Paediatric Occupational Therapist

at  Northumbria Healthcare NHCT Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

We are delighted to be able to offer a committed and dynamic Band 6 Occupational Therapist the opportunity to join Northumbria Healthcare and work into the Paediatric Occupational Therapy Team based in North Tyneside. We are looking for an enthusiastic and highly motivated person who has experience and a passion to work with children to join our well established Paediatric Occupational Therapy team. There are many opportunities to develop your skills as a band 6 within a supportive and nurturing team.
As part of this role, the post holder will need to have a wealth of knowledge and experience working with children to join our experienced therapists in the different areas provided by the service. These include carrying out comprehensive assessments of a child’s motor, perceptual and physical abilities, treatment sessions, either individual or groupwork, equipment and minor adaptations. This is a busy team and provides a good variety and range of experience to work with children who attend mainstream schools, specialist provision and carry out community-based assessments. We work in close partnership with colleagues in health, education and social care to provide a high quality and excellent service. We have excellent working relationships with our colleagues in Newcastle to assist in hospital discharges and sharing knowledge.
A typical day working in this team could include a visit to a mainstream school to carry out an assessment of fine motor function to support child’s access to their learning, back to the office for lunch, carry out a home visit to support a child and their family to participate safely in activities of daily living then returning back to the office to complete admin tasks.
We manage three major locality hospitals at North Tyneside, Wansbeck and Hexham, plus a number of smaller community hospitals and clinics from Tynemouth to Berwick on Tweed, in addition to our state-of-the-art Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital, the first of its kind in England. We also care for people in their homes and provide services from facilities in local communities such as health centres. We give people greater choice and control over their care to help them to live independently at home and avoid hospital admission where appropriate. High quality patient care is at the heart of everything we do and we strive to ensure every single patient and service user has an exceptional experience with us. We have one of the most extensive patient experience programmes of any trust in England.
To assess and review level of need and to organise this effectively and efficiently with regard for clinical priorities and time management.
To select and apply Occupational Therapy assessments in paediatrics, addressing occupational performance and skill deficits, enabling the child to maximize functional independence in all areas of everyday activities.
To work with children and their families to identify OT goals.
Monitor, evaluate and modify interventions in order to measure progress and ensure effectiveness. Alter and revise planned interventions as a result of changes in an individual’s level of function or circumstances.
To plan and implement individual and group interventions as appropriate, in collaboration with the child, using graded activity to achieve therapeutic goals.
To assess and identify from a range of options, specific specialised children’s equipment to meet individual children’s postural and functional needs whilst minimising deterioration/deformity.
To carry out home/school assessment visits and follow up visits where appropriate as part of the overall treatment plan.
To assess for and provide minor adaptations where appropriate and in line with local government criteria.
To monitor, evaluate and modify treatments for children in order to measure progress and ensure effectiveness of intervention.
To demonstrate and apply a broad level of understanding in the effect of disability within paediatrics which will assist with managing more complex cases.
To ensure all written and electronic records are up to date and maintained in accordance with Professional and Trust standards.
To comply with the COT code of Ethics and Professional Conduct, national and Trust procedures.
To demonstrate the ability to initiate, plan and implement training and education of students and other relevant staff members.
Advise and educate the child, family/carers, others involved with the child in a variety of settings about the safe and appropriate use of specialist children’s equipment. Highlight potential safety precautions and monitor and review according to service guidelines.
To attend, plan and carry out in-service training where appropriate.
To ensure a yearly appraisal is undertaken to identify own personal and clinical developments in specialist clinical area.
To meet and adhere to KSF objectives.
To role model compassionate and inclusive leadership in order to shape the creation of a collective leadership culture within the trust. This means demonstrating a consistent leadership style which (a) engages, enables and empowers others (b) uses coaching to promote ownership of learning and quality improvement and (c) facilitates team working and collaboration within teams / departments and across organisational boundaries

Please refer the Job description for details