JOB OVERVIEW

An exciting opportunity has arisen to lead the Occupational Therapy Team within general medicine. Working closely with our MDT colleagues this team provides Occupational Therapy input to a wide range of clinical areas including respiratory, cardiac, elderly care, general medicine and surgery.
The role of Occupational Therapy in the acute setting is fundamental in ensuring our patients have smooth and positive experience on their inpatient journey and beyond. We are seeking a motivated individual who can lead the OT service within Epsom Hospital and guide the Occupational Therapy team to achieve even more positive outcomes.

DESIRABLE CRITERIA

• Awareness of leadership styles
• Evidence of strong communication in team
  Your application: Please ensure that you have read the job description and person specification and that your supporting statement reflects these, as your application will be assessed and scored against these criteria.
  References: You will be required to provide 3 years of employment/educational history. We do not accept references from personal email addresses such as Hotmail, Gmail etc. therefore please ensure you are providing professional working email addresses within your application form. If you are unable to provide professional email addresses and are invited to an interview, please ensure you advise the interviewers of this - otherwise, this may delay your pre-employment checks.
  Closing date: In order to streamline recruitment within our Trust, we reserve the right to expire vacancies prior to the advertised closing date once we have received a sufficient number of applications.
  Shortlisting: You will only be contacted via e-mail/SMS by the SWL Recruitment Hub if you are successfully shortlisted for this post. Please ensure that you check your Trac registered e-mail regularly.
  DBS: We are committed to safeguarding children and adults who are at risk of abuse. As such, if this post will have access to children or vulnerable adults, you will be required to undertake an Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check. However, all employees have a responsibility for safeguarding children and vulnerable adults in the course of their duties and for ensuring that they are aware of the specific duties relating to their role.

Disability Advice Line: SWL Recruitment Hub is committed to promoting equity and equal opportunities for individuals with disabilities. We believe that greater diversity and inclusion will lead to an even more positive impact on the people we serve. For support with job opportunities and reasonable adjustments contact our Confidential Disability Advice Line at:

APPLICANT REQUIREMENTS

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975 (Amendment) (England and Wales) Order 2020 and it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service.

MAIN DUTIES OF THE JOB

A Team Lead is expected:
To clinically lead a small team of Occupational Therapists within the area of expertise, be responsible for their learning and development, provide clinical support and guidance and ensure the development of this team in line with the department’s strategy.
To assist the manager in the development of the Occupational Therapy service.
To develop and provide highly specialised Occupational Therapy to patients in the clinical area working autonomously, and being accountable for own professional actions.
To provide highly specialised Occupational Therapy advice in relation to the care of patients who have a range of psycho-social, physical and emotional problems working in an acute setting.

DETAILED JOB DESCRIPTION AND MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES

Some of the main responsibilities of this role are:

• To be responsible for the development, implementation, and delivery of Occupational Therapy as a specialist clinician, including assessment, treatment planning, carrying out treatment and discharge planning of own client caseload.
• To develop and implement specialist treatment programmes and initiate discharge planning. To be highly skilled in assessing and interpreting a range of complex factors relating to the patients’ condition, including diagnosis and prognosis.
• To lead and support the OT team in prioritising referrals including delegation of work to ensure equity of provision for patients referred.
• To provide a positive ‘check and challenge’ ability to reinforce strong clinical reasoning within the team.
• To provide awareness and education of the role of OT within the greater hospital site and promote flow positive decision making where appropriate.
• To create an environment that promotes effective communication to patients, carers, colleagues and the multidisciplinary team by establishing effective communication networks and demonstrating skills in empathy, reassurance and the ability to motivate others.
• To liaise and establish communication networks with the multidisciplinary teams, external voluntary and statutory organisations as appropriate in planning for client’s treatment, discharge and resettlement.
• To assess, recommend and where appropriate provide and fit a range of specialist equipment and or aids in the clients home, to facilitate patients rehabilitation and reduce risk around discharge.
• To be aware of changing trends in treatment and promote evidence-based/best practice within own team and interpret this into own specialist area of work, in order to provide the highest standard of care to clients.
• To conduct and/or actively participate in the in-service training, tutorials, individual training sessions, external courses and peer review. To participate in and contribute to the department and own team’s training programme, demonstrating a willingness to learn.
• To maintain good working relationships with patients, family/carers, colleagues, multidisciplinary teams and personnel from other external agencies.
• To contribute to the service, develop and provide an overview of the different specialties offered within the service, keeping up-to-date with developments and the expectations of patients, carers and colleagues.
• As a supervisor, provide individual performance reviews and contribute to the performance assessment and appraisal of qualified and non-qualified staff in line with departmental competencies.
• To be responsible for and facilitate a safe environment, recognising patient requirements for privacy and dignity.
• To have a good knowledge of and to abide by the department’s and Trusts policies and procedures, and to comment and contribute to the development of these policies and procedures within the defined clinical area.
• To participate in the process of recruitment and selection.

Please see full job description and person specification outline in attachment.