Occupational Therapist (Rotation)

Site OT/Care Coordinator in the Southwark Assertive Outreach Team - Maudsley Hospital, London.

Salary: £29,970 - £36,483 per annum plus HCAs. Salary period: Yearly. Closing date: 18/05/2025 23:59.

South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust has a rich history, well-established community links and an international reputation. We deliver specialist services in the London boroughs of Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark, Bexley, Bromley, Greenwich, Wandsworth and Richmond. We are committed to providing high quality and specialist care to our service users and we are recognised for the care and treatment we provide. The Care Quality Commission rates our services as ‘good’. We launched our five-year strategy, Aiming High; Changing Lives in 2021 together with Our Care Improvement System as our quality management system methodology to make a positive impact on patient care, outcomes and staff experience.

By joining SLaM, all staff will get the opportunity to be part of this exciting improvement journey supported with learning and development to harness everyone’s potential as change makers. The trust recognises the unique and valuable contribution that people with lived experience of mental illness can bring to a role. We therefore welcome applications from people with lived experience and consider them as an asset to the Trust.

Our Values: We take pride in providing specialist care to our service users where our Trust values and our promise to be caring, kind, polite, prompt, honest, listen and do what I say I’m going to do is at the heart of everything we do. When you join us, you’ll be part of something special. As a Trust, we are happy to talk flexible working.

Job Overview: It is a perfect time for those finishing their university courses or those who want a change to apply for our popular Band 5 occupational therapy rotation at the South London and Maudsley. Our current Band 5s have just rotated, and we have a number of vacancies we are recruiting to as people have left or got senior posts in the organisation. We have a variety of practice settings for you to build your skill set in mental health. The Trust covers most of Southeast London and the Band 5 roles range from inpatient to community to specialist services. We offer regular development and preceptorship programmes to support you in your role as a mental health occupational therapist. It provides a supportive and extensive networking system for all our Band 5s. We have an excellent track record of staff starting off on the rotation and growing their careers in the Trust moving on to a variety of senior roles in the organisation. We have great professional development programmes for OTs and our Band 5s take advantage of a range of these opportunities to build their skill and competence in mental health practice. We work closely with service users and carers not only in clinical settings but as they help us develop our services.

Main Duties of the Job:

• The postholder will oversee and provide occupational therapy assessment, planning, intervention and evaluation to a designated group of people accessing the local team the Band 5 is working in, to promote well-being, recovery and social inclusion.
• To achieve this, the postholder will hold and integrate both the occupational therapy specific and generic elements of their job, whilst complying with the College of Occupational Therapists Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct.
• The rotation covers settings from inpatient acute care, forensic, community and specialist settings such as eating disorders and perinatal services.

Working for Our Organisation: The South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust provides comprehensive, complex mental health services both locally and nationally. The Trust has approximately 4,000 staff and a budget in excess of £330 million. It is part of Kings Health Partners, the Academic Health Sciences Centre, and we have established with Kings College London, Kings College Hospital and Guys and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trusts. The occupational therapy workforce and associated Allied Health Professions workforce consists of approximately 200 staff based in all the Trust Directorates. The Band 5 rotation consists of more than 30 posts in a mix of locally based and national specialist units with each rotation period being one year in length.

Detailed Job Description and Main Responsibilities:

• To undertake occupational therapy assessments for a designated caseload, assessing health and well-being from an occupational perspective.
• To contribute to assessing and completing risk assessments within the multi-disciplinary team to support a person's recovery.
• To hold an up-to-date knowledge of a range of occupational therapy standardised assessments, the models on which they are based and how to carry these out.
• To develop a working knowledge and use of sensory assessments and interventions in practice.
• To identify occupationally focused goals taking into consideration the mental, physical, spiritual, psychological and social needs of the service user and that it is sensitive to age, culture, race, gender, ethnicity, social class, sexuality and disability.
• In collaboration with the service user, to plan and implement individual or group therapeutic interventions using graded activity to achieve therapeutic goals which support their recovery.
• To use outcome measures that give clear evidence that occupational therapy has made a difference to people's occupations and ultimately support social inclusion and promote recovery.
• To hold an up-to-date knowledge of safeguarding principles and know how to respond to any safeguarding concern related to the service.
• To display an understanding of the potential for distress and trauma caused by, and social and personal consequences of mental illness for the service user, their families, carers and support networks.
• To interact with service users, families, carers and support networks in an empathetic fashion and demonstrate a clear understanding of the effects of disability in the areas of productivity, leisure and activities of daily living.
• To apply a high level of understanding of the effect of disability and provide training and advice on lifestyle changes and adaptations to the service user's social and physical environment.
• To assess and prescribe small aids and equipment and recommend adaptations to maximise independence for service users in home and community environments, where appropriate.
• To analyse, grade and adapt individual and group activities to meet the occupational performance and participation, environmental and vocational needs of service users.
• To routinely implement occupationally focused pathways that clearly identify what service users can expect from their occupational therapy interventions whilst working collaboratively with individuals to ensure treatment is targeted to their specific needs.
• To ensure all occupational therapy equipment and materials are maintained and stored responsibly and advise on resources needed to carry out group and individual treatments including financial.

Person Specification:

• Qualification: Registered Occupational Therapist, HCPC Registered Occupational Therapist, Membership of occupational therapy professional body and special interest group.
• Experience: Experience of occupational therapy assessment and models on which these are based, experience of delivering group interventions, experience of delivering individual interventions, experience of inner city, multicultural environments, experience of working with service users with complex or challenging behaviours, experience of working with mental health service users in other contexts.
• Knowledge: Good understanding of mental health conditions and treatment models and approaches, demonstrate understanding of the purpose and value of clinical, professional and managerial supervision, basic knowledge of legislation and current drivers relevant to mental health, demonstrate commitment to evidence-based practice, basic knowledge of the principles of CPA (Care Programme Approach), understanding of Occupational Therapy Professional Code of Conduct, basic knowledge and understanding of risk assessment and management principles, demonstrate understanding of the importance of service user involvement and client-centred practice, knowledge and understanding of the concepts of recovery and social inclusion.
• Training and Presentation Skills: Good communication skills, both verbal and written, IT literate, ability to reflect on and appraise own performance, ability to organise own workload and manage time effectively, ability to work effectively as a member of a team.
• Other: Willingness to develop and advance own learning and understanding of mental health and occupational therapy, and to contribute to research, clinical effectiveness measures and audit.

The Trust is committed to providing services which embrace diversity and that promote equality of opportunity. We are a Disability Confident Employer, we welcome applicants from all sections of the community and people of all protected characteristics. We provide reasonable adjustments for candidates with a disability and are committed to treating people fairly with compassion, respect and dignity and in promoting equality and human rights.

Please note:

• All applications for this post will need to be made online.
• Read and understand the Job Description and Personal Specification attached to the role.
• Your Statement in Support should reflect the requirements specified as your application will be judged against these criteria.
• The closing date listed is a guide only and that the vacancy may close earlier should sufficient number of applicants have been received.
• We advise that you submit your application as early as possible.
• Once you have submitted your application you agree to your application being transferred to a 3rd party e-recruitment system.
• Should you not have heard from us within three weeks from the closing date your application has not been successful.
• Priority consideration for applications may be given to at-risk NHS employees.
• Should you be successful and appointed, you authorise South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust to confirm your previous NHS service via an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) process.
• We are a smoke-free Trust.

SLaM is a Stonewall Diversity Champion.