance framework & implications for practice, including audit and research governance
• Extensive knowledge of a broad range of assessment tools for children with diverse needs.
• Extensive knowledge of a range of therapy techniques and programmes and their applications for children with diverse needs/ related to client group
• Extensive critical understanding & knowledge of research, evidence-based practice and current issues relating to client group
• Knowledge of local and national clinical guidelines relating to their profession and their implications.

Experience

• Evidence of recent and relevant post graduate experience encompassing the specialist field of practice that demonstrates an in depth knowledge of specialist area
• Multi-disciplinary/multi-agency collaborative working
• Extensive experience of working with children with complex needs and their families in community settings.
• Safeguarding of children and implementation of policy and procedures with evidence of training/updates
• Demonstrable evidence of improving and developing service and practice

Skills and Abilities

• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills both written and verbal
• Confident to work independently as lead specialist.
• Ability to manage children with challenging behaviours
• Demonstrating excellent leadership and team working skills
• High level reflective skills in relation to own practice and service delivery.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Please be aware, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) when submitting an application is monitored and if you have used AI to generate an application, you are required to declare this on your application form. Failure to do so, may result in your application being withdrawn.

We want to highlight the importance of integrity and authenticity in your application form, and ask you to use AI tools responsibly to ensure your application form is a true reflection of your skills, knowledge and experiences.

Please ensure that you read the person specification attached below as your application will be measured against this document.

Applications from job share partners are welcome and other forms of flexible working will be considered for all posts.

For all posts which require a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check please be aware of the Disclosure and Barring Service Code of Practice, a copy of which is available by logging on to the DBS website. If the post is subject to DBS disclosure, a charge will be made to the successful candidate(s).

You are advised to consider applying for LSCft vacancies as soon as possible as in some instances vacancies are closed as soon as a sufficient number of applications have been received. If you are not invited to interview within three weeks of the closing date then please assume that on this occasion you have been unsuccessful, as it is not possible to contact all unsuccessful candidates.

LSCft is committed to celebrating difference as an asset and we know that recruiting talent from diverse backgrounds helps to create a more flexible, creative and effective workforce. We actively challenge discrimination and welcome applications from people regardless of age, disability (particularly those with experience of accessing or caring for someone who has accessed mental health or learning disability services), ethnicity, gender, religion or belief or sexual orientation. Our goal is for the Trust to be truly representative of the communities we serve so we are particularly keen to receive applications from people in under-represented groups. If there is anything you’d like to discuss in relation to your application then please ask.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

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

This vacancy may close early if it receives a high number of applications. You are therefore advised to consider applying for this vacancy as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.