Senior Practitioner Occupational Therapist in Hereford

Herefordshire Council’s Independent Living Service is recruiting qualified, experienced, HCPC registered Senior Practitioner Occupational Therapists to join our friendly team of Occupational Therapists and OT Assistants. Working in Adult Social Care across the communities of Herefordshire, we are seeking motivated, committed individuals with a passion for leading practice, staff development and driving positive change.

As a Senior Practitioner Occupational Therapist within Adult Social Care, you will provide OT leadership, clinical supervision, and expert OT guidance, championing best practice, workforce development, and quality improvement. You will have direct responsibility for a small Occupational Therapy staff group and operational management of service users awaiting Occupational Therapy assessment. You will hold a small complex caseload and collaborate with stakeholders across adult social care and local integrated care pathways to deliver person-centred, quality OT services aligned with Care Act principles, statutory duties and legislative compliance.

Key Responsibilities:

• Provide leadership, supervision, and mentoring to Occupational Therapy and Adult Social Care staff, promoting the development of Occupational Therapists, Occupational Therapy Assistants, Trusted Assessors, promoting consistent, strengths-based practice.
• Support our duty/triage and assessment waiting lists functions — liaising with people, prioritising referrals, case allocations, arrangements for intermediate support and guiding proportionate responses.
• Lead on complex assessments and clinical decision-making; prescribe equipment and recommend minor/major adaptations that remove barriers to daily living.
• Maintain oversight of clinical OT standards, OT professional practice, and safeguarding across the team, ensuring professional practice standards and legislative compliance are maintained.
• Conduct service audits, development initiatives, and continuous professional development programmes.
• Co-work complex cases, offering expert advice and intervention guidance.
• Maintain close collaborations with Social Care, Health, Housing, outside agencies to ensure practice and services align with Adult Social Care legislation, clinical pathways and local governance frameworks.

About You:

As a Senior Practitioner Occupational Therapist, you will work as part of a wider team with scope to practice with a diverse service user group within a variety of rural, town, village & city settings. You will require HCPC registration and substantial post-qualification experience in adult social care, with proven supervisory and mentor skills and efficient professional capability to prioritise duties and responsibilities, identify and manage complex risk. You will need to possess strong interpersonal, communication & organisational skills, the ability to work autonomously and as part of a wider, integrated team and employ initiative taking the lead on complex functional assessments and service improvements.

Due to wide-ranging Adult Social Care Occupational Therapy services, we encourage specialism practitioner roles in Moving and Handling, Technology Enabled Living, Adaptations and Equipment and Clinical Lead for our Community Equipment Store. A collaborative mindset and enthusiasm for innovation and continuous improvement are key role requirements for dealing with daily referral enquiries, undertaking audits, managing staff performance and attendance at regular stakeholder meetings. Flexibility, multi-systems approach to Occupational Therapy services within Adult Social Care and professional commitment to meet service objectives, maintain standards and improve ongoing staff and service development and performance.

The Independent Living Service is managed centrally by a Service Manager and qualified Occupational Therapy Deputy Manager. We will shortly be opening a new Assessment & Demonstration Centre focusing on developing our exciting new front door assessment and advice services. We work in partnership within Adult Social Care, housing, health and across all age Directorates. Our in-house Home Improvement Agency (adaptations) and Technology Enabled Living Service provides excellent platforms for professional cross-agency collaboration and development around adaptive home technology and wider housing related solutions.

We Offer:

• A competitive salary, holiday entitlement, and access to our contributory pension and staff benefits scheme.
• Salary range of £40,777 - £45,091.
• Enrolment in the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).
• Career progression: clear pathways to progress.
• Annual Leave: 31 days’ annual leave (pro rata) plus bank holidays. You can also purchase an additional 10 days per annum during the request period.
• Flexible working: including the potential for job-sharing, part-time hours and agile working.
• Employee Assistance Programme: 24/7 access to support and counselling.
• Payment of professional membership fees (based on role requirements).
• Access to a range of retail, leisure, holiday and health benefits.

Why Choose Us?

You will probably have heard a lot about how beautiful it is in terms of countryside and open spaces, but there is so much more going on here, including world-class cultural assets, vibrant theatres and a thriving food and drink sector. One of Herefordshire’s biggest assets is the strong and diverse communities. Our Talk Community approach brings that together supporting people to help themselves, encouraging them to help their communities and identifying how communities can help individuals.

Our ambitious transformation programme aims to further build on this to offer an all-age approach. We’re excited about the potential of what we can achieve for the benefit of all residents of Herefordshire, stronger together and building brighter futures.

Commitments, Covenants and Statutory Obligations:

The following candidates will be interviewed if they meet the essential criteria for the post they are applying for: Those who indicate that they have a disability, those who indicate in their application that they are an Armed Forces Veteran or Reservist, and those who indicate in their application that they are a Herefordshire care leaver.

We take our commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults seriously and expect all of our staff, visitors and volunteers to share in this commitment.

How To Apply:

To apply for a position, please upload an up-to-date CV and complete the application form demonstrating your experience, skills and abilities for the role. For more information or to arrange an informal discussion about the role, please contact the hiring manager.