The Lead Occupational Therapist supports the Head of Therapy (HOT) in providing leadership support to the Therapy team. The post holder will also be responsible for supporting the HOT in the service development, auditing, and reporting systems.
The Lead OT will promote STEPS values whilst contributing to the vision and mission of the service. The main role is to provide leadership support to occupational team which is currently made up of eight Occupational Therapists, one Occupational Therapy Assistant and one therapy technician and lead on the occupational therapy service development. You will take on delegated responsibilities as and when required by the HOT. The focus of the role is to also deliver effective, comprehensive, high standard assessments and evaluations for clients, including a high standard of report writing. There will be additional responsibilities that extend to the wider organisational goals working collaboratively with the other clinical leadership roles within STEPS.
This is an outline which reflects the present requirements of the post and is not intended to be exhaustive list of duties the post holder will be expected to fulfil.
- Provide clinical and operational leadership to the Occupational Therapy team.
- Oversee the service management and the direction of the Occupational therapy service.
- Lead on service development and evaluation including audits and research review.
- Participate in meetings, lead clinical audits, and contribute to policy development and clinical practice.
- Identify clinical priorities at both operational and strategic level, ensuring the highest standards of clinical and professional practice.
- To review equipment needs within occupational therapy service, ensuring a good awareness of new products, and emerging technologies in the UK and internationally.
- Work collaboratively with the IDT to enhance service delivery and client outcomes.
- Provide clinical leadership, support, and guidance to other staff team members
- To support the pre-admission assessment team as required
- To support the student placement programme within the Therapy department and facilitate the learning for both internal staff and visiting students
- To undertake initial assessments, reviews, and evaluation of occupational therapy strategies for residential clients from admission to discharge. To focus the team on creating goal attainment action plans for each client in order to support maximisation of individual capacity/capabilities
- Undertake comprehensive assessments of clients with a diverse and complex presentations. Use advanced clinical reasoning skills and manual assessment techniques to provide an accurate diagnosis of their condition
- To be able to utilise highly developed therapeutic handling skills to support rehabilitation of a variety of neurological/complex trauma rehabilitation clients
- To be able to write and check comprehensive reports, to a high standard, appropriate to be shared with a variety of external bodies including medicolegal professionals.
- To involve client’s and carers/family in the development and delivery of goals within the rehabilitation plan
- To adhere to and carry out individual client and departmental risk assessments
- To liaise effectively with appropriate members of the team regarding the progress of clients to optimise the outcome for each individual. This may include family and written reports to external bodies, e.g., NHS commissioners, solicitors, and case managers
- To act upon and elevate issues as required following STEPS guidance and operating procedures
- To be compliant with the clinical governance requirements operating within STEPS procedures
- To identify the need for audit and be involved in clinical audits as and when directed
- To contribute and lead on specific projects related to service development and delivery e.g., education, training and contributing to the setting and monitoring of practice standards, develop of new or enhanced services within the STEPS rehabilitation model
- To be involved in and oversee team involvement in Research and Development
- To represent STEPS, in line with our values at a variety of conferences and events.
- To adhere to the Royal College of OT code of ethics and professional conduct
Contact Details:
Independent Neurorehabilitation Providers Alliance Recruitment Team
