Senior Practitioner Occupational Therapist

at  Suffolk County Council

• Suffolk County Council - Countywide - Hybrid
• £38,223 per annum (pro rata if part time)
• 37 hours per week - Flexible working options available
• Permanent

A great opportunity to join the Suffolk County Council’s Learning Disability and Autism Service as a Senior Practitioner - Occupational Therapist.

• Are you looking for an exciting new challenge?
• Do you want to join a thriving, enthusiastic and creative service?

You will help us develop the OT (Occupational Therapy) offer for people with a Learning Disability and/or Autism living in Suffolk.
Due to the nature of the role and geographical demand, we are anticipating that this will be a countywide role therefore you will need to be willing and able to work flexibly and to travel across the county as required. Whilst we are currently offering a hybrid model, which includes working from home, there will also be the opportunity for you to negotiate your preferred work base from the five offices across the county, to support your work life balance.

This is an exciting time to join the service as an Occupational Therapist as we are looking to develop the OT offer to ensure Occupational Therapy plays a key role in progression planning and the development of enablement and longer-term care and support plans that maximise meaningful occupation, activity, and independence.

In this role you will work closely with all the teams, the digital lead, care providers, and colleagues to improve the lives of people with learning disabilities who are amongst the most socially isolated and vulnerable groups in society. We are moving towards integration with our health colleagues and you will be required to attend multidisciplinary meetings and represent the profession in forums to assist with this.

• have a passion for improving the lives of adults with learning disabilities and for developing your own skills and those of your colleagues
• undertake supervision of Occupational Therapists working within the Learning Disability and Autism Service and provide senior oversight of their case work
• be co-located with social work colleagues and work closely in partnership with them, as well as with families, paid carers and the wider systems that support people
• use your specialist skills and understanding of the relationship between the individual, their environment and their occupations to support people with complex health needs to live well
• provide specialist occupational therapy assessments of physical, psychological and environmental needs within the statutory obligations of the Directorate (undertaking mental capacity assessments where relevant) for people referred to the service, as well as contributing to the core tasks of the team. This will happen in a variety of community settings including family homes, residential and supported living services, day services and community facilities. We have an advanced digital care offer and will be keen that you explore this support alongside other technology
• collaborate with other Occupational Therapists across the service and help develop the service offer, especially in the area of sensory assessment and support.
• Contribute to building and developing a strong Occupational Therapy offer for people with learning disabilities and autism within Suffolk.

We promote personalisation through our practice models and people at the heart of care programme and have adopted the Signs of Safety model throughout ACS (Adult and Community Services). Partnership working is strong and through joint care planning, we strive for a person-centred approach that supports people to be independent, resilient, and having choice and control.