Occupational Therapy Assistant in Chorley

Site Chorley and South Ribble Hospital Town Chorley Salary £28,392 - £31,157 per annum pro rata (subject to confirmation) Salary period Yearly Closing 22/10/2026 23:59

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

As an integrated Trust, Lancashire and South Cumbria NHS Foundation Trust (LSCFT) delivers a comprehensive range of services, including:

• Primary and secondary mental health care for children and adults, including specialist inpatient child and adolescent mental health provision, perinatal mental health, and forensic services with low and medium secure care.
• Specialist mental health inpatient care for individuals with learning disabilities, alongside specialist community support for children and adults with learning disabilities and autism, including intensive support.
• Extensive community physical health and well-being services for children and adults, covering prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and long-term condition management.

The Trust was first established in 2002 and employs approximately 7,500 staff who provide care from more than 400 sites. The organisation offers opportunities for medics, mental health, general nurses, children’s nurses, allied health professionals, psychology, administration and clerical staff, apprentices and volunteers, as well as those specialising in learning disabilities and community physical health services.

Imagine working in a multi-disciplinary team whose shared vision is optimising independence.

Are you a person who enjoys working with people and is an excellent communicator? Are you looking for an opportunity to be involved with a forward thinking team comprising of people who care passionately about a good patient experience and enabling recovery? Do you have a good knowledge of benefits, local resources or accommodation services? Are you the kind of person who enjoys challenges, learning and developing you skills?

If so we have a rare opportunity to recruit an occupational therapy assistant to join our team in the Mental Health Unit with Chorley Hospital. The successful candidate will work within the occupational therapy service alongside a strong multidisciplinary team helping people with acute mental health issues to achieve a successful and timely discharge from hospital. We are looking for someone with a compassionate nature who can communicate successfully with people who have different abilities and presentations. They will be a team-player who can undertake some duties independently and at times act upon their own initiative. Knowledge of social inclusion would be an advantage alongside being able to work to effectively and have excellent workload management skills. Experience of leading groups and working individually with people and using activity to help promote independence would also be a desirable ability.

Main duties of the job

The occupational therapy team consists of qualified occupational therapists, occupational therapy assistants and health and wellbeing workers all of who focus on enabling patients to achieve optimum independence as part of recovering their ordinary lives. The senior staff offer regular clinical, professional and line management supervision as well as opportunities to attend internal and external training. The successful candidate will be working with a friendly team in a brand new clinical environment and have access to good facilities and support from managers.

If you feel you have a genuine caring nature, enjoy challenges and are enthusiastic about providing the best possible service for people to live satisfying, independent lives we would be very keen to meet you.

Working for our organisation

LSCFT values diversity and inclusion, recognising that talent from varied backgrounds creates a flexible, creative, and effective workforce. We actively challenge discrimination and welcome applications from all, regardless of age, disability (including those with experience of accessing or caring for someone who has accessed mental health or learning disability services), ethnicity, gender, religion, belief, or sexual orientation.

Our aim is to reflect the communities we serve, so we particularly encourage applications from under-represented groups. If you’d like to discuss your application, please ask.

We also welcome individuals with lived experience relevant to the role or service area, as your insight brings authenticity to our services.

LSCFT support 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 and flexi-time.

The wellbeing of our people is at the heart of everything we do. We offer a wide range of resources, tools and support to help you thrive both in and out of work.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

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

Person specification

Qualifications

• GCSE/level 5 or above in English and Maths or equivalent.
• Qualification in health or care
• Evidence of continued professional development
• Ability to undertake PAS training

Knowledge

• Ability to demonstrate understanding of Occupational Therapy
• Ability to demonstrate understanding of the client group with which the post holder will work e.g. Mental health difficulties
• Ability to demonstrate understanding of the importance of being able to do the things, they want or need to do to people’s mental well being
• Ability to demonstrate the understanding of the concepts of recovery

Experience

• Previous experience of working in a support worker role with people who experience mental health difficulties with an understanding of the roles of other professions within the multi-disciplinary team
• Experience of working with people with a broad range of Mental Health conditions and people who have cognitive, physical, learning disability or challenging behaviour.
• Previous experience working in therapy/care settings e.g. inpatient settings or social services agency/department
• Experience of working without direct supervision, including monitoring and reviewing the person’s progress

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 four 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.

Please note that further communication from 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.

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

If you use AI to assist with your application, you must declare this. Undeclared use may result in withdrawal. Please ensure your application reflects your own skills and experiences. While AI tools can assist, they may produce generic or inaccurate content. We encourage you to provide personal examples that demonstrate how you meet the essential criteria.

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).

Employer certification / accreditation badges

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.

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