Job summary
Employer heading
Specialist Occupational Therapist – Community Therapist (Band 6)
NHS AfC: Band 6
Be part of our future landscape
At Airedale, we are committed to promoting equality, diversity and inclusion. We actively encourage applications irrespective of people’s age, lived experience of living with a disability or long-term conditions, gender, race or ethnicity, religion or belief, sexual orientation, or other personal circumstances.
Increasing our diversity and supporting our organisation to be more inclusive is a key priority here at Airedale and our teams are at the centre of how we work towards this.
We appreciate all people may have diverse and individual needs and we pride ourselves on supporting all people to thrive and flourish at work. We have frameworks in place that support reasonable adjustments and flexible working for colleagues throughout their working lives which starts at recruitment.
These are exciting times for Airedale. We have the once-in-a-career opportunity to be involved in the planning and building of a completely new hospital here on our Steeton site by 2030. By joining us now you’ll be a key part of our journey over the next few years, with the chance to input into a state-of-the-art, modern healthcare facility that will deliver care to our communities for decades to come. We are also on the journey to a new electronic patient record, part of our wider ambition for our digital future – a future that builds on our significant telemedicine and digital care success. Ultimately, what makes Airedale special is our people. Not just our staff, but our volunteers, patients, visitors, and wider population who make up the Airedale family. This is a Trust that sits at the heart of our community, and our communities are very proud of their Trust.
Job overview
We are seeking a motivated and passionate Specialist Occupational Therapist to come and join our well established Community Rehab Team, working across the Airedale, Bingley, Craven and Wharfedale locality .
If you are passionate about community work and want to help us promote a rehab and decondition agenda, then this could be the the team for you.
Previous applicants need not re-apply
Main duties of the job
The integrated community therapy teams are based at a number of sites across Airedale NHS Foundation Trust footprint, The team works from a range of Health and social care bases to support people at home , as well as defined Rehabilitation Beds.
The primary vision of the team will be to support the entire community therapy service as well forging stronger links with Acute Teams to overcome barriers and support with flow and safe discharges from hospital / Rehab beds
The post-holder will also be expected to support the Team Leaders to manage and provide clinical cover for the whole team as required.
The service is currently provided Monday to Friday.
There is also the ambition to move to a fully funded 7 day service in the future.
Working for our organisation
We are always looking for enterprising and innovative approaches to the way we provide our services. We are a national centre for telemedicine and introduced telehealth to the UK offender healthcare sector and also provide the service to patients in their care homes. Community matters to us and we are supported by 400 dedicated volunteers and have strong links with Bradford University, Craven College and Leeds City College to ensure we inspire the workforce of the future.
We want to attract staff who embrace our Right Care behaviours of compassion, a commitment to quality of care and working together for patients we want to make these part of our DNA.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
The successful applicant will:
- Manage and priorities a clinical caseload of patients with complex needs.
- Apply evidence-based client-centered principles to assess, plan, implement treatment/discharge plans.
- Work closely with the multi-professional team in order to facilitate timely assessment and treatment.
- Develop strong links with the case managers, Flow team and MAID team to assist with the facilitation of information sharing, assessing and identifying patients’ needs as well as discharge planning.
- Ensure that therapies are represented at community meetings.
- Support therapy teams to develop clear discharge plans for patients from Rehab beds, identifying and escalating any barriers
- Develop strong communication links with other local statutory services and voluntary organisations
- To be a proactive member of the therapy team in respect of communication, team administration, quality of service, service development and evaluation
- To be involved in providing training, supervision and support to others as required
- To provide good quality practice placement education
In pursuing these duties the post holder will ensure compliance with the NHS Constitution and the Trust’s Right Care strategy
Principle Duties and Responsibilities:
- Clinical
- Provide timely and efficient occupational therapy to patients according to clinical protocols and service priorities.
- Support our Duty service
- Ensure patients receive a high standard of clinical care and that you meet the standards expected from The Royal College of Occupational Therapists
- Use investigative and analytical skills to undertake a comprehensive, specialist Occupational therapy assessment of the patient.
- Reflect on complex facts gathered or situations presented and use analysis and judgment skills to consider options for interventions, and outcomes.
- Formulate individual management and treatment plans, using advanced clinical reasoning and a wide range of treatment skills.
- Plan and implement specialist occupational therapy interventions /care packages in partnership with the service user, with the carer as necessary and in consultation with colleagues.
- Plan and organise to carry out assessment and interventions in the most appropriate setting.
- Monitor and evaluate the outcome of specialist interventions in partnership with the service user if possible, with the carer if necessary and in consultation with colleagues.
- Collaborate with the MDT to develop and improve patient pathways.
- Respond to unforeseen situations that take precedence over planned work.
- Provide advice, teaching and instruction for relatives, carers, and other health professionals to promote understanding of the aims of therapy and to ensure a consistent approach to patient care.
- Provide specialist advice to therapy and dietetic colleagues working within other clinical areas across the Trust and with other health, social care and voluntary organisations
- Train and supervise junior therapists, assistants and students. This will include the use of formal appraisal documentation.
- Use highly developed communication skills to establish good working relationships with colleagues, service users and carers.
- Use verbal and non-verbal communication skills and sensitivity with patients, relatives and carers to overcome barriers to communication e.g. loss of hearing, altered perception, expressive and receptive dysphasia, pain, anxiety, tracheotomy, problems with cognition.
- Deal effectively with complex, sensitive or contentious communications
- Leadership and Management
2.1 Follow supervision guidelines and consult with clinical lead to ensure optimum outcome for complex patients with clear presentation of complex facts and analysis to enable effective decision making
- Recognise and respond to changing team priorities and unforeseen situations that take precedence over planned work.
- Contribute to the planning and development of discharge and flow therapy service in partnership with team members, team lead and operational managers across community services,
- Take responsibility and lead on delegated tasks and service development activities.
- Communicate effectively within the immediate team, MDT and with other internal and external organisations such as Acute Therapy Teams, Collaborative Care teams, Social services and voluntary sectors
- Plan, deliver and evaluate appropriate clinical training to students ensuring all clinical protocols are accurately followed
- Ensure equipment is stored in adherence with to relevant policies and that you are up to date with competencies to use equipment within the Community Therapy service.
- Contribute to the development of discharge and flow team protocols policies and procedures designed to improve patient care and experience
- Adhere to health and safety policies and procedures
- Raise incidents and near misses using the incident reporting systems.
- Ensure all team members you supervise participate in supervision and annual development review processes.
- Have an awareness the need for cost efficiencies being aware of the need for judicious use of resources and maintaining stock control
- Deputise for team leader in their absence
- Be prepared to work flexibly in terms of time and workload to meet service needs.
- Personal and Professional Development
3.1 Adhere to the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) Standards of Proficiency and Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct Occupational Therapy and maintain current professional registration.
- Maintain own continuing professional development (CPD) by keeping abreast of new trends and developments, use of reflective practice and incorporating learning into working practice.
- Attend and present in-service training sessions at designated times and at staff meetings sharing existing knowledge and skills and feeding back from external courses.
- Be a role model for professional behaviours in all aspect of practice.
- Ensure compliance with supervision and appraisals standards and maintain a professional portfolio both as a supervisor and supervisee.
- Support team to participate in relevant internal and external research and quality improvement projects.
- Establish links with other clinicians specialising in Frailty through regional and national groups to promote sharing of good practice and evidence-based research.
- Facilitate and engage in practice placement education (PPE) and ensure that PPE standards are upheld by all staff.
- Service Improvement and Governance
- Evaluate individual and group interventions through the use of outcome measures and audit, and implement necessary service improvements.
- Where there is an identified need for a new or updated policy or procedure in own work area as a result of an evaluation ensure that this is implemented.
- Undertake research and audit of the Community Therapy Service presenting the results to the team and wider MDT.
- Keep abreast of new research and clinical developments
- Respond to requests for information and actions in a timely manner.
- Participate in the development of risk assessment strategies for the community therapy service.
- Attend the clinical governance meetings for flow and discharge and contribute to the operational planning and monitoring of the service.
- Assist with the development and implementation of Trust and therapy wide service quality improvements strategies
- Ensure maintenance of accurate, comprehensive and up-to-date documentation in line with professional, legal and service requirements.
- Communicate clinical and personal information confidentially and in an appropriate format
- Follow Trust and departmental policies and guideline
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- Degree or equivalent pre-registration award in Occupational Therapy
- State registrations with the Health Care Professions Council and Royal College of Occupational Therapists
- Completion of course in Professional Practice education
Desirable criteria
- Successful completion of a professionally validated specialist courses
- MSc modules in a relevant area of practice
- Leadership courses
- ECDL or formal qualifications in word processing and spreadsheets
- Member of relevant Professional special interest groups/organisations
Experience
Essential criteria
- Relevant and recent experience working at band 5 level in the acute setting and community settings
- Relevant and recent experience working in multiple specialties ideally within Rehab , acute care, care of older people.
- Experience of multidisciplinary team working and working collaboratively with other professions and agencies including statutory, private and voluntary sector services
- Experience of guideline development, implementation and audit
- Experience of clinical supervision both as supervisee and supervisor
- Recent experience of student training.
Desirable criteria
- Experience at Band 6 level
- Supervisory & appraisal skills
- Worked within an integrated team
- Experience of taking part in or leading on Projects/ service improvements
- Experience of taking part in or leading an audit or research project
Knowledge
Essential criteria
- Knowledge and clinical reasoning skills to support advanced clinical practice in acute therapies and flow.
- Knowledge of clinical standards and ability to implement and audit these in the team
- Knowledge of the principles of clinical governance,
- Knowledge of the principles of student-centred learning and reflective practice
- Knowledge to promote and support equality and value diversity
Desirable criteria
- Knowledge of current national and local legislation relevant to rehab
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
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Annette Ferrier
- Job title
- Service Manager
- Email address
- [email protected]
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