Occupational Therapist in Chorley

We want talented and enthusiastic people from all backgrounds to join #TeamMWL, with us you can learn, grow and develop yourself and your career, realising your true ambitions and aspirations. Whatever you’re looking for in your career, you’ll find it here at MWL.

Job overview

Occupational Therapist – Band 5

Fixed Term till end of January 2027 – Rotational post

Full time post

Do you want to work for an outstanding NHS Trust? Are you an enthusiastic, hardworking, motivated Occupational Therapist with excellent clinical, communication, organisational and time management skills? If so, this is an exciting opportunity to join our rotational carousel at Whiston and St Helens Hospital sites & St Helens Community intermediate care offering rotations working across the acute and community services including:

• Integrated Stroke Services
• Frailty Intervention Therapy Team
• Medicine for Older People
• Acute Medicine
• Critical Care and Surgery
• Trauma and Orthopaedics
• Burns and Plastics Seddon Rehab Unit
• Inpatient Intermediate Care Services
• Community Intermediate Care
• Admission Avoidance Therapy Team

Main duties of the job

The successful candidate will:

• Deliver high standard evidence based care
• Perform therapy assessments of patients, providing a diagnosis to develop and deliver an individually tailored treatment programme
• Hold responsibility for their own caseload, working under supervision

A flexible approach to day to day tasks is essential, in order to meet the demands of the service especially as the majority of our services work over 7 days per week. Applicants will be expected to travel between our three hospital sites and when necessary, participate in providing outreach services.

Our philosophy is to keep the patient at the heart of everything we do. We are looking for people who are willing to go the extra mile, not because they are asked to, but because they are committed to being part of a healthcare team that delivers an excellent caring service to our patients.

In return for your hard work and dedication we can offer a friendly and welcoming team and all the support and continuing professional development you will need to make a difference to patients and staff. We have an innovative service of AHP’s with an excellent staff supervision system enabling our staff to be committed to developing both their service and themselves. Clinical Governance, research and audit activities are encouraged within the service.

Working for our organisation

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves a population of over 600,000 with a workforce of over 10,500 dedicated and skilled staff across 21 sites.

Our services:

• Acute Care: Providing emergency and maternity services at Whiston, Southport and Ormskirk hospitals, and medical and surgical specialties across all our sites.
• Primary Care: Providing primary care services at Marshalls Cross Medical Centre situated in St Helens Hospital.
• Community Services: Providing adult community services for St Helens and a wheelchair service in Chorley, South Ribble, and West Lancashire. Our inpatient unit at Newton Community Hospital is where patients needing acute hospital beds can continue rehabilitation. We also provide urgent care at our Urgent Treatment Centre located in St Helens town centre.
• Specialist Regional Services: We provide the Mersey Regional Burns & Plastic Surgery Unit at Whiston Hospital and the Spinal Injuries Unit at Southport Hospital to more than 4 million people across the whole of Merseyside, West Lancashire, Cheshire, Isle of Man and North Wales.

Achievements:

• Rated Outstanding by CQC Inspection August 2018
• Top 100 places to work in the NHS (NHS Employers & Health Service Journal)
• National Preceptorship Accreditation (2023) for Nursing & AHP Preceptorship Programme.

You will be expected to undertake the Trust's commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Current HCPC registration is required or working towards HCPC registration in the next few months. Interviews, medicals, references and DBS checks will be made prior to acceptance. The successful candidate will have a valid DBS check with the Trust or will be required to pay for the cost of the DBS disclosure which is £44 for an enhanced disclosure, the cost of which will be deducted from their first salary.

Applications from job seekers who require Tier 2 sponsorship, to work in the UK are welcome, but please note that Occupational Therapy is no longer considered a ‘shortage occupation’ by the Department of Health and this advert does not meet the RLMT.

Person specification

Qualifications:

• Degree in Occupational Therapy or equivalent
• HCPC Registered
• Clinical Educators Certificate

Experience:

• Ability to demonstrate a good level of knowledge and skills in Occupational Therapy
• Awareness of own strengths and limitations
• Able to work under supervision and as part of a team
• Evidence of effective working within an MDT
• Demonstrate experience of problem solving approaches
• Demonstrates continuous Professional Development
• Audit and research in a clinical area

Skills:

• Ability to prioritise and work to deadlines
• Ability to communicate effectively in a variety of settings
• Accurate record keeping, report writing and IT skills
• Have a flexible approach to working with good time management

Other:

• Ability to travel to various hospital locations by own car/assisted driver

Thank you for considering an application to work for Mersey West Lancashire NHS Trust. MWL is an exciting and forward-thinking NHS Trust who are one of the best places to work for in England.

Given sometimes we receive a high volume of applications to work for us, please be aware, that we may close a vacancy earlier than stated should a sufficient number of applications be received from which a shortlist can be confirmed. Therefore, you are advised to apply at your earliest convenience.

The Trust may contact you during the recruitment process for your feedback on your experience. We always aim for continuous improvement in our practice.

Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion

We actively cultivate a professional environment of fairness, equality, dignity, and respect for all individuals. We welcome individuals from all backgrounds and value the unique skills, perspective and experience you bring. We are grounded in the belief that diversity enhances our collective strength, fostering innovation and excellence within our workforce. We welcome all applications irrespective of people’s race, disability, gender, sexual orientation, religion/belief, age, gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy/maternity and in particular those from under-represented groups.

As a Disability Confident Leader, we commit to offering an interview to all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the job (the essential criteria) listed in the personal specification. If you wish to apply under this Guaranteed Interview Scheme, please indicate this on the online application form.

If you are having difficulty completing an online application, or require any disability reasonable adjustments, to the application process, please contact Recruitment@merseywestlancs.nhs.uk

We also commit to offering an interview to all armed forces veterans who meet the minimum criteria for the job (the essential criteria) listed in the personal specification. If you wish to apply under this Guaranteed Interview Scheme, please indicate this on the online application form.

The Trust operates anonymous shortlisting where no personal information about you, including your name or personal details are shared with the recruiting manager. No equality information is shared at any time during the recruitment process with the recruiting manager or other people involved in the decision-making process.

The equality monitoring information you provide is used in the following situations: to review our recruitment practices; where a job is limited to a specific person to verify their eligibility to apply; and to offer disability reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Following the recent update on UK immigration policy for those on a Health and Care Visa or Skilled Worker Visa, please check your eligibility before applying for this post as we may be unable to provide sponsorship.

eVisa Update

For successful candidates on selected work and study visa routes, who have completed and paid for their applications will no longer receive a visa vignette in passport as evidence of their permission to enter the UK. Instead, you will be issued with an eVisa only, which is accessed by creating a UKVI account.

Before travelling to the UK, we advise applicants to understand how to generate an eVisa share code.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

If this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions. Please note if applicable, applicants will be required to pay for their DBS check. Costs are deducted from salary following appointment. If you have not already done so, you are therefore encouraged to enrol for the DBS Update Service to which a small annual fee of £13 per year applies.

Flexible Working

We actively support flexible working patterns throughout MWL. Changes made to the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook mean that:

• All employees have the right to request flexible working from day one of employment.
• There is no limit on the number of requests they can make.
• Employees have the right to make requests, have them considered, regardless of the reason.

At Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, we will consider requests for flexible working. We would also encourage you to discuss flexible working options at interview stage.

Working for Team MWL

Staff recognition is especially important to us; as well as performance reviews and appraisals, we recognise staff through Employee of the month. Along with supporting you to achieve your career goals we offer a generous pension scheme, unsocial hours payments (where applicable), 27 days annual leave on commencement (pro rata) and access to a range of NHS discounts. Our Staff Health and Wellbeing programme offer a variety of services.

The Trust is non-smoking across all our sites. Failure to follow this rule could lead to disciplinary action.

You will be expected to undertake the Trust's commitment to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults.

You must ensure that your application, including personal statements and behaviour examples, are truthful and factually accurate. Please note plagiarism can include presenting the ideas and experience of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own. The Trust will not accept applications which are found to be AI generated and will check all applications against AI detection software.

Additional Information

Before applying, we encourage you to review the Trust's Values and Behaviours which are We are KIND, We are OPEN, We are INCLUSIVE.

An applicant guide to help and support you with your application and what to expect during your recruitment journey can be accessed in the supporting documents.

Good luck with your application. We hope to welcome you to Team MWL very soon.