Specialist Occupational Therapist - Intermediate Care & Discharge Team

We have an exciting opportunity for a Specialist Occupational Therapist to join the Community Therapies service in Barrow in Furness. The service assesses patients in their own homes at the point of discharge from hospital and provides short term rehabilitation after a hospital stay, which may be in a person's own home or in our newly opened intermediate care unit at Parkview Gardens. The post holder will need to work flexibly across all the teams work streams according to service needs. The post is suitable for an experienced band 5 looking for the next step in career progression, or a more experienced therapist wishing to pursue a career in community assessment and rehabilitation. Support is provided from clinical leads, team leaders and the wider team. Training and support will be provided to support transition into the role. This is a newly created role with fixed term funding agreed until end of March 2026. Secondment into this role will be considered with current line managers support. The service hours are 0800 to 1830 with weekend working on a roster arrangement. Flexible working requests are welcome and as this is a fixed term post we would be open to consider wider flexibility including term time only contracts.

Main duties of the job:

• As a confident clinician with experience working with a wide range of clinical presentations, you will complete a dynamic and holistic assessment with the patient and/or family at the point of discharge from hospital to either their own home or the intermediate care unit.
• Integrating assessment findings, information from several sources and using dynamic and positive risk taking principles, you will support the patient/family to identify and reduce risks, agree initial support needs and make ongoing rehab plans.
• You will need to be prepared to work in complex and evolving situations and be confident in clinical decision making and reasoning.
• When working within the intermediate care and supported discharge streams, you will plan and implement rehab plans with patients, delegating to support staff when appropriate to do so.

Requirements:

• A Diploma or Degree in Occupational Therapy approved by the Royal College of Occupational Therapists.
• Registration with HCPC as an Occupational Therapist.
• The ability to travel to a variety of venues throughout the community to deliver patient assessments within an identified locality.
• Experience working as a band 5 Occupational Therapist with the experience, knowledge and skills to progress to band 6 level or to have worked as a band 6 or above with appropriate experience/transferable skills.

In addition to a comprehensive induction package, we offer team support, staff supervision and in-service training opportunities.

Working for our organisation:

We operate from three main hospitals - Furness General Hospital (FGH) in Barrow, the Royal Lancaster Infirmary (RLI), and Westmorland General Hospital (WGH) in Kendal, as well as a number of community health care premises including Millom Hospital and GP Practice, Queen Victoria Hospital in Morecambe, and Ulverston Community Health Centre. FGH and the RLI have a range of General Hospital services, with full Emergency Departments, Critical/Coronary Care units and various Consultant-led services. WGH provides a range of General Hospital services, together with an Urgent Treatment Centre, that can help with a range of non-life threatening conditions such as broken bones and minor illnesses. All three main hospitals provide a range of planned care including outpatients, diagnostics, therapies, day case and inpatient surgery. In addition, a range of local outreach services and diagnostics are provided from community facilities across Morecambe Bay.

Person specification:

• Health and Care Professions Council registered Occupational Therapist.
• Diploma or Degree in Occupational Therapy approved by the Royal College of OT, UK.
• Full UK driving Licence, or equivalent qualification to enable independent travel in the community.
• Accredited training in risk assessment and positive risk management.
• Practice placement educator accreditation/experience.
• Membership of the British Association of Occupational Therapists UK.
• Post graduate training or experience to post graduate diploma level or equivalent.

Experience:

• Relevant post registration experience as an Occupational Therapist to demonstrate competency in core requirements of this post.
• Ability to work as an autonomous Occupational Therapist, working without direct supervision in a community setting.
• Evidence of confident clinical reasoning skills to support safe and effective occupational focused practice.
• Experience of research or audit.
• Experience as a supervisor of OT (Band 5) and/or OT support staff and/or OT students.
• Experience of caseload management and lone working as an autonomous practitioner.
• Experience working in a community setting.
• Experience prescribing moving and handling equipment and writing moving and handling plans.
• Experience of discharge planning process.
• Experience working with people with cognitive impairment/dementia.

Skills, ability and knowledge:

• Transferable knowledge and skills at basic practitioner level with aptitude to develop to specialist OT practitioner level.
• Assessment, observation, evaluation and reporting skills to HCPC standards.
• Ability to develop effective working relationships/team working.
• Ability to analyse professional and ethical issues.
• Ability to prioritise conflicting demands and seek support when required.
• Ability to demonstrate trust values and behaviour standards.
• Able to demonstrate reflective approach to work.
• Applied knowledge of health and social care legislation.
• Ability to apply knowledge of principles of clinical governance.
• Training and facilitation skills.
• Supervisory skills.
• Understanding of Occupational focused models of practice (for example MOHO).

Personal Qualities:

• Ability to meet the physical requirements of the post with adjustments if required.
• Ability to travel to provide assessment and treatment to patients in the community and to attend meetings.
• Ability to perform effective team working and communicate effectively with the team and MDT.
• Ability to adapt communication methods to meet the needs of service users and families.
• Aware of wellbeing in the workplace in relation to self and team you work with.

PLEASE NOTE THAT SHORTLISTED APPLICANTS WILL BE CONTACTED BY EMAIL. The Trust promotes flexible working opportunities wherever possible to enable staff to balance their work and home life. We are committed to Equal Opportunities and aim to be Effortlessly Inclusive. The trust operates a No Smoking Policy. Only those applicants who demonstrate clearly how they meet our Person Specification will be shortlisted for Interview. We reserve the right to close a job advert early where sufficient applications have been received. The Trust does not offer interview expenses to shortlisted candidates unless indicated in the advert. If the post is subject to Disclosure & Barring Service checking, a charge of £49.50 for Enhanced and £21.50 for Standard clearance and additional to this a £4.90 administration fee will be made to the successful candidate(s). This currently only applies to roles Band 6 and above and Medical & Dental posts. Anyone newly appointed to the trust under the Agenda For Change contract will be subject to the completion of a satisfactory 6 month probationary period. This will give the new staff member an opportunity to become familiar with the role and working environment.