Children's Occupational Therapist

at  Central and North West London NHS Foundation Trust

The Children’s Integrated Therapies Service (CITS) is a multi-therapies service, embedded in a multi-disciplinary, community children’s team. Centrally based within the Child Development Centre in Hillingdon, with services delivered from settings across the borough.
The service is open to all children and young people aged 0-19 with a range of needs. We work along with our therapy colleagues and other agency partners to deliver a service which supports and promotes the health and development of children and young people who are experiencing barriers to participation everyday occupations. These children may experience barriers due to physical disability, social communication challenges or other specific developmental differences.
The service is delivered to all school-aged children and young people within the school environment as part of close partnership with mainstream schools and SEND colleagues.
Pathways within the service ensure that MDT working is integral in the role and provides a whole systems approach for these families, supporting them to tell their story just once.
Within your clinical role you will demonstrate confidence and competence in delivering assessment and therapy in a range of settings and the ability to provide comprehensive written clinical reasoning in all documentation.
To demonstrate working autonomously with an understanding of safe lone working is essential as you will be working across various settings, from schools, children’s centres, homes, nurseries and clinics, often on your own.
You will have a strong interest in working with children and young people, with an understanding of statutory assessment for Education Health and Care Plans as part of SEND.
You will be able to develop your leadership skills with the responsibility of day-to-day operational management of junior or support staff and monitoring the quality of care given. The post holder will be expected to pro-actively identify and promote areas for service development.
Come and join us and be one of the friendly and supportive 300 Occupational Therapists (OTs) in CNWL. We work in many different teams in both physical and mental health, as well as a number of specialist areas. You could have a career for life with us and maintain your dual skills.
OT in CNWL is very fortunate in having a long-established professional structure and this includes an AHP director, Trust wide Professional Head of OT, borough and specialist Head OTs. This has the huge benefit of ensuring representation of our profession at all levels - both strategically and operationally.
Personal and professional development is a high priority for the profession and is underpinned by our OT R&D strategy, R& D specialist groups and OT clinical networks. This enables us to invest in the development of our staff by providing excellent internal training as well as commissioning specialised external training and providing quality supervision. This ensures all our OTs reach their full potential at every stage of their career. Our commitment to research, audit and evidence-based practice is made possible by our strong links with local universities.
We recognise that band 5’s bring innovation and dynamism to our clinical teams and to ensure this is harnessed we offer clear opportunities for development of both clinical and leadership skills. You will have opportunities to supervise staff, be an educator and have access to both internal and external training.
As a member of the Children’s Integrated Therapies Service, you will be expected to be a competent Occupational Therapist who is able to adapt to wide and varied caseload; carrying out therapy in a range of community-based settings across the borough for children and young people from 0-19 years of age.
You will be part of a community team where your proven ability to work collaboratively with children, young people and their families will support their development and facilitate them in achieving their aspirations. This will include being part of an immediate Occupational Therapy team and working with a broad multidisciplinary team and other partner agencies - forming part of network of support around the child and their family.
Using evidence-based practise and specialist skills & knowledge, you will provide a range of assessments and interventions, developing and delivering clear, goal-focused care plans.
You will be expected to work autonomously across the community settings, working jointly with our partner services of Education and Social Care. Throughout your working you are required to maintain safeguarding of children and young people at all times.
Your proactive approach to caseload management and attuned communication skills will enable you coordinate and deliver therapy effectively and be an effective member of the team

Please refer the Job description for details